Sinful Suspense Box Set (4 page)

Chapter 5

Tashlyn

I’d nearly missed the dented welcome sign as I crossed into Blackthorn Ridge. Just as Everly had promised, a sharp left and a two block stroll landed me directly in front of Gregor’s Market. The storefront looked more like a quaint old house, complete with a porch and blue bench to sit on. The only things to give away that it was a store and not a cozy home were the advertisements in the window. Today’s special, apparently, was Jane Yarden’s homemade boysenberry pie. The thought of fresh fruit pie only intensified my hunger pangs.

Everly came running out onto the porch. She had a smile that was so incredible, it made the scars seem insignificant. “You made it.” She raced down the steps and took hold of my duffle. “I worried you’d gotten lost. I’ve got a sandwich waiting for you.”

I followed her up the steps.

The inside of the store reminded me of the tiny market a mile outside of The Grog. Aunt Carly was pretty militant about us eating produce, eggs and bread made and grown locally by our neighbors, but occasionally, even she had a craving for potato chips and a frozen burrito. Of course, she’d lament for a week about her
fall from grace
, but it was still worth it.

A big man with an extraordinarily friendly face was standing behind the counter. He looked up and smiled. “So, your friend made it, huh, Ever? Landon Gregor, and welcome to Blackthorn Ridge.” He reached out a giant, slightly shaky hand. I shook it.

“Tashlyn Younglove, but, please, call me Tash.”

His brows raised in surprise as I told him my last name. I was used to the reaction, although his seemed a little stronger than most.

“Tash Younglove,” he said with a tilt of his head. He had snow white hair and blue eyes that sort of twinkled from behind his round cheeks. I hadn’t imagined the shake in his hand. I wondered if it was Parkinson’s or some other malady. “Both names are certainly original. I think I’ve only heard Younglove one other time.” He seemed to ponder that probability for a second and then his wide smile returned. “Well, I know Everly made you a sandwich.” He glanced at my duffle bag. “You look like a hungry, weary traveler. Are you just passing through?”

Everly huffed. “Uncle, I told you she’s staying here. I’ve invited her to stay with me.”

“Guess I wasn’t listening well. I thought she was only here a few days.” He looked at me as if he couldn’t figure out why the heck I would be staying in his town. It was the same reaction that I’d gotten from Jem Wolfe. I was beginning to wonder if the townsfolk were just really particular about letting strangers live in their town.

“That’s what we term as selective hearing, Uncle.” Everly motioned for me to follow her.

“Nice meeting you.” I nodded toward her uncle.

“You too. Enjoy your sandwich.”

Everly led me to three small round tables in a corner behind a pyramid shaped display of granola bars and snack foods. Everly tilted her head toward the geometric tower of boxes. “Impressive, huh? I was bored, so I got creative with the Nature’s Bounty snack food boxes.”

“Wow.” I reached down for a box at the bottom. “Oh, look, these are my favorites.”

She gasped.

I laughed. “Just kidding.”

“You got me. The good news is that we’ve been kind of slow today, so my uncle is going to let me have the evening off. That way we can walk out together and get you settled in at home.” She pointed to a table that had a brown wrapped sandwich and a drink. “I took a chance and picked cream soda.”

“Perfect. Thanks again for everything, Everly. And thanks for making me feel so welcome. That seems a little hard to come by out here.”

“Are you kidding? I should be thanking you. I’m thrilled to have someone new to talk to.” The front door opened just as she pulled out a chair for me to sit. Her gaze shot to the front of the store, and her bottom lip rolled as if she had sucked on a lemon. “Yuck, I hate it when those guys come in.”

I glanced toward the door. Two men, one with thinning hair and an amazingly long ponytail at the end of it, and one who was limping so profoundly it made my leg hurt just to look at him, stepped into the store. It took only seconds for them to spot Everly and me in the corner. The one with the ponytail grinned at us. Everly looked away. “Just ignore them. They’re just a couple of goons. My uncle will have them out of here fast.”

Right on cue, her uncle barked angry words at them. “You two, find what you need and be on your way. Don’t need you two milling about the store.”

The one with the limp smiled back at Landon Gregor. “We’re just here for some goods, Mr. Gregor. No need to be so inhospitable.” He said the retort in an almost sing song voice as if the whole exchange was merely a joke to him.

Everly drew my attention away from the front of the store by tapping the sandwich. “Eat and I’ll finish sweeping the stockroom so we can get out of here.”

“Right.” I opened the wrapper and took my first bite. My eyes watered, a testament to how good it tasted and how hungry I was. As I gobbled down the chicken salad sandwich, I watched the two questionable looking men fill their arms with beer and snacks. They carried their load up to the counter. More than once, they cast a creepy glance my direction. I feigned extreme interest in my sandwich to avoid their attention. Landon Gregor, who had seemed gentle and polite, morphed into a gruff grizzly bear as he rang up their purchase. His mouth was pulled tight, and he refused to look them in the eye as he grunted out the total. They were obviously two unpleasant characters, people to avoid. Like the Wolfe brothers, as Everly had warned me.

My brief encounter with the Wolfe brothers had been unexpected and alarming, but Jem had helped me up to the road. His sharp turn of temperament, when he heard I was staying, had changed my first impression of him. Now, it seemed, I had more people to avoid. At least I’d found what seemed to be a genuine friend in Everly. And if her chicken salad was any indication of her cooking, then my move to Blackthorn Ridge was looking up.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out a blank postcard. I’d had a stack of them printed with Aunt Carly’s address, and she’d pasted a stamp on every one so I wouldn’t have any excuse not to send one each day. The fronts of the cards were vintage pictures of Victorian women in big, frilly hats. My aunt was a hat collector, so I’d decided they were the perfect choice.

I pulled out my pen. “Aunt Carly, I’m in Blackthorn Ridge, and I’ve already met a fantastic person. Her name is Everly and she’s a lot of fun. A good aura, as you would say. I’ll be staying with her. I’ll send you an address when I have it. Carly, I can feel it. This was the right place to start. Kiss Buckley for me and give him an extra rawhide treat from me. I’ll write again. Love, Tash.”

The store owner’s scowl followed the two men out the door. His kind smile returned the second the door shut behind them.

Everly was removing her apron as she walked out from the backroom. “Was it good?”

“Magical, if that’s a possible adjective for a chicken salad sandwich.”

“It’s all about the pickles. This lady, Bernie”—she nodded—“yes, it’s a funny name for a woman. Anyhow, she makes the best dill pickles. Homemade. They are the secret ingredient.” She hung her apron over a hook on the wall. “Are you ready to go? I’ll bet you’re tired.”

“I am.” I held up the postcard. “Mailbox?”

“There’s one on the way home.” She picked up my duffle. “Let’s go, roomy.”

Her uncle waved good-bye, and we walked out. “He’s wonderful, Everly.”

“Yeah, I’m lucky I have him. Especially with my mom always on the mend and all. Sure wish the doctors could figure out why he’s shaking all the time. One actually had the nerve to tell him it was all in his head.”

“That’s too bad. I noticed it right away.” We hopped down the steps. Nightfall had lowered the temperature a good twenty degrees. Late summer was peeling away, and the crackling colors and temperatures of autumn could be seen around the edges. We passed several small shops, including a fabric store and one that looked to be bursting with old books. Alice in Bookland was painted in green and white letters across the window. I stopped to gaze through the dusty pane.

Everly walked up next to me. “This is a cool store if you like to browse old books and newspapers. Alice is this unique old lady who has lived here her whole life. Her husband died in a logging accident about thirty years ago, but she stuck it out. She’s kind of a hoarder.” Everly lowered her voice as if the woman, Alice, was listening. “There is definitely an order to her madness though. She has everything organized by date, even all the books. If you ever want to read about an old news event in this area, Alice is your go to source.”

My heart gave a little skip. “Yes, I would. Can you introduce me?” I tried to push the enthusiasm from my tone not wanting to bring on too many questions. Everly knew I wasn’t just here to file folders at a sawmill, but there were so many things I wasn’t ready to tell her.

“Absolutely.” We walked along a sidewalk that was mostly just patches of cement placed haphazardly in gravel and dirt. Yellow lights flickered over ramshackle porches casting an uneven glow out over the tiny yards. Most of the houses were plain stucco squares with only wood shingle roofs and shutters to give them any character. But the towering lilac colored mountains, dotted with tall evergreens, provided the perfect backdrop to make the shabby little houses look as if they belonged in a painting. Even though it was still late summer and the true cool temperatures of fall hadn’t circled through the town yet, there were thin, white fingers of smoke curling out of some of the brick chimneys, adding to the town’s almost storybook ambience. In this setting, on a quiet night under a cheery blanket of stars, it was hard to understand how someone had come to name it Blackthorn Ridge. It seemed such a grim sounding name for the charming little town.

Everly pointed ahead. “If you keep walking down this street, you’ll come to the end of the town. My mom used to say if you blinked on your way through town, you’d miss the whole darn thing. Milly’s Diner is at the end. She’s the last stop on the way out, and the first stop on the way in—depending which way you’re traveling. Sometimes the southern freeway is blocked with traffic or an accident, and the truck drivers come this way. They always know all the secret shortcuts. The diner is a big favorite of the truck drivers. And for good reason—Milly’s chicken fried steak is the best in the world, at least in my opinion and according to the truck drivers passing through. And those guys would know.”

We stopped before turning the corner. Milly’s had a big neon arrow, the brightest light on the entire street, pointing down at the red roof of the diner. Two eighteen wheelers sat in the parking lot. I briefly wondered if my dad had ever stopped in at Milly’s. He loved chicken fried steak and any other kind of food you could drown in gravy or ketchup.

Everly motioned that we were turning the corner. “Those brothers, the Wolfe brothers that I told you about, they live right next to the diner. According to my uncle, they never bought the house. No one wanted it after the original owner died years ago. It is so close to the diner, the trucks rattle the house when they fire up their engines. And I guess you can smell all the food coming from the restaurant. Which is fine when you’re in there to eat breakfast or lunch, but all day might get kind of nauseating.”

We walked on. “I met them,” I said hesitantly. “I met the Wolfe brothers.”

She stopped. “You did? Where?”

I decided not to go into detail. “They rode by while I was out at Phantom Curve. Jem seemed all right. He asked if I needed a ride.”

A curt laugh shot from her mouth. “I’ll bet he did. That boy is slick when it comes to women. Just don’t get taken in by those good looks. He’s not just trouble with a capital T. The whole damn word needs be capitalized when it comes to Jem Wolfe.”

“How do you know for sure? I thought your uncle didn’t let you associate with them.” I had no idea why I was defending him.

Everly looked slightly taken aback. “He doesn’t, and that’s because he knows Jem and Dane and their awful dad, Alcott. And I know my uncle. If he doesn’t trust them, then that’s good enough for me.”

“Yes, of course. Sorry I questioned you. I didn’t mean it. I’m sure there’s plenty of evidence to support his bad reputation.” A topic change was needed. “So, you said there’s a guy you like. Finn, was it?”

“Yes. In fact, he works on the water with Jem. They sort the logs out on the river.” She grew quiet for a second. “To be honest, Finn says that Jem isn’t as bad as everyone thinks. And I do trust Finn’s opinion too. It’s getting chilly.” She swung my duffle bag back and forth as we picked up our pace. “If only I could sway Finn’s opinion about me. He considers me a friend, but I want more. But it’s hard for him, and I can’t blame him. The scars are hard to look at.”

I’d changed the topic, but this one was far more difficult. “Everly, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, but I can tell you, just a few minutes after we met, I forgot about the scars. You are so much fun to be around, and you’re kind and generous and smart and extremely pretty. I just know if you give him the chance, he’ll be able to look past the scars.”

“You’re sweet, Tash.” She sighed wistfully. “What about you? You must have left behind at least one grieving heart back home.”

I thought about Cormac back home in The Grog. I doubted his heart was grieving any more than mine. “There
was
someone, but our hearts weren’t really connected. It started as a crush. I was nineteen and he was a grad student at a nearby college, an older man of twenty-four. He had long hair and he was an amazing painter and he’d philosophize about all kinds of stuff. I’d listen to him raptly as he talked about all his theories on life. Later, I realized the attraction was purely physical. He was handsome with a nice set of shoulders and the tightest, most perfect ass in a pair of jeans.”

Everly laughed so hard she tripped on a crack in the uneven sidewalk. I grabbed hold of her arm to keep her from falling face first. “I knew we’d get along perfectly,” she said as she caught her breath.