All Autumn

by Sandra Owens

  Jenn tugged the knit cap from my head. “I don’t think you need this anymore, since your cat burglar days are officially over.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep my day job. I pretty much suck at cat burglaring.”

  “Go on, get out of here, you two.” Dylan put his hand on Jenn’s butt, giving her a push.

  “Copping a feel, there, Chief?” she said, then squeezed his butt, copping her own feel.

  That was what I wanted, what I thought I’d had with Brian. To be totally in love and loved that way back, to know that there was no other woman in the world for him but me.

  Not only did I suck at being a cat burglar, but obviously at choosing who to fall in love with.

  8

  ~ Connor ~

  “What’s up?” I asked after taking a seat in Dylan’s office. When he’d mouthed stay behind to me before he freed Autumn, I knew he wanted to talk to me privately.

  “I called your brother to bail you out. You want to wait for him before I bring you up to speed? He should be here any minute.”

  “Where’s that hooligan who claims he’s my brother?” Adam leaned in the doorway, a smirk on his face.

  “That would be me. Come in. Pretty sure Dylan’s about to lay some heavy shit on me.”

  Adam and I were identical twins, and the only way most people who knew us could tell us apart was by the color of the small earrings we each wore in one ear. I suppose we could wear our hair differently, but we both liked the same style, longer than a military cut, but not over our ears or touching our collars.

  “I filled Adam in on why you were arrested when I called him, so we’ll just get to the meat of the problem. I didn’t include Autumn in this conversation because of some of the things Brian said that I don’t think she needs to hear right now.” Dylan leaned back in his chair. “Brian’s being a real dick. He’s insisting on charging you both with breaking and entering unless Autumn takes him back. If she refuses, she’ll still be charged, but he’ll drop them on you if you sign a statement that you’ll never talk to her or go near her again.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Adam and I said together. Autumn had been my friend years before Brian had ever come on the scene, and I wasn’t giving her up for a man who was turning out to be a real prick.

  “Figured that’s what you’d say. Apparently he sees you as a threat. Even if you signed a ridiculous statement like that, I don’t see how he can enforce it. But he’s going to cause you as much trouble as he can if you don’t step out of the picture, so take that as a warning.”

  “Whatever. I’m not signing anything of the sort, so he can bring it on. He obviously didn’t care enough about Autumn to keep his pants zipped. Why’s he so determined to keep her?”

  “I guess in his mind he loves her, but he doesn’t see why what he did was such a big deal.” Dylan’s lips curled in disgust. “He said, bumping shoulders with me as if we were best buds, ‘It’s different for men, right? A little pussy on the side doesn’t mean anything.’ I wanted to knock him into next week.”

  “What a shithead,” Adam and I said together. It was a good thing Brian hadn’t said that to me. Forget next week. I would have knocked him into the next millennium.

  “You two do know it’s spooky when you do that,” Dylan said. “Say the same thing at the same time.”

  “It’s a twin thing,” Adam and I said as one, getting a laugh from our new police chief. Adam glanced at me. “What’s the plan, baby brother?”

  From the time we’d learned Adam was older by two minutes, he’d loved rubbing that little fact in by calling me baby brother.

  “Well, old man, the plan is that Brian can go fuck himself. At the moment that’s all I got.” It wasn’t, but that was my business. Hearing Dylan confirm what an ass I’d already begun to think Brian was, I decided I’d glue myself to Autumn’s side for a while and do what I could to see her happy again. I did love seeing her smile.

  “What didn’t you tell Dylan?” Adam asked after we got back to my place.

  I handed him a beer, then stretched out on my distressed brown leather couch. One problem with having a twin who could read your mind was that, well, he could read your mind. Not always a good thing.

  “What time is it?”

  “Two in the morning,” he said without looking at his watch.

  “I should be dead on my feet, but I want to go build a cabin or something.”

  Adam raised a black brow identical to mine. “I’m the builder. You just sell them. Stop ignoring my question. What’s going on between you and Autumn?”

  I rested my elbows on my knees, staring down at the floor. “I don’t know. I saw her pretty pink girlie parts this morning, and I haven’t been able to think straight since.” Shut your mouth, Connor.

  “Whoa, back up. All Dylan said was that you rescued her when she wrecked her car. He didn’t say a damn word about you seeing things you shouldn’t have.”

  “Because he doesn’t know that part and neither should you. My mouth got ahead of my brain.”

  I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Adam and I didn’t have secrets from each other. Never had. But for the first time that I could remember, I didn’t want to share what was going on in my mind.

  Not that I knew exactly what was going on in that gray matter. There was a jumble of things up there. Of seeing something I shouldn’t have, of Autumn being a friend, of me in the blink of an eye wanting that friend under me—or over me—and of me being a douchebag for even thinking of her that way when she was both my friend and hurting.

  “I’m not going to talk to you about anything I saw.” I stood, then walked away from my brother’s concerned face.

  “Connor?”

  At the hallway of my log home, I paused. “Yeah?” I said, not looking back.

  “You need to think real hard before you cross a line with Autumn that you can’t uncross.”

  Like I didn’t know that. I went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. Adam didn’t need me to show him the way out.

  Autumn giggled. “That tickles.”

  I leaned on the wall next to Dylan’s kitchen the next morning, sipping a cup of coffee as Autumn rolled around on the floor with eleven rambunctious Labrador puppies doing their best to lick her from head to toe. Daisy, their mother, looked on with what appeared to be amusement in her big brown doggy eyes.

  “Autumn manage to get some sleep?” I asked Jenn. Dylan had already left for work when I’d arrived to pick up Autumn. She was supposed to meet Brian at their house this morning, and we’d need to leave soon if we were going to beat him there.

  Jenn nodded. “A few hours.” She pulled me into the kitchen. “Are you going to tell her what Brian’s demanding from you?”

  “I don’t want to, but she’ll hear it one way or another. Probably from Brian.” Autumn had enough on her plate. I didn’t want her to worry about me, but she would.

  “Probably. Well, you better get going. Dylan said to call him if there’s any trouble.”

  “I will.”

  “Thanks for picking me up, but Jenn could have run me home,” Autumn said as we walked to the car. “By now you’re probably thinking I’m a real pain in the butt.”

  “Nah, haven’t once thought that. You look better than the last time I saw you.” The jeans and white turtleneck sweater were tighter on her than what she usually wore. And speaking of butts, hers was pretty damn sexy in those jeans.

  “Jenn loaned me some clothes.”

  Ah, that explained it. Autumn was curvier than Jenn and a bit more endowed in the chest. I was looking forward more than I should to spending the day with her. After she finished with Brian, I was taking her to lunch and then to her appointment at the country club.

  When that was done, I was driving her to Asheville to rent a car until she could make other arrangements. I hadn’t told her that I’d rescheduled a showing I had this afternoon so I could spend day with her. She’d only feel even more guilty about monopolizing my
time than she already was.

  I put my hand on her lower back, liking it there, as we walked the last few steps to my car. And as I opened the door for her, getting another one of her special smiles, my heart took a little bounce. I wished it wouldn’t do that.

  Brian’s arrival ended up being anticlimactic. Autumn decided she had no desire to see him and went for a walk, leaving me to deal with him.

  “Where’s Autumn?” were his first words when I opened the door.

  “Beats me. She said you can come in and get your stuff. I’m tasked with making sure that’s all you take.”

  The glare he sent me could have burned me where I stood if I’d been a weaker man, but I was Autumn’s protector today, the only fire wall between my friend and him, and I refused to cower.

  “You don’t seem to understand that I can destroy you, and in doing so, destroy your brother right along with you.”

  “I’m quaking in my boots,” I mocked. “Threaten us all you want, but two against one, meaning me and Adam if you’re too dense to get that, doesn’t seem like a fair fight. You might also want to consider that if you decide to mess with us, you’ll be taking on the whole town. We were born here. You weren’t.”

  “Asshole,” he said, then pushed past me.

  “Dirtbag,” I muttered. I followed him into what had once been his bedroom with Autumn, watched everything he took, and then followed him back to the front door.

  “You haven’t heard the last of me,” he said as he not so accidently bumped into me, pushing me against the door as he walked out.

  Although I wanted to smash his face in, I didn’t for Autumn’s sake. “Bring it on, dude,” I said loud enough for him to hear.

  His father had arrived in Blue Ridge Valley fifteen years ago, opening his car dealership after some murky dealings with his Charlotte, North Carolina, location that no one had been able to get to the bottom of.

  Fifteen years was still considered a newcomer by our residents, and Brian had attended private school in Asheville, so he wasn’t close to being one of us. He could make all the threats he wanted, but my town would always have the backs of their family. Because that was what a small town was. Family.

  9

  ~ Autumn ~

  “She’s what?”

  “You heard me,” Jenn said a week after I’d been freed from jail. “Log on to Facebook. She’s live streaming it right now.”

  “Hold on.” I set my phone down, then flipped open my laptop, brought up the Life in the Valley page, and stared at it in horror. Mary Ballard, owner of Mary’s Bread Company, stood in front of Brian’s dealership, holding a sign that said NO DONUTS FOR CHEATERS. Her hair was purple today, but tomorrow it might be chartreuse. Or pink or green.

  Mary was the best doughnut and pastry baker in all the Blue Ridge Mountains. I suppose if you were going to punish someone, depriving them of her baked goods was high on the list, and Brian did love her chocolate-iced doughnuts.

  Standing with her was Hamburger Harry, our infamous moonshiner, and Melba Waters, the owner of Melba’s Pancake House. Harry’s sign said NO MOONSHINE FOR CHEATERS, and Melba’s naturally said NO PANCAKES FOR CHEATERS.

  I turned on the sound to hear them chanting, “Brian Stratton is a cheater,” over and over. Crazy people. I closed my laptop.

  “Unbelievable,” I said, coming back on the line. “It’s both funny and embarrassing.”

  Jenn chuckled. “Well, it’s not like what he did is a secret anymore. He’s the one who should be embarrassed.”

  Yeah, the big disadvantage of small-town living. Everyone knew your business almost before you did. “Can you get Dylan to talk to them, make them stop?”

  “He’s already headed that way. Brian called, wanting them arrested.”

  “Will he do that?” How many people was I going to have to feel guilty over for getting them jailed?

  “No. He’s just going to send them on their way.”

  That was a relief. After hanging up, I grabbed my purse and keys to go to my mother’s for lunch. I didn’t bother changing out of my yoga pants and favorite oversize T-shirt. In her depressed cycle Mom wouldn’t look any better than me. Dad had been kicked out again, and it would be the same thing I’d heard countless times before. How miserable she was, what a bastard he was, a detailed report on his newest squeeze. And then at the end, how much she missed him and wanted him back. I dreaded the visit, but she was my mother.

  She only lived ten minutes from me, and as I drove over in the used SUV that I’d bought yesterday, I wished that Connor was with me. She was always on her best behavior when there was a man around. Sometimes she was even flirty, and I often wondered if she was practicing for when she took my father back, because she always did. But who knew what went on in her mind? Not me.

  Since walking in on Lina and Brian, it had been seven days of crying jags, feeling sorry for myself, and then being angry that I’d fallen for Brian’s charm. Except when I was with Connor, I’d forget that I was supposed to be miserable.

  I didn’t know how he managed to cheer me up, but he did. And he’d been there for me every day. Jenn would have been, too, if I’d let her, but she’s got Dylan now, and they’re planning their wedding. She doesn’t need my mess dumped on her.

  The good news—I had a new bed, and a call from my doctor this morning that my test results were all negative. Brian could count his blessings for that because if he’d passed anything on to me, I would have made his sorry life miserable.

  Mom’s car was in her driveway, which was odd because she always parked in the garage except when Dad was home. Had she forgiven him already? That would be a new record, since she’d kicked him out again only yesterday. If he was here, I wasn’t staying. The two of them in the same room were toxic.

  Before I reached the front door, it opened, my mom stepping out to meet me. When she was alone, miserable because of my dad’s latest cheat, she lived in her robe, no makeup, and her blonde hair limp. Today she was, as she liked to say, “all dolled up.” That meant my father was inside. I was tempted to turn on my heels and get back in my car. She must have sensed I was on the verge of bolting, because she grabbed my hand.

  “I guess Dad’s home?”

  “Why would you think that? I told you on the phone last night that he’d moved out.”

  Okay, I’d apparently stepped into an alternate universe. “Well, you look nice.” And she was smiling. Very weird.

  “Thank you, honey. Come in. Lunch is ready.”

  And she was cheerful or was pretending to be. Her smile seemed forced though, and there was an edge to her voice, which put me on alert. Something was up. I dropped my purse on the foyer table and then followed her into the kitchen.

  “Oh no.” I came to a dead stop at seeing Brian leaning against the counter. “What are you doing here?” And it was a dirty trick to hide his car in Mom’s garage.

  When I turned to leave, my mom grabbed my arm. “He just wants to talk to you.”

  “If you would answer my calls, maybe answer the damn door”—he glared at me as if I were the one who was a slimy worm—“which you had no right to change the locks to, since my name is also on the mortgage, then I wouldn’t have to pull a sneak attack.” His expression softened, and I trusted that even less. “I screwed up, babe, but you love me, so stop this foolish drama trip you’re on. You’ve made your point.”

  “Foolish drama trip?” And yes, I was shouting like a deranged person. All I needed were about six dozen cats and I could be classified as certifiably crazy.

  I walked up to him and poked him in the chest. “This is the last thing I’ll ever say to you. From this moment on you only communicate with me through my lawyer.” As for still loving him, it might not happen overnight, but I was working on putting an end to that.

  With his chestnut-colored hair and golden brown eyes, Brian was a good-looking guy. I think I fell in love with his dimples and easy smile first. There had been a few times this past week that I’d had some
doubts, that maybe I was being unreasonable. But they hadn’t lasted long. Mostly because of how he’d cheated on me. In his freaking office where every one of his employees—people I personally knew—had to be aware of what was happening. That told me he didn’t have any respect for me.

  Then there was the fact that he’d never really apologized. He made a mistake. He was weak. It was Lina Kramer’s fault. All of that was an excuse for his behavior, and I think the only thing he was sorry for was getting caught.

  Where was the man I’d fallen in love with? The one with the sweet dimpled smile and honest eyes? The man standing in my mother’s kitchen wasn’t him. How had I been so blind to his faults? In my heart I knew the answer. Because I’d wanted my dream of a loving, stable home to come true so badly that I’d refused to see the warning signs, but I saw everything clearly now. There was no difference between Brian and my father.

  “Please, just listen to what he has to say, Autumn.”

  “There’s nothing he can say that I want to hear.” You would think, considering what my mother had dealt with for most of her marriage, that she’d be helping me toss Brian out the door. She was, after all, a master at showing my father the door.

  She tugged on my arm. “Sit down, honey, and let’s have a civil lunch and conversation.”

  I looked from my mother to Brian—who wore an air of confidence that he’d get pesky little me back in line—and decided love was off the table for me. That particular emotion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. If there was any proof of that, it was my mom and dad’s relationship. From now on it was going to be all fun and games. Without saying another word, I collected my purse. If Mom wanted to have a nice visit with The Cheater, she was welcome to him.