Lumberjack Weekend(Divine Creek Ranch 21)(44)

Joseph held up a hand and cut him off. “Her shop was vandalized this morning, Lucas.”

“What?”

“I just got off the phone with Hank Stinson. A couple of the plate glass windows at the Emporium were shattered. They hit several other businesses downtown. They used power line insulators.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“One of the workers needed a few stitches in her forearm, but that’s already taken care of,” Josh said. “They’ve secured the windows with plywood.”

Lucas shook his head. “A power line insulator?”

Josh nodded. “Those things are heavy enough to break a window.”

“Was anything else damaged?”

Joseph shook his head. “Hank said the employees had a good scare out of it, and they had quite a bit of glass to clean up, but they were fine otherwise.”

Lucas nodded and looked at his brother. “So the situation is pretty much handled?”

Josh nodded and then looked at Joseph, who said, “Hank couldn’t get a hold of her on her home phone, and she wasn’t answering her cell phone this morning.”

“She came up to our room to rest after our scene. I probably should’ve gotten her phone from her room for her,” Lucas said, feeling guilty for not thinking of it.

Joseph shrugged. “I encourage attendees to ignore their phones while they’re here if at all possible. Hank found out from Violet’s friends she was out here for the weekend and called me. Her employees knew only that she was taking a much-needed weekend off. They told Hank he shouldn’t bother her but he needed to at least pass the information on to us to relay to her. He also wanted her to know the guard cat was acting weird.”

Lucas snorted. “Tex? He usually lies in the window sunning himself all day.”

Joseph said, “Hank said he’s holed up in Violet’s office. While they were covering the window, they could hear him yowling occasionally. Hank coaxed him out and petted him for a minute, but when he tried to pick him up, Tex got loose and hid again. He’s probably just a little agitated over all the chaos.”

Lucas nodded, unsure about whether they should go tell her now or wait. She’d be concerned about the windows, but the cat held a real soft place in her heart. “So we have to decide if we tell her now and disrupt her weekend or wait and tell her later?”

The three of them looked at each other, and Lucas imagined they were all putting themselves in Violet’s shoes as they discussed the pros and cons. She busied herself taking care of everyone else, making time for others, but never took time for herself. In his opinion, she was fast on the way to becoming a workaholic, and nothing would solidify any guilt she felt about taking off like something like this happening while she was off having fun. They might never get her out of the shop again. Either way, it was a risk.

“No. Let’s wait until the morning to tell her,” Josh said, as if reading his mind. “She doesn’t deserve to have her weekend ruined when the situation is already well in hand. If the cat begins to sound more distressed, I’m sure they’ll let us know, or at least call her phone.”

Lucas nodded, satisfied, and hoped she’d agree with them when they told her. In the meantime, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Not to change the subject, but Joseph, did you realize Ari is a man?”

Josh growled. “What?”

Joseph simply smirked. “Of course. I interviewed him myself. He does body painting for many venues. He has a stellar reputation.”

“Okay,” Josh said, hands on his hips. “Then tell us he’s also gay.”

Joseph shook his head. “He’s straight as an arrow as far as I can tell. His orientation didn’t come up in the interview, but I got a definite heterosexual impression of him.” Joseph clapped them both on the shoulder with a chuckle. “Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s in good hands. But once she’s downstairs, I’d keep close watch. Ari is very good at accentuating the positive.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Lucas asked, and then he heard her giggle on the stairs.



* * * *



Feeling remarkably more in control of her nerves, Violet smiled as Ari bent over her hand and kissed her knuckles at the top of the stairs and then gave her a courtly bow.

“Farewell, lovely Violet,” he said, flirting at her with his bedroom eyes. “I have other forest animals to see to now, though none of them will capture my heart or tease my muse as much as you.”

“Thank you for doing such a...I feel very—What you’ve done is…”

The warmth in Ari’s smile chased away the last of the butterflies in her stomach. “It’s okay to say you feel beautiful, Violet. You are, you know.” He spoke as if it were fact, rather than a question. “Hold still. You have a little smudge…” He licked the tip of his index finger and smoothed it gently along the outer curve of her recently painted breast, concentrating so hard that the furrow reappeared between his brows, as it had when he’d done the rest of her body painting.