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My chin falls to my chest.
This is the reason I can’t ever be in a serious relationship with anyone. I don’t have comforting instincts like Ben. The ones where you know how to help a woman and console her. I just seem to fuck it up whenever I open my mouth.
Chapter Four
Jude
Monty Wilkins’s funeral was a packed house. We all went to the cemetery, buried him next to his parents, then everyone in town followed us to my family home.
Of course, my dad volunteered to host the reception, and my cousin Jensen is catering the entire event that my other cousin Romy decorated perfectly. Everyone’s huddled into groups with their drinks and food, telling stories about Monty. Some funny, some quirky, but most are just about what a good guy he was. I wish I wasn’t so angry with the man who was like an uncle to me.
I stand off to the side of the groups, my attention only on Sadie. She’s barely talked to me since she walked out on me the other day. I’m not doubting her ability. She’s got a work ethic I’m fucking jealous of, and I work from sunup to sundown during certain times of the year. I probably shouldn’t have shot her down so fast. It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part, and she hadn’t even processed the death of her father.
“Jude Noughton, always looking so deep in thought.” My cousin Lottie, who is also Sadie’s best friend, sidles up beside me. I don’t feel like dealing with her while Sadie is pissed at me.
“Lottie.” I tip my beer back, needing more alcohol before she speaks.
I love Lottie. She’s my cousin and definitely team Sadie against anyone who wrongs her, but she’s got opinions I don’t always agree with.
“Why are you saying my name with such disdain today?”
Both of us look at Sadie huddled with Mrs. Fortmeyer and a few of the other women who are involved in every chili cook-off, bake sale, and whatever else this town puts on. They’re nice but gossipy.
“Always watching her.” Lottie clucks her tongue.
I side-eye her. “You make me sound like a creep.”
“Well, you do have that whole strong, silent, grumpy thing going on that some people might construe as creepy.” I glare at her, and she holds up her hands. “You know, if they didn’t know you.”
I huff and down the rest of my beer.
“Case in point,” she says.
We watch the crowd in silence, and I wait for her to leave me alone.
“She’s going to crack.”
Guess she’s not going anywhere.
“I know,” I say.
“She can only put up this strong front for so long.”
“I know.”
“Are you going to catch her?”
“What do you think?” I stare longingly at the beer area, wishing I had a fresh one.
“I think you’ll go into fix-it mode and forget that she needs nurturing too.”
“Lottie Dotty.” Emmett joins us and hands me a beer. Thank fuck for his interruption.
“How’s it going, little cuz?” Lottie says with a grin.
Emmett’s lips straighten. He absolutely hates that nickname, and rarely do people call him that now unless they’re trying to piss him off. “If you weren’t my cousin, I’d take you behind the barn and show you just how not little I am.”
Her nose wrinkles. “Gross. I’ve had my fill of your kind.”
