Page 10 of Beat around the Bush
If I wanted to purchase the building from the company that leased it out to Tumbleweed Feed, I needed to have my ducks in a row. There was enough money in the account for the down payment, so I wasn’t worried about that. But I needed proof that we’d been paying monthly and on time, receipts of our expenses, and all the other boring shit.
I’d much rather be on the ranch than stuck in the dark, depressing office. I could go out on the floor for a bit, take a break from the paperwork, but then I’d have to see Oakley.
Every time her laugh echoed down the hall to my office, jealousy surged through me. Whoever the fucker was that got to hear her laugh and see her smile better know how damn lucky he was that I wasn’t out there getting in between them.
I honestly had no right to be jealous, nor protective of her - she was just my employee after all - but I didn’t want her fucking talking it up with the locals. I knew how sleazy some of these old men could be in this town, and I didn’t want a single one of them laying an eye on her. If it was a hand, I’d cut it off. Simple.
Her resume being so bare raised questions in my head that I shouldn’t want to ask. There were a lot of things I wanted to know about her. Like why she left Denver. And why she needed a job at a feed store in the middle of nowhere. Was there a reason she was in Bell Buckle? Family, maybe?
A phone went off from the break room next to my office. It was the same ringtone that’d been going off every fifteen minutes since Oakley walked back there and stowed her stuff away. I’d heard her soft footsteps on the linoleum and while I should have said good morning, or at least greeted her in some way, I’d stayed put in this chair, listening to her steps fade away back into the store.
Shaking my head, I stood up, deciding to leave the paperwork for later. I was going to go insane between the phone going off and thoughts of Oakley if I didn’t go out there. It was time for my break anyway.
Opening the door to my office, I made my way to the front of the store to find Oakley at the register ringing Jeff up. Speaking of those old men…
“They always give me a ten percent discount,” Jeff muttered to her, leaning too far over the counter, practically invading her space.
Her cheeks were as red as her hair, putting those little freckles on her nose on display. I approached her from the side, and she must’ve not seen me coming because she jumped when I said, “No one gets a discount.”
Crossing my arms, I stood firm next to Oakley. Jeff wasn’t going to pull one over on her. He straightened, holding his hands up, palms out. “I just had to give her the ol’ ring-around. You got that, right, sweetheart?” He winked at her.
It took all I had in me not to reach across this counter, grab him by the neck of his shirt, and demand he apologize for calling her that.
She pursed her lips together as she pressed enter on the register’s keyboard. “That’ll be fifty-six dollars and twenty-seven cents, sir.”
Good. She wasn’t giving him the time of day.
He pulled the cash out of his wallet, setting it on the counter, then counted out the exact change. He added a quarter to the pile, and said, “That’s for you.”
A quarter. A fuckingquarter.
Jeff had always been careless and a little too confident with the ladies, but I wouldn’t let him get away with that shit. Igrabbed the quarter, tossing it back at him, the coin clanging against the countertop.
“No tips, Jeff.”
That was probably the worst thing I could have said, but I didn’t want to scare Oakley by cutting the man's fingers off. If I’d voiced how pissed off I was, I couldn’t guarantee that wouldn’t happen.
God, when did I get so damn violent?
As the receipt was printing, I walked away, heading out of the store. I needed a coffee and something to eat or else I’d never get through the day.
And this was only day one of her working here.
Maybe she’d quit like all the others and things could go back to the way they were before she decided to slam her car into my truck’s bumper and apply at the feed store. Couldn’t she have chosen literallyanyother town besides Bell Buckle?
It was raining, but I’d forgotten my jacket back in my office and I was not about to go back in there just to get it. Then I’d have to walk by Oakley, and as much as I wanted to, I also wanted to stay as far away from her as possible.
Women who randomly showed up in small towns? They were nothing but trouble.
After half-jogging to Bell Buckle Brews, I shook the water off my baseball cap before walking inside.
“Good morning, Lennon,” Sage greeted from behind the counter.
“Morning, Sage. Can I get a black coffee and a...” I trailed off, squinting my eyes to read the board.
“Jacey’s usual?” she asked.
“No, uh... What do women usually order?”
