Page 27 of With Spite

That was why I was still working at The Mercantile despite hating it.

I lucked out that Odin had offered me a job. Otherwise, I probably would still be working here for years to come.

Dismissing Vera for the time being, I looked at the woman who’d come up to the counter to check out.

Probably one of the last stragglers of the day seeing as the snow was picking up by the second.

“That’ll be a dollar fifty, sir.”

The old man smiled and held out two bucks. “Keep the change for the next person that needs it.”

I held out his prescription to him and smiled. “That’s very kind of you, sir.”

Before he was finished gathering his things, I moved to the register a couple of feet away and smiled at the older woman who was digging through her purse for something.

“How can I help you, ma’am?”

She jerked her head up and smiled. “Oh, hi. I’m just wanting some of the Salem Slim Light cigarettes there.”

I turned, grabbed the cigarettes, and scanned them.

She paid with her card and was off moments later.

I looked around The Mercantile and General Store like I always did, hoping for a glance of him, but he was nowhere in sight today.

Though he worked in the butcher shop, he was here quite a bit. Much to Vera’s delight.

Always lurking here or there, keeping an eye on things.

Showing up when I was being forced by Vera to lift thirty-pound bags of cat or dog food over my head onto the highest shelf in the store.

My heart gave a little thump as Odin came in the door.

The man was seriously hot.

As in, overly hot.

I always had trouble talking to hot men, and it seemed the men in this small town were all overly hot. It was embarrassing how flustered I got with them all. Like a lovesick fool.

His fiancée was on his arm, and they were laughing about something that had Odin’s head tilted back and the muscles of his throat working.

They came up to the register and said, “Hey, do you have any hand warmers?”

I pointed to the end cap directly behind them. “Going for a hike again?”

“Nah, poor girl is just freezing.”

“I know the feeling,” I admitted.

Constance shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m so cold. It snows where I’m from. But this place is something else.”

“Agreed,” I said as I rang them up.

They left almost as quickly as they arrived.

The next customer was already waiting in line, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Hi,” the old lady chirped.