“Yeah. That’s one thing I can say. There isn’t a shortage of pussy in the movie biz,” Ty called out while backing the Jeep out, laughing a little as he poured salt in the open wound of Cole’s life.
“Huh,” Connor added, proving he’d been vested in the conversation. He was the one that Ty always hated bragging in front of. The guy could be banging it every night for all he knew, but he just had a feeling God and country were a real deal for Connor. He envisioned dark covert operations in the middle of the desert were daily occurrences.
“I ain’t seen new pussy since we started junior high,” Cole called out. Ty looked over his shoulder into in the backseat and chuckled again. He suspected that was probably true. Cole’s excitement dwindled as he sat there pouting.
“That’s because you never leave that town we grew up in,” he yelled out, turning onto the county road, heading toward the store.
“And when I do, it’s to come here. To the fuckin’ wilderness with a bunch of fuckin’ dudes.” Cole straightened in the backseat, pushing his ball cap down low over his forehead, tucking his arms tightly across his chest. Ty gave a hearty laugh as he glanced in the rearview mirror. Not much quieted the overly animated Cole Willis. Connor hit him in the arm and hooked a thumbed toward the back to make sure he’d witnessed Cole’s scowl. They looked at each other and busted out laughing a little harder. Cole pouting couldn’t have been any more entertaining had he tried.
~~~
The bells attached to the swinging doors rattled relentlessly at the Stanton Station Depot, the only retail grocery store in twenty miles of anything. A late in the season warm snap brought travelers from all over the country to the Smoky Mountains for one last end-of-summer camping trip. The general rule, whoever made it this far was more than likely a seasoned camper, and if not, well, they usually spent a lot of money in Kenzie’s parents store to help ease the burden of the extreme wilderness.
Kenzie Stanton had grown up in this store. On a whim, her hippie-at-heart, newlywed parents made the decision to move across country to this small community of barely a few hundred locals. They’d used their life savings to buy this property from an elderly couple who had been just too old to continue.
By Kenzie’s best estimation, the place was a dump. Her parents lovingly referred to Stanton Station Depot as a grocery, drug, and retail store. She called it a tricked-up convenience store with a meat counter and some hiking gear. None of the employees were younger than sixty, and as far as she could tell, just like with the house they still lived in, nothing had been updated in all these years.
With her hands full of canned goods, Kenzie blew at the long bangs that had slipped free of her ponytail to hang in her face. A small trickle of sweat built enough steam to slide down her spine at the same time a deep, frustrated sigh escaped. There had been a reason she hadn’t been back to this place in all these years. Funny how life worked. Those same reasons were what ultimately drove her back to the security of her parents’ home when things had taken such an ugly turn for her.
“McKenzie, honey, we need you on the register,” her mom called out. She rose off her knees where she’d been stocking canned goods on an almost empty shelf. The back-breaking work had her rolling the strained muscles in her neck and shoulders. She pushed at the few loose strands of her hair and used her forearm to wipe at the sweat on her brow. As a college graduate, it had been years since she’d put in this many hours of true manual labor. But whatever, she’d sleep easily tonight and that was worth any price.
“William, can you finish this for me when you’re done?” she asked on her way to the register as she passed by one of the elderly staffers her mom hired as a do-anything-that-needs-to-be-done kind of guy.
“Sure thing,” he muttered, never looking up. He moved slower than molasses, but didn’t stop until the job was complete.
“Johnny-Ray, you remember Kenzie, don’t you?” Her mother’s steadfast determination to set her up with any willing man never faded, and in a community that made it abundantly clear they considered her damaged goods, it seemed a genuinely sweet gesture, if not a little annoying. Kenzie rounded the corner, plastered a fake smile on her face as she spotted a line at least ten deep at the registers.
“Mom, you should have called me up here sooner,” she said, ignoring her mother’s sunny smile and the man who stood in front of her.
“She helps others. It’s always been her way. She put herself through college, became a social worker. She was workin’ on her doctorate before she moved back home.” All Kenzie could do was roll her eyes. Like the entire town hadn’t endlessly gossiped about the story of her life.
“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am,” the guy said in a deeply Southern accent. Kenzie gave a smile, but continued to ignore him as she punched the code into the only other cash register in the store and motioned for the next in line to come to her side of the counter.
“Honey, Johnny-Ray owns the bait and tackle shop down the road,” her mother said in a loud whisper, clearly dangling a piece of information she’d thought would seal the deal. Kenzie interpreted that to mean Johnny-Ray might be the most desirable since he owned his own business.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” she said and finally looked his way, hoping to end this latest round of matchmaking. Her fingertips stumbled on the register as she got her first good look. Johnny-Ray was tall, skinny, sun-damaged, and had to be at least fifty years old. The toothless grin he gave had her quickly looking down. More than just her fingers stumbled as she dropped a can of creamed corn she’d been entering into the register. Was that the best her mother thought she could get?
“William, can you bring me a new can of cream corn?” she shouted as she lowered behind the counter to find the can and give herself a second to school her features.
“Sure thing, honey,” William called out from the other side of the store. It would take William a few minutes to retrieve the new can. She rose and kept her eyes averted, focusing on her task of finishing this customer. Her mom had to stop trying to fix her up with every eligible bachelor in this community. The store had already become a daily regular stop for most of the single men in the area. How could she make her mom understand she wasn’t interested in ever settling down again?
“That’s twenty dollars and thirty-seven cents,” she said absently when the total appeared on the screen. From the corner of her eye, she could see Johnny-Ray lingering by the front door.
“McKenzie, do you remember me?” the woman she’d checked out said and that caused her to finally take a closer look. Too many years had gone by for recognition to come easy, but the eyes looked familiar. After a second more, she could feel her genuine smile sliding in place as her heart lifted.
“Mrs. Sullivan?” she asked.
“I wondered if you’d remember,” the sweet older woman said, digging in her coin purse. She’d already counted out the dollar bills.
“Of course I remember you! You were my little league cheerleading coach. How are you?”
“I’m good, honey, just gettin’ old. I’m real sorry about everything you’ve been through. I hope you received my flowers.” Mrs. Sullivan never looked up until she’d counted out the exact change and pushed the coins across the counter. Pain sliced through her heart, and she had to steel her spine at the direct mention of the past three years. The happiness of just a moment ago faded as she fought the tears that always formed. Her smile froze in place as she ducked her head and reached out to scoot the coins into her palm, sorting them as she dropped each one in its proper spot. When she shut the drawer, the receipt began to print.
“I did. Thank you. Mrs. Sullivan, it was good to see you. Do you need William to help you out?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead she pushed the bags to the side of the counter and asked William to carry her bags out as he brought the can forward. “Next.”
That crushing pain those few kind words induced had Kenzie automatically pushing all thought from her head. She’d found mental avoidanc
e to be the best approach to dealing with her life. If she let herself dwell on the past, her day would tank, and she couldn’t let that happen. The winter months were long in this part of the mountains. Her parents needed this income to get them through until spring.
Ducking her head, she focused on ignoring everyone and kept to her work. She’d get through this. She always did. She decided a little fresh air would do her good, so once she’d rung up the last person in line, she grabbed those sacks herself in order to carry them to the customer’s car.
~~~
Like normal, Cole’s bad attitude didn’t last long. In one fluid move, he lifted forward again, holding on to the roll bar, pushing his face between the two front seats as Ty slowed the Jeep, taking another twist in the road. “What about you, Con? You gettin’ regular action wherever you’re stationed now?”
“I’m in Coronado where I’ve been for almost two years. How do you not know that?”
“You didn’t answer the question,” Cole said, leaning all the way into the front seat.
“You came to California not eight months ago. How do you not know where I live?”
“Dude, answer the fucking question,” Cole shot back.
Since Ty was interested in knowing the answer to that question too, he cast a quick glance over at his buddy while keeping an eye on the road. As he drove this stretch of road, he had spotted a few small businesses sprinkled about a half mile apart, all tucked inside patches of carved out trees. He’d have missed the store if he hadn’t paid close attention. Before Connor got a chance to answer, Cole busted upward, standing straight up in the backseat.
“Holy hell! I’ve never seen that around here before.” The commotion caused Ty to press the brakes, looking back at Cole whose whole attention was focused on the grocery store that had just come into view on the left.
“Sit down, you fool,” Connor yelled. Ty was forced to pay attention to the unusually heavy traffic, coming to a stop in front of the only streetlight in town. He turned his head to finally see what Cole had let out one of those catcall-style whistles at. She turned their way, confusion clear on her face.
The world kind of stopped for Ty, and for the briefest of moments, their gazes connected. His heart seized for one, then two, beats before resuming with a violent thunderous thump. Ty could hear Connor slapping at Cole’s leg, but he became transfixed on the face of the angel in front of him. The earth settled back under his Jeep and he amended his thought. That was if angels actually frowned.
“Who the hell is that?” Ty asked as if the guys would even know. She was gorgeous in all her tall, tanned summer good looks. She turned away, that casual gait stiffening as she walked behind some older woman, carrying several bags. Ty just sat there staring. She wore cut off blue jean shorts that he suspected might show a little ass when she bent over, a form-fitted pink tank top, and her long blonde hair was piled in a high ponytail hanging down her back. Her legs looked to be a mile long and she was muscular and fit. He could see the definition in her arms and legs as she moved. She was stunningly beautiful and so out of character from anything he’d seen in this little backwoods town before.
“Hey, gorgeous. Look this way!” Cole yelled and whistled again. That had everyone in the area looking at them. Well, everyone, but her. She kept her eyes straight, ushering the older woman to her car when she had stopped her progress to stare at the crazy man making all the ruckus in the back of the Jeep.
“Sit your ass down and act right,” Connor yelled from the front seat. Ty registered the honk from behind and reluctantly looked up to see the light had turned green. He was holding up traffic. He did a quick left turn into the small grocery store parking lot and watched as the beauty shut the trunk of the car and walked around the corner of the building, completely out of his view. At least she hadn’t gotten inside the car because his buddies would think he was nuts chasing down that car just to meet her.
“Damn,” Ty said, parking crooked in the first open space he found.
“I swear to God, man. This whole town’s looking at us,” Connor said, not using the door, instead jumping out of passenger seat. “Get your ass out of there.”
“Shit, man. I might be in love.” Cole did about the same thing, jumping free of the open Jeep, and slapped Connor on the back as he strolled past, heading for the front doors of the store. “You might’ve just seen the future Mrs. Cole Willis.”
Ty was slower to move. He used his door, but his eyes stayed fixed on the side of the building, hoping to see her again. He didn’t even remember to keep himself hidden. He just stared at the side of the building as he walked slowly to the front.
“Beer house is in the back,” Cole called at him from the front door. Ty lifted a hand in acknowledgement, taking Cole’s statement as the perfect excuse to follow her. He pivoted on his heels, cutting toward the side of the building she’d disappeared behind. He actually jogged those last few steps but saw no sign of her when he made the turn.
“Dammit,” he muttered. Real disappointment registered as he rounded the back corner of the building and spotted the walk-in cooler. Just beyond that, about a hundred and fifty feet away was an older, run-down house. The woman he’d been looking for was walking up the back porch steps. Man, she was as attractive from the back as she was from the front. She disappeared inside, letting the back door slam shut in her wake.
With as easily as she walked inside, he reasoned she must live there. Ty started for the house and had to physically stop himself from following. There was confidence in a man approaching a woman and then there was creeper-style stalking. This bordered on the second.
“Cole wants a case of Corona, too,” Connor called out from the other side of the building, drawing Ty’s attention from the back door of the house.
“What?” he asked, reluctantly moving back toward his buddy.
“Four cases of Bud Light and one Corona. I’ll help,” Connor added, grabbing a buggy and pushing it toward the cooler before entering. Ty made himself follow only to be handed three cases before he ever got fully inside. Connor had the others and was back out, placing his acquisitions inside the buggy. For some reason, Ty seemed a step or two behind, moving in slow motion, unable to get back in gear. His focus kept swinging toward the back door of that house, hoping she’d reappear.
Connor took his load and pushed the cart over the broken concrete toward the back door of the store. When Connor struggled with opening the door, Ty forced himself to follow, barely reaching forward to hold the door as the guy managed the cart inside.
“You better pay attention. Cole’s just plannin’ on gettin’ anything he wants. I’ll give you cash back at the house because he’ll make a show of making you pay,” Connor said, looking over his shoulder, several steps ahead of him.
“Honey, just tell me what you got,” an older woman at the cash register cheerfully said while looking at Connor. “You don’t have to bring them all up here. Take ’em out if you want.”
“We got four cases of Bud Light and one case of Corona. He’s paying.” Connor jerked his thumb in Cole’s direction where he stood at a meat counter. So taken with the beautiful blonde outside, Ty hadn’t even noticed the perfect diversion of a full butcher-style meat market counter on the other side of the store. More shocking, there was a butcher cutting from a large slab of beef.
“Yeah right. Rich boy’s paying. These ribeye’s are twelve bucks a pound. How many we need? I say at least ten,” Cole yelled out to him from across the store.
“I think you need to stick with the Spam,” Ty shot back, having the whole store now actively listening and laughing at their exchange as he went for the meat counter. Since the store was full, he wound his way around, having to step over the old man stocking in the middle of one of the aisles.
“Really. What all do we need?” Cole asked a little quieter when he came up beside him.
“Get whatever. Load us for three days. I didn’t take an inventory of what was stocked at the house. Is that salmon
? Add some of that too,” Ty said to the butcher who never looked up, just gave him a nod.
“Who’d have thought this meat counter was inside this place,” Cole said, bending to the display of steak sauces on a shelf below.
“Have you got everything else?” Ty asked.
“Nah, I’ve been waiting in this line. Did you find her?” Cole asked, and for some weird reason, he didn’t like Cole asking about her. Cole was a good-looking guy and knew how to talk to women where he had always shied away, letting his celebrity be enough to draw them in.
“I’m laying first claim,” Ty manned up and said first, finally looking over at Cole who’d been staring at his profile. Crap, he could see the challenge in his buddy’s eyes.
“Interesting… So ask about her,” he suggested.
“That’s creepish.”
“If I ask, I get a shot,” Cole countered.
“Play by the rules,” Ty said, leaving him standing there. He grabbed a handheld basket and went in search of food. He dropped some bacon in the basket, a couple dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and then went in search of the canned beans. That always seemed to be their whole diet while on these campouts, and honestly, his trainer and dietician might disagree, but he saw nothing wrong with a weekend full of beer, steak, and beans. Especially if he threw in some bacon now and again. He turned down one of the two aisles and scanned the selections as he heard a rattling at the back door. At six-three, he was able to look over the top of the shelf to see the woman enter.
She instantly captivated his attention. So much so he forgot everything as he stared openly at her, letting her walk past as his gaze followed. She smiled down at something, gave a laugh, and her face changed into something magical. His heart pounded in his chest, a fierce drumming in his ears, and his dick took complete notice, immediately plumping, forcing him to reach down to adjust himself before the awkward position began to hurt.
Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) Page 3
