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The tourists have exhausted me.
Before I can make it over to the door to lock it, in comes Grumpy.
Great.
But I paste on a smile.“Hey there.You’re later today, so I don’t have a ton left.”
“Coffee,” he says shortly, even more curt than before.His handsome face is drawn in a dark scowl.“Black.”
“Oh, I don’t have any more brewed coffee, but I can make you a latte or something.”
His eyes narrow into slits.“You don’t have any more brewed coffee?”
“Well, no.We close”—I check my watch—“one minute ago.I was just about to head out for the day.But I don’t mind making you the latte.I even have a couple of scones that I’d just boxed up, if you want those.On the house.”
Grumpy mutters under his breath, and I have to take a deep breath of my own to keep myself from snapping at him.
“Never mind,” he bites out and turns on his heel to march out the front door.
“See you, Grumpy,” I say, loud enough for him to hear, but he doesn’t turn around to look at me.
For fuck’s sake, everyone has been somoodytoday.My cousin Haley would say it’s because of a moon phase, or Aries is in Jupiter, or some such thing.
Whatever that means.
Personally, I think people are just pissed off.Why?I have no idea.But for the first time since I started this job, I’m ready for a few days off so I don’t have to be around people.
ChapterFour
Remington
“Jesus, you’ve been in a shitty mood all fucking week.”
I turn to glare at my brother, Brady.“So?”
“So, what’s wrong with you?I mean, you’re usually a grumpy fuck, but you’re not typically an asshole on top of it.What crawled up your ass?”
Leave it to my brothers to call me out on my shit.
We’re repairing some fence line on the edge of the property to the south, but I take a minute to take my gloves off and rub my eyes.
“It’s been a shit week.”I sniff and look over the pasture to the mountains beyond.We own thatwholemountain.
Sometimes that stops me in my tracks.
“Why?”Brady asks.“The kids are on spring break, so you haven’t had to run them to school and back, and Mom’s been hanging with them all week.”
“Yeah, but Holly’s pissed off because she’s grounded from the barn after her little stunt last week.Then, on that same day, I got a call from Johnny’s teacher, and she told me that my boy is failing math.”
Brady scowls.“How does a second grader flunk math?”
“I asked him that.He told me he hates it, so he doesn’t care about it.”
“I mean,Ihate math,” Brady says with a grim nod.
“Don’t tell him that.Anyway, between the kids, losing that filly yesterday,andhaving a mountain lion on the property killing my beef that I can’t seem to catch, it’s been a shit week.”
“Fair enough,” Brady says.
