Page 31 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Grabbing my duffel bag, I heaved it upstairs and brought it to Haven’s room. I hadn’t meant to take over here, but now that Jessie had crashed the place, he might as well have the guest room. The living room would be uninhabitable if he built a nest in there for long, and we had a lot of work to do.
I threw on jeans and a striped sweater with a loose collar, trying to forget that Jessie loved this top on me. It was comfortable. It had nothing to do with keeping his eyes glued on me all morning.
Maybe I should change again.
The sound of raised voices downstairs ripped that intention from my mind. I wasn’t exactly sure what the problem was with Jessie and Abby today. Normally they got along great.More uncharacteristic behavior.The thought made my steps slow on the landing. Did Abby know what was happening with Jessie?
“What are you doing here, Abby?” I heard Jessie’s low voice from the breakfast nook.
“Just helping.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said.
Yeah, eavesdropping was lowdown and dirty, but that didn’t stop me from trying to figure this out. I kept my approach quiet. It could be more of Abby having to deal with their drunk dad, or something else altogether.
“You know if you need me to… step in,” Jessie said, “you just have to say… but I need you to talk to me.”
Well that speech sounded familiar—the little hypocrite was doing the same thing to me by keeping me in the dark. Was Jessie hiding something or did he think he had to carry the whole world on his shoulders? What was his real problem?
Abby shifted. “I don’t have anything to say,” she hissed back. “Stay out of my business.”
“You made it mine.” Jessie groaned and raised his voice, “Roxy, you can come in. You’re not interrupting anything.”
How did he always know when I was nearby? I rolled my eyes and shoved into the breakfast nook. “Sounds like you and Abby have a lot in common,” I muttered. Yeah, I was being passive-aggressive, but that was all I had nowadays.
Abby jumped back, looking guilty.
My hands found their way to another donut.
“I like this outfit too,” Jessie said behind me. The serious tone he’d used with his sister was gone and once again he was changing the subject.
I swung around, feeling myself blush to the roots of my hair. “You know what? I can see you have a lot of energy to burn. If you’re going to help out, I’m going to need your muscle.”
He downed the chocolate milk in his glass in one gulp. “You’ve got it.”
I still didn’t know what he was up to, but I’d hidden Haven’s letters far away, so he wasn’t going to see those in a million years. I still didn’t know what he’d say to us being step-cousins or whatever Haven’s marriage to Matthew had made us.
Man, I felt like a hick right now, and my soon to be ex-husband going shirtless wasn’t helping.
I stomped into the living room to snatch up Jessie’s shirt and came back to push it into his stomach. His muscular abs pulled in like I’d tickled him. Maybe I had. “Put that on!” I snapped.
His sister giggled while he obeyed with a mouthful of donut.
After our late breakfast, I put them both to work. Everything had to go. Bette Ann stored boxes in the work shed. For now, I locked up Haven’s room to keep them both out. Besides not trusting anyone’s motives at the present, I wanted to go through my aunt’s personal items on my own.
The clock was nearing three in the afternoon when I realized the Witch House museum would be closing soon.
I finished packing Haven’s KitchenAid mixer into a box, noticing Abby and Jessie had lowered their voices in the other room again. “It’s not like you’re stuck,” Jessie whispered. “You’ve got options.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Anything. You’re real good at… uh, retail.”
“Retail, huh?” It came out a shout. “That’s what I’m good for?”
“No, shh, it’s just you don’t have to have… that life. You’re better than that.”
She scoffed. “What do you know?” She made another sound of disgust. “You’re just likehim.”
