Page 17 of Ghost Town Boogie

Sawyer didn’t avoid anyone and everyone the way Colt normally did. He had contacts, friends, a life.

Maude snuck up behind him and whispered, “He’s cute. Think he’d date a ghost? An older woman?”

Colt decided to save his response until after Sawyer left.

If Sawyer reached out to the old gang Colt wouldn’t have to. That was a relief, more comforting than knowing he wouldn’t have to wrestle with dead bushes to get them out of the ground. Damn, he really was becoming a hermit…

Anna expected Colt to call her Thursday, but he didn’t. Not that her problems were his, not that he had to worry about all her mother’s collections of this and that. He had a business and a life that didn’t include her. Did he have a life beyond his work? Beyond the depot and his rental houses? It was too soon for him to have news about any valuable records, and it was entirely possible he only saw her as his friend’s little sister, an annoyance, a pest who only wanted his coffee and his dumpster.

Somehow she’d have to change his mind. How was she supposed to have meaningless sex with him if he wasn’t around, if he didn’t see her as a woman, not the kid he remembered? Not that she was practiced in seduction, but he did have to be present for any of that to happen. She knew that much.

There was only so much she could do. If she kept showing up at his place of business she’d come off as desperate and lonely. Which, okay, maybe she was. She could call him with one excuse or another. Maybe invite him over for another mystery meal.

She did have a good excuse for calling; she’d need his dumpster a time or two or twenty…

All day Thursday, then well into the night, she picked up her cell to call him at least a dozen times. She never did. Instead she went through old magazines and tax forms from twenty-plus years ago. The decorative plates had been more fun. If Colt didn’t have a decent shredder, she was going to have to find one elsewhere.

She went to sleep that night with Colt, numbers, and recipes dancing in her brain.

Friday morning she woke with a new surge of inspiration. After a shower and a cup of weak coffee she left the house with cinnamon rolls, decent coffee, and Colt on her mind. All three were great distractions, much more pleasant than the paperwork and magazines that had filled much of the previous day. She could just show up at the depot with cinnamon rolls. Colt had coffee, plenty of it. Anna wasn’t sure where they might go from there. She was definitely interested, but was he?

She knew he was interested in cinnamon rolls, at least.

Since she’d arrived her car had been parked on the street most of the time. The exceptions had been her drive to Colt’s dumpster with a trunkful of plates and Wednesday night’s trip to drop off the boxes of records. The September weather had been pleasant and nothing she needed or wanted was very far away so she’d walked everywhere, as many Seawolf Beach residents did. Maybe the extra steps would make up for all the sweets she’d eaten since she got here.

At least she’d managed to stay out of the candy shop. So far.

Even if she didn’t move forward with Colt, she needed to get out of the house for a while. She loved her mother, but the constant chore of packing up junk, agonizing over each piece and reliving the history of every possession, was tiring. She understood, she did, but still… it was an exhausting experience. It was time for a break.

The good bakery had set up a trio of small tables and hard chairs that looked to be super uncomfortable on a small patio beside the shop. Overflow space, which was in use today. It was a nice enough day to sit outside and enjoy the bakery’s goodies, along with the weather.

It had been a while, but she recognized a couple of men sharing a table, coffee, and… muffins. The muffins made her question their tastes. She knew them both, but not well. Sawyer Wakefield was about Jack’s age. Maybe he’d been a year or two behind her brother in school, but he’d been close enough in age to play on Jack’s – and Colt’s – baseball team. Last she’d heard he’d been through a divorce that sounded as nasty as hers. Nate Tucker, who’d been called Tuck as long as she’d known him, was a couple of years, maybe three, younger than she was. Her mom had told her he’d inherited his uncle’s bar a couple of years ago. Hadn’t he been in the military for a while? That’s what she’d heard. Both of the men looked good, she had to admit. Tuck had really grown up nicely, and Sawyer was nice-looking, as he’d always been.

Two handsome men of the appropriate age, and neither of them affected her the way Colt did. She didn’t look their way and think oooh, they’d do nicely…

She would’ve walked on past and into the bakery, but Tuck saw her and called out. Both men stood and walked toward her. She wouldn’t call either of the men friends, but Seawolf Beach was a small town where everyone knew everyone else.

Tuck gave her a quick hug. “I didn’t know you were in town!”

Sawyer hung back, but he smiled at her. Upon closer inspection, he looked a bit haggard. Tired to the bone. The end of a marriage could do that to a person, she knew.

“I’m helping Mom get ready to move,” Anna said.

“Sounds like a job,” Sawyer said.

“It is. She never threw anything away!”

They all laughed and it was nice, somehow. Easy. She tried to imagine having her fling with one of these guys, if they were even available, but it didn’t work. Her mind and her body had decided. It was going to be Colt or no one.

“I’m sneaking a few things into Colt’s dumpster, and Nicole, at the antique store, took a couple of items. Not enough, I’m afraid. At least she took that awful duck picture off our hands. Dad loved it, for some reason, but I don’t think Mom liked it at all. That was one thing she wasn’t sorry to see go. The only one, I’m afraid.”

Belatedly, Sawyer leaned in and gave her a hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages. We should have dinner one night while you’re in town. You know, catch up, talk about the old days.”

It was the perfect opening, a chance to test the waters with someone who wasn’t at all squirrelly. Up close Sawyer appeared tired, maybe stressed. Tuck looked, as he always had, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. If she just needed to get laid…

Temptation came and went. “Thanks, but I’m so busy with Mom I just don’t have the time. We need to get everything out of the house, take care of some repairs, and get the place on the market.”

“Well, it was great seeing you. Good luck,” Tuck said before heading back to the table.