by Tess Oliver
Jesse made his way up to the counter with a sea of round eyes following him. He nodded politely at the two girls at the counter. "How's Kate?" he asked.
The girl nearly fell over with her heavy backpack. "Uh, she's good. She's working in a law office on the east coast."
"Figures. She was always the smartest person in class. Tell her Jesse says hi."
"Uh huh, I will." They both stared up at him. I had to rattle the bag to get their attention.
They grabbed their goods and walked away from the counter. Jesse turned and drummed a quick beat on the counter. "I had to pick up some things at the hardware store, so I'm early. Will your tyrannical boss let you off?"
"I heard that," Sherry called from her side of the room where she was pouring ink into tiny cups.
"Sorry," he called back, "Guess those big ears serve a purpose after all."
"I'm off the clock in ten minutes, and I need to finish checking out the customers." I glanced around the shop. Jesse's presence had definitely upset the balance in the store. "I think they'd decide faster if the famous Jesse Coltrane wasn't standing in the center of the displays blinding them with his brightness."
Jesse looked behind him and nodded to a bunch of admirers, who had huddled near the shampoos and conditioners to get a better look. He turned back to me. "I'll go over to Sherry's side and see if I can irritate her for a few minutes." He walked past and dragged the awe-filled gazes with him as he crossed the store.
With him gone, the late afternoon customers, with their strawberry smelling gum, overstuffed backpacks and i-pods, finished browsing. A few more purchases were made before they shuffled out of the store.
I quickly straightened up the displays so they'd be ready for the morning. Jesse emerged a few minutes later from Sherry's side of the store. I went into the office and grabbed the leather satchel Sundance had made for me. "I'll see you in the morning, Sherry."
"Sounds good. Have a good night."
Jesse held the door for me, and I slipped out onto the sidewalk.
He caught up to me.
"Thanks so much for the ride. In a few weeks I'll have enough to buy a bicycle. Sherry actually knows someone who has a mountain bike for sale. Then I can ride it to work and stop bugging you guys."
"I don't mind picking you up and neither does Zach. And I don't know about you riding on the mountain roads on a bike."
"I'll be fine. I used to ride a bike around all the time." I touched his arm, and he looked at me. "But it's nice to have someone worry."
"It's equally nice to have someone to worry about. I guess the job is working out pretty well."
"It is. Every so often I have to convince myself this is real."
"Why is that?" We stopped at his car, and he opened the door for me.
I turned to face him. He was always a vision up close. The high school girls had it right. Jesse Coltrane was hot. "It's just that I'm not used to things going so smoothly. In fact, to use a term a bladesmith might use, serrated is more like it. Sharp and rough, that's how the last few years have been."
He waved me onto the seat and then hooked his hands on the top edge of the car as he hung his head inside. "Then maybe you should start getting used to smooth." He shut the door.
14
Jesse
I knew I was doing it, but I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't stop pulling my eyes from the road to catch another glimpse of my passenger. She'd pulled the front strands of hair back off her face and tied them off with one of the leather straps I used to tie back my hair when I worked. It was stupid, but just like the night when she was wearing my coat and then my shirt, I loved seeing her wear something of mine.
Spring was bringing back flowers and the smell of new pine. Tanglewood had finally thawed out from a deep winter freeze. I, for one, was always glad to see spring, and summer was even better.
"Every Friday is ladies' night at Petty Thief if you're interested. Dollar beers for the women and it's amateur night on stage. Anyone who wants to sing can get up and belt out a tune. And I was thinking since you—"
"I don't know about that, Jesse. I guess it depends on how many dollar beers I drink. Singing for money on a street corner is different than singing for a captive audience."
"Sometimes Jason Petty, the owner, will give free beer for a month to the best singer of the night. Unless everyone sucks, which happens most of the time. At least think about it for the cheap beer. Zach and Sundance will probably go too. Of course, maybe you'd prefer to have the house to yourself for a change."
"Free beer for a month probably won't be enough of an incentive for me to look past stage fright, but I'll give it some thought."
I stopped the car at an intersection and waited while Martin Potter's kid brother crossed the street with what looked like a sack of marbles. He passed in front of us, tripped on a crack and the sack fell to the ground. Shiny marbles of every size and color escaped and went rolling like rushing water down the street.
I laughed. "Shit that brings back memories. When I was in fifth grade, the teachers decided we could bring marbles to school to play at recess. I think they did it because we got in a lot less trouble shooting marbles. I had my coffee can of marbles sitting on my desk during a math test. The class was dead silent, except for the sound of erasers scratching papers in frustration. I shifted in my seat, and my knee hit the desk. I could never fit in those stupid desks. The can fell and marbles rolled all over the tile floor. I was one principal's trip away from losing my x-box for a month, and I was sure that was where I was heading. But the teacher laughed. Of course, marbles were banned after that and I had to live with the scorn of my classmates for weeks. But at least I had an x-box to play with while my buddies got over hating me."
"Did you get all the marbles back?"
"Most of them but my awesome silver shooter marble mysteriously disappeared. I'm pretty sure it was this kid named George. I would have confronted him about it, but that would have earned me a trip to the principal for sure."
Joelle looked through the windshield. Potter's bright red hair puffed in the breeze as he chased after the marbles. The shape and slant of the street were pulling a lot of them toward the gutter.
I glanced over at Joelle, and it seemed we had the same thought. I threw my car in gear and pulled it over. Joelle and I hopped out and raced toward the runaway marbles. I was a star soccer player and on every sports team in high school, but Joelle had no problem keeping up with me as we ran toward the gutter. Little Potter was already bawling about the marble tragedy and his seemingly hopeless efforts to retrieve them all.
As fast as we were at running, we were no match for smooth glass balls and the gravity of a downhill slope. Joelle was laughing wildly as we danced around the marbles trying not to fall on them, and, at the same time, trying to stop their progress. The slope of the street was acting like a funnel and sucking everything toward one destination.
"We need to stop them at the gutter," I suggested.
"Good thinking."
I reached the deep gutter that swept debris down to the ocean. I long jumped forward and shoved my big foot in front of the opening. My shoe was like a rubber edged damn for the flow of marbles. Joelle laughed as she stooped down and worked hard to grab them before they rolled up and over my foot.
I crouched down next to her. Her face was right next to mine, and suddenly, marble collecting was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to kiss her. Badly. But I didn't. Somehow, Zach and I had made this unspoken promise through nothing more than brotherly vibes that Joelle was off limits. She'd gone through something terrible with the asshole she left behind, and she was vulnerable. The hurt was still fresh and raw, and her heart was still unprotected. Neither of us wanted to take advantage of that.
But as the days went on, it was harder and harder to deny that I was being pulled toward her. I'd never felt so strongly about any woman, and I was starting to feel pretty damn raw and unprotected myself. I sensed some of the same anguish coming from Za
ch. While he never talked about it or showed his feelings, like I tended to do, I knew he was feeling the same frustration. And that added a whole other dimension to everything.
It was almost too complicated to talk or think about, so the three of us went on, casually and happily, like three friends living in the same house, sharing chores and food. Just three roommates—only one was my brother and my only family and one was a woman who I was quickly falling hard for. But I couldn't talk about it with my brother because I was pretty fucking sure he was falling just as hard.
We'd done our best with the marble round up. There had been at least a dozen casualties, but by the time teary eyed Potter reached the gutter, both Joelle and I had filled our hands and the bottom halves of our shirts with marbles. Joelle held up a bright blue shooter. It had a swirl of gold running through it.
Potter's round cheeks bunched up with a smile. "You got it." He took it from Joelle's fingers and kissed it. "This is my lucky shooter."
Joelle nodded. "I thought it might be. It's very cool."
"Thanks." The line of freckles on his nose darkened as he crinkled it up and looked up at the beautiful woman holding his marbles in her sweater. His blue eyes moved to me. "Hey, you're Jesse Coltrane, aren't ya?"
"I am. And you're a Potter. I know your brother, Martin."
"Yep, that's my brother. I'm Tyler."
I stepped toward him. "Well, Tyler, hold up that sack."
He opened the drawstring, and his chubby fingers widened the opening. I poured in the marbles, and Joelle did the same.
"Thanks," he said as he rubbed his nose with his free hand. He turned to walk away but stopped after a few steps. "Hey, Jesse"—he swung his hand as if he'd touched something hot—"I like your girlfriend." He turned around and ran off with his sack of marbles.
"Smart kid." I motioned toward the car. "I think we've done our good deed for the day."
"I think so." Joelle shucked me on the arm. "You're a pretty fast runner. You almost had me beat. Of course, I wasn't really trying."
I stopped. It took her a few steps to notice. She looked back with a teasing smile.
"Is that a challenge?"
Her smile exploded and she turned around and raced back toward the car. I was on her heels, but I had to pour it on to keep up with her. A few yards from the car, she heard my footsteps pound the asphalt behind her and she squealed as I closed in on her. I grabbed her arm and spun her around just as she touched the car. Earlier, I'd thought about the kiss, but this time it wasn't planned. It was all I could tell myself because I knew the second I'd pulled her around to face me that I was going to kiss her.
I took hold of both her arms and her lips parted with anticipation as I pressed my mouth against hers. If the reaction had been different, if she'd stiffened in my arms or pulled her face away, I would have dropped my hold on her and walked away properly chastised and ashamed. But she melted against me and curled her arms around my neck as my arms went around her body. Cars swept past, and one even honked as we stood against the car and kissed.
A whistle cracked the air and our mouths parted. I looked back over my shoulder. Tyler Potter was giving me the thumbs up.
Joelle laughed softly. She looked up at me with something that could have been admiration or it could have been confusion. My head and body were still thinking about the kiss, so it was hard to tell. Reluctantly, I lowered my arms.
"I'd apologize for that, Joelle. Only, I'm not sorry."
She pushed a strand of hair off my face. "Lolly used to always tell me that some things deserved an apology and some things just deserved to happen. I'm not sorry either, Jesse."
We climbed into the car. She reached forward and turned up the music. We drove home without another mention of the kiss.
15
Joelle
I leaned into the fragrant steam wafting off the pot of strawberry preserves. I'd cashed my first paycheck and gone straight to the grocery store, deciding it was time for me to begin to repay Zach and Jesse. The strawberry display, with bright red fruit bursting out of green baskets, drew me across the store like a magnet. Lolly always called strawberries the first sign of spring, and she always made strawberry preserves to put on our toast. It was sugary heaven on bread.
As I picked up the wooden spoon and stirred the berries in their syrup bath, it took my mind back to Lolly again. One day, I'd come home distraught that my best friend, Cindy, had accused me of trying to steal her boyfriend, Oliver. I'd occasionally talked to Oliver and once or twice we had laughed about something together in class, but I'd never thought of him as anything but Cindy's boyfriend. That day, Lolly told me I could stir a pot without a spoon and without even knowing I was stirring it. In my state of anguish, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck she was talking about. But then one day Oliver approached me at my locker and as he neared me, he brushed his fingers over my hand. It wasn't an accidental brush. Lolly's words came clear in my head. I kept my distance from him after that, and Cindy and I never regained our friendship.
A motor started, pulling my attention to the window. Jesse's car lights lit up the driveway as he drove out of the yard. Daylight was melting into twilight, but Zach was still busy working in the shop. The sputtering glow of the forge shot sporadic light across the yard. It had been three days since Jesse's kiss. When he took hold of me, I knew a kiss was coming, but I didn't discourage him. The opposite in fact. I could have melted into his arms and kissed him for hours. I tried hard to work up some feelings of regret or anger at myself for enjoying it, but it wasn't in me. I didn't regret it.
Sometimes, if I let myself think about it too hard, my life here with the brothers felt confusing and tenuous, as if things could get wildly out of control if I let them. If we let them. But for now, the three of us went about our lives, growing closer in friendship with each passing day. Occasionally Jesse would touch me when the moment hadn't really called for it, even brushing up behind me when I was doing something at the stove, or sitting close enough on the couch for our shoulders to touch. And there was no way to not feel the heat between us when it happened. But the same thing happened with Zach. He would find reasons to touch me, or brush up against me, and the same heat radiated between us. Bobby had starved me of affection for so long and he'd destroyed my self worth so badly, I worried that I was making up for it now. I had two men in my life who made me feel happy and safe and, above all else, worth something. They were both protective and a little possessive of me, but it was a shared possession. I couldn't explain anything that was happening, but I knew I felt content. I felt wanted, and I hadn't felt that in a long time.
I opened the box of mason jars. I'd dug around in the kitchen cupboards looking for something to put strawberry preserves in and had been lucky enough to stumble upon an unopened box of mason jars. Someone, I assumed Zach and Jesse's mom, had taped canning instructions to the top of the box. I could only conclude that she'd planned to do some canning, but that she never actually got to it.
I pulled out a jar and untwisted the two piece lid. Zach was walking across the yard. He'd taken off his apron and was stripped down to just his undershirt. It was the sleeveless tank style, and his tattoos stood out in heavy contrast against the stark white cotton fabric. My attention was stolen from my task for a second as I allowed myself the luxury of watching him walk across the yard, his muscular arms and chest, his steely blue gaze peering out from his handsome face.
Heat swirled through my body and warmed my pussy. It was the same sensation I'd had when Jesse kissed me. I had realized then that my physical reactions, my sensual urges had been turned off for so long that I'd nearly forgotten what they felt like.
I took a deep breath to shake off the flutters I was feeling as Zach walked inside. The faint scent of smoke and sweat followed him in. They were two scents I never would have thought of as sexy, and yet, on Zach, they turned on every one of my senses as if the combination of smoke and sweat was the world's best aphrodisiac.
&
nbsp; He walked up behind me, brushing against me as he looked over my shoulder into the pot. "That smells good. Is that strawberries?"
"Yes. Lolly's strawberry preserve recipe. And I bought some bread to go with it. We can have it for breakfast."
I lifted the wooden spoon and turned to the side. "Here try it, but blow on it first."
He moved his mouth closer to the spoon and blew on the hot strawberries. Instead of taking hold of the spoon, his hand rested against my back as he tasted the berries. He left his hand there for longer than necessary.
"That's good stuff."
"Where did Jesse go?" I asked as I dropped the spoon in the sink.
"Sundance was having some problem with his truck, so Jes went over to look at it."
"Did he take Bear with him? I haven't seen him for awhile. He's usually right there on his pillow when I'm at the stove."
Zach walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. "Far as I know, Jesse left alone. Bear is probably terrorizing a squirrel in a tree or something. I'm going to take a shower."
"All right. I was going to heat that leftover chicken from last night. But first I think I'll go out and look for Bear. It's getting dark."
"Uh, he is part wolf, remember. I stopped by the butcher and bought him a big beef bone. I'll bet he's outside burying it."
"But he's the only dog in the house. Who the heck is he hiding it from?"
Zach had stepped out of the kitchen, but he popped his head back in. "He's hiding it from Jesse."
"Jesse steals his beef bone? We need to feed that guy more."
Zach laughed. "He likes to tease Bear and pretend he's going to take it. Like any typical third grader." He walked away, and I heard the bathroom door shut.
I went to the back door and called for Bear, but he didn't come running. I headed down the back steps and surveyed the yard. Night had fallen fast. There was only a sliver of moon, and the lights from the house and shop didn't provide much illumination for the back of the property. A flicker of movement near the tree line caught my eye. I headed in that direction. I climbed the small incline that led to the forest bordering the property.
