“Me? You were under there with its nest. You probably have spider eggs in your hair.”
“Nice,” Maverick snapped at him.
“Hey, she crawled under there. And all because she was feeding a damn dog, tempting him to stay at my house.”
“I wasn’t tempting him to stay anywhere!” I snapped. “He was always sitting outside your house, so I brought him food.”
“Bring it in front of your own house,” Tennessee snapped.
“Okay, I can see this friendly neighborhood dispute is only going to escalate. Josie, how about you…” His eyes trailed up and down my body before he winced at the state of my body. “Take a nice, hot shower. I’m sure you’ll feel better when you don’t feel like a dirt pile.”
“Fine, but tell him to take care of Milo.”
“Who the hell is Milo?” Tennessee asked.
“Your dog!”
“He’s not my dog. Just because he wandered onto my property doesn’t make him my dog.”
I started forward, but Maverick put both hands up, stopping me from making a move to seriously hurt the man in front of me.
“Alright, darlin’. Now, we can all see that you’re upset. The whole neighborhood is watching,” he stressed.
I finally tore my eyes from my unruly neighbor and looked around at the various people lining the streets, not daring to get any closer in case the crazy apothecary lady lost it and put a hex on all of them.
“Maybe you should go home and get cleaned up.”
“Right,” I nodded.
“And put on some cheery music. It’s not like you to yell at anyone.”
“Well, I haven’t had my tea today.”
He smiled kindly at me, pressing his hand gently to my shoulder. “See? A nice cup of tea will solve everything.”
The tension in my body started to relax as he walked me back to my house. Right, a hot shower and a cup of tea would make everything better. I just had to scrub every inch of my body, wash my hair a thousand times, and drink at least three cups of herbal tea. Then I might feel normal.
“Okay,” he chuckled. “All good now?”
Giving him my best smile, I tried not to be too embarrassed about my freakout. After all, I really could have been killed by the massive spider hiding under the porch.
“Thanks, Sheriff.”
“Anytime.”
I climbed the steps to my house and walked inside. Sawyer was just walking down the hall, rubbing his eyes.
“What the hell happened to you?”
9
JR
The moment I stepped outside,that damn dog was waiting for me. It had been like this for two weeks now, and not once had I fed him.
Yet, he kept coming around.
“Go away.”
