Page 16 of All Autumn
Autumn giggled. “That tickles.”
I leaned on the wall next to Dylan’s kitchen the next morning, sipping a cup of coffee as Autumn rolled around on the floor with eleven rambunctious Labrador puppies doing their best to lick her from head to toe. Daisy, their mother, looked on with what appeared to be amusement in her big brown doggy eyes.
“Autumn manage to get some sleep?” I asked Jenn. Dylan had already left for work when I’d arrived to pick up Autumn. She was supposed to meet Brian at their house this morning, and we’d need to leave soon if we were going to beat him there.
Jenn nodded. “A few hours.” She pulled me into the kitchen. “Are you going to tell her what Brian’s demanding from you?”
“I don’t want to, but she’ll hear it one way or another. Probably from Brian.” Autumn had enough on her plate. I didn’t want her to worry about me, but she would.
“Probably. Well, you better get going. Dylan said to call him if there’s any trouble.”
“I will.”
“Thanks for picking me up, but Jenn could have run me home,” Autumn said as we walked to the car. “By now you’re probably thinking I’m a real pain in the butt.”
“Nah, haven’t once thought that. You look better than the last time I saw you.” The jeans and white turtleneck sweater were tighter on her than what she usually wore. And speaking of butts, hers was pretty damn sexy in those jeans.
“Jenn loaned me some clothes.”
Ah, that explained it. Autumn was curvier than Jenn and a bit more endowed in the chest. I was looking forward more than I should to spending the day with her. After she finished with Brian, I was taking her to lunch and then to her appointment at the country club.
When that was done, I was driving her to Asheville to rent a car until she could make other arrangements. I hadn’t told her that I’d rescheduled a showing I had this afternoon so I could spend day with her. She’d only feel even more guilty about monopolizing my time than she already was.
I put my hand on her lower back, liking it there, as we walked the last few steps to my car. And as I opened the door for her, getting another one of her special smiles, my heart took a little bounce. I wished it wouldn’t do that.
Brian’s arrival ended up being anticlimactic. Autumn decided she had no desire to see him and went for a walk, leaving me to deal with him.
“Where’s Autumn?” were his first words when I opened the door.
“Beats me. She said you can come in and get your stuff. I’m tasked with making sure that’s all you take.”
The glare he sent me could have burned me where I stood if I’d been a weaker man, but I was Autumn’s protector today, the only fire wall between my friend and him, and I refused to cower.
“You don’t seem to understand that I can destroy you, and in doing so, destroy your brother right along with you.”
“I’m quaking in my boots,” I mocked. “Threaten us all you want, but two against one, meaning me and Adam if you’re too dense to get that, doesn’t seem like a fair fight. You might also want to consider that if you decide to mess with us, you’ll be taking on the whole town. We were born here. You weren’t.”
“Asshole,” he said, then pushed past me.
“Dirtbag,” I muttered. I followed him into what had once been his bedroom with Autumn, watched everything he took, and then followed him back to the front door.
“You haven’t heard the last of me,” he said as he not so accidently bumped into me, pushing me against the door as he walked out.
Although I wanted to smash his face in, I didn’t for Autumn’s sake. “Bring it on, dude,” I said loud enough for him to hear.
His father had arrived in Blue Ridge Valley fifteen years ago, opening his car dealership after some murky dealings with his Charlotte, North Carolina, location that no one had been able to get to the bottom of.
Fifteen years was still considered a newcomer by our residents, and Brian had attended private school in Asheville, so he wasn’t close to being one of us. He could make all the threats he wanted, but my town would always have the backs of their family. Because that was what a small town was. Family.
9
~ Autumn ~
“She’s what?”
“You heard me,” Jenn said a week after I’d been freed from jail. “Log on to Facebook. She’s live streaming it right now.”
“Hold on.” I set my phone down, then flipped open my laptop, brought up theLife in the Valleypage, and stared at it in horror. Mary Ballard, owner of Mary’s Bread Company, stood in front of Brian’s dealership, holding a sign that said NO DONUTS FOR CHEATERS. Her hair was purple today, but tomorrow it might be chartreuse. Or pink or green.
