Chapter 16 Josie #2
Boo Bear, I mouthed, almost vomiting in my mouth again.
“As soon as possible, Cuddlebug.”
“I’m gonna be sick,” I muttered.
Sawyer leaned in, brushing his nose playfully against hers. I couldn’t really be seeing this. There was no way he was falling for this woman. She clearly was just using him. Why else would a woman her age go for a guy like Sawyer?
Yes, he was good-looking and charming, but he was half her age! And they were engaged? When in the fresh hell did they have time to do anything like that?
“Josie, you don’t mind, do you?”
“Huh?” I asked, completely missing whatever they were saying.
“Scarlet and I are going to stay here for a while. You know, just until we figure out where we want to live and all that. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Uh…”
“It’ll only be for a little while,” Scarlet said, her eyes still firmly fixed on my brother. “After all, we still have to move all my things here.”
Her left hand slid up his chest, and that’s when I saw it.
“Holy shit!” I gasped, staring at the rock on her finger.
Sawyer laughed. “Do you like it? We found it in an antique store. Apparently, it was owned by a Rockefeller or a Carnegie. One of those famous families,” he laughed. “It’s beautiful, right?”
I grasped the redhead’s hand and yanked it toward me. The thing was bigger than my whole hand! Okay, that was a slight exaggeration, but only slightly.
“Sawyer, how the hell did you afford this?”
“Oh, I just called the bank and moved some things around.”
“Some things?” I asked, waiting for more information.
“Boo Bear, are we going to stand in the doorway all morning? I’m getting cold,” Scarlet smiled, but the moment Sawyer leaned in to kiss her, she rolled her eyes.
That bitch.
“Of course not. I’ll take you back to our room. You can take a nap and freshen up before dinner.”
“Dinner,” I said, still stunned. “It’s seven in the morning. The day hasn’t even started yet.”
“We’ve had a long journey, Josie,” Sawyer said in irritation. “Whatever my girl needs, she gets.”
I had a feeling this was about to turn against me very quickly, but I didn’t have time to sit here and listen to their cutesy nicknames. I had things to do, a shop to run.
“Oh, look at the time!” Ellie May said, reading my thoughts. “Well, we have to open our shops. Come on, Josie. Let’s go.”
She dragged me out the door, shushing me when I was about to comment on the expensive heels Cuddlebug was wearing.
“Just keep walking,” she hissed.
“He brought a woman home,” I said, still in a daze.
“I know.”
“She’s older than my dad!”
“I know.”
“Does he even realize she’s using him? For what? We don’t have anything!”
“Look,” she said, turning me to face her as we stopped in front of my car. “Just get in Delilah and go to work. There’s nothing you can do about this now.”
“Right. Just get through the day.”
“Exactly. Maybe things will look better at night.”
“Like she won’t seem like a blood-sucking vampire when the sun goes down?”
Ellie winced. “Well, you probably won’t get that lucky, but maybe the rock will look smaller.”
“Doubtful.”
“Just go to work and forget about this. She’s twice his age. With any luck, he’ll get bored with her in a week.”
I smiled, but only half-heartedly. I had a feeling that by the time this woman was done with my brother, he’d be missing more than his heart.
“Just go inside,” I muttered to myself. “It can’t be that bad. You made it all up in your head. She’s secretly a nice woman and that was just a bad first impression.”
Taking out my lavender balm, I took a huge huff of it, hoping it would calm me enough so that I didn’t commit murder the moment I walked through the door.
That would be really bad for business.
Woman relying on natural herbs to cure ailments goes on a killing spree at her house.
What a headline that would make.
“Okay, this is going to be fine. I’m going to walk in there with a smile on my face and pretend that everything is fine. Because everything is fine. Sawyer has a fiancée, and he’s home, and he’s fine.”
Fine.
I rolled my eyes as I thought of the number of times one person could use the word fine before it sounded idiotic. Shoving my door open, I slammed the door just a little too hard.
“I’m sorry, Delilah,” I whispered, running my hand over her roof. “Taking my frustrations out on you is not the way to go.”
“Talking to your car again?” JR shouted from next door.
“And petting her,” I smiled as I turned around to face the handsome brute who had been ignoring me for days.
Shaking his head, he started to walk away, but I wasn’t having it. I stomped across his lawn, grateful the snow had melted by now, and laid into him.
“Hey, why are you ignoring me?”
“Excuse me?” he asked over his shoulder as he unlocked his door.
“Yeah, ever since you stayed at my house, you’ve been gone first thing in the morning, and then you come back mysteriously throughout the day when I’m not here, and then you’re gone again all night!”
Quirking an eyebrow at me, he didn’t bother to grin. Because I was annoying him. That’s what I did.
“Checking up on me?”
“No, I’m simply noticing that you were here before and now you’re not.”
This time, he shifted, leaning against his doorframe as he stared down at me with judgmental eyes. “Did you stop taking your herbs?”
“What?”
“Your herbs. Usually, you’re all peppy and nice, but right now, you look like you could take on a lion.”
“That’s just because my brother returned with a cougar,” I muttered, “but that’s beside the point. No changing the subject.”
But it was too late. His eyes flicked to the house in curiosity. “A cougar, huh?”
“Yes, and she’s vile and money-grubbing, and I’ll probably be broke by the time he realizes she’s using him.”
“She might just want his body,” he shrugged.
“And how does that make it better?”
“I’m just saying, she’s after his body. That’s a good thing for a man who’s depressed.”
“The point is…” I said, trying to get back on topic. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
“It’s called a job,” he said, shoving his door open.
“You already have a job.” I followed him into the house, refusing to give on this point. I needed to win an argument right now.
“Yes, I do, but sometimes, people work two jobs. It has been known to happen.”
“But why would you?”
Sighing, he set down his keys and turned to face me. “Because Liam is building more cabins at Murky Falls Ranch, and he asked if I had any experience in construction.”
My mouth gaped for a second at the thought of him all sweaty in a hard hat, his muscles rippling as he carried lumber over his shoulder. Sweat glistened across his sun-kissed skin and—
“Well…”
“Yes?” he smirked.
“Well, you should let your neighbors know. What if you had a home invasion? Who would I call?”
“Ghostbusters,” he deadpanned.
“You’re so insufferable,” I muttered, spinning for the door, then down the steps. I already had to deal with Scarlet-the tempting Cuddlebug—but now I also had to deal with JR and his antics. It was too much.
I marched across the lawn, determined to get this whole thing over with. It would be fine. I would be fine. The whole damn thing would be fine.
I flung the door open and immediately scowled. Scarlet was sitting on the couch, filing her nails as she talked on the phone. It was probably a long-distance phone call, and she had probably been on for hours.
Not that we were charged for long-distance anymore. If this was the 80s or the 90s, I could bitch and complain that she was running up the phone bill. Was no one on my side anymore?
“I’m home!” I said cheerily, walking past her to set down my purse.
She didn’t even pay attention to me. She just kept talking to whoever was on the other line—probably her lawyer giving her advice on how to take us for everything we were worth—and pretended I wasn’t even here.
Rolling my eyes, I got to work on dinner—the one thing I could control right now and ensure went my way. I was usually too tired after a long day at the shop to whip up anything fancy, but I always did the best I could.
Tonight, I was making rice and beans. Of course, there were other things besides rice and beans in the dish, but that’s what I called it.
I secretly smirked to myself as I imagined the look on Scarlet’s face when she saw the kidney beans, black beans, diced tomatoes, and ground beef all coated in a red sauce that looked like something peasants from a hundred years ago would be ecstatic to get.
Sawyer walked in just minutes before dinner was ready, looking just as exhausted as he did every day he came back from the mountain rescue.
“Good day?” I asked, setting the bowls on the table.
“If you can call it that. We had two hikers call in a rescue after they went sliding down the mountain. You’d think people would learn not to go hiking right when the snow thaws and the ground is a sopping mess.”
Scarlet came rushing into the kitchen, her face pinched in worry. “What’s this? You were up on that mountain? Oh, my poor Boo Bear!”
“Nothing happened. I’m fine,” he said, taking her in his arms and kissing her hard.
She flinched back as he held her tighter, worried more about her clothes and her hair than the fact that her fiancé was alive and well. “Boo, you’re getting me all dirty!”
“I’ll get you really dirty tonight,” he promised.
I gagged, holding back the sound as best as possible, but some things just couldn’t be contained.
“Dinner’s ready!” I said cheerily, placing the pot in the center of the table.
“I’m starved,” Sawyer said, taking off his things and dropping them at the door.
“Sawyer,” I sighed, “I’m not your mother. It’s not my job to hang up your stuff.”
“Oh, I’ll do that,” Cuddlebug smiled sweetly. “After all, it’s my job to take care of my man after a hard day’s work.”
The pointed look she shot me lasted only as long as it took to touch his first piece of protective gear. Covered in dirt and various sorts of other unappealing things, she barely touched it with two fingers as she placed it on the hook, far away from any of her items.
“Well, then I guess you’ll want to start cooking his meals as well.”
I grinned internally as I sat down at the table, catching the horrified look on her face just before she schooled her features.
“Well, I’m sure I can whip something up.” Her eyes landed on the pot in the center of the table. “Definitely something more appealing than this slop.”
Though she meant to keep her voice low, we both heard it.
“Scarlet’s not used to food like this. She was raised in a very prominent household.”
“Ah, where they only served pheasant and duck?” I asked, taking a sip of my water to cover the scowl on my face.
“Well, it was definitely a change of many…proportions.”
“I take it your father didn’t try to marry you off to one of his rich business partners.”
“He did,” she bit out. “But I wanted to marry for love.”
Her hand found my brother’s across the table, and the look in his eyes said he believed every rancid word that left her mouth. He would be devastated once again when he realized she didn’t actually love him.
Many nights at the bar were in my future.
Either that, or watching The Way We Were over and over again until I died of boredom.
As she picked up her spoon and dipped it through the rice and beans, she hid her disgust over the meal.
“So, Sawyer tells me you run an apothecary shop.”
“Yes, I do.” That was it. The extent of what I felt I could say without blurting out something nasty like, Have you ever tried to get a job?
“Well, all that hocus pocus stuff really isn’t something I’m familiar with.”
At her pasted-on smile, I gently lowered my spoon to the bowl. “Nothing magical about it. I simply use herbs to cure common ailments instead of putting drugs into my body.”
“Well,” she smiled sweetly. “I prefer to leave that up to the professionals.”
Oh, I was sure she did. She probably had a doctor on call who could load her up with Valium and any other prescription that would dull her senses until she didn’t have to think about anything.
“So, how’s the shop going? Any new orders this week?”
Sawyer was sweet, completely missing the sniping between me and his cougar girlfriend. I was warring with feeling sorry for him and wishing a good bonk over the head would solve all my issues.
“Just the usual, but I am thinking of selling olive oil in my shop instead of approaching Max.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Sawyer beamed. “You really do make the best olive oil.”
“Why, thank you, sir,” I laughed. “But you’re my brother. You have to say things like that.”
Scarlet cleared her throat, obviously about to say something to dampen the mood. “Not to butt in, but you make your own olive oil?”
“Yep!”
“Well, don’t you need a special license to do that? Or do people in this town really trust you to just…throw something together in your kitchen?”
I was about to say something really snarky when my brother reached across the table and took her hand, instantly drawing her attention away from me.
I ignored whatever he was about to say and shoved the last of my rice and beans in my mouth. Now, if she said something to me, there was no possible way I could answer her.
Luckily, they got off on some other subject before Scarlet excused herself, saying she needed to make a call.
And not a single bite of her food had been touched.
“Well, I take it she didn’t like my cooking.”
“She will,” Sawyer beamed. “She had a long day. It was a hard move for her. Just give her time.”
I’d give her time, alright. Just enough to come to the decision that this town definitely wasn’t for her.
And then I’d give her a boot on the way out.