He didn’t know how or why, but he knew Ms. Green was responsible for Tia Lina’s mood.
The sooner he got that woman up out of here, the sooner life in Shrouded Lake would settle into its generally predictable flow.
“So let me make sure I’m understanding you correctly,” Lauren said, bent over the counter, elbows perched on the checkout stand. “Y’all have been in business for nearly three years, have all this fabulous shit, fresh produce, organic non-GMO food, herbal remedies and other healing options, a Zen environment, a spacefor learning and community events, and you’re thinking about closing your doors? What the everlasting fuck, Saige?”
Saige, the co-owner of The Mystical Market, flinched. Lauren wasn’t sure if it was her language or her passion; she didn’t give a damn. What she did want to know was... Lauren took a breath and smiled as if smiling was painful. She reminded herself she was just passing through, and she was no longer involving herself in other people’s business, she was no longer trying to mitigate or save anyone from their choices. Plus, she’d be moving on in a few days.
“It wasn’t a part of our business plan, trust me Ms. Lauren?—”
“Just Lauren.”
“When we leased the building, we believed in the revitalization initiative just like a lot of business owners in the downtown area. Me and my wife thought we could do it. Me with my ideas, her with her history in the community. Our online business is sustaining us but there’re limits because we don’t have the womanpower to manage the store and fill mail orders. Our business was built with community at its heart, but the heart of this community continues to wither away.”
Lauren bagged her own groceries.
“This place would stay busy if it were in my old town.”
“Where’s that?”
Lauren waved her hand, dismissing the question.
“Doesn’t matter. That’s history and I’m all about the here and now.”
“Oh, wait here a moment Ms. Lauren,” Saige said rushing off.
“Just Lauren,” she muttered to absolutely no one because that’s exactly who else was in here. And that truly was a tragedy.
The front door chimed and glory hallelujah, Saige had another customer.
“This what folks in California do? Walk around in their bed clothes this far from their beds?”
Resting her hip against the checkout counter, she folded her arms and stared down the man who seemed to be stalking her.
“For the life of me I can’t understand why either would be your business,Sheriff.”
He moved toward her with an almost primal determination. She didn’t doubt the man’s lethality, just his morals.
“You just said it, so you understand well enough. I’m the sheriff, so anyone or anything that causes me to question the safety and well-being of others is absolutely my business.”
“Except drunk drivers. No, drunk drivers seem to have free rein...or is it just the ones who’ve bought and paid for your cooperation.”
Bull’s-eye.
The way his eyes narrowed, face flushed, muscles flexed; the way he got in her face and stared her down, anger hardening every angle of his face, showed her words landed exactly how she wanted them.
“Everything all right, Sheriff Stillwater,” Saige called out, but neither Lauren nor the sheriff took a step out of their bubble of animosity.
“Everything’s fine, Saige,” Lauren answered before the idiot cop.
“I was just advising Sheriff P. Coltrane that it’s in his best interest to mind the business that God gave him since he so spectacularly fails to mind the business he’s paid to mind.”
“Woman you’re two seconds from?—”
“From what, you throwing me over your shoulder and smacking my ass like some neanderthal, before throwing me in a jail cell because I reminded you of your actual duty.”
He flushed again, took a deep breath, and turned toward the windows facing the mountain before taking a step back.
“Okay, maybe I should’ve handled that situation a little more delicately,” he admitted.
