Until the Next Time (Give Me Shelter Book 1)

by Josie Kerr

  “Now what about Celine?”

  “Oh, that was me being an asshole. As a joke, I made these mixtapes and playlists with the sappiest, girliest songs I could find, and what better than Celine, right? But the joke was on me because I ended up listening to them so much I started liking them, and . . . that’s it.”

  “So nothing scandalous really.”

  “No.”

  “Darn.”

  He chuckled and nuzzled her a little closer. “Is this okay?”

  “Perfect,” she purred. She yawned and sighed. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

  “Always. I’ll always take care of you.”

  “I’ll always want you to take care of me,” she mumbled as she fell asleep.

  Jason sighed in the dark. Hopefully, she’d feel the same way later.

  ☆☆☆

  “Jason Richards, you are an overbearing ass.”

  Jason grabbed a bowl. “Yeah, and? You knew this.”

  Meghan grew more and more furious as she watched Jason whip up some sort of breakfast batter. He was acting like everything was normal, like he didn’t just tell her she was taking the day off and order her to stay at his house. Of all the unmitigated gall!

  “I could always call a ride, you know.”

  “You could . . .” Jason peeked in the oven, nodded to himself, then closed the oven and turned his attention to his angry houseguest. “But I wouldn’t if I were you.”

  “Why not?”

  Before he could answer her, she heard the door open and several women’s voices drift into the kitchen.

  “Jason, we’re here!” a familiar voice called.

  “You did not,” Meghan hissed.

  “I most certainly did.” Jason grinned, showing all his teeth as two women trooped into the kitchen.

  “I take it Meghan just found out we’re the entertainment committee?” Bridget Doherty pounded Jason on the back, while the other woman looked in the bowl.

  “Is that waffle batter?” she asked, her voice hopeful.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Hot damn, and I’m not even due to start camp for two weeks.” Bridget rubbed her hands together in anticipation and plopped into the chair next to Meghan. She peered at Meghan while Meghan scowled. “You look pretty good, Meghan. Tired, but you know, that could be from other activities.”

  “You’re a traitor, Doherty.” Meghan glared at Bridget before turning to the other woman. “The same goes for you, Annie.”

  “You need a hug, Meghan.” Annie swooped in for a hug but stopped short. “Can I give you a hug?”

  Meghan let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine.”

  Annie wrapped her arms around Meghan and gave her a soft squeeze. “Good, because I was gonna do it anyway.” She pulled up a chair on the other side of Meghan. “We are going to have so much fun today.” She clapped her hands and did a little dance in her chair.

  Meghan shook her head. “You are entirely too perky, Annie.”

  “I was just thinking that,” Bridget agreed.

  Jason plunked a plate piled high with waffles in the middle of the table.

  “Dig in, ladies. Get ’em before the guys get down here.”

  As if on cue, Cash and Gunny wandered into the kitchen, drawn by the smell of breakfast.

  “Whoa. Hey, ladies.” Gunny halted in the doorway, stopping suddenly enough for Cash to run into him. He sniffed the air. “Man, pecan waffles? I could definitely get used to this.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Gunny, by the way.”

  “And I’m Cash.” Cash had a seat next to Bridget. “Gunny, you gonna sit down or eat standing like a horse?”

  Gunny slid into the seat next to Annie. “Don’t mind him. He’s a cranky SOB.”

  Annie giggled. “I know all about those.”

  Meghan swallowed her mouthful of waffles. “Annie’s fiancé makes a grizzly bear look warm and fuzzy.”

  Jason wedged himself between Bridget and Meghan. “Annie’s fiancé is Damon Pierce, Gunny.”

  Gunny choked on the piece of bacon he’d just put in his mouth. “The fighter?”

  “Mm-hmm.” Annie nodded. “You know him?”

  Gunny swallowed some water. “Uh, yeah, I know who he is.”

  Meghan cackled. “Pierce used to be a bouncer at Foley’s. He’s a sweetheart.”

  “A sweetheart that is capable of pulling my arms off and bludgeoning me with them. Jesus.”

  “Oh, he doesn’t do that stuff anymore,” Annie remarked with a straight face. “Usually.”

  “Good to know.” Gunny cleared his throat and went back to eating.

  Jason looped his arm around the back of Meghan’s chair. “If you really don’t want Annie and Bridget to stay, I’ll send them home,” he whispered in her ear.

  “No, I don’t mind. If they’re here, I won’t be tempted to go up to the pub and meddle.” She kissed him on his cheek. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, babe.”

  ☆☆☆

  Gunny had snagged the passenger seat and had rolled the window down to enjoy the temperate weather. “You think she’ll actually stay away from the pub all day?”

  Jason barked a laugh. “Not fuckin’ likely, but with Bridget and Annie there, she might stay away until after lunch.”

  Jason wanted to get the deck restored and at least the dining room drywall up today; that way the pub could reopen for business, at least for drinks and a limited dinner menu. He knew that every day the pub remained closed increased the chances of it never reopening. Meghan would be devastated if Foley’s closed.

  Cash leaned over the front seat. “She really has no idea who shut her in the freezer?”

  “Aw, Cash. We were having such a good morning. Shit.” Gunny shot Cash a poisonous look and shook his head.

  “What? If my girlfriend got locked in a walk-in freezer, I’d damn well want to know who did it.” He turned back to Jason. “She needs more interior cameras, is what she needs.”

  “Oh, I’m on that. Kyle ordered some cameras from his guy. We’re going to pick them up right now and install them first thing. She’s getting more surveillance whether she wants it or not,” Jason muttered, his voice grim. “Meghan could have died if she’d been in that freezer much longer. What would have happened if we hadn’t gotten there when we did?” Jason slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “Motherfucker.”

  Gunny grunted. “Okay, since Cash brought it up and you’ve started stewing—walk us through what she remembers.”

  Jason recounted what Meghan had told him about her day, finishing just as he pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript strip mall.

  “So? Thoughts?”

  “Well—” Gunny began, only to have Jason interrupt him with a frustrated roar.

  “I just know it was that fuck Crabtree,” he hissed. “He’s the only one who makes sense! He’s had it in for her since they got divorced, and when he found out Sully had passed and she was in charge of Foley’s now, what better way to get back at her? The ultimate revenge. He knows how much she loves that pub, and by getting rid of her, he’d get a twofer.” Jason shook his head. “I know he did it. I just have to find a way to prove it.”

  “Whoa, Jason. That’s a serious allegation.” Gunny caught Jason’s arm as he tried to storm past. “It’s one thing to fuck with her pub; it’s quite another to try to kill her.”

  “What about that Knox character?” Cash chimed in. “She said he was there earlier. He knew Meghan was in the bar alone.”

  Jason dismissed both of their comments with a wave of his hand. “Knox is clean. I had Kyle run a background check on him. Not so squeaky as to make me suspicious, but clean enough.” Jason ran his hand over his head. “What I need is some way to tie the car that crashed into the pub to Crabtree, but I gotta admit—the guy is smart.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought the police determined that was an accident.”

  Jason scoffed. “Please. Drunk dude just happened upon a fifty-thousand-dollar car
with the keys in the ignition, and the dude, who’s never stolen a car in his life, decides to go for a joyride? I’m not buying it. And for the record, Dolly and Johnny aren’t, either, but this new head detective shut them down from inquiring any more. The whole thing stinks.”

  Jason sighed. He had to figure out some way to nail this Crabtree ass and get him out of Meghan’s life for good.

  Chapter 27

  “Not bad for a morning’s work, huh?”

  Jason wiped his face with his sleeve and grinned. He, Cash, and Gunny had made quick work of mounting the inside security cameras and installing the monitoring software before moving to the deck. Now, it was just after noon and they’d replaced the damaged floor and wall of the deck. Dan and Cash had gone to get some tin shingles for the roof, and after that, the deck would be complete.

  “Not bad at all.” Gunny chugged from his water bottle and wiped his mouth. “What’s next? Drywall in the dining room?”

  “Yep. I don’t want to rush, but this shit needs to get done. The event is basically three weeks away, and it’s vital that Foley’s is at the top of its game.”

  “What happens if it’s not?”

  “I don’t want to think about it.”

  But he was thinking about it. Foley’s had been practically all he’d thought about since the crash. Well, that and Meghan herself. Jason had actually planned on broaching the uncomfortable subject of “what if” last night—at least, before Meghan had gotten locked in the freezer. He knew Cash and Gunny thought it was an accident, that Jason was just being a paranoid, jealous crazy man, but deep in his gut, he knew—he fucking knew—that someone had locked Meghan in that freezer and blocked the door.

  “Stop thinking about it, then.” Gunny drained his water bottle and snapped it shut. “Are we gonna work or stand here, huh? Or, hey—this is a novel idea—what about lunch?”

  “Did someone say lunch?” Cash stuffed the last two bites of a hamburger into his mouth. “Lunch is always good.”

  “You suck so hard, Cash. Where’s ours?”

  Cash guffawed. “Oh, man. You should see your face!” He was still doubled over with laughter as Dan tossed Gunny and Jason each a bag.

  “Ignore him. We picked up grub on the way back from getting the tiles.” Dan tossed his own bag in a nearby trash can. “By the way, those tiles are way fucking bigger than I expected. It’s gonna take all four of us to get that thing up on the roof.”

  “We’ll be out in just a sec. You unload the truck.”

  Gunny tossed his bag in the trash. “I’ll help.” The other three men gaped at the sniper. “What? I said I was hungry. You three were running your mouths while I was eating. Jeez.” He stomped to the front door.

  Jason finished his burger in two bites and dropped his trash in the bin, snickering at Gunny. He’d always considered Cash the surlier of the two, but the men seemed to have switched personalities since they’d left active duty.

  “Let’s do this,” he announced and headed out the door, Cash and Dan following behind him.

  ☆☆☆

  Bridget eyed Meghan like she was some sort of wild animal that was just looking for an opportunity to bolt, which wasn’t that far from the truth. She crossed her ankles to keep from imitating a perpetual motion machine. She wasn’t used to just sitting around, especially with two women and a bunch of Christmas romance movies. It wasn’t even close to Christmas. Hell, it was barely fall! It still regularly hit eighty degrees!

  “You’re going stir-crazy, aren’t you?” Annie laid a sympathetic hand on Meghan’s arm.

  “God, yes. I want to know what the guys are up to, and I want to get back into the bar and start setting it right. Jason said he anticipated finishing the deck today.”

  If he did and she got all the bottles back up and the taps reconnected, maybe, just maybe, Foley’s could be open for happy hour and supper. The pub being closed was freaking her out since heaven knew that just because the pub was closed didn’t mean it wasn’t incurring expenses. Like a new deck, and the interior wall of the dining room, not to mention the outer wall of the dining room, which had mysteriously been repaired overnight.

  Bridget waved her hands around, drying her nails. “You’re thinking, too, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Whatcha thinking about?” Bridget leered at Meghan.

  “The pub and what if things don’t get put back in place and suppose somebody did shut me in the freezer and the car crashing into the back of Foley’s wasn’t an accident? What then? What then!”

  Annie’s eyes got wider and wider the longer Meghan ranted, while Bridget seemed to take her screeching in stride.

  “Do you feel better now, getting all that out?”

  “A little,” Meghan grumbled. “Sorry.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t apologize.” Bridget moved to the couch so she could sit on Meghan’s free side. “What do you say we go up to the pub and you can order Annie and me around for a while? Annie can put the bottles on the wall, and I’ll get one of those goons to bring the kegs up so I can reconnect the taps.”

  “But what about Jason?”

  Annie and Bridget shared a conspiratorial look.

  “What?” Meghan narrowed her eyes at the women and wagged her finger at them. “I know that look. That look says you two are up to something.”

  “Well, we actually didn’t promise to keep you away all day . . . ,” Annie began.

  “We figured you’d be climbing the walls by ten, so the fact that you made it past lunch? We’ll call it good,” Bridget interjected. She jumped up. “So come on! Get dressed!”

  Meghan got up as quickly as she could—she was still really sore, and sitting on the couch for the past four hours didn’t help at all—and hobbled upstairs to get dressed. She should have known Bridget and Annie would know better than to promise to keep her away from the pub.

  When she came down, Bridget eyed her closely. “Is that one of Jason’s T-shirts?”

  “Yeah,” Meghan replied with a wry grin. “I didn’t want to wear the tank top I had on yesterday, and I don’t have any other clothes here.” Both women seemed surprised at that revelation.

  “We just recently decided that we were going to . . . do this.” Meghan waved her hands around. “Whatever this is.”

  “This is good, isn’t it?” Annie bit her lip and grinned, and Meghan couldn’t help but grin back.

  “Yeah, it is. I mean, it would be better if big tank-like vehicles didn’t crash through my pub and I quit being an idiot who gets stuck in freezers, but . . . yeah.” She scrubbed her face with her hands. “I think I might still be a little out of sorts.”

  “You think?” Bridget’s voice dripped with sarcasm, but she had a good-natured smile on her face. “Are we going to go or what?”

  The three women piled into Annie’s car and began the short drive to Foley’s, each woman consumed with her own thoughts. Meghan ran through her typical morning checklist, mentally assigning tasks to Bridget and Annie, while she texted Ronnie to see if he was available to come up.

  “Why don’t you pull in the back, Annie? Right here. I want to see how the rebuilt portion of the deck looks. Jason said we—oh, shite.”

  As they pulled up to the back of Foley’s, the first thing they saw was Jason, who looked like he was preparing to pummel whomever he had backed up against the newly restored deck. Gunny was gripping his raised fist, obviously straining with the effort of holding Jason back, while Cash had wedged himself between Jason and his prey and Dan gripped Jason’s shoulders.

  Before Annie came to a complete stop, Meghan jumped out of the car and headed to the four men. She could hear Jason screaming at whoever this unfortunate soul was and could see the back of his beet-red neck, which she imagined matched the color of his furious face.

  Then she saw whom he had pinned.

  “Jason! Jason, what the hell are you doing?” Meghan ran up to the group and squeezed in between Dan and Cash’s bulky bodies to g
et at her knight in shining tool belt.

  “She could have died, Crabtree! Died! What’s your friggin’ problem, you piece of shit?” Jason continued to strain against the hands holding him back. Geoffrey blinked at spit flying out of Jason’s mouth and kept trying to interject a response in the midst of Jason’s stream of angry expletives.

  Meghan had had enough. She shoved Jason as hard as she could and screamed his name.

  “What?” he roared, only to find Meghan’s equally furious face glaring at him. “Meghan, you stay out—”

  “You do not get to tell me what to do, Jason Richards, and you do not get to manhandle anyone on this property!”

  “Dammit, Meghan, I can fight my own—” Geoffrey started to interrupt, but she instantly turned her anger on her ex-husband.

  “Oh, shut it, Geoffrey. What the hell are you doing here, anyway? The less I see of you, the better. There’s a reason we got divorced. I didn’t want to see you twelve years ago, and I sure as hell don’t want to see you now.”

  “Do you want me to ‘shut it,’ or do you want me to tell you what I’m doing here?” Geoffrey spat.

  “Oh, now you’re just being a smartarse. God!” Meghan turned back to Jason, whose smug grin disappeared. “I’m not finished with you, Richards, but we’ll continue our discussion at another time, in private.”

  “Dude, that is not good,” Cash muttered under his breath.

  “Can it, Cash.” Jason shot his buddy a deadly look, but Cash merely shrugged.

  “Explain yourself, Geoffrey. Now!” Meghan screeched.

  “Jesus. I forgot how out of control you get when you’re mad. Anyway,” Geoffrey said, with a glare at Jason, “I came by to check out the progress and to see if I could speed it up by getting contractors in for repairs, but it looks like you guys have it handled.” He straightened his shirt and coat, which Jason had balled up in his fist. “Richards, you need to back the hell up.”

  “Jason, you do need to give him some room. You’re close enough to kiss him, honey.”

  Jason shrugged off Gunny and Dan and took a step back.

  “Thank you.” Meghan gave him another stern look before turning back to Geoffrey. “Knox came by yesterday to check on the progress. Was his word not good enough for you?”