I mind. I mothereffing mind. “Nope,” Eli said, sliding his beer toward the center of the table and pushing his chair back to stand.
Sadie was eyeing him warily. “Thank you,” she said, and he could tell she minded about as much as he did. But she had no place to be irked in all this. She was the one who’d chosen to rent a place on his family property.
She was the one with really quite nice breasts, thank you very much, that were causing him some problems currently.
Getting laid in a small town was problematic. Which made breasts that were actually probably no better than average more noticeable than they should be.
She didn’t look hot right now. She looked like a wet hen. He should remember that. He sent a meaningful message below his belt, but he had a feeling it was going to get lost in translation.
Mainly because his body never seemed to want to translate those kinds of messages. But then, what guy’s did?
Especially not when the only company said body had enjoyed for the past six months was that of his right hand.
“All right,” he said, “let’s go check out your disaster. I’ll sit this round out,” he told Jack.
Jack swept the deck of cards to the edge of the table and leaned back, shuffling expertly. “All right, kids, get ready to lose your hard-earned money.”
“Sorry,” Sadie said, as they walked out of the room. “Obviously I’m interrupting.”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s a thing that happens a lot. Poker. I’m not going to miss one game. And the sad fact is, Jack’s right. We’re all going to lose our hard-earned money to him. And he’ll continue the grand tradition of having non...hard-earned money.”
“I bet there’s a story there,” she said.
“Isn’t there always?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, in my experience, there is. Speaking of—” she pushed the front door open and he followed her onto the porch “—what’s Connor’s story?” The end of the sentence was hushed.
He closed the door, feeling a little uncomfortable having a stranger digging for information. Mainly because he was so used to family junk staying in the family. Because it was still ingrained in him. To keep the exterior looking shiny, no matter how bad the inside was.
But Connor’s deal wasn’t really a secret. A cursory visit to Copper Ridge’s cemetery would tell his story in full.
“I don’t know if you remember Jessie Collins.”
“Vaguely. I might. Did she work at the Crow’s Nest?”
“I think so,” he said, trying not to picture his sister-in-law too clearly. Because it was too sad, even for him.
“Well, she was Jessie Garrett for about eight years. But, uh...she was killed in an accident.”
It was a night Eli would rather forget. He could remember the scene clearly. A dark two-lane highway, and a car wrapped around a tree. He’d known it was too late for whoever was inside. That it had been from the moment of impact. He’d seen too many accidents like that, and not enough miracles.
The car had been so messed up he hadn’t recognized the make or model. Hadn’t realized it was Jessie’s until one of the volunteer firefighters, who’d been first on the scene, had come charging back from the car yelling at him not to come closer.
They’d been trying to spare him because of who it was. But in the end, he’d looked. Because he had to be sure.
And then he’d been the one to officially notify his brother. And nothing in all of his life, in all of his training, had prepared him to stand on the front porch in his uniform and tell his older brother that his beautiful wife wasn’t coming home. Not that night, not any night after.
Damn trees. Damn road. Two people they’d loved lost that way.
Though in their dad’s case, he’d been at clear fault. Alcohol had caused his crash. Jessie had probably swerved to miss a deer, but they’d never know for sure.
“Oh,” Sadie said, her voice muted.
“So he comes by his attitude honestly,” Eli said, walking down the stairs to the driveway. “You want to ride in the patrol car?”
She looked at him, a brow raised. “It’s a short walk. Anyway, I don’t want to have any flashbacks.”
“Emotionally traumatized?”
“Completely.”
“Good. I probably kept your ass out of trouble.”
“Ugh,” she said. “Do not act like you did me any favors. What helped was getting the hell out of this town.”
“Is that what helped?”
“Yeah. There’s not enough options here. And there’s way too much free time. I badly needed to escape.”
“So why are you back?”
She sighed loudly. “Can I get away with repeating what I told you earlier?”
“No.”
“Well, fine. That is just a damn good question.” She took a big step and her foot landed in a pile of sticks that crunched loudly beneath her boot, before she shifted, her other foot making contact with soft dirt as she continued on toward the Catalog House.
“And you don’t have the answer?”
