Rules of Protection(91)

I almost fell out of my chair with laughter. “Hank, I’m going to keep my opinions to myself. I’d hate to insult you by calling you crazy.”

“You can’t see it?” he asked, giving my arm a friendly pat. “That boy is stuck to you like a Band-Aid. He follows you everywhere, even if it’s only with his eyes. That’s devotion…the kind that comes from love. I watch Floss the same way. Especially when that rascal, Slick, comes around. I’ve threatened to blow his head off a time or two the way I caught him looking at my girl.”

I couldn’t help but smile, wondering if Jake really looked at me like that. It had to be wishful thinking on my part. If he watched me at all, it’s because he was anticipating the next stunt I’d pull. It was purely physical attraction for him. No emotional attachment. Like it or not, I had to accept it.

But I appreciated what Hank tried to do. Kind words from an old man trying to make a young girl feel better. Hank was sweet.

“Okay, missy, I’ve got some work to do. I didn’t get much of anything done yesterday.”

“Being lazy, huh?”

“No, ma’am. I came downstairs yesterday to do some work, but ended up running back inside. The cottage was shaking something awful. Damn near thought it was a tornado,” Hank said with a knowing wink.

I was left speechless and blushing. Hank wasn’t sweet. He was perverse.

…

I sat on the back porch with a glass of iced tea, leafing through a magazine I’d found on the coffee table. The magazine was more of a prop, really. My eyes stayed glued on the men the entire time. It was like watching my own personal comedy hour.

The storm that had passed through caused some problems to the roof of the pole barn and it needed repairing. Hank climbed the ladder to assess the damage. Jake yelled for him to get down, saying he was too old to be up there. Hank told him to shut up, which made me laugh. I laughed harder when Jake smashed his finger with a hammer and cursed in tongues I couldn’t translate.

I grinned when Hank jacked up the side of the barn using a car jack and ribbed Jake relentlessly about not doing his share of the workload. Then Hank set me off again when I caught sight of him holding a stud finder to his body and making beeping noises with his mouth.

“The two of them should take their act on the road.”

I turned to see Bobbie Jo coming toward me, which wiped the smile off my face. Floss had invited Bobbie Jo and Connie inside for some tea, which was why I went outside. Bobbie Jo apparently didn’t grasp the meaning of avoidance.

“I came out here to be alone,” I told her, not bothering to watch my tone.

She sat in the chair beside me wearing white drawstring shorts and a peach knit top.

“You will be alone if you keep up that attitude,” she said, her tone just as sour as mine, though she smiled as if offering me sugar.

“Where do you get off? You don’t know anything about me.”

“Because you won’t give me a chance,” she said, propping her feet up on the railing like mine. “You weren’t happy about Jake and I going to the barn. I understand why. But I’d like to explain it to you, instead of having you hate me for no reason. If you still want to hate me afterward, then fine.”

Noise from a circular saw caught my attention. Hank worked on the ground cutting boards while Jake straddled the frame of the pole barn’s roof wearing thick leather gloves. Realizing Bobbie Jo and I were on the back porch alone together, he looked worried. As if any minute our claws would come out and a catfight would begin. Too busy watching us to focus, he slipped through the framing, but caught himself. Bobbie Jo and I jumped out of our chairs at the same time. Neither of us relaxed again until he pulled himself back up and we saw he was all right.

“Wave and smile with me,” I said. “That way he’ll know everything is okay. I don’t want him preoccupied while he’s up there. It’s dangerous.”

Bobbie and I both waved with big grins on our faces. The worried look he wore disappeared, replaced by a puzzled one. It made both of us laugh. At least he seemed to pay more attention to what he was doing afterward and less attention to us.

“I helped look for you in the woods,” Bobbie Jo said, surprising me. “It’s one of the reasons I came by. I heard you went through a lot. I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“I’m fine,” I told her, giving her a slight nod. We settled back into our chairs. “By the way, I don’t hate you.”

She lifted her eyebrows slightly. “That’s news to me.”

“It’s about Jake. Nothing personal.”

“I never doubted that for a second,” she said, nodding. “Have you forgotten I dated him? I know how other girls looked at him and how easy it is to get jealous over something trivial.”

“I wouldn’t call sneaking off to the barn with another woman’s man trivial,” I said matter-of-factly. “I took it seriously.”

“That’s the other reason I wanted to talk to you.” Bobbie Jo clasped and unclasped her hands nervously. “I’d found out some unsettling news earlier that day and didn’t want Jake to hear it from anyone else. He’s still one of my best friends. We went to the barn only to keep others from listening in. In this neck of the woods, we have a few busybodies who’d love nothing more than to gossip.”