25. Jake
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
jake
Damn, Izzy Bee, how much stuff did you haul up here from Texas?” I huffed out a breath and leaned against the U-Haul. We had to have carried in at least five boxes already, but the end was nowhere in sight.
“Stop trying to make that nickname happen, Jacob. It’s never going to. Anyway, I brought pretty much all of my stuff, because what else was I going to do with it? Sell it?” She rolled her eyes as if selling any of her belongings was a ridiculous notion. “As if.”
“Yes.” Reid lifted one of her boxes with a grunt. “You know I love you, Honeybee, but people are going to think you’re a hoarder.”
Isa scoffed, giving us a dismissive wave as she disappeared into the house.
“Do you think she’d notice if I took one of these boxes to Goodwill?” I lowered my voice. “She probably won’t notice her”—I glanced down at the label reading Stuff—“stuff is missing.”
“I heard that!” Isa called back. “Don’t you dare! That box has very important mementos in it!”
“Now I’m curious to see what these mementos are.”
Reid shrugged. “Don’t question it.”
“Anyone else coming over to help with this? We might be here all day if not,” I muttered as I lifted another box out of the U-Haul trailer.
“Colter’s got Levi, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing him today, Hayden and Sierra are in Goldfinch with his family, and Mikey said he’d be over, but knowing him, he probably got distracted,” Reid explained.
“Juniper’s not even in town. How would he get distracted?”
Reid shot me a look like, Are you serious? “Phones exist.”
“Yeah, fair. That was a dumb question. Honestly, maybe that’s a blessing in disguise. I’d rather not have to hear whatever phone sex they have.”
“What’s Caitlin up to today?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe she’s with Ellison having a girl’s day or something.”
“Oh, you don’t already know?”
My eyes narrowed to slits. “It’s not like I keep tabs.”
He raised his hands in defense. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.
” Scrubbing a hand over his face, he added, “I just know you two have gotten close since she moved in.” After a small pause, he said, “Colter told me about the day he walked in on you guys painting. Or not painting? Thought maybe something finally happened between you two.”
I shook my head. “I’m just moving at her pace.”
Reid nodded. “Got it.”
Isa stepped out of the house a moment later. “Stop slacking, you two! Those boxes aren’t going to grow legs and move themselves, you know.”
“Bossy,” I teased, rolling my eyes.
Putting her hands on her hips, she retorted, “Don’t you know it.”
I followed her into the house and set the box by the entrance to the hallway. Wiping sweat from my brow, I went back outside to continue hauling things inside when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Cait
I need your expertise.
What’s up?
Cait
I want to take Whitley shopping for some cowboy boots.
That is within my expertise.
Cait
Are you busy?
I looked around at the boxes that still needed to be hauled into Reid and Isa’s house.
Nah. Tell me where to meet you and I’ll be there.
Cait
Boone’s Western Wear in 15?
Copy that.
“Sorry, guys, I gotta go.” I threw Isa and Reid a casual salute with my index and middle finger then jogged over my pickup, abandoning them with the rest of the boxes.
“Hey!” Isa yelled. “We’re not done moving the boxes!”
“Sorry, it’s an emergency!” Before she could protest again, I closed the door and turned on the engine, reversing out of the driveway.
Fifteen minutes later, Caitlin and Whitley were waiting for me in front of Boone’s.
Whitley waved her hands wildly when she saw my pickup pull into the lot, and I laughed to myself as I parked and cut the engine.
“Who’s ready to go get some boots?” I called out to them.
“Me!” Whitley squealed with delight.
“Thank you for coming to help.” Pink streaks formed across Caitlin’s cheeks. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gone shopping for cowboy boots, and I wanted to make sure I got her the right size and everything.”
“No problem.” I placed my hand on the small of her back, leading her into the storefront.
Whitley held her hand on the other side, and she was half skipping, half pulling Caitlin down the aisle.
“Boots, boots, boots, I’m gonna get some boots,” she sing-songed.
“What color do you want?” Caitlin asked.
“Orange! Like Cheeto!”
“You don’t just want some brown ones?”
“No.” Whitley pouted. “I want orange ones.”
“The kid’s section might have orange ones,” I reassured Caitlin, whose face was written with doubt.
The kid’s cowboy boot section had a rainbow of colors, spanning from hot pink to baby blue and the classic brown.
“Do you want to try these ones on, bug?” Caitlin pulled off a brown pair with flowers embroidered on in blue, pink, and yellow.
“No!” She shook her head.
“What about these ones?” She suggested some red ones.
Whitley was on the verge of a tantrum, throwing herself on the floor and smacking the ground with her hands as she yelled, “I want orange ones!”
“Let me see what I can find,” I murmured, squeezing Cait’s shoulder as I walked by her.
My eyes scanned the shelves, looking for the perfect pair of orange boots.
There was a ton of pink, blue, and white, but I was having a hard time finding anything orange.
The last thing I wanted was to go home empty-handed or worse, go home with a disappointed Whit because we had to settle for something else.
I resorted to pulling boots off the shelf to look behind them, in hopes that the perfect pair would jump out at me.
“Mommy, those boots are so ugly. I don’t want them,” Whitley argued with Caitlin behind me, and I had to stifle my laughter. That girl was a bundle of sass.
“I think they’re adorable,” Caitlin muttered, but the clunk of boots against the wooden shelf told me she put them back. “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find any orange boots, bug.”
“B-but,” Whitley started blubbering. “I really want boots that match Cheeto.”
“Hold on,” I interrupted, hoping to stop the waterworks before they began. Tucked away behind a pair of neon-pink boots, I saw a flash of orange. I moved the bright-colored ones away and found hidden treasure: A pair of white boots with an orange floral pattern and a bow.
Hiding them behind my back, I approached the two girls. “Close your eyes, bug.”
Whitley placed her hands over her eyes.
“Okay, now you can look.”
When she opened her eyes, I presented her with the boots. Her eyes widened, practically sparkling, and her mouth gaped into an O shape.
“Mommy, look! It looks like Cheeeto!” She tugged on Caitlin’s sleeve excitedly.
“This is what you wanted, right?” I asked.
Running forward to snatch the boots out of my hands, she squealed excitedly, holding them over her head like a trophy. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“Let’s try them on. Make sure they fit,” I suggested, leading her over to one of the benches.
She plopped down and kicked off her tennis shoes, nearly hitting me in the face when one flew off.
I slipped her foot into one of the boots, and like she was Cinderella trying on a glass slipper, it fit perfectly. I put the other one on and let her stand.
“How do they feel?” I asked.
“Good! I love them, can I keep them?” Her gaze bounced from me to Caitlin and back again.
With a chuckle, I pointed to Cait. “Ask your mom.”
“Please, Mommy?” She interlaced her hands and rested her head on top of them, jutting out her bottom lip and looking up at her through thick eyelashes.
“How much are they?” Caitlin reached for the box with the price tag. “Holy,” she gasped.
“I’ll pay for them,” I blurted before I could stop myself.
“W-what? I can’t let you do that, Jake. Those are really expensive for kids’ shoes she’s just going to grow out of.”
“It’ll be my treat. Besides, this is exactly what we came here for, and look at how happy she is.”
Whitley was absolutely beaming. She was so completely in love with the boots that I was worried we wouldn’t be able to take them off without a fight.
Caitlin sighed. “Okay, fine.” Her brows pinched together. “Thank you. Seriously. You’ve already done so much for us.”
“It’s nothing. I’m happy to do it for her,” I reassured her before clasping my hands together and turning toward Whitley. “All right, bug. We have to pay for them, so can you take them off for me? Promise you can put them back on when we get to the car.”
She frowned. “I don’t wanna take them off.”
“It’ll be for ten minutes max. I pinky swear that you can put them back on.”
She huffed out a breath. “Fine.”
I paid for the boots as quickly as I could, and Whitley tugged them on on our way to the parking lot. She spun in circles, twirling around on her toes, arms stretched out. It was probably the happiest I’d seen her since they’d moved to Silver Creek, and I wanted more of it.
Especially if making Whitley happy would make Caitlin smile.