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He almost felt sorry for the guy. He looked like a man who had just had his ass handed to him, and Luke hadn’t said or done anything to the guy.
An amusing thought did cross his mind. Perhaps Ryan and Alexis should hook up. They were both actively looking for a relationship and both had the idea that someone else was in their way of getting what they wanted.
Once again, Luke wondered if he had gone back in time to middle school.
What was with these grown folks acting like a bunch of children?
Carl, who had clearly heard the entire conversation asked, “What was that about?”
The last thing that Luke wanted was to deal with his father’s comments so he said, “It was a personal matter. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“It was about Jamie, wasn’t it?”
“You know it was. It’s not important,” Luke said.
“That woman is causing a lot more trouble than she’s worth,” Carl spat out.
Luke glared at Carl until the older man decided that he should leave it alone. Trying to keep busy to help the time go by a little faster, Luke rearranged the back room.
He had just returned to the front when a tall, thin woman with a pock marked face came in. Luke recognized her immediately from Dillon’s posters, although he didn’t let the woman know. Her name was Crystal and she was one of Faisons’ hunters.
“Welcome. How can I help you?” he said, plastering a pleasant smile on his face.
She handed Luke a flyer and asked, “Have you seen either of these two men around?”
Luke pretended to study Walter and Parker’s faces and then slowly shook his head.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t.”
“They went up on the mountain to go hiking and never returned. Everyone is starting to get worried about them.”
“I hope they didn’t get lost, which is easy to do, especially in the winter time. It would be too easy to get turned around and freeze to death,” Luke said, with what he hoped was a sympathetic tone.
“Do you mind if I hang one of the flyers in your window in case someone knows what happened to them?”
“Sure, go right ahead,” Luke said.
He watched as she taped a flyer to the window and left.
“Dad, I have some errands I need to take care of. Mike is here to help you close up. I’ll see you later.”
He grabbed his coat and keys before his father could say anything to him.
Jamie was at the café. She finished helping a customer and then smiled at him.
“Luke. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said. “Isn’t it a little late in the day for coffee?”
“Actually, I didn’t come here for coffee,” he said. “I wanted to tell you about a visitor I had today at the store.”
“Uh-oh,” Jamie said. “This doesn’t sound good.”
“Ryan came to visit me.”
“Ryan? What on earth for?” Jamie asked, startled.
“He wanted me to step aside to give him room to pursue a relationship with you.”
Jamie’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Luke wide-eyed for a moment. She made a sound that was half a growl and half a sigh.
