“A chat?” She lifted her stick and pointed. “He doesn’t need a chat. He needs a—”
Jesse grabbed the end of the stick the second it started waving in the air. “I need you to keep your cane on the ground.”
“But that kid—”
“Has been spoken to, and I can speak to him again if you’d like. But I needyouto make sure you’re not assaulting people.”
“Assault? I don’t assault people!”
How many times had they had this conversation? “Hitting people with your cane is assault, Mrs. Allen.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Back in my day, it was called discipline. Do your job before I become roadkill.” Then she walked away, muttering something about no-good, unruly kids.
Jesus Christ.
He stepped into the diner to see Becket and Clara sitting in a booth by the window, humor in their eyes.
“I take it you saw,” Jesse muttered as he lowered to the bench opposite them.
“I got really excited when she started waving that stick,” Clara said, tilting her head. “I thought she was going to hit you.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“I would pay good money to see that,” Becket said with a chuckle. “We ordered your usual. You didn’t bring Aspen.”
“I didn’t.” And he didn’t want to go into why either.
Clara frowned. “What’s going on between you two?”
“I’m not sure.” He knew what hewantedto go on between them.
Her lips pursed like she was thinking. “I think with a bit of time, she’ll come around.”
How did she even know Aspen was hesitant?
Becket’s gaze went to the counter, a half smile stretching his lips.
Jesse followed his gaze to a woman with long brown hair pulled up in a multicolored scrunchie. She wore leggings and a white T-shirt that said Easily Distracted by Dogs.
She caught Becket’s gaze and immediately rolled her eyes.
Jesse bit back a grin. He didn’t know who it was, but he liked her. Usually, women fell all over themselves for his brother. He looked back to Becket, only to see him chuckling again.
“Know her?” Jesse asked.
“That’s my jolly neighbor, Sky, who has an issue with my very existence.”
“Sky’s here?” Clara asked, looking over at the woman. Clara smiled at her, but that smile dropped as soon as she looked back at Becket. “What she has a problem with is your security camera that films her driveway.”
“Safety,” Becket cut in.
“And you cut down her tree,” Clara added.
“It impeded my view of the street, and I only cut what was on my side.”
Clara laughed. “Liar. You forget I saw the original state of that tree, and after your little trimming fest, there was barely any tree left.”
Becket’s gaze returned to Sky. “Like I said…safety.”
