“That’s a great idea.Do you have any flower preferences?”
“No, please just do your thing.I know whatever you make will be beautiful.”
“Thank you.Size?”
“Whatever you think.It’s going on a long, beat-up dining table that seats twelve.Nothing too over the top, I guess, but I trust your judgement.”
“Great.I’ve got some ideas already.”
She shifted her daughter on her hip, pulled a credit card from her pocket, and handed it to me as she spun to see what had just fallen and shattered on the floor.“And ring up that cactus and the clay pot my son just dumped on your floor.I’m so sorry.”She turned back toward me, wincing.“I’d offer to clean it up, but if I put Mira down the mess will only get bigger.”
“No worries.I haven’t sold a cactus in ages.It’s on the house.”
Everlea and the kids left, and after I cleaned and swept up the mess, I grabbed my wallet from my purse under the counter.
“Watch the store for a few minutes for me, Gran?I’m gonna run down the street and grab a snack.”
“Those sugary candies are gonna ruin your teeth,” Gran said like I was Mira’s age as I ducked out the front door and headed up Main Street.
The August sun was hot on my face, but a cool breeze whispered down from the Tetons and soothed the heat.Walking beneath Your Local Bookie’s awning, I waved through the window at my fellow small-business owner, Aubrey, and let the cool shade rush around me for a second.
It seemed funny because it hadn’t occurred to me until he arrived back in town, but ties to Dixon were everywhere.Aubrey married Rye Graves, who was co-owner of Spitfire Ranch with Dixon’s brothers, Bax and Brand.The sheriff was his little sister, and Deputy Roxi was Dixon’s sister-in-law.It felt like I couldn’t throw a rock in Wisper without hitting someone related to Dixon somehow.
And when I made my way up to Henly’s and pulled open the door to get my candy fix, the man himself stood there, blocking the entrance, his body like a big boulder in my way, emanating heat that canceled out the gust of frigid, conditioned air rushing out of the store.
An intensity pulsed around Dixon, and it made me press the tips of my toes to the sidewalk beneath my feet, like somehow it grounded me and made me less likely to fall for him.He wore a pair of Ray-Ban knockoffs so I couldn’t see his piercing blue eyes, but my memory of them had always been clear in my mind.
“Hi again,” I said.
He nodded and stepped back to hold the door open for me, and I passed by him, trying not to feel the heat from his body on my bare arm and thinking I should’ve worn a long-sleeved shirt instead of a tank top, but that was silly.In the middle of August?
Dixon still carried the bouquet he’d bought, and now I noticed the backpack slung over his shoulder.Was that the only possession he’d brought with him when he rolled back into town?But he had to have a truck or something somewhere with the rest of his stuff, right?Surely, one backpack wasn’t big enough to carry everything he owned.
“Avery Jane,” Mr.Henly greeted me from behind the counter, which still looked like we were living in 1987, with little cardboard boxes on top filled with Snickers and Milky Way bars.The only difference now was that they cost a dollar fifty instead of fifty cents.“I suspected I might be seein’ you today.I’ve got your candies right here.”
“Still like Smarties?”Dixon asked quietly, and the corner of his lips tipped up into a little half-smile.
That stopped me in my tracks.He remembered my favorite candy?And how dare he smile at me like that?Something about the curve of those lips made me lose all the grounding I’d just been doing, and I felt like I might fall over like a plank of wood.
“Sweet Tooth AJ strikes again,” he said, and he walked out the door and disappeared down the street.
ChapterFive
Dixon
“Nice truck,”I said as my sister drove us toward the farm I’d grown up on.
Although, the fleece farm our old man had started before Bax was born had become nothing more than a memory.My brothers and their friend, Rye, had turned it into a cattle ranch, and my family ran a cabin rental business on the property now too.
“Comes with the job,” Abey said as she pulled to the shoulder of Old Fish Creek Road and flicked on her hazards, though there wasn’t a lot of traffic on these old ranch roads on a Tuesday in the middle of prime work hours, with the sun high in the sky.“Why are you here?”she asked, turning in her seat to face me.
Fair question.
“I wanna see him.”
“Stuey?”
I nodded.Who else?
