Is he going to sit there until he runs out of gas?
I made my way to the kitchen to grab something I could snack on to help me sleep. But for a few moments, I only stared blankly out the window towards my neighbor’s dark house, thinking about so many things I couldn’t process any of them.
Which is when I heard his bike move.
Saw the headlights swing out onto the street before coming back around to illuminate the house next to me.
Heard his bike cut off again.
Watched the dark shadow of his purposeful stride carry him inside and not come back out. I only blinked and shook my head before returning to my bedroom. Sleep found me easily enough.
My body, mind, and heart were as done with this entire day as I was.
Chapter Ten
Naomi
Opening. Freaking. Day.
I’d decided the moment my eyes opened this morning that I was going to focus on nothing else for the entire day.
No confusing bikers.
No chocolate eyes.
No what the hell he’s my freaking neighbor?!
Nope. Nope. Triple nope.
I was going to focus on getting the doors open, providing great customer service, and celebrating the start of this amazing opportunity I only had because of Mom.
The sun will always rise on a new day.
And it had.
The great yellow ball of fire that kept us all alive was peeking over the horizon as I drove across town, hands tapping a random, happy beat on the wheel.
My dream was coming true, and I really did have Mom to thank for it.
My phone buzzed in the cradle holding it to the dashboard, Law’s scowling face showing up on the screen. Even the sight of his mug this early in the day couldn’t blunt my enthusiasm.
Answering the call, I sang, “Bestest sister in the world speaking. What’s up?”
And my loving, caring, often annoying brother who had been told about this day about a hundred thousand times only said, “Brat. Where the hell is my text?”
I frowned, glancing at the phone like he could see me. “What text?”
“The one you’re supposed to be sending every day. No exceptions, remember?” There were sounds like a TV was on in the background. “You’re lucky I had to spend most of last night working on a case or I would’ve driven down there already.”
“Ugh. Look, I got...distracted. Okay?”
“Distracted by what? Or who?”
By a square-jawed outlaw I’m not going to think about today. Nope. Not this girl.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll promise not to forget again as long as you don’t come within fifty miles of Oakdale.”
Law following me down here would defeat the whole purpose of this move. Of this entire enterprise to be by myself, living my own life, making my own mistakes.
He wouldn’t be able to help himself. He would sweep in, paying for things I didn’t need his money for. Working on things I didn’t ask him to take on.
Law would ruin it all in the name of kindness, without realizing that same emotion was smothering the woman I wanted to be.
“You still there?” he asked, sounding worried.
I looked around the four-way intersection, wondering how long I’d sat at the stop sign without moving. How long I would’ve sat there, in another world, had he not spoken up.
“Still here,” I assured him, putting my foot to the gas.
“Look,” he said suddenly. “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind. I just wanted to call and say congratulations on the big day.”
“That’s funny, because your congratulations actually sounded a lot like your usual, you’re in over your head, Naomi, speech.”
He sighed over the line and I had to grin. “At least being away from home hasn’t affected your attitude.”
“Nothing ever can.”
He was silent for a moment, so I didn’t expect the wallop of emotion he hit me with next.
“Mom would’ve been proud, you know,” he said softly, and the background noise disappeared.
I pictured him in what had been our house for so long. In my head, I already knew the quiet was coming from him walking out the back door. Creating distance from the man sitting in his recliner in the living room. The same man who had supplied half of our DNA, and never got over that other half being gone.
Five years later, and overhearing a mention of Mom was enough to make Dad cry in that sad way men who weren’t used to crying did.
Shoulders shaking.
Nose sniffing.
Body trembling from head to toe while they tried to hold in a pain too large to be held.
The road in front of me got misty.
“Matter of fact,” Law continued, voice just as soft, but lighter. “She’s probably somewhere happy as can be to know you finally put what she left us to good use.”
A fat teardrop rolled down my cheek, but I smiled, hoping he was right.
For years, I refused to touch the money in the account she set aside for me. Using it had felt like I was accepting her being gone. Looking back on it now, I recognized the tangle of grief for what it was.
But back then?
Some stricken part of me had held onto a narrow bit of hope that keeping that money right where it was would somehow keep a part of her with me.
It wasn’t some inexhaustible sum.
It wasn’t even a very large amount.
But as if she had known exactly what I would need long before I needed it, the money was enough.
Enough for me to be here.
Dreaming.
Working.
Living.
I had no plans to fail, but I wanted to succeed. More than anything. Doing right by the woman who taught me to enjoy each moment of life my body contained meant making the most of the gift I’d been given.
“God,” he said on a barely-there laugh. “Just think how much she would’ve loved to see-“
“Law, if you don’t stop, I’m going to show up to my first day bawling my eyes out.”
I was already driving slower, trying to dab at my eyes with the sleeves of my black blouse, grateful for my lack of makeup.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m stopping. You’ll run your customers away if you get that allergic raccoon look going.”
“One more word out of you and I’m going to break into your office and start putting random documents in the shredder.”
His groan was so put-out. “Can’t you find a new trick? It took me hours to replace that paperwork last time.”
“Why learn new tricks when that one works so well already?”
He was pinching his nose. I knew he was. The slightly nasal tone to his voice proved as much. “Goodbye, brat. I better see a text or something come through within the next twenty-four hours.”
Law hung up without giving me a chance to respond.
There was a complaint on my lips, waiting to be voiced.
It vanished, smoke on the wind, when the row of shops came into view along with a huge crowd of cars and motorcycles.
My eyes narrowed, taking in the scene. People were lined up, stretching down the sidewalk. Fifty of them, at least. Maybe more.
A weight pressed against my chest at the weirdness of it, making it hard to breathe.
I’d sent out a few fliers and some other advertising. There was no way this was the turnout. I couldn’t have gathered this many people if I bribed them.
Don’t be dumb. There must be an incense and tattoo promotion going on.
Except when I pulled into the lot across the street so I could park, both their lights were off, and it was obvious no one was home.
Each step across the pavement was a trek through quicksand. But I made it to the other side. Spotted the crowd that was lined up starting directly in front of my door.
My knees tried to give out, and I braced myself on a huge SUV while I stood there slack-jawed and disbelieving.
There’s no way.
Closest to my fron
t door stood a giant with dirty-blonde hair. Beside him was a grinning blonde, bouncing on her toes with a small bundle in her arms covered in multiple layers.
He saw me first, head turning. I knew this guy. Texas. He’d introduced himself as the landlord.
“Better hurry,” he called loudly. More eyes found me, belonging to more than fifty people. “You’re supposed to open in thirty minutes. Hope you prepped for an army.”
I was stocked, but for this?
Still feeling like this was a dream I was going to wake up from at any moment, I offered a quick wave and let myself in.
I hit a switch and the lights came on.
I glanced back out the window and the view was the same.
How? I wondered, but there wasn’t time to question it. I needed help, and more groceries.
Way more.
I grabbed my phone, dialing the number quickly.
Lynn answered on the first ring, but she wasn’t happy about it.
I let her moan and groan for a good five seconds or so, mostly out of surprise at being in this situation more than consideration.
Then I cut her off.
“I’m going to owe you big time.” I heard my voice come from a mile away. “But I need you here, like yesterday. And do you have a pen? Because I’m going to need you to bring a few things…”
***
Definitely not a dream, said the sweat collecting at the base of my spine.
Almost three hours later, and the rush was finally, blessedly, beginning to die down.
I was halfway dead on my feet as I rang up the last few beefy guys standing at the register, holding giant styrofoam cups in both hands.
Why did they have those instead of the awesome cups stenciled with a minimal version of my mom’s painting on each one?
Because I’d run out.
Of everything.
More than once.
I pasted a smile on my face, ignoring the blisters on my fingers from turning caps and the curses my feet were throwing at me for not wearing something with more support.
Note to self, I added, making change and waving goodbye to my latest customers. Running shoes from now on. Always. The bakery I worked at in Raleigh had not prepared me for anything like this.
When the door closed behind them, I gave up pretending I didn’t want to go home and crawl under the bed until tomorrow. I slumped against the counter, tired arms trembling while they attempted to hold me up. My eyes closed and I took a deep, relaxing breath, wondering if I was out of the woods for now.
“Holy hell, girl,” Lynn said beside me, sounding as tired as I felt.
I glanced over to see she was also leaning against the other register, beaten down.
The green bandana she was wearing that had started off artfully placed when she first arrived was now teetering on the side of her head. There was a smudge of something pale and yellowish going down one side of her face. Her black apron was covered in a colorful mix of yogurts and fruits, and it would probably never come completely clean again.
Altogether, she looked like she’d gone to war against a produce section, and that wasn’t too far from the truth.
“You’ve got a little something,” I pointed to the side of my cheek.
“Ugh.” She tapped her head against the countertop. “Get it for me? Please? I don’t want to move for like, another year if I can help it.”
“No one told you to get into a fight with the blender.”
“I wasn’t trying to fight it. It betrayed me.”
I glanced behind me, feeling more tired than I already was at the sight of the mess. “God, it looks like a hurricane came through here.”
Mathias emerged from the back, carrying a huge case of apples over one shoulder that he placed on the floor. “I’ve survived easier hurricanes than this, darling.”
“Thanks for all your help,” I told the big, Viking-looking lumberjack. His blonde hair and long beard were both braided. And his red and black flannel hadn't escaped the fury Lynn’s blender had released not long ago after she somehow made it explode.
Yeah.
Explode.
There was seriously stuff everywhere.
I only escaped the blast because I was busy running around in the back like a chicken with its head cut off. Trying to find more stations to set up so I could keep the endless line moving.
“It’s this one you should be thanking.” He stepped into the service area, bobbing his head around Lynn to try and get her attention. “She can be quite convincing when she isn’t fighting inanimate objects.”
I wrinkled my nose, not wanting to hear how she had convinced him to help. Even though I was certainly grateful for her and whatever magic was between her legs that had gotten him to enlist in my cause.
Without him constantly running back and forth to the grocery store to grab ingredients we kept running out of—and cups—I would’ve had no choice but to close for the day.
That was just how busy it had been.
And I still didn’t know why.
“Go away,” Lynn whined playfully at the man now tickling her sides to get her to stand up. She squirmed back and forth, trying to remain unaffected. “The only thing I need right now is a coffin so I can get some damn rest.”
“Or you can rest with me,” he said, hauling her upright when the tickling didn’t work so they were face to face. Then his eyes creased, and I snickered, knowing what he was looking at. “You’ve got a little something…”
She put her fingers in her ears and stuck out her tongue, the picture of maturity. “La la la la, I can’t hear you. I don’t even want to know what it is so how about you just-”
Mathias ignored her, swiping up the smudge with his thumb and then sucking it off the digit.
Lynn’s jaw dropped and she glanced at me like she didn’t believe what she was seeing. I could only shrug, because I had seen it and kind of wished I hadn’t.
“Banana,” he said, smacking his lips loudly.
“Ewwww,” Lynn cried. Loud and long and overly dramatic, as was her standard.
“Eww? You were the one with it stuck to your skin.”
“Stop reminding me.” She pushed him away. “I actually don’t think I’ll feel clean again until I get some motor oil on me.”
“Eww,” I said, smiling when her finger came up, pointing at me warningly.
“Don’t you even start with me. You haven’t even told me how you managed to hypnotize the whole town into coming at once.”
I folded my arms over my chest, telling the sting in my chest it was misplaced. “What, you don’t think people could’ve been that excited over it by themselves?”
“You uncross those arms right now or I swear to God I will hug you and get every bit of this,” she pointed to her apron, “on every bit of you. Don’t think that I won’t.”
I backed away, hands raised. “Do it and you’re fired.”
“That’s basically incentive.”
She took a step forward, then another. I took one more step back and realized I was trapped right about the same time she lunged for me.
Shrieking, I tried to get around her but those stupid, supermodel long legs ate the distance too fas,t and then she was pressed against me. Chest to chest. Lynn started shimmying against my body, making sure she got my apron as filthy as hers. She smelled like dairy and fruit.
“Get off me,” I cried, laughing.
“Nuh-uh.” Her hold tightened and I could see Mathias over her shoulder, enjoying the show. “Not until you take back any implication that you’re not awesome enough to create this much of a stir on your own.”
“Fine. I’m awesome and I know it. Happy?”
“Your answer pleases me, yes.”
Lynn let go and I shook my head, looking down at myself. Great. Two aprons were going to get thrown away. Except knowing what was in the registers made the idea a bit easier to swallow.
The doorbell chimed and our expressions paled in unison.
Please.
Someone, anyone. Tell me this isn’t round two. I barely survived the first one.
I turned, forcing a bright smile that turned real from relief when I saw who was coming in.
My first two customers—really second and third, counting an individual I wasn’t thinking about—strolled back in with smiles.
Texas and his wife, Lizzy, returned to the counter and looked around at the mess. Her eyes went wide around the edges and he let out a low whistle.
“Looks like y’all survived,” Texas said. “Barely.”
“Barely,” I agreed with a nod, propping my hip against the counter to take some weight from my poor, tired feet. “Where’s Ms. Abby?”
I wasn’t crazy about babies, but once they’d gotten into the warmth of the shop and unwrapped their almost year-old daughter, Abigail, I hadn’t been able to stop the cooing noises that came from my mouth.
She was totally freaking adorable.
Definitely worthy of getting her cute, baby cheeks pinched.
“She’s with her Aunt and Uncle,” said Lizzy, adjusting the earmuffs circling her halo of blonde hair. “We wanted to come back and see how things went, but it’s a bit cold for her to be out for long stretches of time. Hey Lynn. Hey Mathias.”
They exchanged quick waves, except for Texas and Mathias. I guessed they were too cool to wave at each other because they only did that guy-nod. The one that—to me—said, I haven’t decided that I like you, but we aren’t going to fight each other right this moment.
Or maybe my imagination was running in overtime because of how crazy the day had been.
“I’m so glad we got to check this place out,” Lizzy continued, making my chest go warm at the same time I mentally cheered in victory. “Between my caveman here and the other Sinners, I was worried they were going to turn me into a carnivore like the rest of them.”
The other Sinners?
I glanced up at the big man who had his arm wrapped Lizzy’s shoulders. “So you’re with... them?”
I shot Lynn a look—because what good was having a friend familiar with the area when they didn’t give you a heads up about the scary people?—but she was engaged in a quiet conversation with Mathias.
Tempted by a Sinner (Seven Sinners Book 4) Page 10
