Читать книгу The Baby Wore A Badge - Marie Ferrarella - Страница 10

“You’re late.”

Jasper Fowler bit off the words as he glared at Calista from beneath shaggy gray-and-white eyebrows.

Just coming in, Calista eased the door to the Tattered Saddle antique shop closed behind her. If Fowler expected her to flinch at his obvious displeasure, he was going to be sorely disappointed, she thought. Growing up amid seven brothers and sisters had long since taught her how to hold her ground and stand up for herself. It was either that or suddenly find herself getting plowed under and lost in the shuffle.

So far, she’d never once gotten lost in the shuffle.

“I’m on time,” Calista corrected pleasantly, deliberately pointing to the closest clock to her on the wall.

Currently, there were several clocks on display, all hanging on the shop walls, all antiques, all fashioned with a decidedly Western flavor. And each and every one of them testified to the fact that she, and not the crotchety, cantankerous elderly owner of the store, was right. She was right on time.

With a frame that resembled nothing if not an animated question mark, his shoulders hunched in so far that they appeared to be almost touching one another, Fowler moved past her and grumbled, “Well, you would have been late in another minute.”

As was his habit, he refused to give in or concede the point. If asked, no one in town could recollect ever hearing the old man admit that he was wrong—about anything.

“But I didn’t take another minute,” Calista countered cheerfully. “So I’m here on time.”

In her own way, she was just as stubborn as the old man she was working for this summer. Beneath it all, she wanted to think that the man rather enjoyed sparring with her, enjoyed the challenge of having someone who didn’t cave in to him. Everyone else, she’d noted, always backed away, considering a verbal bout with the man just a waste of time and energy.

Maybe she was wrong, she thought, picking up the ancient feather duster he required she use every day to dust the eclectic collection of memorabilia he housed within the old shop’s four walls. But in complying with his specific instructions and using the duster, Calista couldn’t help but feel that all she was accomplishing was pushing the dust around, ineffectively moving it from one spot to another and then back again the next day.

But the pay was the same whether she eliminated the dust or just gave it another place to stay, so she had given up trying to introduce a few basic improvements into the daily routine. Fowler, she’d quickly discovered, was a stickler for adhering to routines, to all but worshipping the status quo.

She’d learned her first week here that it was pointless to try to point out the benefits of doing anything new or different.

But then, she reasoned, if Fowler had been opened to new things, he probably wouldn’t be dealing with items that were older than he was.

“When I finish dusting out here, if there aren’t any customers, maybe I’ll just go dust the storeroom,” she volunteered.

Although she’d brought along a couple of books to review, books that promised to help her get a better handle on her internship at the mayor’s office, she really didn’t like being idle for any stretch of time and because Fowler was paying her—minimum wage to be sure, but it was still her salary—her first efforts should be to do something worthwhile in the antique store.

About to shuffle off into the very same storeroom she was proposing to clean, Fowler stopped short and turned around to glare at her.

“No,” he all but shouted, then struggled to regain his monotone composure. “I already told you to stay out of there.”

He’d told her that the very first day she’d worked here. At the time she’d thought the edict was just fueled by his myriad of idiosyncrasies.

“I know, but I thought maybe you’d like to have me straighten things up in there, maybe do an inventory for you,” she proposed.

“Don’t need no inventory,” Fowler retorted. “I know everything that’s in there and where it is if I need to get at it. I don’t need some eager beaver messing things up with her own damn system that makes no sense to nobody on God’s green earth but her.”

He was really getting heated about it and she couldn’t help wondering why. She’d glanced into the storeroom once in passing and it was just a dark storage space as far as she could see.

“Okay, I won’t go in there,” she surrendered, at the same time trying to figure out just what it was that the old man was trying to protect. Most likely, it was nothing, but he certainly was behaving peculiarly—even more so than usual. Every time she mentioned the storeroom, he acted, in her opinion, as if she was trying to break into the U.S. Mint and he was its only defender.

But then, she reasoned, she’d known what the old man was like when she’d initially answered his want ad and interviewed for the job. Everyone in town—her family included—had warned her about going to work for “crazy ol’ Jasper Fowler.” And everyone from around the area knew about the legend.

Knew how, according to the legend, Fowler had once driven cross-country with a coffin rattling around in the back of his pickup truck. Moreover, the same legend claimed that there’d been a rotting corpse in that coffin, supposedly the remains of a woman who had once jilted him.

Over time other identities had been assigned to the so-called decaying cross-country traveler. Some said it was a business partner who had tried to cheat him out of the profits of their business. Others said that there were two bodies in there, his late wife and the infant son she’d given birth to minutes before both she and the baby had died.

That, at least, would explain his winning personality.

As for her, Calista figured that because the old man was so eccentric, Fowler invited these kinds of stories to be made up about him, maybe even reveled in them and that, ultimately, none of it was true.

Although, if it was true she supposed that might be a good reason why Fowler wouldn’t allow anyone but him to enter the storeroom. That might be where he was keeping the legendary coffin.

Stop it, she told herself. You’re smarter than that. There’s no coffin. It’s all just a bunch of fabrication about an odd old man.

She heard the front door open. The next second she heard the bell attached to it ring, announcing the entrance of another person into the store.

Having already walked into the storeroom, Fowler poked his head out to see who had come in. The etched-in frown on his stubble-laden face seemed to deepen as his small eyes focused on the woman who had just come into his shop.

Recognizing her, he challenged Erin Traub. “You here to buy anything today?”

Erin knew how to play the game. “I might be,” she answered evasively.

Fowler allowed a dismissive sound to escape his lips as he waved his hand at Erin’s words. “No, you ain’t. You got five minutes to talk to the girl and then you go,” he ordered. “And you,” he said, shifting his hawk-like intense gaze to Calista, “consider this your break, you hear?”

“Yes, sir,” Calista answered, inclining her head with a formal little bow, as if he was some small far-from-benevolent despot.

Uttering another dismissive noise, Fowler withdrew back into the storeroom.

Erin looked at the younger woman she’d come to see in disbelief. “How can you stand it, working for Old Man Fowler? He’s so rude.”

“I’ve had practice dealing with foul moods. When you’ve got seven siblings, there’s always someone who’s bound to be in a snit—or worse,” she added with a careless shrug. “And besides, it’s not exactly like I don’t need the money,” she confessed. At twenty-two, she’d just graduated, but that didn’t mean that all that struggling was behind her. A great deal of it was just up ahead. She was currently living at home to save as much money as she could, but it was still slow-going. “I’ve got school loans to pay off and other expenses to juggle as well. Right now, I can’t afford to be picky.” Besides, she added silently, afraid of being overheard, Fowler was harmless.

“Is that why you agreed to babysit for my brother?” Erin asked her.

She’d stopped by to get her friend’s take on working for her brother and to make sure that Calista didn’t decide to suddenly change her mind and tell Jake that she’d had second thoughts about agreeing to babysit for him. Dealing with an infant could be draining. Especially after having had to put up with a Neanderthal despot like Fowler.

“Oh no,” Calista said with feeling, “I’m more than happy to take the job. I think that Marlie’s really adorable.”

Erin laughed. She had fallen in love with her niece at first sight, but she had to admit that there were drawbacks. “For a child who never sleeps, she’s wonderful.” Erin raised her slender shoulders and then let them drop. “At least it feels that way. Our bedroom is just one door down from Jake’s room. I can hear him pacing the floor with her at all hours. That baby cries every night.”

“Well, yes, that’s not unusual. They do that for a while,” Calista assured her. “But that eventually changes and they sleep through the night. For the record, babies don’t learn to manipulate their parents until they’re a few years old.”

Erin sighed, wondering how she would measure up when the time came to have a baby of her own. Right now, it seemed almost daunting to even think about. “You sound a lot more knowledgeable about how to handle things than I am.”

Calista shrugged off the compliment. “I come from a really big family,” she pointed out. “Somewhere along the line, I started taking care of my younger brothers and sisters. Suddenly, I was the expert when it came to changing diapers, feeding and burping. The funny thing is, I don’t really mind, so I can’t complain. The truth of the matter is,” she freely admitted, “I kind of like it.”

“You don’t have to sell me,” Erin assured her with feeling. “I actually just stopped by to find out if there’s anything I can do to make the experience better for you.”

Several things popped up in her mind, none of which she could have ventured to say out loud. All of them concerned Jake Castro. The very thought of him made her feel warm, a reaction she did her best to stifle. It wasn’t something she could readily explain to the man’s sister.

Instead, she guessed at the reason behind Erin’s impromptu field trip to the antique shop, and her. “Don’t worry, Erin, I said I’d babysit and I’m not going to change my mind.”

“Good.” Erin released a large sigh, then immediately asked, “Are you busy tomorrow night?”

Calista hadn’t expected to be asked to babysit so soon. She looked at Jake’s sister in surprise.

“Tomorrow,” she repeated, thinking for a second. “I was just planning to do a little dry reading on government procedures so I don’t come across like some empty-headed little intern. I don’t want people to think that Cousin Bo’s guilty of nepotism, although technically, I suppose he is.” Their connection was distant, but they were still family. “Why? Is Jake going out tomorrow night? He didn’t mention anything to me about it during the interview.”

She would have assumed that he would have right after telling her that she had the job. Had something come up, or had he just held back for some reason of his own?

The smile that rose to Erin’s lips was a self-satisfied one. “That’s because my big brother doesn’t know he’s going out yet.”

“You’re having him kidnapped?” Calista guessed drily.

To her surprise, Erin answered the quip seriously. “In a manner of speaking. I want Corey and Jake to have a guys’ night out.”

She might not have a whole lot of experience beyond her academic one, but that struck Calista as rather unusual.

“You haven’t been married all that long,” she recalled, then marveled, “Boy, talk about an understanding wife.”

Amused, Erin set the other woman straight. “Don’t stick wings on me yet, Calista. There’s a reason for my shipping those two out of the house. I want a clear playing field so that I can help Corey’s sister get ready for her date.”

It was a small enough town to keep up on the various activities of the locals. Corey’s baby sister Rose was, like her brothers, a recent transplant to Thunder Canyon. As such, she didn’t know all that many people yet.

Calista greeted the news with surprise. “I didn’t know that Rose was dating.”

Even though they were alone in the front room of the shop, Erin still drew closer and lowered her voice. “That’s just the problem, she hasn’t been and she’s really nervous about going out.”

To Calista, going out on a date was just an extension of talking. But she supposed she could see why it might make someone else a little nervous. If she were about to go out with Jake, there might be more than one or two butterflies involved.

“So who’s the lucky guy she’s going out with?” she asked Erin.

Erin paused for a moment. This wouldn’t have been her first choice, but it certainly was going to be a great way for Rose to get her feet wet again. “It’s Nick Pritchett.”

“Bo’s brother-in-law?” Calista asked, surprised.

The name belonged to yet another one of her distant relatives, this one being really distant. On the stocky side and more than a little opinionated, Nick Pritchett was one relative she certainly didn’t mind keeping distant.

Erin nodded, deliberately masking her own thoughts on the matter. “The very same.”

Calista laughed shortly. “Well, you can tell Rose she doesn’t have anything to be nervous about. All she has to do is show up and breathe. From what I hear, Nick’ll take it from there and do all the talking. And I do mean all. The man really does like to hear the sound of his own voice.”

There was no point in pretending that this was a good thing. Erin surrendered the charade.

“Well, she has to start somewhere,” she said helplessly.

At least she hadn’t been the one to arrange this, Erin thought. Nick had asked Rose out and her sister-in-law, responding to some sort of newly instituted panic that she was liable to be alone for the rest of her life, had jumped at the chance.

Picking up on the less-than-thrilled note in Erin’s voice, Calista’s inner optimism suddenly rallied and rose to the surface.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she told the other woman encouragingly.

Blowing out a breath, Erin nodded again, more to herself than to Calista. She needed to deal with what was, not with what she wished would be. And Rose needed to learn how to take baby steps. Whatever her sister-in-law might be thinking about her future with Nick, this was really just a practice run, getting her prepared for when a more suitable man came along.

“And you’ll be there tomorrow?” she asked Calista.

Calista smiled and nodded, ignoring her own butterflies when she thought of seeing Jake Castro again. “I’ll be there tomorrow. What time do you want me to show up?”

Erin quickly calculated optimal time for everything to take place. Corey would be available around five-thirty or so. “Six o’clock okay?”

Six was when she left the mayor’s office. She really didn’t want to ask for a half-hour time-off so soon into her internship. “Six-thirty would be better.”

She wasn’t inflexible. “Fine. Six-thirty,” Erin agreed.

There was just one more thing Calista wanted to know before tomorrow night. “You are going to tell your brother about his ‘guys’ night out’ before I get there, right? I mean, he’s not going to be surprised when I just show up on your doorstep, is he? I wouldn’t want the guy thinking I’m stalking him.”

When they were growing up, Jake was the brother beset by females, all eager for his attention. All in all, Erin was fairly sure that by now, Jake was accustomed to having a woman turn up on the doorstep, looking for him.

“Don’t worry, I’m telling Corey about it tonight and I’ll have him twist Jake’s arm. He won’t say no to Corey,” Erin assured her. She could see that Calista was wondering why she wanted to get rid of both her husband and her brother for the evening because Rose’s “big date” didn’t really affect either one of them. “I don’t want either one of them hanging around while Rose gets ready. You know what brothers are like. She doesn’t need to be teased unmercifully about this. She’s already nervous enough as it is. I just want her to be as confident and poised as she can be under the circumstances.”

To Calista, it was a case of much ado about nothing, but she kept that to herself. Anything else she might have said would have to wait. Fowler came shuffling in from the back just then and peered at Erin, scowling.

“You still here?” It was more of an accusation than a question.

Erin shifted, turning toward the door. “I was just leaving, Mr. Fowler,” she informed him. With effort, she pasted a wide smile on her face for Calista’s sake. She didn’t want the old man taking Calista to task because she’d overstayed her welcome.

If she thought it might get her on Fowler’s good side, she’d wasted her time. It made no difference.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” he retorted, pointing a bony finger toward the door.

Most of the time she could just turn a deaf ear to the old man’s rudeness, but when it was aimed at someone else, it really irritated her. Walking Erin to the door, she debated that perhaps it was time for her to start looking for another job. It was just a matter of time before she couldn’t hold her tongue around Mr. Personality. Eventually, she was going to put him in his place.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night,” Calista promised. She saw pity in Erin’s eyes as the woman glanced toward Fowler. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Erin was thinking.

“Maybe the mayor can give you a raise,” Erin suggested in a whisper as she crossed the threshold.

“That would really be nepotism,” Calista said with a laugh.

“I’m not paying you to stand there, jawing the day away,” Fowler informed her, raising his voice so that people in the street outside could hear him.

“No, you’re not,” Calista agreed, forcing herself to sound cheerful.

Closing the door, she looked at her part-time employer. In truth, she felt sorry for the old man. He obviously had no friends and he alienated almost everyone he came in contact with. She had no idea how he even made a living. Since she’d started working at the shop, there had been only a handful of customers and maybe five sales. Of course, she was only here part-time, so maybe the bulk of the sales were conducted when she wasn’t around. For his sake, she hoped so. Otherwise, she couldn’t see how he would be able to manage to stay in business for any length of time.

But that, she reminded herself, wasn’t any of her concern. Instead, she focused on the fact that she was going to be seeing Jake again tomorrow night, however briefly.

The butterflies in her stomach returned, bringing friends.