Fuck’s sake.Single and searching. Definite trouble.
“Well, let me give you some advice,” I say, leaning toward her a little. “You see anyone wearing this around town.” I thumb my cut. “Walk the other way. We don’t need your complication.”
Her amber eyes narrow, lips thinning. “You sure like making a lot of assumptions about people you don’t know.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Is that not the whole point of our conversation?Youmaking assumptions about people you don’t know?”
She stays quiet.Finally.
“You enjoy your stay now, yeah?” I flash the woman my best smile and then turn for the building, shoulders tense as I await her argument.
To my relief, it never comes. Hand on the timber door, I glance behind me and find her halfway back to the seat outside the barber shop.Thank fuck for that.I said I’d come to town and do the errand. I said it didn’t bother me. Fuck knows I needed something to do other than make myself physically ill watching our president, Chaos, simp for his woman, Vanessa. Nobody else willingly put their hand up to do it. But the moment I backed the bike into a park and laid eyes onher,I knew there were other places I’d rather be.
The door jerks away from my touch, startling me from my bitter spiral. Shrewd blue eyes meet mine, and a furrow forms on Mariana’s brow. “May I?” Vanessa’s best friend and Temperance’s star realtor gestures past me with her chin, indicating I need to move from where I block her way.
Like the petty asshole I am, I turn sideways and leave her the narrowest path I can. “You may.”
Her chest rises, a labored breath pulled into her lungs. “You know, I used to think you were better than the others.”So did I.“But you sure love to play the part, don’t you?”
“So I’ve heard.”
Her head tilts a little as she studies me.
“You gonna leave, or are we gonna hold everyone up while we chit-chat in the doorway?”
Mariana glances behind her into the foyer of the council chambers. “Nobody waiting, Jinx. I’d say we’ve got all day. But I’ve got places to be, so can we stick a pin in this heart-to-heart?” Her eyes flick to the side, eyebrows lifting, to urge me to move back a step.
The woman is tough. Hardened by the world and too stubborn to let it get her down. I respect that.
“Working?” I nod toward the envelope in her hand.
“Permits for a client. Yes.”
I step to the side.
Mariana offers a polite smile and descends to the sidewalk before she fires the parting shot. “You know, it wouldn’t harm you to be happy for them.”
And there it is.“What do you mean?”
She turns side-on and lays a pitiful stare on me. “You know what I mean. Ever since he took an interest in her, you’ve been a bear with a sore head toward Vanessa. Like it’sherfault Chaos doesn’t spend as much time playing in your little boys’ club anymore.”
“You think I’m jealous?”
“Not what I said, but if that’s the first thing that comes to mind for you, then perhaps.”
Bitch.“Anything else you want to harass me about? ‘Cause I’ve got shit I need to do too.” Like take a long fucking ride anywhere there aren’t people.
Mariana sighs as I step toward the door. “Sure. Whatever.”
Fuck her. What would she know? Married to a guy for his money, not love. Iamhappy for Chaos. What the hell does she want me to do? Throw him a fucking party to prove it? Have a goddamn sleepover so we can paint each other’s nails andgossip about his woman?Saying I’ve been an asshole toward Vanessa…
We ain’t best friends. Why fucking make out like we are?
What I’mnothappy with is the way he’s sucked under her spell every time she’s around. Hell, even when she ain’t there. His head’s not with the club like it used to be, and I’m not the only one who’s noticed.
My vision takes a moment to adjust to the dimly lit foyer when I step out of the sunshine, the heavy door swinging gently closed behind me. Temperance isn’t a huge town, but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, given the state of the municipal offices. Veined marble floor, polished hardwood reception desk, Romanesque columns that frame the grand foyer, and lines and lines of framed portraits on the wall listing every man and woman who served the area over the years.
I draw a deep breath and shift my gaze from the carved horse sculpture in the middle of the foyer and step around the rearing stallion toward the receptionist. All we need is the final approval and letter of completion for the barn we commissioned from the Amish. A simple ask, but old Janis made it a fucking month-long process. No, they don’t have them. Yes, they do. Didn’t we already get a copy from the inspector? No, we can’t have a physical copy printed and stamped for the Amish. Yes, we can.
