Read Online Jacob's Ladder by Z. A. Maxfield - Free Book Online Page A

OR, so don"t tell me I gotta hear it when I"m working.”
    “I"m volunteering my time here, Bianca, and if I want to tell Mr. Livingston that not everyone here is—”
    “Is what? You"re not immune.” The dark-haired woman called Bianca raised her brows. “Two words, honey: Nip/Tuck . Good thing your husband can fix what he breaks.”
    Candace narrowed her eyes. “He"s not my husband anymore. And of course I"m not immune. But neither do I have to take this Neanderthal"s inference that I"m some sort of—”
    I tried. I tried so fucking hard, but the misuse of infer and imply is my biggest pet peeve besides…drunk driving or something. “Implication.” She glared at me. “What?”
    I didn"t even mind that she had called me a Neanderthal. “The word is implication . People switch imply and infer all the time, but in that sentence you need to use imply . But I wasn"t, by the way.”
    “Wasn"t what?”
    “I wasn"t implying that you were victims or anything of the sort, and we got off on the wrong foot altogether.” I held out my hand for her to shake, and she took it.
    “I admit it"s true that my lover beat the hell out of me. That looks really bad, but it isn"t like it happens all the time. I usually don"t let it get that far. I was sick. I couldn"t stop the fight once it escalated, and I think it was just as hard on him as it was on me.”
    Even in my own head that sounded completely lame.
    Bianca hissed out a breath. “Honey, did you hear yourself just now?”
    “ Ladies ,” Mary Catherine quietly warned her off.
    “I"m a veteran,” I told them. It was oh-dark-thirty in the morning, and I was gazing at five pairs of eyes that held nothing but sadness and pain. On my behalf . “I can take care of myself.”
    Muse pushed her way forward. She only came up to my shoulder, and as prickly and spiky as she looked, I still wanted to get her a pretty little rhinestone leash and take her for a walk in the park.
    “Dude.” She wrapped tattooed arms around my waist and held on. “It"s okay, man. I can take care of myself too. That doesn"t have anything to do with the power you give away to the people you love.”
    Muse smelled exactly like a pumpkin muffin, and whether I liked it or not, in that very same moment she became one of the people I love most in the world. I let her give me a squeeze like a python.
    40
    Z. A. Maxfield
    “Thanks, Muse. I do know that.”
    Muse looked around in the small kitchen space and gave a couple of the ladies a hard stare. One of them, who hadn"t spoken at all, seemed to realize I was looking at her, and she dashed through the doors behind the worktables.
    “ Play nice ,” Muse told them. I simply shook my head when her attitude subdued even my toughest critics.

    * * *
    It turned out that Mary Catherine had an eye on expanding her pie empire to include savory pies. While I was there, we drew up a plan based on what she"d need, and my training came in handy as I worked with the ladies for the better part of the morning baking pies.
    In the early afternoon we loaded up the van for Mary Catherine to make deliveries. I found out she supplied all the local restaurants and on the weekends took two sets of deliveries out, some as far as Santa Barbara. Eventually she wanted to open a retail store, maybe even a tiny restaurant that would serve baked goods, soups, and sandwiches. It was a safe bet that I could streamline her operation and expand her horizons if I spent any time in St. Nacho"s. When I left by the back door amid a flurry of heartfelt well-wishes, it was also even money she"d expanded mine a little as well.
    Because there seemed to be nothing more than the cold comfort of my empty motel room waiting for me back at the SeaView, I decided to explore St. Nacho"s.
    Moist air came in off the sea, and I could smell it all around me. I discovered if I closed my eyes, I could hear familiar sounds. Not the surf necessarily, but the gulls and other seabirds and the song of the wind over