"Shut up," she says. "You know what I mean. Autumn is telling me how irresistible Luke Saint is."
"Oh my God, that's not true," I protest. "Well, I mean, it's true, but it's irrelevant. And seriously, when did my visit turn into an interrogation about my dating life?"
"Non-existent dating life," June says pointedly.
"Okay, my non-existent dating life. The very full, very busy, very scheduled, very orderly non-existent dating life that I have. I have a routine."
"See?" Cade asks. "She has a routine, June-bug. Leave her alone. You're starting to become as bad one of the ladies down at the hair salon."
"Oh my God, I am not."
Cade leans forward, Isabella in his arms, looking around June at me. "Luke Saint. I don't know him, but I know of him. His brother Elias is seeing the actress, River Andrews," he says. "Elias is a good guy. Ex-Navy. You want me to check this Luke guy out?"
"Yes," June says, grinning.
"No!" I protest.
"Didn't you check him out when you hired him?" she asks.
Did I check him out? A flush comes over me at the thought of how very well I checked him out, from his chiseled jawline to his muscled chest to the way his ass looked as he walked away in his jeans.
June giggles. "Forget it," she says. "I can tell by your reaction that you've been doing a lot of checking him out."
"Shush, you." I wave dismissively at her, focusing my attention on Cade. "Okay, fine. What do you know about Luke?"
"Nothing really," Cade says. "Aside from the business with his family."
"What happened with his family?"
"Well, I assume that's why he's back in West Bend," Cade says. "At least, that's why Elias came back here. Their dad died a little while back, some kind of accident in an illegal mine on their property. Their mother killed herself after that – guess she couldn’t handle being apart from him or something. No big loss there, when it came to the dad. Dad was a mean sonofabitch. Angry drunk, evil through and through. Everyone knew that, even back when I was a kid."
"Ahem," June says, throwing a warning look at Cade, then back at the kids in the sandbox. "Language."
"Did you know the brothers, when you were growing up here?" I ask.
June tosses Cade another one of those looks. “Cade,” she says. I’m not sure what the warning look is about, but there’s clearly some kind of past history that June has with the Saint family.
“Not really, aside from the dad being mean,” he says. “Didn’t think much of them, but Elias has grown on me. If Luke’s anything like his brother, he’s probably a decent enough guy. That father of theirs, though, was a real piece of work.”
"And no one said anything," June says, shaking her head.
"West Bend is one of those places," Cade says. "Justice tends to get doled out outside of the regular channels. West Bend has always been old school like that."
"Is that what happened to the dad?" I ask. "Justice got doled out?"
Cade shrugs. "I doubt it," he says. "I'm sure he fell down the mine shaft or something. But I'd imagine there were plenty of people who'd like to see him dead."
"Well, Autumn has the hots for Luke," June says. "And I was trying to convince her that she should go for it."
"June!" I protest. Except I know what she's saying is true. The fact is, ever since I laid eyes on him, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. The trouble is, I can't act on it. Acting on it would be a total and complete disaster.
CHAPTER NINE
Luke
"I figured you'd be running headlong out of town by now." Killian doesn't move his head, just faces forward, his gaze seemingly directed toward the wall opposite us in Bud's Bar, a wall that's covered in twenty years worth of dirt and grime. He gives me a glance out of the corner of his eyes, or maybe I just imagine that he's looking for a reaction from me.
And I'm not going to give him one. My brother Killian has always had an uncanny ability to read me like an open book, and the last thing I want to do is talk to him about Autumn. Shit, I don't even want to think about Autumn. Thinking about that girl is giving me the biggest case of blue balls known to man.
"Well, I'm still here," I answer, my tone short. The words leave my mouth, sounding defensive.
"Uh-huh," Killian says, still looking ahead. He takes a long pull on the glass bottle, a local craft brew that's way too hipster for my roughneck brother to be drinking, but Killian has never been one to care much about trends or social convention. "That's why you're taking a job out at the Mayburn place."
"Another?" The owner, Bud himself, saves me from having to scramble for a reasonable justification for Killian about why the hell I'm sticking around here in town. Why the hell am I sticking around in West Bend, anyway? I tell myself that I'm here to find out what's going on with my mother's suicide, but that's not nearly all there is to it.
Not now, anyway. Not since I started working at the Mayburn place.