“Yeah? Why can’t you read my mind when it’s sayingfuck off, Jace?”
“Oh, I can.” He wanders over and sits down on the newly assembled bed, close to me, like we’re having an important heart-to-heart.
“You really could’ve lectured me from the other side of the room,” I inform him.
“I get it, okay? You’re a fucking grump, you’re jaded, you’re guarded. And maybe you have reason to be all those things. But what’re you gonna do, just renovate your castle tower, build the walls up nice and high, pimp out this bedroom, for what ... yourself?”
“That was the plan.”
“It’s a stupid plan, man.”
I sigh.
I know I might as well tell him. Jace is a magnet for gossip, worse than all the old ladies in the local knitting circle and the jam and jelly club combined. The only reason he hasn’t heard anything yet is that he’s been up on the third floor of my house all day installing wainscoting and the new bed frame.
The moment he leaves the house, or maybe checks his texts, he’ll get the scoop, I’m sure.
“Alright. Fuck. When I stopped off at Bev and Bill’s on my supply run this morning,” I tell him, concentrating on my work, “Bev was in, and she asked me if I’d heard about what was going on at Pier Seven. She said she heard a rumor from a farmhand over at June Spencer’s that someone from the city was opening up a pop-up shop there.”
“Uh-huh. And you thinkIgossip.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “I’ve heard you and Bev have an ongoing text conversation absolutely loaded with conspiracy theories.”
“So?”
“So, she’s a fifty-seven-year-old woman who runs the local general store with her husband. You have literally nothing in common except your bloodlust for other people’s private business.”
“That’s an important commonality.” He picks up a bottle of water and chugs half of it as I just shake my head.
“Well, Bev said she dropped into Pier Seven this morning to take a look, and there was a woman setting up with red streaks in her hair and tattoos. Definitely not local. You know Bev knows everyone.”
“Huh. Sounds potentially hot. Did you see her?”
“You’re missing the point. Bev asked her who owned the pop-up shop, and she said a woman named Sierra.”
I leave out the part about how, after talking to Bev, I came straight home to confront Sierra, and when I found her gone, I took her suitcase over to Pier Seven intending to leave it there for her—but found her and her employee out front and made a giant scene instead.
I really don’t need Jace telling me I overreacted.
I did not overreact. There’s no telling what Sierra Daniels is capable of, and Layne already told me that she met Kaylie and my grandpa in my kitchen.
I feel like a fucking fool bringing that woman into my house.
“Okay,” Jace says. “And judging by the look on your face, this is not good, because ...?”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been negotiating with June formonthsto buy that damn building. Which my parents were negotiating for months before that.” Jace frowns. I try to ignore it, but my irritation is creeping up. “There was aplan. The next step inthat plan was that we’d run our pop-up there this month, leading up to Sunshine Fest. It was a fucking given.”
Jace cocks an eyebrow. “Was it?”
“And now June leases out the building to someone else, without telling me? It’s fucking bullshit.”
“So, talk to her about it. Maybe there was a misunderstanding.”
“Right. How can I trust a word that woman says now?”
“Who? Sierra or June?”
“Both.”
