Page 33 of Spiritwarrior

Jody rolled his behind her.

“How were things after Ginny and I left? Did business pick up?”

“No.” Rolling her cart to the meat department, she stared around before turning toward him. “Do you know where fatback is? I don’t know what it looks like, so I wouldn’t recognize it if I saw it.”

“I’ll show you.” He pointed to the meat cooler with bacon. “Fatback is over there.”

Heading over, he picked up several blocks to show her. “This is it.”

Sophie stared at them before taking them from him. “Thank you. I would have never found them.”

“You’re welcome.”

She wheeled her cart away, but he followed her.

“Ginny said she had a good time working at the restaurant. I think she gets bored staying at home all the time.”

“I like Ginny. She’s really nice.”

Jody had to hold back his laughter. “You’ve never seen her mad. When she is, you have to watch yourself. She believes in superstitions, and her paybacks are very creative.”

“That’s understandable. With as many brothers as she has, she needs to keep the element of surprise.”

“Once—”

“I’m sorry,” she cut him off, “but I need to finish shopping so I can get home. It’s been a long day.”

“Oh … okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

Jody wheeled his cart down an aisle as she went toward the dairy section. He was becoming disheartened. His soul mate couldn’t stand him, and he didn’t know how to regroup. She would come around, right? Theyweresoul mates. She had to at least be attracted to him. He knew he was by his body’s reaction to her. His star was aligned with hers in the sky; he had seen it for himself.

Jealousy still burned that Sophie had asked Ginny if Issac was dating anyone. He wasn’t used to being jealous of his brothers.

He made a sound under his breath. If she had a bad opinion of him, Issac was way worse.

He went up the cookie aisle so he could keep his eyes on the checkout aisle. He had picked out a couple boxes when he saw Sophie getting in line. Pulling his cart behind her, he waited to check out.

She hadn’t gotten as much as he’d thought she would. He remembered Ginny telling him she refused to let him shop for her because she didn’t want to borrow the money, so it was everything he could do not to tell her to turn her cart around and get what she needed.

He memorized the items she had bought as the checker bagged the groceries for her and wanted to disappear when the cashier turned a bright red and dropped the loaf of bread she had been about to bag.

“Sorry,” Betsy apologized to Sophie before turning a flirtatious glance on him. “Hi, Jody. I didn’t see you come in the store. What’s up?”

“Nothing much, just doing a little shopping,” he answered, wanting to back his cart out of the checkout lane.

Betsy picked up one of the bags of hashbrowns, holding it mid-air instead of bagging it as she continued talking with him. “I haven’t seen you since I dropped off those muffins I made for you.”

“Been busy,” he muttered, pointedly eyeing the hashbrowns.

“Oh …” Betsy turned redder. “Sorry.”

Plopping the hashbrowns in the bag, she quickly bagged the rest of Sophie’s groceries. He didn’t miss the disdainful way Sophie looked at him as she headed toward the door

He put up his groceries on the counter.

“I can make you some more if you want?” Betsy offered.

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