Page 89

“What are you guys doing up here?” asked a little voice.

“Hey, baby,” Esther said, reaching out an arm for Ruby, who walked over and snuggled right into her mother’s side. “Sunny was just showing us her father’s old office.”

“Wow! This is cool! This looks like the cop show you watch, Aunt Julie. Was your dad a detective?”

“No, but I guess he was trying to solve a mystery.”

“Aren’t we all, lass?” Bridget said.

“Yeah,” said Ruby in a serious tone. “Brian Denton in my class told me there was a monster in the woods behind the school, so we’ve been trying to figure it out. Maybe we should make a board like this one.”

“Brian Denton?” Esther asked.

“Yeah, he’s a big meanie.”

Esther just nodded.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Uncle Abe is getting the ice cream out of the freezer for the peach cobbler Julie brought. I was supposed to come get you guys.”

“Well, lead the way. If Julie’s peach cobbler is as good as her peach pie, we are in for quite a treat,” said Bridget as they left.

Esther stood there, shaking her head and murmuring “Brian Denton” as they walked out.

“Brian Denton is an eight-year-old boy, Esther.”

“I know, but boys grow up to be men.”

“Let’s go get some cobbler,” Sunny said as she gently pulled Esther out of the room. “Cobbler—and no cursing of children until they are actual men.”

Esther shrugged and followed her down the hall.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

ASHER

Asher sat at the barstool he had claimed as his own and watched Sunny tend to the busy bar.

Dusty was behind the bar with her, but Asher felt like helping out. But he was more than glad to sit here and glare at anyone who hit on Sunny. Was it the mature thing to do? Probably not. Did he trust Sunny? He trusted her not to cheat on him with any of these assholes.

When she had come back, he didn’t think he would ever be able to trust her again, but she’d been back for over a month. He was pretty much living at her house, which was in much better condition than it had been.

Yeah, they’d come a long way.

The door opened as Nox Whittaker walked in.

He glanced back at Sunny to see her response, but she was busy pouring drinks. He wasn’t sure why she’d had such a negative response to him. From what Asher could see, he had always been cool, was always active in the community, and also helped with repairs when the old Grayson place had been damaged by a mudslide.

But he knew Sunny enough to trust her and her intuition, so he wasn’t going to let him out of his sight when Sunny was around.

All the sudden, there was a screech of chairs and a burst of shouting. Asher turned and went to break up whatever was building.

“You think the coal company is ever going to do any good for the people living here? You’re fucking crazy! You’ve heard about the town where they’d been dumping waste, and now the whole town got cancer. Is that what you want here?” one man shouted as he had a hold of the other’s collar.

“Get the fuck off me!” yelled the other guys as he pushed him away. “I’ve been out of work for over a year. The coal company wants to give us jobs.”

“The fuck they do!”