Chapter 30 Josie
JOSIE
“Oh my gosh!” Ellie May gushed, rushing into the shop. “Did you hear the news?”
“Nope!” I said, cheerily as I stocked my supplies.
“JR knocked up Lizzy Parker!”
My hand stalled just as I was closing the herb drawer, sure I had heard her wrong.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, spinning around.
She nodded excitedly, practically gushing over the latest gossip. “Honestly, I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it yet.”
“How did you find out?”
“It’s been all over the town since last night when he rushed her to the ER. Apparently, they were at the bar, and the whole town saw as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of there.”
“Because she was pregnant and couldn’t walk on her own?” I asked in confusion.
“No, because she was in pain or something,” she rushed on. “Anyway, he picked her up right then and carried her out bridal style. According to Jeannie, he was staring at her with pure love. But then Mark said he looked terrified, so who knows which it really was.”
I was on information overload, still stuck on the fact that JR got Lizzy pregnant. When had this happened? Were they having a secret rendezvous at work?
“So…How did everyone figure out that he got her pregnant?”
“Well, according to Caroline at the hospital, he’s the one who brought her in.
Maverick showed up with his sirens blazing, and then half the Parker clan showed up minutes later.
That’s when JR announced that she was pregnant.
There was this big fight, and Ben hit him before JR stormed out of there. ”
The glee on her face as she told the story made my stomach turn. Was everyone in the town this happy that such a scandal had happened?
My stomach turned as I recalled my very own scandal with the man just yesterday. Everyone knew what he had done to me against the car, and what happened after we left the police station. It was all over town.
And we didn’t exactly use protection. Not that I didn’t take care of things on my end, but still…how could I have been so foolish?
“—just think how lucky you are.”
“What?”
Slumping against my counter dreamily, she only had stars in her eyes as she yammered on. “You know the whole town is going to be after him now. But since you slept with him before knowing he knocked up a Parker, you’re in the clear.”
“And that makes me lucky,” I said, not seeing things the same way as her.
“Well, you got to sleep with him, and I’m guessing it was pretty hot based on the rumors, but you escaped the majority of the scandal.”
I supposed she had a point, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the way things played out with the handsome devil. What he’d given me yesterday had released enough pent-up stress that I’d been able to fall asleep before the horn dogs started for the night. At least there was that.
“So, tell me all about it. Was it as hot as it sounded?”
“I’m not talking about this,” I said, grabbing the rest of my stock and moving to the back room.
“Oh, come on! It’s been ages since I’ve had a man between my legs! I need this!”
“You had Liam,” I reminded her.
Scoffing, she hurried behind me. “I so did not have him. It was all a ruse and you know it.”
“I know what the town says,” I pointed out.
“Fine,” she grumbled. “You might have a point. They do tend to run with their own stories. But I really didn’t sleep with Liam.”
“I know that.” Placing everything on the shelves, I started unpacking my newest order of teapots.
“Unfortunately, your…display is something that can’t really be disputed. All I did was kiss Liam in public.”
“And tear off his shirt and throw it at him,” I reminded her.
“Okay, slightly dramatic, but I was feeling emotional and used.”
“But you just said you agreed to it!”
“Right, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to feel a twinge of jealousy when he so clearly wanted another woman.”
I was just setting down the teapot when I stopped and really looked at her. “You really liked him?”
She shrugged slightly. “Who doesn’t like a Parker brother? Of course, two of them are taken now, and Jeff really isn’t my type.”
“Still… I had no idea.”
“Well, it’s in the past, and it doesn’t matter now anyway.”
As much as I wanted to distract myself with work and Ellie’s stories, all I could think about now was the town gossip. If JR had knocked up Lizzy, what did that say about me? And did he know he knocked her up when he slept with me?
God, I felt like such a whore.
“Anyway, I have to get back to my shop. Oh, and if you happen to see Kacey around town, tell her she can kiss my ass!”
“Why?”
“Because she’s the one who saw me throw the shirt at Liam. She’s such a bitch.”
She also tried to steal every available man in town, which I was sure had something to do with her spreading the gossip about Liam and Ellie, but that wasn’t my problem.
I slumped in my chair, groaning as I buried my face in my hands. How could I have been so stupid? I never fell to pieces over a man, and I wasn’t about to start now, but my terrible decisions were haunting me at the worst time.
I still had to deal with Sawyer and Cuddlebug, which was bad enough. I wasn’t sure at this point that I’d ever get rid of her.
An incoming text chimed in my pocket, and when I pulled the phone out, I froze.
Granny alert! Incoming in ten!
Holy shit. Grandma only came home when things were bad, and that usually meant she was going to gang up on us and criticize every single thing in our lives that was going wrong. Which, at the moment, was quite a lot.
“Oh, God,” I moaned.
“What? What is it? Did something else happen? Who slept with who? Did someone steal something? You’ve gotta tell me!” she shouted, slapping her hand down on the counter.
“I have to get out of here.” My voice sounded calm to the average person, but to the trained ear, they would hear the level of hysteria I was reaching.
And it wasn’t good.
“Like, skip town?”
“My grandmother’s here.”
“Your grandmother’s here?”
“On her way. Ten minutes. Massive heart attack ensuing,” I gasped.
“It’ll be fine. Grandmothers are old and hard of hearing. Besides, she loves you. She does love you, right?”
I nodded, but the words wouldn’t come. “It’ll be a frontal attack. She doesn’t even beat around the bush.”
“But I thought you liked your grandmother.”
“Yes!” I screeched, “When she’s picking on someone else! If she’s here, that means she’s about to go nuclear, which means I have to get home, come up with a strategy in the next five minutes, and hope that I survive the cataclysmic fallout!”
She rushed in front of me, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me slightly. “Josie, you can do this! You’re a strong woman, and she’s no match for you.”
I whimpered as I tried to be strong, but the reality was, I would fold like a thin sheet of paper after an ant walked too close. I was so dead.
“Right, give me your shop keys.”
I handed them over without thought and let her drag me out the door, shoving me into my car.
“Get home. I’ll take care of the shop. You’ve got this,” she said, slamming the door and slapping her hand twice on the roof.
Right. I jammed my keys into the ignition and cranked the engine. Delilah would get me home, and then we could sort out this mess.
I somehow managed to make it home in record time, and when I pulled in, Grandma still wasn’t here, which meant I had the smallest, infinitesimalist amount of time to get my shit together before she started her reign of terror.
“Sawyer!” I shouted as I ran up the steps and flung the door open.
He was pacing in the living room, running his fingers through his hair as panic took over. When he saw me, we both knew we were screwed.
“She’s gonna eat us alive.”
“Not yet,” I said, tossing my bag to the side. I rushed around the room, organizing things left and right, picking up socks and questionable underwear along the way. Sawyer’s brain quickly caught up with mine, and he joined in my frantic attempt to make the house look reasonable.
“We have to stick together. You know she can’t take us down if we don’t give in.”
“Right,” he nodded, tossing a blanket at me to fold. “I’ll follow your lead.”
“Unless she starts in on you. Then you’ll have to hold strong. Whatever you do, don’t panic. That’s what she wants.”
He rushed into the kitchen and swept an arm across the counter, dumping a whole range of things in the garbage that could be sorted later.
“God, you and Cuddlebug are living like pigs,” I said in disgust.
“Josie!”
“Right, it’s not the time.”
I picked up the pace, frantically looking at the clock again. She would be here any minute. “Where’s Scarlet?”
His eyes widened in horror. “In the bedroom. I haven’t woken her up yet.”
“You haven’t woken her up? It’s the afternoon, Sawyer! How the hell are you going to explain her to Grandma?”
“I don’t know!” he yelled. “You’re not helping!”
I took a deep breath and ran through our options quickly.
There was only one way about this. “You’ll have to say she’s sick.
” Rushing over to the medicine cabinet, I grabbed the NyQuil and shoved it at Sawyer.
“Dose her with this. Make sure she doesn’t come out of that room for any reason.
We can’t afford to have Grandma see her when she’s just woken up. ”
The sound of a door slamming had me rushing to the window. “She’s here! Dose her now!”
“On it!”
I primped my hair, then smelled my pits, grimacing slightly. I was already sweating and she hadn’t walked through the door yet. My heart was racing a million miles a minute with every step she took toward the door. She was alone, no sign of Grandpa anywhere in sight, and that was a very bad thing.
Very, very bad.
As long as she was miles and miles away, we were good. Talking to her on the phone was a breeze. There was no judgment, no hassle of any kind, but lord help us when she came to town.
There was no getting out of this now. It was do-or-die time, and in just a few seconds, we would find out if this would be the end of us.