Malloy nodded. “That, and I think he was pissed off that I warned him not to hurt her. I honestly think that he would’ve likely been okay if I hadn’t let him know that he should be careful or else.”
“I did the same thing yesterday,” I admitted. “Walked over there and got her ring back. Then warned him off… guess he doesn’t like warnings.”
Desi snorted as she walked to her fridge and pulled out milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla.
“Are y’all going to stay here long?” she asked, looking from one of us to the other.
“I’ll stay if you’re making cake or pancakes or biscuits,” Malloy said, grinning widely.
Desi seemed to swallow hard. “If you want to come over every day, I’ll make you whatever you want, Malloy.”
There was a stillness to the room, and I realized I should probably give them some time.
“I’m going to go to the front door and put the new lock in,” I said. “Then I’m going to change this one. After that, we’re going to work on the alarm. I’ll show you how to change it, then you can do that on your own after I leave.”
Desi’s eyes went wide. “I don’t want to do that by myself!”
“Why?” Malloy asked. “It’s easy.”
“But what if it goes off when I’m not paying attention?” she asked. “And then the police have to come out?”
“Then the police come out,” I snorted. “But they’re not going to come out. They’re going to stay at the station. You’re going to change the alarm on your own. Easy peasy.”
Desi shook her head, then looked at Malloy. “Since you’re buying it, maybe we should just do the switch today.”
“What switch?” Malloy asked. “And you can stay here until you find something else.”
She was already shaking her head. “No. That’s a terrible idea. Mal’s going to come by here once a day until he either gets what he wants or succeeds in making me move out. I’m not doing it.”
“I’m guessing that me changing the locks is not going to help?” I asked curiously.
“No,” Malloy shook his head. “It will. He won’t be able to drive up here, and once he does the walking bit once or twice, he’s not going to want to do it anymore. The locks being changed will be a good thing. I’ll help her with the alarm after you leave. But she’s staying. He’ll get over it.”
“I’m going to rent an apartment in town tomorrow,” Desi blurted.
“He’ll just visit you there,” Malloy said. “And be happy that he’s driven you from your house. What you need is to stay somewhere where you can’t be found, if that’s what you’re aiming for. The pool house…”
Desi was already shaking her head.
“That’s not going to happen,” she immediately disagreed. “That’s where I found him and Margie…”
“Goddammit,” Malloy growled. “I’m sorry.”
My brows went up.
“I went over to his dad’s place, looking for him one day,” Desi explained at seeing my confusion. “I found him and Margie in the pool house. After I found his clothes outside.”
Malloy winced.
“Then if not there, where?” Malloy asked. “And the sale of this house will take weeks. There’s no reason in the world you can’t just stay here… how about you humor a dying man.”
Desi’s eyes filled with tears.
“That was low,” she said, sounding sick to her stomach.
“I want you to be safe,” he said. “I want to make sure that you’re in a nice place and Mal can’t touch you after I’m gone. Because once I’m not here to corral him and keep him in line, he’s going to be hell on wheels.”
“It’s time for him to grow up,” Desi suggested.
“Well,” I hesitated. “We have an old house that’s on our land.” I paused. “You’ll have to have an SUV to get to it, though. The place is nothing special. One bedroom, one bath. Fairly decent size kitchen, but I’m not sure it’s going to be big enough for you to do cakes in.”
Desi’s eyes went wide.
“You’d let me stay in a cabin on your property to get away from Mal?” she asked.
I shrugged. “My brother mentioned Codie staying in it, but I’m fairly sure he’d rather her just move in with him. I’ll talk to him about it.”
“I’d still need an SUV. And a place to cook these cakes that I have to…”
Malloy cleared his throat.
“About that,” he hesitated. “Now don’t be mad, but that place you were checking out a month ago? That storefront? I… bought it.”
Desi’s eyes bugged out. “You what?”
“Bought it,” he repeated.
“What?!” she screeched. “Why?”
“I’ve known about the cancer for two months,” he said softly. “When you asked me to come look at it with you, I knew that it had to be yours. I… honey, all of this money will do me no good when I’m dead and in a grave. I wanted to buy it for you. I did buy it for you.”
Desi swallowed hard and looked like she would burst into tears at any moment.
I escaped while I could.
When I came back, the kitchen was tense and silent. Desi was furiously stirring batter in a large mixing bowl. Malloy was watching her with an amused smile on his face.
“Oh, good.” He grinned. “You’re back. Now we can tell you what we decided.”
Desi outright glared at Malloy, which caused my mouth to twitch into a small grin. A small grin that quickly wiped off my face when she turned to me.
I blinked innocently at her, and she narrowed her eyes, as if she knew what I was thinking.
She probably had no clue.
Her confidence level was non-existent.
But if I could tell her exactly what I was feeling, and have her believe it, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
“After talking this out, we decided that she’d sell. Move into your little cabin for the time being, allow me to find her a house in town, and also use the new storefront to cook her cakes in.” Malloy clapped.
I glanced at Desi to see her scowling hard.
“You both decided that?” I had a hard time not chuckling.
“Yes,” Malloy said. “We did.”
Chapter 7
I survived another meeting that should’ve been an email.
-Coffee Cup
Callum
After leaving Desi’s house, my day went to absolute shit.
And it all started and ended with ass.
“Whose fucking mule is that?” I asked Banks. “And why the fuck am I the one responsible for taking it back?”
Banks, my unsympathetic twin brother, shrugged. “No idea. I’ve just been told by four people at the feed store that a young woman off of Big Springs Road is missing her ass and that this donkey looks a lot like hers.”
“And you’re not doing it because…” I pushed.
Banks curled his lip at me in disgust.
“One, you were supposed to be here hours ago to help me ride fence,” he said. “Two, I had to do it all myself while you were out playing hero. Three, the woman on Big Springs Road is Candy Ray Sunshine.”
There was a beat of silence, and then I burst out laughing.
“Candy Ray moved back?” I gasped through uneven breaths, hunching over and hoping the new position would help me breathe. It was useless, though. “Ah, God. You poor bastard.”
Banks punched me in the kidney, making my howl of laughter turn into a shout of pain.
“Ow, you big bastard,” I hissed. “Fuck, that hurt!”
“Stop laughing at me, goddammit,” he ordered. “And take the goddamn ass back. Oh, and fuck you.”
He walked away before I could tease him anymore, and I looked at the mule with new light.
“Come on, buddy,” I called as I grabbed the mule’s flowered halter. “Let’s go back home to your friend.”
***
It was an hour later, the mule was returne
d to a very ungrateful Candy Ray, who at first had thought I was my brother, and who wasn’t convinced I wasn’t playing her.
See, her ass had caused me to fall. I’d then done the whole roll on the ground in the dirt, which had then caused my hair to become caked with the shit. Without my customary auburn hair—one of the only distinguishing factors between my brother and I—and since Candy hadn’t seen me in ages, she’d mistaken me for Banks.
I’d had to dust my hair free of the dirt before she believed me.
All the while, my ankle throbbed and ached from the awkward fall, and then the walk I’d had to endure the rest of the way there and back.
Needless to say, I was exhausted.
I hadn’t slept well last night thinking about a certain woman, I’d missed dinner, and the house was blissfully quiet. Not a single soul in sight.
Which was par for the course seeing as the moment my ass hit the couch and I got my foot into an elevated position, there was a knock on the door. I contemplated getting up for all of three seconds before I called, “Come in!”
There was a slight hesitation by whoever was at the door, then the very last person I expected to see poked her head around the door.
“Desi?” I exclaimed.
“I’m, hi!” she chirped. Then her eyes narrowed on me as she pushed the door all the way open and hurried inside. “What happened?”
The door slammed closed in her haste to get to me, and the worry on her face had things inside of me unfurling and my mouth forming into a tired grin.
“I’ve had one hell of a day,” I admitted. “After I left your house, I went to find Banks and ran over a piece of metal, causing me to have to change Ace’s truck tire. Then when I finally found Banks, he was staring a donkey in the face and informing me that I had to take him back.”
“Why you?” she asked as she gingerly sat on the edge of the ottoman my foot was resting on.
“Because, apparently, Banks ran the entire line of fence by himself and fixed and repaired it without me.” I rolled my eyes. “And he was punishing me.”
“It was punishment to take the donkey back to his house?” she asked curiously.
I nodded once. “Yes.”
She picked up the bag of ice on my foot and winced when she saw the bruise that was forming.
“Because it wasn’t just anybody’s donkey. It was Candy Ray Sunshine’s donkey,” I said, talking to her as if she should know what kind of hell that would be.
“And who is Candy Ray Sunshine?” She grinned.
I moved slightly on the couch, making room for her. She watched me struggle for a few seconds before standing up and bending over me to move the copious number of blankets and pillows that were stacked on the couch to prop my foot up.
“Candy Ray Sunshine, otherwise known as Cray-Cray, is Banks’ high school nemesis/crush,” I explained. “Banks and Candy love to hate each other. And, right before we shipped out for Houston after our parents died, Banks fucked her over for the school Sadie Hawkins dance. Said he’d go with her. She got all dressed up. Then he went with a friend.”
Desi sat beside me with a grimace on her face. “That’s mean.”
“It was,” I agreed. “But, she’s done some shit to him just as mean. Just saying. But his definitely took the cake.” I snickered. “When we got back, Banks had a run-in with her at the feed store. She gave him shit, and he lied and said he was me. Now she takes it out on both of us.”
“Sounds to me like she likes him and he likes her.” Desi propped her feet up carefully next to mine. “Okay?”
I nodded.
“Not that I’m not happy that you’re here,” I said. “But why are you here?”
Desi’s smile was brittle. “I think I might take you up on that house.”
I blinked. Then grinned.
“That’s great, but I thought that was already figured out when I left.” I was filled with relief at her words, though. Earlier when I’d gone, she hadn’t looked happy about anything. Hence the reason I left. “Did you and Malloy come up with a good number?”
That had her scoffing.
“Yeah, no.” She snorted. “Apparently what I think is right and what he thinks is right are two different numbers. Mine being a million so I can pay off all of my loan free and clear and his being two and a half. When I argue with him, he brings up the ‘I’m dying and not going to need my money soon’ excuse and then I’m agreeing when I don’t want to.”
My lips quirked.
“Malloy was always my favorite parent of all of Ace’s friends,” I said. “He never cared if we tagged along and even encouraged it.”
She sighed and leaned her head back against the couch.
“Do you happen to want to go look at the store he bought me?” she whispered. “I don’t think I can go by myself.”
I looked at my seriously discolored, rapidly swelling foot, and said, “Now?”
I mean, if that was what she wanted, I’d gladly hobble my way out the door.
But I was hoping that wasn’t the case.
I was really, really hoping, actually.
“No,” she said overly loud. “I was talking about tomorrow… or whenever you can walk without having to jump.”
My brows rose. “How did you know that I jumped?”
She gestured to the living room. “There aren’t any crutches around.”
I hid my grin behind the arm I brought up and covered my face with.
“I don’t have any crutches,” I admitted. “I’m lucky to have found a Ziplock bag for fuckin’ ice at this point. Apparently, my family doesn’t realize that when something is empty, they should, you know, tell someone that it’s empty. I found fuckin’ four empty Ziplock bag boxes. I had to steal a bag that had Darby’s chips in it for school tomorrow.”
The peel of laughter coming from the woman beside me had me turning to look at her and removing my arm from my face.
“I can go get you some crutches and an ice pack from the store.” She paused. “And an ACE bandage to wrap around it. Compression is a good thing. Luckily, you have it elevated.”
I thought about that for a moment.
“Will you allow me to pay for said items?”
She scrunched up her nose and pursed her lips. “Sure.”
Liar.
“If you leave your wallet here and take mine, I’ll allow you to go.” I grinned. “And if you picked up some dinner on the way back, as well as Ziplock baggies and a gallon of milk, I’ll make it worth your while.”
Her eyes started to sparkle. “What would be worth my while?” she wondered. “I’m not really a woman to go into things half-cocked. I have to know exactly what I’m getting into now.”
Why did I feel like I’d known her forever?
Seriously, I’d known her for a few days. We really shouldn’t be this comfortable together yet.
But talking to her like this was easy.
What was even easier was the way she was sitting beside me, leaning her entire body against mine.
It felt easy… and right.
So, so right.
“Okay, I’ll go.” She stood up, being careful not to jostle me. “What do you want to eat?”
She reached for her keys that were in her purse, a purse I hadn’t seen her set down, and started to sling the purse over her shoulder.
I shook my head and gestured with my hand.
She rolled her eyes and pulled out her wallet.
I shook my head again. “You better give me the entire thing. I’m not sure I trust you with that look on your face.”
She made a scoffing sound, but ultimately did what I said, tossing the purse down onto the table next to the overstuffed couch I’d made myself comfortable on.
I reached for my wallet that was in my back pocket and then handed it to her.
“The pin to my bank card is 4040,” I told her.
Her mouth dropped open.
“You can
’t tell people you barely know your bank card pin number!” she practically screeched.
I put both of my arms behind my head and grinned. The grin quickly fell off my face when she planted her hands on her hips and jutted out her chest.
Jesus Christ, but she was beautiful. Even pissed as hell, she did it for me.
“I did it because I trust you,” I told her. “I trust you, and that’s all that matters. Now, as for what food? I don’t care right now. I could go for a big juicy burger or a salad. Whatever you feel like eating yourself.”
She sighed. “I was hoping that you’d say ‘I want a Whataburger number one’ and I could have an excuse to go there.”
“I want a Whataburger number two,” I teased. “With ketchup and no mustard.”
She sighed. “If you’re broken for the time being, you should probably eat healthy.”
Probably.
But after Candy Ray Sunshine and her stubborn mule? Well, I wasn’t really in the best of moods.
“Honey,” I said gruffly. “I could murder a burger right now. Please bring me one.”
Her mouth kicked up at the corner. “Damn, that was kind of hot.”
With that, she left without another word, leaving me to wonder if she said those words to get a reaction out of me or to tease me because she felt the same way.
Either way, I had a feeling I was about to really enjoy the rest of my night.
Chapter 8
Day drinking from a mug to keep things looking professional.
-Coffee Cup
Desi
I had no idea what I was doing.
Honestly, there were about fifty thousand things I should be doing right now, and getting burgers and fries for a man that I’d literally just met a few days ago wasn’t one of them.
Yet, I couldn’t stop myself.
I wasn’t sure what it was about the man.
Maybe it was the way he always looked me in the eyes when he spoke to me. Maybe it was the way he always had a ready smile any time I said something to amuse him. Hell, maybe it was because it was nice to have someone seem attracted to me after feeling like a complete pile of shit whenever my ex-husband came into the room.
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