I'll Always Love You

I'll Always Love You, Chapter 1

"You almost finished up there?"

Jeremy heard the scratchy voice of Dot, short for Dorothy, who was the owner of Dot's Stop, the hardware store just outside the city center of Columbia Falls. Jeremy closed up the box of plastic PVC pipes from where he was crouched in the dusty attic, doing inventory the old-school way, with a clipboard and pencil, because Dot was a believer that going digital was a recipe for impending disaster. No matter how much Jeremy tried to convince her of the efficiency and ease, not to mention the better use of his time, she wouldn't budge. If everything were digitally recorded, at her fingertips, so she knew exactly what she had, he'd never be stuck in a too-small attic again.

"Yeah, just..." He stood up and banged his head on the sloped attic ceiling. "Ah, shit!" he yelled and dropped the clipboard. For a second, he thought he saw stars as he took in the century-old attic where all the extra stock was stored—dusty, dark, damp. It was a crime, in his mind.

"You hit your head again, Jer?" Her deep laugh was raspy and almost sounded like a man's as he made his way to the square hole in the floor where the wooden ladder hung down. Dot was in a red and white shirt that resembled a bowling league uniform, in her fifties, with long thick white hair that did nothing for her five-foot-five plump stature. She was still using the nickname she'd bestowed on him even after he'd reminded her a dozen or so times that he preferred Jeremy. He thought, though, it was her twisted sense of humor, and the fact was that she loved pushing his buttons. It was evident by the expression on her face as she stared up at him now.

"It would be great if there was an actual storage room instead of a spot that only fits a kid. Speaking of which, it would be better if you sent up Ruth or Cady, who are half my size..." He slipped his sneakered foot down on the rail of the ladder, gripping the clipboard, and climbed down. He still couldn't believe he'd squeezed all the boxes of stock through into the attic, and he knew he was the one who'd have to haul each box down, not Dot or Ruth or Cady.

She said nothing as he stood in front of her, wiping the dust off his favorite Cubs T-shirt and his deep blue wranglers. He towered over Dot, feeling as if he'd breathed half the dust into his lungs, and she held out her hand for the clipboard. "Stop your complaining, would you?" she said. "Ruth and Cady don't have your brute strength to move the boxes. Besides, I needed the count today, and they're not working. You are."

He slapped the clipboard in her hand. She never pulled her amber eyes from him, and then she dragged her gaze down, sweeping over him from head to toe and all the way back up, landing on his face before a slow easy smile touched her lips.

"You sure are a looker, there, Jer, just like your daddy." She made a sound of appreciation, the kind that totally creeped him out, even though he knew she was married with four grown kids. Something about that cougar type of teasing made him feel like prey. Dot then turned away and started walking back to the front of the store, where she slipped behind counter. The small cluttered shop seemed to sell just about anything and everything, and even though he'd worked there for just over two years, he still didn't know where everything was. He wanted to remind Dot to stop calling him Jer, but he knew it would be wasted breath.

"Truth be told," Dot said, "if you really want to know, Cady actually volunteered to come in on her day off to help with the inventory." She flicked her gaze up to him as he stopped just short of where she lingered behind the counter, scribbling something down before she flicked the pen and then glanced up to him. "To help you out," she added with effect.

It took him a second to understand her meaning. "You mean..."

He didn't finish as another slow smile touched Dot's lips. Her eyes simmered with that teasing heat that had him wanting to take another step back. "Come on, Jer," she said. "You have to know the girls here have the hots for you. The customers, too, who come in and wait for you and only you to wait on them. Add in the fact that every time you go up and down that ladder, every girl around is watching you, the way you move all those heavy boxes. Cady's had eyes for you since the day you started working here over two years ago. She's been drooling over you ever since. Haven't you figured that out? You just have to look her way, toss the poor girl a crumb, and the girl is ready and willing to do anything just to be around you, with you, talking to you. Seriously, can't believe you don't see it. Told her to knock it off, but it's as if you've cast this spell over her. Then there's Ruth, the way she watches you when she thinks you're not looking, all dreamy-like."