I was the fool.
Attempting to roll over in bed, I’m met with the resistance that is Gus. A year ago, shortly after the disaster that was Karlie, I adopted Gus. At the time he was a pup, looking up at me from a small pen with those big puppy eyes of his. He looked exactly how I felt, sad.
I couldn’t walk away and leave him there. I felt like he was meant to be mine.
We bonded in that interaction, and the decision was made. Gus was going home with me.
Now a year later, I had a one-hundred-and-thirty-nine-pound St. Bernard and felt like my home was more his than mine. I’ve tried to keep him off my bed, off my furniture, but Gus was determined to act like a human. What was good for me he felt was good for him too.
Stubborn and adventurous, he had no problem wandering off sometimes ending up over on the neighboring land that belong to a good friend Grady Jackson. I think Grady’s little girl loved finding Gus pawing at their back door on weekends. It was like he’d made a friend and was going over to play.
The problem with him sharing my bed with me was he was a bed hog. I’d never seen a dog sprawl out the way he did. Whether on his back or stomach he took up every inch he could and that meant most of the time that left me with very little room to move.
“Bone,” I said, and within seconds he was up off the bed, pouncing around barking as if to say, come on now, don’t tease me. It was the fastest way to get him moving. Peanut butter bones, or his toy monkey with roped arms and legs, those were his favorites. Toss either of those two around, and he was moving without hesitation.
My bare feet padded against the hardwood floor as I walked down the hallway to the kitchen. Everything in my house still smelled new. I bought the land that only had a small one bedroom home on it. The place was in desperate need of some TLC, but I lived in it, while my cabin was being built. I’d work any shift I could at the station, and on the side, I’d created quite a name for myself. Quickly I’d become what is now known around Mason Creek as the handyman. You name it, I’ve done it. It was a great way to gain the extra cash I needed to finish my home.
Four months, that’s how long it’s been since I moved into the place I knew I’d call my forever home. It had everything I could ever want.
The day after I moved into the cabin, I started redoing the small one bedroom cottage. Now after the last shutter had been hung and the porch swing was mounted, it was ready to rent. Just another source of income that would pay off the debt of adding every amenity into my massive home.
I’ve tried to talk my mother into moving in, I’d have her close and she could live there for free. But she was stubborn, she wouldn’t leave the house her and my father shared. It held a lifetime of memories and after he’d passed it was all she had left of him. That, and her boys, the spitting image of the man she’d spent her life loving.
My brother was there with her now, yet he was a mess. Even at twenty-two you’d swear Will was a hormone driven fifteen-year-old boy. He thought with his dick, and it got him into a heap of trouble almost daily.
I wasn’t sure he’d ever truly grow up.
Chapter Four
Sadie
* * *
“Are you comfortable?” I could already tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t.
“Yeah,” my mother mumbled, followed by a wince when she tried to shift her weight.
Arching my brow, I stared at her and she smiled.
“You’ve never been a good liar.”
“Because I’m too pure of heart.”
“You’re rotten,” I said, leaning forward I kissed my mother’s cheek and tried once more to readjust the pillow at her side. “I wish there was something I could do for you though.”
“You being here is helping,” she replied, placing her hand on my arm. I paused and let out a slow frustrated breath. I hated seeing my mother in this state. She had always been so active. Always determined, which was exactly how she ended up with a broken hip in the first place. Instead of asking for help getting some large boxes of vases off a top shelf she tried doing it herself.
Needless to say, the vases did not survive, and her hip may take six months to a year to fully recover. She could move, but very little. She was miserable which was killing me. I wished more than anything I could take her pain away.
“You need to stop worrying about me.”
Like that was going to happen.
“Miley will be opening the shop soon and you need to be there, not here.” I hated leaving her. “I trust her, but she is still new and I know you’ve been away, but if there is anyone who can run the shop in my absence, it's you. Blossom’s is my baby.” Her smile widened. “Well, it's my other baby and I’d be better knowing you’re there keeping everything moving smoothly.”
I began to argue but of course, my stubborn and strong-willed mother lifted up her hand and I immediately pressed my lips tightly together.
"Besides Granny Char will be here soon and you know with her there won't be many ways I can hurt myself. I'd be surprised if she allowed me to go to the restroom alone." Her statement couldn't be closer to the truth. Gran was more overbearing and more of a control freak than my father. The apple didn't fall far from the tree there. God love her but she was without a doubt one very difficult lady to handle. If you planned on having things your way, well you better just throw that ridiculous idea right out the window if Gran was nearby. That woman ran the show, always had, always would and she would have it no other way. And you’d be a fool to challenge her.
"You do know if you are still here when she gets here, you'll be forced to tell her detail for detail about the last five years of your life. Then you'll spend the following two to three hours listening to all the ways you could have done better."
The idea of rehashing my life made me cringe. "Okay, I'll go but if you need anything, you better call me."
"I will," she insisted, yet I knew it was simply a way to get me moving out the door. I came from a long line of independent, stubborn as hell women.
During the ride back to town I couldn't help my mind from wandering back to the interaction I had with Wyatt. Saying I hated him would be a little harsh, but the annoyance from many years ago was still there. We were young, I would give him that, but it was what happened after he stood me up that lingered in my mind.
I was humiliated, and not just once.
All my friends immediately wanted to know how the date with the hot football player went. They were so giddy and curious and then it all blew up. Wyatt pulled up in his lifted truck and out climbed a blonde, wearing a short skirt, and tight shirt. I said nothing as all my friends watched with eyes wide and their mouths hanging open in shock. When Wyatt grabbed the girl around the waist and pulled her to his front she lifted up and kissed him for everyone to see, I shrunk back and became even more invisible.
He was just like all the other guys, self-absorbed and arrogant.
From that point on, I kept my head down and counted down the days to when I could leave behind all the small-minded men of Mason Creek.
* * *
I was back home and being forced to remember all of those embarrassing times I’d hoped I’d never have to revisit.