Dirty (Dive Bar #1)(19)

Insert insane cackling here. Yep, I was losing it. Lucky for me, there were no witnesses to my descent into lunacy.

Oops, I spoke too soon.

I hadn’t heard her arrive, but a woman stood watching from the back deck. Her strawberry-blond hair shone in the sunlight and she was covered in tattoos. Behind her, the kitchen door was open, meaning she’d come through the house and therefore had a key. Interesting.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi. I’m Nell, Vaughan’s sister.” She made her way toward me, holding out a hand for shaking.

I shook it. “Lydia. A new friend of Vaughan’s.”

“Nice to meet you.” A sweeping glance took in my clothing and one of her eyebrows went up. Probably because none of what I wore was mine. Vaughan had left some clothes on the end of my bed, bless him. Soft gray sleeping pants rolled up at the bottom on account of being made for someone much taller and a Rolling Stones T-shirt. Loved the way the tongue and mouth slogan stretched over my assets. Such a tasteful statement. Luckily, a bra had been the first item on this morning’s treasure hunt adventure. Out-of-control breasts were not something I needed.

A hard kind of curiosity filled Nell’s eyes. “A new friend? Not that it’s any of my business…”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I agreed, crossing my arms over my chest. “But yes. Just a new friend. I’m in between homes so he let me crash here last night. My belongings had a little accident.”

It was one way of describing it. Sort of.

“Yeah. I was going to ask about that. Normally yard sales happen out front.” With a finger, she hooked a pair of underwear from down beside her feet. Awesome. Black lace boy shorts. At least they were a nice pair. Definitely not embarrassing to have a stranger checking out my undergarment styling at all.

“Thanks.” I added them to the pile, my friendly smile frozen to my face. “Issue with the ex.”

“Men.” Her lips thinned.

“Mm.”

“Think they can get away with anything just because they have something to swing between their thighs.”

I snorted. “Pretty much.”

“Raging *s, all of them,” she growled, cheeks pink with anger. “We’d be better off if they were just jettisoned into space en masse.”

Clearly, Nell was still stuck in the bitter stage of a relationship breakdown. I was moving on to moving on. The damage was done. Now I just wanted to get my shit together and get out of this town. Seek a life somewhere else. Pretty or not, this place hadn’t been kind to me.

“Men do suck,” I said. “But actually, this was his mother’s handiwork.”

“You’re kidding?” She wrinkled her nose, making a scattering of freckles jump and move. She seemed a bit older than me, petite where her brother was tall. Same pale blue eyes, though. She wore plain black slacks and a T-shirt with a picture of a bluebird above the words “The Dive Bar.”

“Nope,” I said. “Definitely his mother’s style of attack.”

“Shit. Come on, I’ll help you pick it all up.”

“You will?”

“Sure.” Nell’s smile now was genuine, kind.

“Thanks.” This woman’s moods were more chaotic than mine. I couldn’t keep up.

“No problem. Better than just sitting around, waiting for my idiot brother to wake up. We need something to put your stuff in. I think there’s some empty boxes in the garage.” Without another word, she strode off toward the side of the house while I watched, bemused.

People. You could never tell.

I rolled my shoulders, trying to work the kinks out of my back. If anything, my body hurt worse today than it had yesterday. Muscle strain times one thousand.

Funny, with Nell helping, the weight of my mess seemed to lighten. Maybe things weren’t so bad and the bulk of the human race weren’t against me.

Today had been my first in months without a good morning text from Chris.

I mean … of course there hadn’t been one. My cell phone was broken apart. But the lack of it had been less a mild ache and more of a good hard slap upside the back of the head. I’d gotten so used to being part of a couple. To being “we.” Time to adjust back to being alone.

Yep, I was swinging single.

Assorted bugs, bees, and butterflies flitted around, doing their thing. It was, all in all, another perfect summer’s day. In another life, Chris and I would have been en route to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Man, I’d been so excited about the trip. Sandy white beaches, fruity cocktails, and fun. Lots and lots of it. Instead, my new black tankini waved in the wind, stuck halfway up a pine tree.

You had to give it to her, Samantha had been dedicated. She must have been out here for hours last night, throwing my shit around.

Nell and I had been working maybe half an hour, picking the contents of my makeup bag and jewelry box out of a thorny bush, when Vaughan appeared. He stood on the deck, yawning; a cup of coffee filled one hand and a pastry the other. Worn jeans, no shirt, even more reddish-blond stubble.

Damn, he was hot. The kind of hot that only got better with age and experience. Not that I was even remotely interested in getting involved with him beyond the new-friends-having-sex thing. Neither of us intended to stay in town and I had only just gotten out of a ruin of a relationship. But good lord, such a northern Idaho sex god.