Chapter 2
Joshua
I’d tried to warn her about Billy and to no avail.
Halfway through those thirty minutes, Billy decided to let one rip, and the cab filled with a noxious gas that could’ve choked a cow.
“Oh, my god,” Eve said, and gagged. She rolled down her window and let in the baked Texas air. It didn’t do much to get rid of the smell. “Oh, my good god.”
“I did warn you,” I replied, then burst out laughing.
She joined me, her laugh tinkling through the cab of the truck and lifting the mood through the roof. Eve had to be one of the most beautiful women I’d seen, and I’d seen plenty. At one point, I’d rubbed elbows with actors and models.
She glowed from the inside out. One of her straps had slipped down her arm, and I longed to fix it for her. I kept my hands to myself. I didn’t want to freak her out.
“Sorry about the smell,” I said and barely held back another bout of laughter.
“I asked for it. That goat might actually be cute enough to lessen the sting in my nostrils,” she replied.
Eve’s attitude was a breath of fresh air. I’d moved back to Hope Creek a year ago but before that it’d been Ivy League schools, business, and parties. All the eligible women I’d met had been snobbish or rude or after one thing. Money.
“Here we are,” Eve said, and pointed over the steering wheel at the sign for Heather’s Forge. “Why does every town around here sound like it was named after a female settler?”
“Maybe they were.” Billy shimmied in my lap, and I offered up a silent prayer that he wouldn’t crap on my leg.
The heat poured through the cab and wafted the goat’s smell out of the window. It also brought a new scent with it. The smell of grass and dirt, and something else. A floral scent that definitely wasn’t indigenous to this area.
It was her. Eve. “I can’t thank you enough for this,” I said. “I’d have been in a load of trouble if you hadn’t turned up earlier.”
“Thank me once you’ve been to the hospital and checked you’re not injured. I almost killed you.”
“I know,” I said. “But I’ll let it slide this time. Just don’t let it happen again.”
My momma would’ve called it a tug of destiny. Dad would’ve called it indigestion, then slapped me upside the head for being an idiot and too emotional.
Eve steered the truck down the main street in Heather’s Forge, past glass-front stores and a retro-styled diner. She studied everything, gaze flicking over the trees that separated the lanes of traffic, to the pitted tar of the street itself.
“They’re all quaint,” she muttered.
“What was that?”
“Oh,” she said, and blushed. “Nothing. It’s just that everything around here is so quaint and sweet. It’s not what I expected.”
“You’re not from around here, are you?”
She shook her head but didn’t offer up an explanation. I didn’t press the issue, and Billy chose that moment to bleat and struggle against my arms, anyway. “Shush, shush, almost there, little guy.”
“Where are you meeting the – uh, the goat owner?” Eve asked.
“Right, in front of the church,” I said. “Down Church Street.”
“Of course,” she laughed. We turned and the truck rumbled down the road.
Heat rose from the sidewalk in a haze, and the church reared up behind the stone wall just off it. Another beat-up truck, a dusty black Nissan, was parked in front of it, and George leaned against the grill, peak cap pulled low.
Eve pulled into one of the parking lots beside him, and he looked up from his newspaper. “There you are,” he said.
I spared Eve a nod and a grin, then opened up the door and got out.
“Boy, you’re always half-naked,” George said, and strode forward. He clapped me on the back, then shook my hand. “Hot as hell, ain’t it?”
“Hotter than,” I replied.
“You’ve got my goat, I see.” George took Billy and tickled under his chin. The kid relaxed against his new owner’s chest. George had always had a way with animals. His ranch had some of the happiest critters in the county, and the old man had taken advantage of that by creating a petting zoo for the local kids. “He get enough to eat and drink on the way over? You took a while.”
“Yeah, I ran into some trouble along the way,” I said. “I’m sure Jenn will be happy to see Billy. Tell her Happy Birthday for me.”
A door slammed, and Eve walked around the back of her Ford.
George’s jaw dropped. “Well, I’ll be,” he said, under his breath. “I see what you mean by trouble.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Sure, it’s not, Joshua,” George laughed.
“She damn near killed me by running into my truck when I ran out of gas.”
“Probably the most excitement you’d seen in a long time.” George chuckled again.
Eve approached, her cheeks pink and totally kissable. “Hi,” she said, and smiled at George.
“Hello there, ma’am,” George said, and swept his hat off his head. Billy the Kid bleated.
“Eve, this is my pal, George. He owns a ranch just outside of Heather’s Forge,” I said, and gestured to him.
“Pleasure,” Eve said, and shook his hand.
“You new in town? Ain’t seen you around before.”
“Yeah, you could say that. I live over in Hope Creek, though.”
George puffed out his chest. “Ah, same as our boy, Joshua, here.”
Uh oh, here we go. This was the last thing I wanted. “Yeah, I –”
“Our Joshua here is the answer,” George said.
“He’s the answer?” Eve blinked.
Oh, boy, this wouldn’t embarrass me at all. “George, that’s not necessary.”
“The answer to everything. Josh did more for the folks in this town than anyone else. He’s our sliced bread. You could do far worse than him,” George said and slapped me on the back again.
I wasn’t easily embarrassed but George sure made a good case. “That’s enough,” I said, and patted him on the back, too. I squeezed his shoulder and tightened my grip. “George likes exaggerating.”
The old man chortled, then backed off. “Fine, fine, I won’t humiliate you. I’m just a fan is all. You’ve done a lot for this town, Joshua Jackson, and no one’s in a rush to forget it any time soon.”
I didn’t have much of an answer for that, and the look on Eve’s face stalled any reply I might’ve had. She scrutinized me from head to toe. I had the urge to put my damn shirt back on.
A shrill whistle broke the tension.
I searched for the source, stifling a groan.
“That you, Joshua?” An elderly woman waved from across the street. She hefted a massive handbag, then scuttled toward me. “I thought it was you. You haven’t been in Heather’s Forge for an age. What happened?”
“Just been out on the ranch, Mrs. Beaumont,” I replied. She was the biggest gossip in Heather’s Forge, and most of that gossip leaked right on over into Hope Creek. “Business isn’t going to take care of itself.”
“Oh, for sure, for sure,” she said, patting her blond beehive. “Wouldn’t kill you to visit or call once in a while, though.” She finally spotted Eve and homed in on her like a shark that had smelled blood in the water. “And who’s this?”
“Eve,” I said. I couldn’t offer a last name, unfortunately.
“Eve Waters,” she said, and extended a hand to Mrs. Beaumont.
It was a miracle the old woman didn’t snap it off. She didn’t take it, for one. “Eve Waters,” she said, and busied herself extracting a compact from her handbag. She snapped it open and a puff of rose pink powder rose from it. “You’re not from around here. Waters isn’t any local name I’ve heard of.”
George had already shrunk back and taken Billy the Kid with him. He dropped the gas can in the back of the truck and slinked away. No one in Heather’s Forge dared step on Mrs. Beaumont’s bad side. Grown men and women were afraid of the power she seemingly possessed, hidden behind the frail exterior of an avid knitter and PTA member.
“I just moved from New York,” Eve said and tucked her hands behind her back. She was radiant in that summer dress, her skin bronzed and kissed by the sun. “Well, about a month ago.”
“Alone?” Mrs. Beaumont asked.
“We should probably get going,” I said. “It’s getting late.”
“Yes, alone,” Eve replied.
“Where do you work, dear?”
“I’m a chef,” she said. “I’m currently at the Cowboys n’ Cuts Restaurant.”
When had this become a game of twenty questions? George had already clambered into the cab of his truck with Billy. I waved at him, and he gave me a shrug in return. So much for help there. Once Beaumont had selected a track, she barreled down it full speed.
“Cowboys n’ Cuts? That must be a step down for you.”
“It’s a change,” Eve said, and she stiffened. Perhaps, the old woman had hit a soft spot but she hadn’t backed down from the challenge the elderly woman had extended. I admired that. Most folks crumpled in front of that beady-eyed gaze.
“What made you leave?” Mrs. Beaumont returned her compact to her bag, makeup successfully reapplied and looking no different. “Man trouble?”
If Eve had been stiff before, she was a washboard now. “I’d rather not discuss that,” she said. “It was nice meeting you, though.”
“Have a good day, Mrs. Beaumont,” I said and walked past her to Eve’s side.
“You’re going, too, Joshua?” She simpered. “You’ve barely arrived. My granddaughter has been asking after you. I said I’d talk to you about fixing her plumbing.”
I cringed inwardly. “Another time, perhaps. Have a good one.” I sauntered around to the passenger side of the truck, then stripped off my shirt and put it on properly. I’d felt like a total ass, standing half-naked in the street.
I got into the cab and tugged on my seatbelt.
Eve followed a second later and did the same. She inserted the keys into the ignition, then checked her blind spots.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said. “Mrs. Beaumont is a little enthusiastic.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” she replied and reversed out of the spot. Mrs. Beaumont hadn’t moved a muscle. She narrowed her eyes at the back of the truck, and sweat crept down my neck. I’d spent the better part of the year avoiding her open attempts to get me to date her granddaughter.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to find a person to settle down with, quite the opposite, actually. I just hadn’t found a woman who took me for me. Everyone in these small towns seemed to be looking for a way out.
We drove out onto the back road with the setting sun at our backs, and Eve stifled a yawn. “Ugh, tired,” she muttered.
“I know. It’s been a long day of goat chauffeuring,” I said. “Glad you decided to take me up on my offer.”
“Are you kidding? I couldn’t let Billy sweat it out on the side of the road. Besides, it seemed like the better way to repay my debt, even though it doesn’t seem fair.” She laughed but the joy from earlier was lost. Perhaps, Mrs. Beaumont’s chatter about her past had sucked it out of her.
“My truck should be up ahead. You can drop me off up here.” Eve pulled next to my rebuilt truck and flicked on the high beams to light up the road and my damaged truck. “Listen, my ranch is about a mile from here. A hell of a lot closer than town. Why don’t you follow me back to my place?”
“No way!” she quickly replied. “Is this all part of your idea of how I’m going to repay you?”
“Exactly. That’s what I do; I sit on the side of the road, waiting for an attractive woman to show up and run over me.” I shook my head and smiled at her. “Seriously, Eve. Let me cook you dinner. You can stay the night and not have to deal with the long drive back to town.”
“What?” Her foot slipped on the gas and the truck jerked onto the gravel road, lurching toward the truck and she quickly hit the brake. “Shit, sorry.”
“I’ve got plenty of guestrooms for you to choose from. They’ve all got en suite bathrooms with Jacuzzis.”
“You’re kidding,” she said.
“Yeah, I am. But they do have huge bathtubs. And I make a mean enchilada. What do you say?”
She bit her lip.
I lost my breath, waiting on the answer. It was dumb; she was just a woman, albeit a beautiful, strong one, who’d helped me out of a tough situation.
“Okay,” she said. “Yeah, I guess that’s okay. But I’ve got to be at work early tomorrow.”
“Perfect. That won’t be a problem.”
I hopped out of the truck and refilled the tank with the small container of gas that George had given me. A few minutes later, we were on our way.