JAXON (The Caine Brothers Book 4)

by Margaret Madigan

  By the time he finished the song, Lily had pulled them into the parking lot of a FreshMart grocery store. The dark windows of the store revealed it to be closed, and the tall, bright pole-lights cast haunting shadows in the empty parking lot.

  He almost asked why they were there, but she continued to drive past the lot and around the back of the store, parking just outside a covered area full of dumpsters. A bar and tire spikes blocked entrance by car, but anyone could just walk inside.

  Which, by the way Lily climbed out of the truck, was exactly what she planned to do.

  “Let’s haul the coolers and crates inside and get to work.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We have a half hour here before we have to meet some of the other divers at PicMart.”

  “Divers?”

  They both collected empty crates and coolers and hauled them inside the well-lit space. Lily dropped hers near the first dumpster, then opened the lid and peered inside.

  “Dumpster divers. Grocery stores throw away unexpired or nearly expired or just expired food that’s still edible, so we go around and collect it for use by people who need it. This is a fairly new store. We haven’t been here yet, but I scouted it a week or so ago to check out their dumpster set-up. Tonight’s the first night diving here.”

  “You said there are other divers?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why didn’t they come, too?”

  “Because we don’t know if there’s security or if anyone will call the police, so we want to keep exposure to a minimum until we know. Give me a boost?”

  He crouched so she could step up on his knee and get a look inside.

  “Oh, wow,” she said, leaning head-first into the dumpster. “Look at this.”

  She reached around behind her with several packages of tri-tip steak in her hand. Jaxon took them from her. They looked good to him. One had maybe a tiny bit of brown around the edges, but the expiration date on all of them was tomorrow.

  “These are still good. They’re even still kind of cold,” he said.

  “They probably tossed them not long ago,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Why are they in the garbage?”

  She balanced her belly on the edge of the dumpster and looked back at him. “Now you understand. Look in here.”

  Jaxon was tall enough to see over the edge into the dumpster without a boost. That it was full of bags of trash didn’t surprise him, but a lot of the bags were full of food. He turned and surveyed the garage-like space. He counted five more dumpsters. “Are all the others like this one?”

  “Go look. I’m going to collect. Would you pull one of the coolers over here for me to step on?”

  He did as she asked and set a cooler where she could stand on it and lean in to work. Then Jaxon went and opened each of the other five dumpsters. One was empty, two were full of bags of gross garbage—nothing edible in there. But the other two looked like the store had swept half the food off their shelves into carts, wheeled them out to the dumpster, and shoveled it all in.

  “Jesus,” he said.

  “What? Did you say something?” Lily asked, her arms full of packages of bread.

  “I said, who the fuck throws away this much food?”

  She snorted. “Every grocery store and restaurant and household in the country. Okay, not all households, but we all waste a lot of food. Some grocery stores are better than others about donating.”

  “There’s a lot of wilted and rotten produce in here, but there’s a lot of food that still looks good, too.”

  “Yep. Like this,” she said, stepping off her cooler. She picked up an eighteen-pack of eggs and walked over to join him at his dumpster. “See this? They’re still cool, so probably got tossed after the store closed. There are three broken eggs in here. That means there are still fifteen good eggs. The expiration date is a week away. So these fifteen eggs get wasted.”

  Jaxon was stunned. “I had no idea stores did this kind of thing.”

  Lily shrugged. “We live in a wasteful culture that wants uber-fresh all the time. That means super-cautious expiration dates and lots of unused food. America literally wastes up to fifty percent of the food it produces. Fifty percent! That’s so much squandered time, energy, fuel, labor, and actual food. It makes me really angry, especially when I know how many people just in Houston are hungry.”

  “So you and the rest of the divers collect all this food and do what with it?”

  “Each of us keeps what we can use, then we donate the rest to shelters and other places.”

  “What if there’s too much for you to collect?”

  “It goes to the landfill.”

  “Jeez.”

  “I know. I try not to think about that part or I get rage-y. Let’s get to work.”

  They spent an hour—twice what Lily had budgeted for them—clearing food from the dumpsters and sorting what could still be used. In the end, they had a small pile of meat—some chicken and more beef—more eggs, packages of fruits and vegetables, vacuum-sealed specialty cheeses, bacon. All were either just expired or not expired yet.

  Jaxon picked up a bag of limes. A couple were squishy and barely moldy. The rest were fine. “Most of these are still good. All those bananas are just a little brown.”

  “I know. Welcome to my world.”

  He shook his head as he helped her fill up the coolers and crates, then load it all into the truck. “There’s no space left for the other places you wanted to go.”

  She crinkled her brow and frowned. “And we didn’t even get it all,” she said, pointing to the leftovers that didn’t fit in their boxes. “Dammit. This is even worse than other stores. You finish loading the truck. I’m going to clean up the rest of this.”

  Jaxon rearranged all the coolers and crates in the back and bungee-corded them all in, but just as he finished, Lily brought a garbage bag full of some of the leftover food and squeezed it in under one of the bungees.

  They climbed in the truck again. “I’m going to call the others,” Lily said. “We don’t have any more space in the truck. I’ll let them know we’re done for the night.”

  “So what are we going to do with all this food?”

  “Tomorrow we’ll sort it and what we don’t keep we’ll donate.”

  When they got back to the estate, they unloaded everything from the truck and shoved it into an extra fridge and freezer Lily had in the mud room. By the time they’d finished, it was nearing three in the morning.

  Lily closed the freezer door and leaned back against it with a long sigh. “I love dumpster night. I always feel like I’ve pulled off something big and important and stuck it to the man.”

  Jaxon laughed. “You have.”

  “This is so much food. I don’t even know what to do with it all.”

  Strands of hair had fallen from her bun and framed her face like a fiery halo, dirt smudged her face and arms, and her eyes sparkled with purpose. She had to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  He closed the space between them in a couple of steps, nudging himself against her and without so much as a word he leaned down and kissed her. She tasted like salty hard work and conviction, and the sound she made in her throat as she opened her mouth for him hit all the right buttons. Before he knew it he’d grown hard as a rock and ready to lay her out on the chest freezer and take her right there.

  Instead, he gentled the kiss and pulled back, leaning his forehead on hers. “You’re the most impressive woman I’ve ever met, Lily,” he whispered, then spun and headed upstairs practicing restraint—a concept so foreign to him he almost didn’t recognize it.

  CHAPTER 8

  The next morning—eleven o’clock was still technically morning—Lily made breakfast with dumpster eggs and bacon, and put some aside for Jaxon. She popped bread into the toaster. She’d awakened grouchy and early—early for having gone to bed at after three. Once she’d fallen asleep it had been fitful and she’d awakened frustrated and confused about the
way Jaxon had kissed her then walked away.

  The heavenly scent of coffee filled the air, helping to relax her nerves a bit. She filled a cup and sipped, waiting for toast, letting the coffee work its magic.

  The toast popped as Jaxon sauntered into the kitchen in bare feet wearing shorts, a white t-shirt, and yawning.

  “Morning,” Lily said, buttering her toast.

  Jaxon mussed his hair and smiled. “Morning, sunshine. That coffee smells wonderful.”

  It wasn’t fair he looked so tasty first thing in the morning. Between the perfectly tousled hair, a couple days of scruff, and a sleepy sweet smile on his face, he looked the picture of the sexy, confident, bad boy rock star. He had her all kinds of befuddled. Sex, no sex, kissing, running away. She felt jerked around while he’d made himself right at home.

  “Help yourself. There’s eggs and bacon. I assume you can make your own toast? I’m heading out,” she said. She put her plate in the dishwasher, refilled her coffee, and grabbed her toast then headed for the door.

  “Whoa, wait a minute. What’s the matter? I’m sensing an arctic chill coming from your direction.”

  “Nothing’s the matter. Everything’s fine. If you’ll excuse me.”

  “Are you mad at me?”

  He fetched a cup of coffee and took a sip, his earnest eyes watching her over the rim. She couldn’t bring herself to discuss the sex and kissing. She had no idea how long he’d be there, but if she took responsibility and put the brakes on all that stuff, she wouldn’t have to worry about it. Besides, he’d said he was trying to remain celibate, so helping him do that would be a good thing.

  “I sorted everything we collected last night and I’m irritated at the grocery store. I have a plan that I’m going now to carry out. Alone.”

  “Oh no you don’t. I’m going with you. I was there with you last night. I’m invested.”

  She sighed and scrubbed her hands down her face in exhausted frustration. “Jaxon.”

  “Let me get dressed. I’ll only be a minute. Don’t leave without me.”

  He ran out of the kitchen, his bare feet slapping the floor as he hurried away. She headed out the front door to the truck. She’d left it parked in front of the house after having loaded the food from the dumpster she planned to donate, and a little something for the manager of FreshMart. She’d left the rest in the extra fridge and freezer to be cleaned and portioned for later use.

  Torn about leaving without Jaxon, she got into the truck and sat there. If she left without him, she’d look childish and petty, and he’d have no idea why. She couldn’t bring herself to hurt him like that, so she waited.

  She didn’t have to wait long. He ran out the front door and jumped in the car with her, having thrown on clean clothes, and shoes. Otherwise, he looked exactly the same.

  “So what’s the plan?” he asked, half out of breath.

  She pulled out of the driveway and headed for town. Jaxon seemed sincere and excited to be going along. If nothing else, she could hope to convert him to the philosophy of food activism while he stayed at the estate. It could be handy to have a celebrity take up the cause. Not that he’d acted like a celebrity since he’d been there. He behaved more like a normal twenty-something.

  “We’re taking most of the food we gathered last night to donate different places. Then we’re going back to the grocery store.”

  “Okay.”

  They dropped food at the Salvation Army shelter, the food pantry, Meals on Wheels, and at Summer’s restaurant. Jaxon smiled and shook hands and hauled heavy bags and boxes at every stop. He jumped in and participated and did whatever she asked. He had no complaints or criticisms, and there was no hint of sexual tension in the air.

  All of which left Lily puzzled and frustrated. She couldn’t be happier with his help and how much he seemed to care—nothing he said or did came across as phony or forced. She believed his sincerity. But that kiss and the sex still haunted her. She didn’t flit between men the way he did women. She couldn’t dismiss sex and a kiss as insignificant or superficial, so it irritated her that he could be so fickle, changing on a dime and not giving it another thought.

  By the time they reached FreshMart she’d worked herself into a snit.

  This time she parked in front of the store. They both got out and while Jaxon walked on light feet, obviously recharged and pleased with the work they’d done so far today, Lily grabbed the one remaining bag in the back of the truck and plodded along behind him. Why did she resent him for being happy about the day? He did exactly what she wanted—participated, learned, absorbed. So why did it annoy her so much?

  She overtook him and marched into the store, hauling her garbage bag full of food. She stopped at the first checkout stand where the checker couldn’t have looked more bored if she tried. She swiped a bag of Doritos, a six-pack of Dew, a stick of deodorant. The belt bulged with stuff to be scanned.

  “Excuse me,” Lily said.

  The checker turned a bleary-eyed stare to her. “Yeah?”

  “I need to talk to the manager. Where will I find him? Or her?”

  The checker glanced at Lily, then at Jaxon where her gaze lingered. From the expression on her face, she struggled to drag her brain out of wherever it went to avoid the tedium of her job so she could identify this guy who looked familiar. Jaxon stood by politely but said nothing.

  When the checker couldn’t summon an identification, and realized Lily wasn’t there to save her from her dreary job, she grabbed a package of chicken wings with one hand, and with the other pointed in the general direction of the back of the store.

  Lily wove through the produce department where stockers filled displays with fresh apples, and bagged lettuce. She caught up with one pushing an empty cart toward the back.

  “Can you direct me to the manager’s office?” she asked.

  The stocker eyeballed her up and down, noticed the heavy garbage bag she had slung over her shoulder, and gave her a skeptical look. “Why?”

  “Because I need to talk to him. Or her.”

  “Him. Can I tell him what it’s about?”

  “No, I’d prefer to chat with him myself.”

  “How do I know you don’t have a bomb or something in that bag?” he asked.

  Lily struggled to maintain some patience. “Why would I bring a bomb into a grocery store?”

  “I don’t know. People do stupid shit for no reason.”

  “Fair enough. I promise it’s not a bomb. I just have a few questions for him about some of the products you carry.”

  While technically accurate, her explanation may have misled the stocker. He surveyed her again, then glanced at Jaxon who stood like a tall, silent, reassuring sentinel behind her. His presence seemed to satisfy the stocker—as if having a man along lent her legitimacy—which pissed her off. She did not need a man in her life to validate her.

  Not only did people do stupid shit, apparently they weren’t too sharp, either. She really could be hauling a bomb in the bag, but the guy wouldn’t know until it was too late. Apparently she only needed to bring a charming man along to clear any reservations.

  “Go upstairs and turn right,” the checker said. “There’s a door that says ‘Administration.’ His office is in there. First door on the left.”

  Jaxon shook the guy’s hand. “Thanks,” he said. The stocker nodded, clearly acknowledging some man bond thing.

  Lily made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat as she climbed the poorly-lit stairs. On the landing at the top, she glanced left into a shabby-looking break room where several people in store uniforms sat around an institutional-type table eating lunch and staring at a twelve-inch TV watching The Price is Right. They did nothing to upgrade Lily’s assessment of the staff’s collective sharpness.

  Following the stocker’s directions, she turned right and discovered the administration office. Inside, a large reception desk commanded the front of the suite, and sure enough, a door opened off to the left.

  Li
ly bypassed the reception desk, not even making eye contact with the woman sitting behind it, and marched straight to the office, Jaxon still tagging along behind. The door had a slide-in placard that said “Larry Barton” above a permanently stenciled “Store Manager.”

  When she stepped inside the generous space, a middle-aged man with gray-blond helmet-hair glanced up at her and did a double take, his eyes focusing first on Jaxon—which pissed her off again—then briefly on her face, then at the big bag she carried, then back to her face. After a moment, he turned his attention to Jaxon, his expression somewhere between confusion and polite interest.

  “How can I help you?” He addressed the question to Jaxon, ignoring her.

  Lily struggled to tamp her fury down to a seething simmer. “Hi Larry,” she said. “You’re the store manager, right?”

  “Yes,” he said, finally addressing her, though by the reluctance on his face he didn’t want to. He glanced at Jaxon with a ‘why are you allowing this’ look on his face. Lily turned to glare at Jaxon, who just shrugged. When she returned her attention to Larry he looked uncomfortable and confused. He cleared his throat and said, to her, “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m glad you asked.” She didn’t actually think he’d be too glad. Stepping forward, she swung the bag off her shoulder and thumped it on his desk. “Can you tell me what your food waste policy is?”

  He blinked a couple of times while his lips flapped for an answer. She’d obviously stumped him.

  “While you try to summon the information, let me show you what’s in the bag.”

  Going in, she’d just planned to open the bag and let him peer inside. But she’d awakened on the wrong side of the bed, and her undefined relationship with Jaxon along with his ambiguous behavior toward her, and the dismissal from the checker and manager had combined with her anger at the store’s excessive food waste to unleash her outrage and maybe push her to act against reason.