Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Avery Jane
“Was that him again?” Gran asked after I hit Deny Call on my phone and tucked it back beneath the counter.
Shrugging but not looking at her, I said, “Don’t know. I’ve blocked him, but he gets a new number and then it just shows up on my screen like any other local number.”
“You haven’t talked to him though? Lately, I mean.”
“No, Gran. I haven’t spoken to Cody in weeks, thankfully, and I don’t plan to, but I can’t help it if he finds ways to get through.”
The truth made my heart drop into the empty pit of my stomach and my knees weak with unease.
Cody Mahone had found countless ways to contact me even though I’d asked and screamed and then demanded that he stop. He worked on the ranch his family owned east of Jackson, so he was always too close for my comfort, and that fact was never far from my mind.
A month ago, when he showed up at my little cottage behind Gran’s house with my least favorite food, escargot, if you could even call it “food,” from a French bistro in Jackson and a bottle of expensive merlot, I called the Sheriff.
She’d come out quickly, but Cody dropped the food and wine and ran when I yelled through my locked and deadbolted door that she was on her way.
The purple stain left on my porch was a daily reminder to keep my eyes open for the asshole.
I’d given two years of my life to that man, but when I told him I was leaving him because he couldn’t bother to engage in our relationship, then he decided to be obsessed with me?
What even was that?
Maybe it was the thrill of the chase. Maybe it was that I’d injured his pride when I left him and he was embarrassed, and that made him act a fool. I had no idea. I didn’t care to know, but what I did know was that there was a determination in his eyes now I’d never seen in him before.
For whatever reason, Cody wanted me back, and it seemed clearer and clearer to me that he wouldn’t stop until I gave in.
Which would be never. I liked my life better without him in it, without his constant need to control everything I said or did.
Both Gran and Mama couldn’t stand him, probably because, since the first date, they had been able to see through his charms and how bad he was for me, and my relationships with them began to break down until I dumped his ass.
When we were dating, it never would’ve occurred to me he could be violent or inappropriate, but like the clearing of debris after a fire, I knew it was true.
He’d never hit me or hurt me in that way.
But I knew it was inside him now, especially because he was used to getting what he wanted, and I found myself looking over my shoulder for him at every turn.
That night, the sheriff had given me her cell number and her deputy’s and told me, if I ever needed to, I could call and they’d come. Even if I wasn’t sure Cody was lurking nearby, “Call or text,” she’d said, “day or night.”
This morning, when I’d seen her brother for the first time in almost twenty years, I had to stop myself from imagining Dixon coming to my rescue.
It was difficult; he was all brawny muscles and tall steadfastness, but I knew that was just his outward appearance.
Inside, I had a feeling Dixon was still the little boy I remembered from childhood, the little boy who never wanted to go home and who would sneak out of his house at night and sleep in between the bales of hay my grandpa kept for his horses.
“Are you okay, Avery Jane?” Gran asked. “I know this whole Cody thing weighs heavy on you.”
“I’m okay, Gran. I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s just that I don’t know what else to do.”
She hummed behind me. “Sheriff Lee told you to file a restraining order. You should do that.”
I scoffed. “A piece of paper? That’s the weapon you think I should use against my creepy ex-boyfriend? What good will that do?”
“I said nothin’ about weapons, but that piece of paper is a shield.
You need to have that in place for when he crosses the line.
And when he does and he violates the order, then the sheriff can lock him up.
Right now, all you’ve got is your word against his.
His family has money. You know this. They’ve got clout around here.
A restraining order won’t hurt him physically, but it would give clear boundaries to all those dicks. ”
Spinning, I tried not to let surprise show on my face, but Gran never cussed.
“What,” she drawled. “you think I can’t come up with some swear words of my own for that foul man and his foul family? Please.”
“Okay, Gran. I’ll do it. I’ll file a restraining order, if he shows his face again. You have to have just cause and proof that someone has been doin’ bad things. You can’t just slap anyone with a restraining order ’cause you feel like it.”
“Next time might be too late, Avery Jane.”
I ignored that warning. “In the meantime, I’ll do somethin’ else to protect myself. At the last Small Business Association meeting, Manny Perez told me he’d teach me some self-defense. That’s a good thing to know, right?”
Gran nodded and looked back down at her knitting project. I had more knitted gloves and beanies than I cared to admit, but I would never refuse something Gran made for me because everything she created was made with love.
“Don’t tell Mama Cody called again, okay?” I said as I turned around when the bell on the front door jingled, indicating a customer. The squeaking of Gran’s chair rocking on the floor stopped. “She’ll just get up in arms, and it’s not good for her stress level.”
Gran mumbled something under her breath as I greeted my customer. I knew she hated keeping things from her daughter, but she’d keep this to herself because she knew I was right.
“Everlea, hi. Long time no see,” I said to the woman who walked into the store with a little boy following and her daughter perched on her hip.
We’d become friends six years ago when she asked me to help her with her wedding at Cade Ranch.
Somehow, I managed to procure thirty tall, skinny potted pine trees and a boatload of peonies in the dead of winter.
Gran mumbled her usual “H’lo” behind me.
I handed little Mirabelle a loose daisy from the bunch I’d been using to make a bouquet a local cowboy had ordered for his wife, and Mira immediately stuffed it in her mouth.
Jack Jr. went directly to the display of cacti and succulents I kept in the window for maximum sun exposure and began pressing his finger against the spines.
“Ow!”
Everlea sighed and tried to dig the daisy petals out of Mira’s mouth with her finger. “Jack, c’mon. Do you have to touch everything?”
Jack shrugged, touched the cactus again, then pulled his finger away and stuck it in his mouth to suck away the sting.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think she’d eat it.”
“Hi.” Everlea took a deep, stress-releasing breath and laughed.
“Two months ago, I was worried she’d starve because we couldn’t get her to even eat candy.
She’s at the end of her terrible twos, and I just know they’re gonna follow her to her threes.
She’s more stubborn than her dad, but now she eats literally everything. ”
Mira smirked all too knowingly.
“Well, what can I do for you? Need somethin’ to brighten your day?”
Everlea smiled. “Yeah, actually. That’d be nice, but what I really need is a centerpiece. We have some new people starting the veteran program at the ranch next week and a new employee, and I thought it might be nice to add some color and cheer to the bunkhouse.”
“That’s a great idea. Do you have any flower preferences?”
“No, please just do your thing. I know whatever you make will be beautiful.”
“Thank you. Size?”
“Whatever you think. It’s going on a long, beat-up dining table that seats twelve. Nothing too over the top, I guess, but I trust your judgement.”
“Great. I’ve got some ideas already.”
She shifted her daughter on her hip, pulled a credit card from her pocket, and handed it to me as she spun to see what had just fallen and shattered on the floor.
“And ring up that cactus and the clay pot my son just dumped on your floor. I’m so sorry.
” She turned back toward me, wincing. “I’d offer to clean it up, but if I put Mira down the mess will only get bigger. ”
“No worries. I haven’t sold a cactus in ages. It’s on the house.”
Everlea and the kids left, and after I cleaned and swept up the mess, I grabbed my wallet from my purse under the counter.
“Watch the store for a few minutes for me, Gran? I’m gonna run down the street and grab a snack.”
“Those sugary candies are gonna ruin your teeth,” Gran said like I was Mira’s age as I ducked out the front door and headed up Main Street.
The August sun was hot on my face, but a cool breeze whispered down from the Tetons and soothed the heat. Walking beneath Your Local Bookie’s awning, I waved through the window at my fellow small-business owner, Aubrey, and let the cool shade rush around me for a second.
It seemed funny because it hadn’t occurred to me until he arrived back in town, but ties to Dixon were everywhere.
Aubrey married Rye Graves, who was co-owner of Spitfire Ranch with Dixon’s brothers, Bax and Brand.
The sheriff was his little sister, and Deputy Roxi was Dixon’s sister-in-law.
It felt like I couldn’t throw a rock in Wisper without hitting someone related to Dixon somehow.
And when I made my way up to Henly’s and pulled open the door to get my candy fix, the man himself stood there, blocking the entrance, his body like a big boulder in my way, emanating heat that canceled out the gust of frigid, conditioned air rushing out of the store.
An intensity pulsed around Dixon, and it made me press the tips of my toes to the sidewalk beneath my feet, like somehow it grounded me and made me less likely to fall for him.
He wore a pair of Ray-Ban knockoffs so I couldn’t see his piercing blue eyes, but my memory of them had always been clear in my mind.
“Hi again,” I said.
He nodded and stepped back to hold the door open for me, and I passed by him, trying not to feel the heat from his body on my bare arm and thinking I should’ve worn a long-sleeved shirt instead of a tank top, but that was silly. In the middle of August?
Dixon still carried the bouquet he’d bought, and now I noticed the backpack slung over his shoulder.
Was that the only possession he’d brought with him when he rolled back into town?
But he had to have a truck or something somewhere with the rest of his stuff, right?
Surely, one backpack wasn’t big enough to carry everything he owned.
“Avery Jane,” Mr. Henly greeted me from behind the counter, which still looked like we were living in 1987, with little cardboard boxes on top filled with Snickers and Milky Way bars.
The only difference now was that they cost a dollar fifty instead of fifty cents.
“I suspected I might be seein’ you today. I’ve got your candies right here.”
“Still like Smarties?” Dixon asked quietly, and the corner of his lips tipped up into a little half-smile.
That stopped me in my tracks. He remembered my favorite candy? And how dare he smile at me like that? Something about the curve of those lips made me lose all the grounding I’d just been doing, and I felt like I might fall over like a plank of wood.
“Sweet Tooth AJ strikes again,” he said, and he walked out the door and disappeared down the street.