Zach took his time shutting down the office. He and Jesse both needed some time to cool off, and maybe it would be better for everyone involved if they didn’t come barging in to Miss Leona’s house like two cavemen who’d lost their minds. He turned off the lights and grabbed his laptop bag, then locked up before he drove back to Pleasant Lane.
“Hello?” he called out as he walked into the kitchen. He found Vega, Lilah, and Corie watching TV. “Jesse been by here?” Zach asked.
“Yeah, he came in here all puffed up. Miss Leona deflated him a little, then sent him over to Super-Storage with Evie.”
Zach thought about joining Vega and his cousins on the couch, but he was still a little on edge. “Li, can you text me when they get back?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” He thought about going to check in on his grandmother, but he knew she’d have another lecture waiting for him too. He slipped on his Stetson and went back to his place to wait.
Chapter 12
Evie wasn’t sure what to say. Everything happened so fast. Jesse came storming into the house and before he could say a word, Miss Leona seemed to shut down whatever had him fired up with one look. Jesse stopped in his tracks and removed his cowboy hat, then took a deep breath. Miss Leona asked him if he still had the keys to Evie’s storage unit. When the answer turned out to be a yes, she sent them off, but not before Lilah handed Evie a beautiful floral silk scarf.
With Vega’s help they covered her butchered hair and tied the silk scarf in a beautiful twist at the top of her head. Evie checked herself in the powder room mirror and for the first time since she woke up in the hospital she felt kinda pretty. That glowy feeling lasted exactly as long as it took them to walk to Jesse’s black pickup truck. Euca and the shiny black Lab whose name she couldn’t remember followed them, but only the black dog jumped in the back of the extended cab behind the driver’s seat.
Evie buckled her seat belt and tried to make herself comfortable, but five or so minutes later this awkward silence had built between them. Evie wondered if he was going to say a word to her at all. She didn’t know how long it would take to get to the storage place, but the silence was not working for her. She glanced in the back seat. The dog was sitting, happily looking out the window at the quickly darkening sky.
“Is this your dog?” Evie asked.
“Yeah, that’s Clementine. Got her from the shelter last year.”
“She’s very beautiful.”
“Thank you. She’s a good dog.”
“Do the other dogs belong to you too?”
“Just Clementine. Euca is Sam’s dog and Sugar Plum and Poppy belong to my mother, but they’ll follow pretty much anyone around,” he explained. His voice was still tight. Still, Evie could tell he was trying to be polite.
“I spent some time with Euca and Sugar Plum today. They are very sweet.” Jesse just nodded. When the silence dragged on, Evie finally asked,” Are you okay?”
“Not really, but I’d like it if we could talk about it a little later.”
“Okay,” Evie said, and then she hesitantly asked, “Are you upset with me?”
“No. I’m upset with Zach. I’ll be ready to talk about it in a few minutes. I just don’t want—just give me a few minutes. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. I talked to your parents today. They seem nice. Though I’m not sure your dad—” Evie stopped herself before she brought up Jesse’s father’s comments about her and Zach.
“Our dad what?”
“Oh, nothing. He just wanted me to check out the ranch. He said you guys have done a great job with it. Do you want me to stop talking?”
“No,” Jesse said. Evie got a sense he wanted to say something else. “You usually did most of the talking before. I don’t mind it.”
That explained a lot. “Well, I made a frittata today and then I got an intense lesson from Miss Leona on how to make the perfect BLT. I can see why I became a chef. Cooking is fun.”
“Yeah, Miss Leona taught you and me both how to cook a bunch of stuff when Zach and Sam were out competing.”
“I bet we had a good time.”
“We did.”
Evie realized that while she’d seen a few articles and photos of Jesse, she’d only seen proof of his former football career. Nothing that suggested he’d been involved in the rodeo.
“Do you ride horses?”