Amy Vastine - Catch A Fallen Star

“Could you help me?” a dark-haired woman asked him. She immediately reminded Boone of his nana. She was well put-together and small in stature. Her bright red lipstick was meticulously applied. “For some reason they put my husband’s favorite bottle of wine on the highest shelf.”

Boone realized in that moment that he had landed himself in the aisle with nothing but beer and wine. His stomach growled louder than it had the entire shopping trip, and his mouth felt drier than a desert. There was only one thing that could quench this particular thirst.

He could smell it now—the hoppy beer and the fruity notes in the merlots. He could almost feel the bubbles of the champagne on his tongue. Given his physical reaction, it was amazing his body hadn’t led him to this aisle the second he set foot in the store. It was either fate testing his sobriety or the devil begging him to give it up.

“Are you all right?” the woman asked, giving him a peculiar look.

Boone snapped out of his daze. Embarrassed, he shook his head. “Which one?” His voice was rough, like he hadn’t spoken in years.

“That one right there.” She pointed.

With shaky hands, Boone reached up and grabbed the bottle that had eluded the poor woman. He knew how it felt to have what you wanted most just out of reach.

“Thank you,” the woman said, waiting patiently for him to hand it over.

Boone couldn’t turn it over just yet. He wanted to feel the glass in his hands, take in the weight of the liquid held inside. What he wouldn’t give to open it up and take one tiny sip. He could handle one sip. That wouldn’t really be cheating. One sip wouldn’t get him drunk.

“My husband swears he needs one drink a night to fall asleep. I think that’s just an excuse to have one drink a night.”

Boone would never stop at a sip. He wouldn’t stop at one drink. He’d finish the whole bottle and start on another before he knew what hit him. He handed the wine to the woman and, without a word, pushed his cart out of the aisle and as far away from temptation as possible.

He was still trying to control his thoughts while he waited in the checkout line. The young woman in front of him had a handful of coupons and was taking her sweet time sorting through them to find the ones she could apply to her purchase.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Violet and her friend hanging around the display of lighters near one of the empty checkout lanes. They seemed quite interested in what the employees were doing and where they were looking. Violet put a lighter in her pocket and started for the door. Boone noticed that the guy by customer service who was almost certainly the store manager saw the same thing. He could only imagine how much trouble the kid would get into with a mother like Ruby. He deserted his cart and got to Violet right before the manager confronted her.

He threw an arm over her shoulders and turned her back toward the checkout. “There you are, kiddo. I thought I lost you.”

Violet turned white as a ghost. “What are you doing?”

“Saving your butt,” he whispered. “Wanna hand over that lighter you were trying to lift so that Mr. Manager over there doesn’t call the police or, worse, your mom?”

Violet glanced over her shoulder at the man who was glaring in their direction.

“He didn’t see anything,” she argued weakly.

“You want to risk it?” Boone lifted his arm and motioned for her to head back toward the exit.

Violet thought about it for less than a second and dug the lighter out of her pocket. She set it in Boone’s waiting palm. “Whatever,” she mumbled.

“What was that?” He cupped his ear with his hand. “Thank you? Is that what I heard? Thank you for saving me?”

“Thank you for embarrassing me in front of my friend. How about that?”

The other girl was long gone. She must have figured Violet was caught and didn’t want to go down with a sinking ship. “You need better friends, kid.”

“Maybe you can come to school with me and offer to sign things for everybody. I bet that will make me super popular.”

“Why am I helping you again?”

“Beats me,” Violet said with a shrug.

Coupon Lady finally finished checking out, and the clerk welcomed Boone to Valu-Save. Her wide-rimmed glasses looked like they were straight out of the 1980s.

“We decided we don’t need this,” he said, handing the clerk the lighter.

“Oh, wow. Thanks for nothing,” Violet grumbled.

“I can’t think of one thing you’d need that for that doesn’t end with you getting in even more trouble. You’ll definitely thank me for that later.”

“Oh my gosh, you sound exactly like my mother.”

There was little chance that was a good thing. Not to mention he had absolutely nothing in common with that woman other than their mutual desire to have nothing to do with one another. “Speaking of your mother, let’s keep this little rescue mission to ourselves, okay?”

Violet covered her heart with her hand and gasped like a world-class actress. “You want me to lie to my mother?”

The clerk glanced up at them, causing her to ring one item up twice. She looked away and corrected her error.

“I would never ask you to lie to your mother,” Boone said through gritted teeth. “All I’m saying is that not telling her every detail of your day is probably pretty normal for you. This should perhaps be one of those things you keep to yourself.”

“Boy, you really better start talking to Jesse. You are in worse shape than I am.”

She had no idea.

CHAPTER FOUR

“I THOUGHT YOU were hanging out with Stacy,” Ruby said from her spot at the dining room table as Violet charged through the front door and took the stairs two at a time. There was no reply except the slamming of her bedroom door.

“One of these days I am going to take that door off its hinges!” She meant it this time. Ruby didn’t care what Jesse had said about Violet needing privacy. If she couldn’t treat their house with respect, then she would have to suffer the consequences.

Ruby stood and stretched her arms above her head. She’d spent the past hour organizing her schedule for the coming weeks. There were two women in Wilcox County due to give birth in the next month with Ruby’s assistance. She had to make sure she was ready when those calls came in.

The sound of angry girl music filtered downstairs. Jesse’s voice in Ruby’s head told her to go check on Violet, to offer an ear and not a lecture. She took a deep breath and headed upstairs. She knocked on the door but got no answer.

“Vi, can I come in?” She tried turning the knob before getting the okay, but the door was locked. “What did I say about locking the door? Open it. Now.”

An increase in the music’s volume was Violet’s only response. Ruby inhaled deeply, trying to rein in her emotions. Jesse had once reminded her that when she lost her cool, it gave Violet an excuse to lose hers.

“I will leave you alone, but I need you to unlock the door and respect my rules.”

Ruby waited until she heard the soft click of the lock releasing. She resisted the temptation to push the door open, pressing her ear to the door instead. She hoped for an invitation to come in, imagined sitting on Violet’s bed and hearing all about what had happened to make her so upset.

“You can go away now,” Violet said from the other side.

Ruby straightened and bit her lip. It didn’t matter if there was a door or not. Violet wasn’t going to let her in.

“I’m going to start dinner. And you will be eating,” she said before Violet could protest that she wasn’t hungry.

Their dinner options were limited. Ruby had neglected certain chores this week, like grocery shopping. Cooking had never been one of her strengths, and living in Nashville had given her plenty of good reasons to eat out. There were several restaurants in the city Ruby missed like dear friends.