by Sienna Ciles
Cassidy wavered on the spot, tears welling in her usually sparkling green eyes. She blinked once, twice, then tore off her apron and tossed it at Faith’s head. It smacked the demon-woman on the nose.
Cassidy ran for the door.
“Cassie!” I yelled. Anger torqued up my soul. “Have you lost your mind?” I asked Faith. “She can’t afford to pay her rent without this job. It was everything to her.”
“She should’ve thought of that before she left the customers leave without taking their money,” Faith replied, smug now that she’d ‘won.’
“She has a five-year-old daughter,” I hissed. “She has a child to look after all on her own.”
“Another whore. No wonder you’re friends with her.”
I itched to slap Faith until her cheeks were red, but Cassidy needed me more than Faith needed a beating. I pushed past her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Faith called after me. “You can’t leave. It’s your shift.”
I didn’t bother answering her. This was over. My time at the restaurant was over, too. I didn’t see a future for myself here without Cassidy as a waitress and with Faith as the owner. I’d been delusional to think I’d manage working under a woman who despised me to this extent.
I let myself out into the early afternoon and scanned the street for my friend. But she was gone. “Cassidy,” I shouted, and set off down the road, grinding the grit on the sidewalk beneath my heeled boots.
Shit, she had so much to deal with already, and now this on top of everything else.
I hurried for the corner. A hand clamped down on my arm and stopped me in my tracks.
Chapter 18
Joshua
“Thank god, I found you,” I said, and held onto Eve’s arm. It was good to touch her again, good to see her, too. “Listen, I need to warn you about something.”
“Warn me,” she said and ripped from my grasp. “About what? About how you told Faith that I’m your lover? I told you – I told you how she was acting and that she was throwing her weight around in the restaurant. I told you that.”
“I didn’t say anything to Faith about you being my lover.” I kept my voice low. I hated drawing unnecessary attention to myself, and a public blowout ranked high on my list of nightmare scenarios.
“Then how did she find out?” Eve asked. “And what’s this about a restaurant? You trying to buy Cowboys n’ Cuts?”
“I didn’t try to buy it. I tried to get Lily Patrick to buy it back,” I said. Shit, this was exactly what I hadn’t wanted her to know. This had scared her. But it wasn’t fear that marred her usually smooth features; it was fury.
“What?” she uttered. “Why?”
“Because I knew Faith would make your life unpleasant if I didn’t. I wanted to help you.”
“Help me?” Eve’s voice rose. Already, a crowd had gathered, common folk. Shit, there was Pete from the gas station, Martha from the baker’s. “Help me?! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“Calm down.”
“I will not calm down!” She positively vibrated with anger. “Faith fired Cassidy!”
“What?”
“She fired her. Cassidy, who has a sick child at home and a babysitter to pay, and bills, and fucking –” Eve cut off, choking on the words.
“I had no idea,” I said, and anger flushed through me to equal hers. Faith had taken one step too far. “I’ll fix this. I’ll speak to Faith.”
“No.” Eve pressed both her palms to my chest.
For a second, I couldn’t work out what she was doing, and then it hit me – she wanted to shove me. She was that angry with me.
Eve let out a guttural sound and dropped her arms. “Impossible,” she muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“This. Everything.”
“I can fix this, Eve. Let me help you.”
“You’ve done more than enough,” Eve uttered. “Too much. Stay out of it. Stay out of everything, do you hear me? I don’t need your help, and I don’t need your fucking protection. You’re not my guardian angel.”
“You’re making a scene.”
“So?” Eve threw up her hands. “That seems to be the hip thing to do around here.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, and it was true. It wasn’t a feeling I was comfortable with. I was the guy who came with the answers and business plans. I was the creator. The planner. Christ. “Eve –”
“This isn’t working out,” she said.
“Don’t say that.”
“You’re interfering in my life. Just knowing you has fucked up my plans. I wanted to find myself and peace, and all I’ve gotten is this chaos.”
“It wasn’t all chaos,” I said and took her wrist. I stroked its underside, the soft, tender skin I’d kissed the night before.
“No,” she said and dragged herself from me again. “It was all chaos. You’ve broken everything I wanted.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“You’ve destroyed everything I tried to build up again,” she hissed.
“I’m not Bryan.”
I didn’t stop the slap. The thwack vibrated through my cheek and stung down to my soul. I’d deserved that one, but I could only hold back my own anger for so long. What did she expect from me? That I’d stand back and let her debase me like this in front of everyone? Just because I loved her. I loved her. My lover.
Fuck!
“You’re not Bryan,” she whispered. “No. You’re worse. You’re the one who looks perfect from the outside. I told you I couldn’t do this. I told you I wasn’t ready.”
I’d done my best not to pressure her. “I wasn’t the only one in that bedroom last night. I wasn’t the only one who –”
She raised her arm again and this time I caught it and held her back. “I wasn’t ready.”
Thunder rumbled overhead, the gray clouds that had threatened all afternoon rolled closer. A wind picked up and tossed her hair around her head, a halo.
“I didn’t force you into anything,” I grunted. “You felt what I did.”
“No.” Eve shook her head. “No. No more. I can’t do anything like this again. I can’t be near you again.”
We stood there, caught in the center of a brewing storm, gazes from strangers burning into us, immortalizing this moment forever.
“I won’t let you go, Eve.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she said. “I don’t love you.”
I let go of her and stepped back. She’d said it to hurt me, but it’d struck too close to home. “You don’t love me,” I said, glancing past her at the distant restaurant. Faith had come out into the street.
“No,” Eve replied. “I don’t.”
“You’re lying.” I looked her in the eye, imprinted my intent on her, my intent to be with her, to love her one last time. “You’re already mine, Eve. You just don’t want to admit it yet. You’ve been mine since you hit me with your truck.”
“You don’t know me,” she said, and then she brushed past me and ran down the road. Her heels clicked on the tar, and the sound burned into my memory. If I never saw her again, it would be the only thing I’d remember – that noise, that clicking that signified the end.
But I would see her again. I would fucking see her again.
The folks who’d gathered to witness the blowout hovered around, milling now, some of them cast concerned gazes upward at the darkening sky.
I clapped my hands. “Show’s over, folks,” I yelled.
A few of them jumped and scurried off. The rest pretended they hadn’t been paying attention all along, and Faith stood there, still as a statue, the wind whipping around her, the very epitome of the discord she’d sown.
I balled my hands into fists and bore down on her, grinding my boots into the concrete so hard it should’ve cracked.
Faith stumbled back a step and slapped into the open door of Cowboys n’ Cuts. She put up her palms. “Now, Joshua, there’s no need to get angry. Sh
e’s just a warm body, right? A slut. I know you only wanted her for that. We both know that. So, why get angry about it?”
I halted a few paces from her, eyes narrowed. I no longer cared about scenes or avoiding the public gaze. They’d already seen me broken down before their very fucking eyes. Eve’s rejection was paramount to social death, but it didn’t matter.
“If you talk about Eve like that again, I will make your life miserable,” I said.
“How?” Faith asked and pursed her lips. Even now, she was arrogant. “What are you going to do, Joshua? Huh? You’re the one who made this happen, you know that, right? If you’d just married me like you were supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“You’re delusional. You were the one who broke up with me, remember? You didn’t want to be with me in college, and all of a sudden I’m good enough for you again.”
“You made enough money,” Faith said, brazen as usual. “I told you that I wanted someone with a future.”
“You don’t deserve someone with a future when you’re devoid of your own. I deserve better than you.”
“And you think that – Eve is it?”
“Yes,” I said. “She’s more of a woman than you’ll ever be.” I wasn’t about to pitch a little bitch fit here in the middle of town. This was strictly business. “If you threaten Eve again, I’m going to make sure your father finds out all about your shenanigans at college.”
“What?” She went pale as a sheet. Finally, something had gotten past her thick skull.
“I’ll tell Lee-Roy about your wedding,” I said. Mr. Stone’s love was totally conditional, just as Faith’s had been for me. If he found out she’d done the unthinkable and married, then consequently annulled, some loser at college, a no-money loser for that matter, he’d flip his shit.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would,” I said. “You stay the fuck away from Eve.” I walked off before I could throw more insults at her. I walked around the corner and kicked over a trash can, sending litter sprawling. I couldn’t summon up the guilt to chase after it in the wind.
Fat drops of rain splatted down on the sidewalk. I kept walking. Walking, walking, turning it over in my mind. Eve. Eve. Eve. Had to make this better. Had to get her back.
I wouldn’t let the only woman I’d loved fall through my fingers.
Chapter 19
Eve
I jogged down the street, snorting back tears, forcing them down. I wouldn’t cry over him. I wouldn’t cry over loving a man. Not again. I shouldn’t have screamed at him. I shouldn’t have blamed him for this. “It was his fault,” I said, through gritted teeth. “If he hadn’t tried to protect me.” What’s wrong with him caring for you?
I let out a wail of frustration, then jammed my mouth shut. I had to get it together. I couldn’t lose it here in the middle of Hope Creek. I blinked and turned around on the spot, taking in the trees, the quaint lamps and the suburbia that surrounded me, now.
Cassidy’s house was close by, but I’d gotten lost somehow. Lost in the smallest fucking town in Texas. A typical Eve move.
I scrubbed tears from my cheeks, then drew in several deep breaths. I’d deal with what I’d said to Joshua later. Now, I had to focus on Cassidy. I’d blown a friggin’ gasket for a reason: my only friend had lost her means of providing for her daughter.
I’d come from a broken home. My father hadn’t had the inclination to stick around for the first year of my life or any other, and my mother had raised me the best she could. My mother and grandmother. The two women who’d taught me to cook and to work hard for everything in life.
I swallowed reflexively. “Don’t cry. Come on, grow a backbone. Crying won’t help.” One of my grandmother’s mottos. She’d been tough as nails. I put one foot in front of the other and walked the line toward the corner.
I stopped there and looked up and down the street. I didn’t recognize any of the houses. Thunder rumbled over ahead, and lightning arced through the dark clouds, illuminating the dimming afternoon.
I bit my lip and took a right, simply because it was closer. The rain would come down soon, and then what? I had to find Cassie and help her.
If only I’d brought my phone to work today. But no, I’d figured I wouldn’t need it because I’d be preoccupied with grilling and keeping Faith calm. Don’t think about her. But my entire body tensed regardless.
I hurried down the road, past houses and picket fences, lawn ornaments and mailboxes. None of the houses looked familiar. I turned the corner again and walked down the next street.
The clouds broke, and the rain came down, sparse at first, just a few drops on the sidewalk, darkening the concrete in splotches. It came down harder, plastering my hair to my head and my cotton dress to my skin.
I let tears join the rain and walked on, a pathetic picture to whoever looked out of their windows.
A familiar house appeared at the end of the street and my heart leaped into my throat. “Cassie!” I yelled, and quickened my pace. “Cassie!” I broke into a run across the lawn and skidded in the mud. I fell on my ass, but scrambled upright, slip-sliding in the mud.
I took the stairs in a single jump and crashed into the door. “Cassidy! It’s me! It’s Eve. Are you okay?” I knocked on the door. “Cassie, open up. I know you’re upset, but we’ll find a way to work this out, okay? I’ll – uh –” But what could I do? I didn’t have a restaurant of my own, and Lily’s place in Heather’s Forge wouldn’t be operating for months yet.
I sagged, but kept my fist up. I knocked again, softer this time – Charlie was in there, too, and sick.
I leaned back, the rain bucketing down outside the tiny square overhang above me, and scanned the windows on either side of the entrance. They were dark, no lights. Nobody home? Surely not.
I gripped the railing and ran down the front stairs, slipping on the mud all over again. I hurried to the side gate and measured my breaths. It was okay, this wasn’t the end of the world. Cassidy would make it through this.
The anger which’d driven me faded bit by bit. The memory of what I’d said to Joshua struck a gong inside my chest.
God, I’d compared him to Bryan. I’d – I’d lost it for a second there. I’d lost my damn mind. Everything about my relationship with Joshua, if it could be called that, had led me down the road to instability. It’d changed me for the worse.
I struggled with the latch on Cassidy’s side gate – the one that led into her backyard – and blinked rain from my eyes, shoved thoughts of what I’d done and who I was aside. Finally, the latch clicked and I shambled into the yard.
“Cassie!” I slipped and plonked down on my butt again. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered. I sat there for a full minute, the rain pelting down on me, plastering my white summer dress to my skin. Well, at least it had been white before this had happened.
Suddenly, the humor of the situation struck me and I burst out laughing. I laughed and laughed until I couldn’t anymore, until there were just hiccups of hysterical mirth left to me. “Crazy. You’ve literally lost your mind.” It was plain that Cassidy wasn’t home. Her car wasn’t in the drive. She’d probably taken Charlie somewhere, perhaps to see her mother and confide in her about what’d happened.
I scrambled around in the mud and eventually brought myself upright. I sloshed over to the gate and exited the yard, then swung it shut behind me and made sure the latch clicked. It wasn’t as if there was a dog to let out, but Cassie likely wouldn’t appreciate me leaving it open and swinging back and forth in the wind.
The urgency had finally worn off, and I shivered in the icy torrent. Wind ripped my wet hair back and whapped it against my skin again. “Ouch.” Well, there was nothing for it. I had a long walk home to enjoy the weather.
I set off walking and a truck rumbled past, thankfully, one I didn’t recognize. The brake lights flashed red and the truck idled in the rain, exhaust pipe steaming. A man stuck his head out the window and squinted back at me from underneath the
brim of his cowboy hat. “Need a ride?”
Recognition tickled me. “I – who are you?”
“Harry,” he yelled. “We met in Heather’s Forge? Joshua was bringing me a goat for my granddaughter’s birthday party.”
“Oh, yeah!” I jogged to the passenger side of the truck and clunked open the door, consequently exposing the muddied state of my dress. I clamped my arms across my breasts to hide the bra that poked through the fabric.
Old Harry didn’t leer at me at all. “Well? What are you waiting for? Get in, girl.”
“But I’m muddy.”
“This truck’s seen far worse than a bit of mud. That goat shat all over these seats after Joshua gave it to me,” Harry said.
I snorted a laugh, but it was accented by pain at the mention of his name. I scrambled into the cab and slammed the door shut behind me. “Thanks,” I said, and swept my hair back over my shoulder. “I stay above the butcher’s store in town.”
“Great, that’s on my way out. Shoot, I don’t know if I’ll make it back to Heather’s Forge in this weather, though. Might have to stop off in Cowboys n’ Cuts for a while.”
“They’re closed,” I said.
“Aw, just my darn luck. Ah, well, I’ll go visit Marjorie instead,” Harry said, and drove off down the road, away from Cassidy’s house. The worry about her followed me, though. I swayed from side to side as Harry took corners and ramped through potholes, water streaming down the windshield only to be swept away by the wipers.
“You all right, girl? You look kinda pale. And what were you doing out in the mud and rain anyways?”
“I – uh, I had an accident. I –” I swallowed and bit back tears.
“Oh, hell, don’t you go crying on me, now. If you got something you need to say, just say it. I ain’t gonna tell nobody.” Harry tipped back his hat and scratched the gray at his hairline. “Ain’t got nobody but my wife to tell and she’s more interested in her baking than gossip. Part of the reason I married her.”