If he hadn’t lived three doors down from Beth, she would have never spoken to him, they never would have married or had three beautiful children. His own mother kidded him that some folks love ugly dogs and Beth must have been a girl who loved ugly men. Lucky for him he was the first one who came along, or she might have married one of the Brigger boys. Some say when the first Brigger was born, he was so homely the midwife tried to push him back in.
Jesse’s people were all tall and thin with hair that went every direction. From the time he started school, he thought his arms and legs were too long and his ears too big. His mother used to say the Lord made the Keaton men out of spare parts but they balanced it with strong hearts. She’d teased her one son, but she loved him almost as much as she loved her grandchildren.
His kids were blond like his wife had been. Angels with sky-blue eyes.
Jesse watched Adalee moving around in her bakery. She didn’t look like a witch, but then he’d never seen one. He’d asked around but the boys at the cattle auction didn’t seem to know much.
Adalee and her sister moved here about three years ago and opened a bakery. They didn’t mix with the locals except to do business. Willie said he saw the little sister dancing in the rain once but old Willie had been drunk since ’97, when his wife left him. One guy mentioned that the older sister was curvy, not the kind of stick figure like most girls in town.
As Jesse watched her, he saw that the man was right. Nice curves.
One of the cowhands said he saw the top button of the older sister’s shirt unbuttoned once, and he swore he saw the curled tail of a snake tattoo. He claimed if that snake went down between her cleavage it would have been crushed for sure.
Hell, the only real evidence Jesse had was that she’d bewitched him with her scones. If he ever saw that snake he’d become a believer. If he went to the sheriff with his theory, LeRoy would tell everyone Jesse finally went mad living out there with the grasshoppers.
Just because Jesse’s great-grandfather rode into town nude once when he was drunk, didn’t mean Jesse would do anything crazy. Jesse figured being homely was enough of a burden to bear.
* * *
At 6:31 a.m. Jesse climbed out, opened the back door, and lifted Sunny Lyn from her car seat so she could sleep on his shoulder. Zak woke Danny and they headed toward the bakery.
Jesse told himself if he hadn’t had the kids with him, he’d ask Adalee straight out what she put in the scones and then he’d tell her he was never eating another one of her addictive treats.
The baker smiled like she’d been expecting him. He took a deep breath and stepped forward as the heavenly smells slammed into his senses. Baked apples, chocolate pie, blueberry muffins, mixed with the smell of coffee. Jesse swore even his eyeballs were hungry.
“Morning, Mr. Keaton,” she said from behind the counter. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Everyone just calls me Jesse. How’d you know my name?” Mind reader, maybe? he almost said aloud.
“I asked someone when you left last week.” She smiled and winked. She had the greenest eyes he’d ever seen.
Jesse glanced back to see who she was winking at. There was no one behind him. He decided it hadn’t been a wink. Maybe she had a twitch.
He thought about saying “Morning,” but before he could, she handed him a scone.
“First customer gets to sample my newest scone, Jesse. Apple cinnamon.”
He knew she was trying to trick him somehow, but he couldn’t be rude. One bite. Well, two. Darn it, he ordered a dozen while he was still chewing.
As he ate he wondered which she’d make him do first, drain a wild animal of blood, dig up the dead, or be a sex slave, because he had to have another scone.
Then it dawned on him that all he had to do was buy them.
Sunny Lyn raised her head as the baker passed out free clear bags packed with six donut holes. The four-year-old patted the side of his head, indicating she wanted down, then ran to join her brothers at the table by the window.
For a moment he just stared at them as the first light of day shone on his sunshine children. Beth had named Sunny the moment she saw her light, almost white hair. An hour later Beth had been rushed into surgery with complications.
She never came back.
“You all right, mister?” Adalee asked, tipping her head sideways as if her ponytail was pulling her over.
“Jesse,” he offered again, liking the way she said his name.
“Are you all right, Jesse?” she corrected, as if those beautiful eyes could see all the way to his soul.
“No.” He pushed the past aside and forced himself into the present. “You’ve got me hooked on your scones.”
She laughed, then leaned over the counter closer to him, as if she was letting him in on a secret. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing down to see if one of her buttons was undone. No such luck and he felt like an idiot.
“My plan is to bewitch you.”
Jesse froze as she turned back to her work. The baker had just admitted it without him even asking. She must have read his thoughts. She knew he’d figured out that she’d put him under her spell.
When she looked up and winked again, a full-out wink this time, she whispered, “See you next week, Jesse.”
He was too shocked to talk. No woman had ever winked at him, and this one did it twice. Like she was doing it on purpose.
His mind was full of crops and chores and raising kids. He swore he didn’t have time to worry about one more thing. Now a bewitching baker had walked into his brain. She was probably still listening in on his thoughts. Facts would have to start falling out to make room for this new worry, because he could not hold much more.
“Do you want anything else?” She tilted her head again and the ponytail brushed her shoulder. “Half pumpkin and half apple cinnamon.” She passed him a box.
Jesse nodded and paid. She must have read his mind because he hadn’t said to mix them.
A gang of high school kids came in. Jesse watched her as she helped them. She didn’t wink at any of them. By the time they left, the town seemed to have come alive. People were rushing in, packing the place and filling the air with chatter.
Jesse walked out, holding Sunny while the boys darted around them. He was hooked and there was nothing he could do about it.
Saturday
Chapter 7
Marcie
A slow rain let morning sneak in wearing shades of watery blue and gray fog. Marcie sat up and studied the room as if it were a painting she’d accidentally stepped into. She had no idea how long ago Brand’s mother had died or when his sister left, but it must have been years. Nothing of them, or any other family, remained. Not a picture or trophy, nothing personal. The furniture was definitely picked out by a man, probably on Amazon where someone orders an entire room at once.
As she stood she saw books packed into every shelf. No TV or even a radio, but a new computer was in one corner. Brand Rodgers read in this room and maybe watched the fire or the weather, since no window had a shutter, blind, or curtain. There were stacks of paper and forgotten coffee cups around the desk.
It crossed her mind that there was no music in his life and the thought almost made her cry. He was a man who lived in silence.