Cassidy
Yawning, I rolled over to my side of the bed, assuming he was leaving now that he got what he wanted.
“Lock the door when you leave,” I mumbled.
He sighed heavily, but the weight of his body didn’t shift away. In fact, it was almost like he was settling into my bed. I waited, holding my breath, knowing that at any moment he would get out of bed.
But when he didn’t, I rolled over and stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Going to sleep,” he muttered.
“Why?”
Sighing, he peeled one eye open and glared at me. “Because I’m tired.”
“But…you’re in my bed.”
“I realize that.”
“You never stay over. In fact, you fuck me and then leave before the cum is dry on my legs.”
“Did you want me to leave?” The rasp of his voice sent chills down my spine, making me wish this was real at the same time that I tried not to get my hopes up because he would dash them in an instant.
“Do whatever you want. I just didn’t realize the parameters of our relationship were changing.”
“They’re not. My tiny house has been acquisitioned for something else.”
“And…what does that mean for you?”
“That I have to stay with Jeff.”
I thought about that for a moment, how I would feel about being forced to stay with someone else if my house suddenly disappeared. Which could happen since I was renting.
“You could always buy a house.”
“I could also just close my eyes and get some sleep here if you’d ever stop talking.”
Well, that shut me up really fast. Rolling over, I tried to go to sleep, but there were so many things keeping me up.
Namely, was this going to become a nightly thing?
Would he stay until morning?
How did this fit into our plan to keep things on the down-low?
Did I sound alright using the word down-low?
My brain just wouldn’t shut off, and while the snoozer beside me had absolutely no qualms about falling asleep next to another person, I found myself in the untenable position of staying in bed when there was another person beside me with absolutely no guidelines as to what it meant.
After nearly an hour passed, I got up, grabbed my robe, and headed into the living room to snuggle under a blanket.
Not that laying in the living room helped. I was still plagued by questions, none of which I would get the answers to anytime soon. So, instead, I put on one of my favorite Christmas movies, hoping the tone of Jimmy Stewart’s voice would put me to sleep.
And I was almost there.
That is, until I heard his voice next to my ear. The low timbre raced through me, directly to my lady parts. Not that I let him know the effect he had on me.
“What are you doing?”
“You snore,” I lied.
“Do not.”
Shuffling in front of the couch, he plopped down on the other end, shifting my feet onto his lap, along with my blanket. Again, I kept it cool, refusing to let him see how much the small gesture affected me. He was holding my feet, not my hand.
“What are you watching?”
“It’s A Wonderful Life.”
“Why?” The tone of his voice belied the incredulousness of the question, but I ignored it.
“Because it’s an amazing movie. And I was hoping that since it’s long, it would help me fall asleep.”
“So…it’s boring.”
“No, it’s long,” I reiterated. “And after you’ve seen it a million times, you already know what’s going to happen, which makes it easier to fall asleep.”
For a moment, he was quiet. He started massaging my feet, but I wasn’t sure he was even aware he was doing it.
“So…what’s the deal with this guy?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, how is this a Christmas movie? He seems really unhappy.”
“Well, he is. I mean, he’s unhappy because he doesn’t realize all he has.”
Sam snorted, continuing to rub my feet. “Seems pretty stupid for a Christmas movie.”
That had me sitting up, ready to defend one of the best movies ever made. “It’s not stupid. It’s uplifting. When he considers killing himself—”
“Wait,” he interrupted. “The man tries to kill himself?”
“He considers it, but then an angel comes down—” I thought that over, then corrected myself. “Well, technically, he’s not an angel.” I frowned, trying to remember. “No, he is an angel. Second class, but he doesn’t have his wings.”
Sam rolled his eyes at me. “You know, this is too complicated for midnight.”
“Then just watch the movie. Or go to bed.”
And for a moment, I thought he would do just that. He stopped rubbing my feet and looked like he was deciding at what point he should get up. But then he relaxed back into the cushions and resumed rubbing my feet.
It was entirely too domestic and was so bad for my psyche.
In fact, I spent more time thinking about Sam than the actual movie. It wasn’t until we got closer to the end that I stopped thinking about Sam and actually focused on the movie. By then, Sam was fully engrossed.
I had him.
Just not really the way I wanted. Yes, he was watching the movie and even seemed to be enjoying it, but I didn’t technically have him. That would require a commitment, an acknowledgment that we were together, or even a public kiss of some kind.
None of which I was going to get.
But I let myself think this was real, if only for one night. I was enjoying the moment so much that I stopped thinking about what was real and what wasn’t. And before I knew it, I was drifting off to sleep on the couch.
It wasn’t until morning that I woke with a crick in my neck and came to the very sad realization that Sam had slipped out at some point, leaving me alone on my couch.
This was nothing like a relationship, and the inevitable emotional crash made it so much worse than I ever imagined.
I was a slug as I walked down the street to open my shop. No amount of coffee could ever bring me out of the funk I was in at the moment, or fix the emotional tragedy that was currently my life.
I couldn’t believe he’d just left me on the couch in the middle of the night. Who did something like that? I rolled my eyes at my own stupid thoughts. Of course, he left me on the couch. He wasn’t invested in anything other than my pussy.
Shoving my key into the door, I looked up just as commotion down the road caught my attention. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it. I minded my own business and tried to stay out of the fray of gossip.
But Josie was yelling at someone, and JR was barely restraining her. I took off down the road, breaking into a jog as things got really heated. She was yelling at Ben Parker, of all people.
“You can’t do this! You can’t just break into my shop and start throwing things away! That’s my livelihood!”
I got there just as she broke free from JR and launched herself at Ben, slamming her fist into his chest.
“You have no right!”
“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes wide as I watched in horror as Liam and Michael strode out of the store with the contents of Josie’s shop.
“She got sick from something in here,” Ben said, his voice low and deadly. “What did you give her?”
JR stepped in front of his wife protectively, his eyes turning dangerously dark as he glared at the man. “Watch it.”
Chills skated down my spine at the instability of his voice. I linked my fingers with Josie’s, giving her the support needed as JR defended her in front of us.
“You know Josie had nothing to do with Clara getting sick.”
“Do I?” Ben asked, getting right in JR’s face. “The poison was in her tea.”
I gasped at the revelation, taking a step closer to Josie, knowing she wouldn’t harm a fly. That accusation would kill her business and destroy Josie’s sweet nature.
“Ben, get the fuck out of my face right now. You got what you needed from the shop. Run the tests and do whatever you need, but you will not come here again. You will never step foot in her shop again unless you want me to end your life. Am I making myself clear?”
His eyes flicked to Josie, and the menacing scowl was enough to make me take a step back, only to back up right into a hard body that I knew all too well.
“I swear to God, if you had anything to do with this, I will ruin you. I will make you pay—”
He never got to finish his thought. JR swung hard, laying Ben out flat on the ground with blood dripping from his mouth. As he stepped forward, he hovered over the older man, kneeling so his words could only be heard by the Parker patriarch.
There seemed to be some kind of standoff between the Parker family and JR as he got to his feet, but then the brothers grabbed their dad and they were off, getting in their trucks, their tires squealing on the pavement as they drove off.
“What was that?” I asked Josie.
When I turned to my friend, tears spilled down her cheeks unchecked, but she quickly dashed them away as she rushed to her store. Not knowing what else to do, I followed, ignoring the man on my heels.
“Josie, what happened?”
But the words died on my lips when I saw the state of her shop. Things were scattered everywhere. Every drawer was left open and the contents were spilling out. It was a disaster.
“Look at this,” Josie whispered, her fingers pressed against her lips. “Everything’s ruined.”
“Can we clean it up?”
She shook her head. Her eyes darted around to all the drawers. I didn’t know much about any of this stuff, but the dried herbs seemed to be all mixed together.
“I’ll have to restock everything.”
I still didn’t understand what was going on. “Why would they storm into your shop? What were they looking for?”
“Someone poisoned Clara,” Sam said from behind me.
“That didn’t give them the right to come in here and destroy her fucking shop,” JR snapped, shoving past Sam to get to his wife. “They could have come to me.”
I was reeling from all the information being thrown at me. “Someone poisoned Clara?”
My eyes met Sam’s, but he wasn’t paying attention to me.
“JR, you know it needed to be done.”
JR’s gaze swung to Sam’s, but there was nothing friendly about this exchange. “You know damn well that Josie would never hurt anyone. She didn’t put that poison in her supplies, and now that Ben stormed in here and made such a fucking ordeal about it, no one in town is going to trust her!”
When Sam didn’t say anything, JR slowly shook his head at him. “Get the fuck out of this shop.”
Sam glanced at me, then backed out of the shop, turning on his heel and leaving.
I was at a loss, unsure of what to do. But I remembered what happened to Ellie, and how her shop was destroyed and it nearly ruined her.
“I’ll call in reinforcements. We’ll get this cleaned up in no time.”
“You have your shop to run,” Josie said quietly.
“My shop can stay closed for today. Right now, we need to get this cleaned up and salvage what we can. I know Alyssa will come help, and you know Delaney will be pissed as hell when she hears about this.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but I wasn’t going to stop and question it now. Reliving the whole thing would only push Josie into a downward spiral.
Ten minutes later, Delaney, Alyssa, Ellie, Ryder, and even Archer were in the shop, and we were all working to get it back in order. So much couldn’t be salvaged, but as we took care of organizing everything, JR helped Josie get everything ordered.
The sad part was that so many of her ingredients were things she picked and dried, or grew in the shop. All of that hard work was down the drain, and she’d basically have to start over.
And based on the looks JR and Archer were exchanging, someone was going to pay. Whether that was the Parkers or someone else was still to be determined.