I shrugged. "Just enjoying the sunshine. Anything wrong with that?"
He mimicked my shrug. "It's a free country, so they say."
"You don't believe it is?" We weren't talking about the country and we both knew it. We were talking about the other guys and their insistence that he leave town. As if he had no right to step foot in Aurora Hollow.
As far as I knew, neither of them, nor their parents, owned the town. Why then, were they so adamant he didn't belong here?
"I wouldn't know." His gaze dropped to my chest, ghosted down to my feet and then back up again. His tongue slid across his lips like he knew exactly what to do with it. "Some people seem to get away with more shit than others."
"You mean Connor and Riley," I stated. "They?—"
"I don't want to talk about those fuckheads," he snapped. "Why are you talking to me? Shouldn't you be getting a pedicure or something?" He sneered like I was some precious princess who shouldn't be out on the street by herself. Like maybe I'd break if I stepped on a crack in the sidewalk.
"I've never had a pedicure in my life," I said evenly. My mother would have suggested that kind of self-care was an expensive indulgence. I made a note to book one. To rebel against her, not him.
"First time for everything," he said.
"Are you offering, Dash?" I asked, not caring if I was poking a hornets’ nest. I was going to give as good as I got.
His face reddened. "Don't fucking call me that," he snarled. "My name is Josiah. Josiah Lachance."
His anger was enough to make me take half a step back. If he was a coiled spring before, now he was a grenade, ready to blow a hole in the sidewalk.
"Sorry, Connor and Riley called you?—"
"I know what they fucking call me," he said. "Because they both have their heads up their asses so high they can't see the sunrise." He sucked in a harsh breath through his mouth and forced it back out again. His expression wasn't pure fury. There was anger, and a lot of it, but something else too. Hurt. Whatever happened between the three of them was still a raw, open wound.
"Why do they call you that?" I asked softly. Whitney wouldn't tell me and I was in too much pain to think to ask Connor. Would Josiah tell me the truth?
I knew the look of someone who needed another person to talk to. I saw it in the mirror often enough. The need to confide deepest, darkest secrets to a friend who wouldn't judge. Friends like that were few and far between in my experience, but what was the harm in reaching out to him? I've been told plenty of times I'm a good listener.
"Josiah." Henry stepped out of the camping store before Josiah could say a word. He wasn't aggressive like his son, but he clearly wasn't happy to see the younger man outside his business.
"I was just moving along." Josiah gave me a long look, his expression unreadable, before turning on his booted heel and stalking away.
"You'd be better off staying away from him, girl," Henry said softly. "Josiah Lachance is trouble." He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "That is to say, trouble finds him."
I knew the feeling. Trouble seemed to be a fan of mine as well. I didn't get the impression Josiah was trouble on purpose. He seemed troubled instead. Outcast from the community that prided itself on being so close-knit. That made me more curious about him, not less.
"I should get going so I can get this bag back to you," I said.
"Just think about what I said," Henry said before disappearing back into his store.
That was an easy promise to make. I wasn't sure I’d think about much else.
13
LEAH
I barely got homeand closed the door behind me when someone knocked. I turned around and opened it again.
Connor and Riley stood on the other side, both puffing as though they'd run here.
"Is something wrong?" I asked. I couldn't think of any other reason why they'd be out of breath.
"You were talking to Lachance." Connor stepped past me, into the cottage. Riley gave me a glance before following him in.
"Josiah. Yes I was, so what?" I put the bag containing the chair and the cup, on the dining table and stood with my hands crossed under my breasts.
