Sweet as Honey (Aster Valley 2)

“There was an unfortunate situation out on the highway. He was trying to help me, and… it was all a misunderstanding really. But the sheriff didn’t think so and now…” Just retelling it made me feel horrible, like I’d inadvertently pulled poor Sam into my long-running Aster Valley drama. I felt terrible about it. “He didn’t do anything wrong. Please help him.”

My chin was wobbly, and I knew I was going to start crying any minute. The stress was too much. I’d tried so hard to stay under the radar since moving back to Aster Valley, but this was going to put me smack-dab in the middle of drama again. Which was only going to make the Stanners even angrier.

“We’ll take care of it,” Mikey said. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

He was always so kind. The concern in his voice made my throat feel lumpy. “I’m fine,” I said. “Just help Sam.”

“Will do. Thanks for calling.”

After hanging up, I reached out for the special set of mala beads that hung from a hook behind the register. The multicolored stones were cool and smooth against my fingers.

I took a deep breath and tried to center myself. I tried to remember the meditation exercises my aunt had taught me, but before I could get through the first set, the shop door jangled open and Barney rushed in.

I regretted giving him a key, but there was no way in heck I could get up the nerve to ask for it back, especially if I wanted to remain friends with him. Which I did. Friends were thin on the ground for me here in town, and I couldn’t afford to lose a single one, especially the man who’d gone out of his way to care for me after the assault. He’d even taken care of me months ago when I’d had a horrible case of food poisoning. He was a good man. I just… didn’t want to explain things to him right now.

“There you are. Everyone is in a tizzy out there. What the heck were you thinking?” His head swiveled between the crowd supposedly still in the street and me clutching the edge of the old wooden counter where the cashier stand was. “What part of ‘stay out of trouble’ did you not understand, Truman? You know how the Stanners are. The last thing you need is to bring Erland’s attention on yourself.”

Sheriff Stanner wasn’t the only problem, though. It was his brother, Gene, who had it out for me. Gene and his grown sons. Gene had been the head ski lift mechanic back when the Aster Valley slopes were still running, and when the slopes had been shut down, he’d wanted someone to blame for losing his job.

Lucky me, I’d been the chosen scapegoat.

“I didn’t ask for Patrick Stanner to come after me,” I said, hating the defensiveness in my voice. “I was just planting flowers on the side of the highway when he came up ranting at me and chasing me around. He threatened to beat me up if I didn’t stop making a spectacle of myself. I don’t even know what he meant by that.”

“I would imagine running around in a bumblebee costume on the side of the highway would meet the definition of making a spectacle of yourself,” he said dryly.

There was no reason for me to argue the point, but I did anyway. “I wasn’t hurting anyone. I was minding my own business when he attacked me out of the blue.”

Barney gripped my arm. “Did he touch you?”

His grip was too tight, and I tried to pull my arm away. “That hurts,” I said. When he loosened his grip, I stepped away and rubbed the sore spot left from his hold. “He pushed me down, but he was too drunk to move very fast. I got up and ran away from him. That’s when Tiller and Mikey’s friend showed up on his motorcycle.”

Barney’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like the look of that man in the motorcycle jacket. He was in town a few months ago right around the same time the diner sign was vandalized.”

I almost laughed. “He was the one who fixed the sign. I saw him on the ladder during the snowstorm.”

“Be that as it may, you should stay away from him. He looks dangerous. Besides, if the sheriff set his sights on the man, that’s even more reason for you to stay out of it.”

I was tired. Tired of being persecuted for something that happened eighteen years ago. Tired of feeling like I needed to do penance for something that wasn’t my fault. Tired of being the focus of anyone’s hatred when all I wanted to do was live my own life. More than anything, I was tired of always having to mind my own business and keep off everyone’s radar in Aster Valley.