Chapter 16 Josie
JOSIE
Walking out to my car, I glanced over at JR’s driveway, but it was empty for the fifth morning in a row.
“He’s not there, Delilah,” I sighed.
“Who’s not there?”
Jumping, I spun around with a screech, dropping all the bags I was carrying and my tea mug, shoving out my hands in a karate chop that would intimidate maybe a three-year-old.
“Ellie! You scared the crap out of me.”
“Clearly,” she smirked. “So, you were saying?”
“What? Oh, nothing.”
“Uh-huh,” she chuckled. “It’s more than something when you notice your neighbor isn’t there. Why so concerned?” she mused.
“I’m not concerned,” I answered, gathering up the massive amount of bags I’d dropped on the ground. “I was noticing, which is not the same thing.”
“I hardly notice when my neighbors don’t come out.”
“You live next to the Hardys. They’re both in their nineties, and they hardly come out at all.”
‘’Right, which would mean I would probably notice more when they do come out.”
Ellie helped me grab the various bags from the ground and haul them to my car, all the while smirking at me.
“There’s nothing going on,” I said again.
“Sure.”
“I’m serious. Absolutely nothing,” I said, bending over, shoving the bags all the way across the seat just to escape her watchful gaze.
“Of course. I would never think otherwise. Or believe town gossip.”
My head banged on the frame of the car at her words. “Shit!” I gasped, rubbing the back of my head.
“Ha! I knew that would get you.”
“Well, maybe next time, say it when I’m not at risk of injuring myself.” I knew the jig was up if the whole town knew about it, not that I would admit that. “So, what is the town saying?”
“Oh, just that you spent an exorbitant amount of time with him recently.” The wide grin plastered on her face clued me in that there was so much more she wasn’t telling me.
“It wasn’t an exorbitant amount of time. It was just during the storm.”
“Uh-huh. Cuddled up under the covers—”
“We got snowed in together!” I argued.
“Right.” She turned and looked at my house, then JR’s. “I could totally see how he would be snowed in. All those miles and miles he would have had to trudge through to get home.”
“The power went out!”
“Brings new meaning to walking uphill in the snow both ways.”
“I had food and he didn’t.”
“Every child in town will now know that their parents were lying when they used that phrase.”
“It was snowing really, really hard!”
“And I would imagine that even if he did make it back to his house in all that snow, with the miles and miles between the two of you, then he’d be freezing with no one to warm him up.”
“He had his own blanket,” I argued.
“It’s a good thing you’re such a good neighbor,” she said sweetly, finally looking at me again.
I opened my mouth, but the argument died on my lips until I remembered the next morning. “I kicked him in the balls!”
Cocking her head at me, she studied me for a moment. “So many excuses. I wonder what you’ll come up with next,” she said, walking away from me.
“It’s not an excuse!” I yelled, chasing her down. “I really did kick him in the balls!”
She spun so suddenly, I nearly skidded into her. “What were you doing when this supposed ball-kicking incident occurred?”
My mouth gaped like a fish. I hadn’t considered that I might have to tell her. “Okay, in the spirit of full disclosure, I was sleeping.”
Her eyes widened at the juicy tidbit. “In bed?”
“On the couch.”
“Close quarters,” she mused. “Very interesting.”
“I was just laying there,” I argued. “He was on the other end of the couch!”
“Where your feet were draped across him?”
“You’re spinning everything around. You’re confusing me!”
“Josie’s got a crush,” she sang. “Josie and JR sitting in a tree—No, that doesn’t sound right. Is his name really JR?”
“That’s still to be determined.”
“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
“There was no kissing!” I yelled, catching up as she made her way to my door. “I mean, not that time, but—”
She spun around again, gasping as her eyes went wide. “He kissed you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Details. Now.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I rambled. “It was more one of those angry kisses. I had been harassing him about the dog, and he was pissed at me. And then he sort of just grabbed me and kissed the hell out of me, but then he told me to get out and slammed the door in my face. I hardly think that counts as some sort of love match or a real kiss.”
“Oh my gosh,” she whispered. “He angry kissed you. That is so hot.”
“It’s not hot. It’s—”
“Hot.”
“No, it’s weird and—”
“Hot. Completely, one-hundred percent hot.”
“And weird.”
“But hot,” she grinned, spinning on her heel to open my front door.
“Where are you going?”
“To check out the scene of the…” she spun again. “Did anything happen during this so-called snowed-in experience?”
“I already told you that nothing did,” I huffed in exasperation.
“Right, right, but just because he didn’t kiss you doesn’t mean nothing else happened.”
“Like what? I stubbed my toe. Does that count?”
She quirked an eyebrow at me. “Did he kiss it and make it better?”
“Suck my toe? No, he did not put my toe anywhere near his mouth. Gross.”
She shrugged lightly. “I don’t know. Fergie did it. Maybe there’s something we’re missing out on.”
She flung the door open and walked inside, her shoulders sagging in disappointment. “That’s it?”
“What were you expecting? Chalk outlining our positions on the couch?”
“It would have been nice,” she sighed. “Some of us need details in our lives.”
“There are no details to give,” I reiterated. “Because nothing happened.”
“That time,” she grinned, spinning to face me again. “Josie and the Grump.”
“What?”
“My book title,” she sighed dreamily. “No, that’s too cliché. The Hunky, Grumpy Neighbor.”
I grimaced at her title.
“No good?”
“Not even a little.”
“Well, I’ll keep working on it.”
“Since when do you write books?”
“Oh, since everyone comes into my shop and gossips about everything. Seriously, I get some great ideas. So, when it’s not busy, I do a little plotting, do a little writing—”
“Get down tonight?”
“Basically,” she smirked. Then she turned to me in shock. “Wait, where was Sawyer during all of this?”
“He’s out of town. I had to make him leave. He was driving me crazy with his moping and whining, so I told him to get away for a while.”
“During a snowstorm? Didn’t they need him at the mountain rescue?”
I snorted at that. “I’m pretty sure they were extra happy that I told him to leave. If you haven’t noticed his trail of tears around town, you’d be the only one.”
“Well, bummer. He could have given me the play-by-play.”
“Ew, Ellie!”
“It’s not like I expect him to watch or anything, but think of all the juicy details he could have given me!”
“I can absolutely guarantee that if Sawyer had been here, JR would have fled for the hills.”
“Hmm, if only he could have walked that far in the snowstorm,” she said innocently.
“Don’t you have someplace to be? Someone else to torture?”
“At the moment? No. All the kids are in school and my neighbors haven’t come out in years, as you pointed out. That leaves me free to annoy you!”
“Please, don’t feel like you have to spread all the joy at once.”
“Oh, I won’t—”
“Hey!” Sawyer called out from the door, shoving it open. “I’m home!”
With a huge grin on his face, he walked in with his arms spread wide. He looked happier than I’d seen him in weeks.
I rushed forward, wrapping him in a hug, squeezing him tight. “Hey! Did you have a good trip? You weren’t gone long.”
“I know!” he laughed. “You were absolutely right. I just needed to get away!”
I squeezed him tighter, glad that the depression was over. “It’s just wonderful—”
My words died on my lips as a woman sauntered up the steps. Red-flaming hair. Makeup to die for. Legs as long as the eye could see.
And at least twenty years older than the both of us.
Slowly peeling myself from Sawyer’s arms, I looked at him warily. “Sawyer, do you have something to tell me?”
Spinning, he strode over to the woman in question, wrapping his hand around her waist. “Josie, I want you to meet my fiancée, Scarlet.”
She slowly lowered her designer sunglasses and eyed me skeptically. “Sawyer, sweetie, you didn’t tell me your sister was such a knockout.” Her lips curled in a smile that I wouldn’t exactly call friendly. “Oh, we’re going to have fun.”
I was shocked.
Stunned.
Speechless.
Surprised.
And dumbstruck.
“Fi-fiancée?” I stuttered.
“I know,” Sawyer beamed. “Isn’t it great?”
“But…you were only gone for a little over a week,” I said, still taking it all in. All the red hair. All the makeup. All the heels and long legs. All the hair. The very, very red hair.
“That’s all it takes, I guess. At least, that’s all it took for us. I saw her across the room, and I just knew I had to have her,” he said, smiling at the cougar.
“Right. Where did you meet?”
“In a bar. It was my first night and I was so depressed, but there she was, and she just lit up the room.”
“Must have been the red hair,” I muttered. That color did not come naturally.
“Some jerk spilled her drink—”
“And there he was,” she laughed, pressing her hand to his chest. “You cleaned me up and bought me a new drink. You were so adorable, the way you were so sad over Pearl. But I got her off your mind in no time,” she whispered, patting his nose with the tip of her finger.
“Gross,” I muttered. “I think I just threw up a little.”
“Well, this is exciting,” Ellie May said, coming to stand beside me. “Isn’t this exciting?” She nudged me hard, but it would take way more than that for me to get past what I was seeing and find any room for happiness.
“So, when’s the wedding?” Ellie asked.
The cougar raised her eyebrow at my friend. “And you are?”
“Oh, Ellie May. I own the boutique in town.” Thrusting her hand out, the red-haired cougar grimaced just a tiny bit before taking her hand in hers.
“Charmed.” Then she turned to my brother and ran the tip of her finger down his chest suggestively. “What do you think, Boo Bear?”