Chaste (McCullough Mountain) (8 page)

JustJosh

By the time she read to the end
of the letter a smile tugged at her lips. He sounded normal and his profile
picture was nice. JustJosh had blond hair and green eyes. He was a little on
the thin side, but he was a far cry from ugly. Most of all, his note didn’t
come off creepy or insincere. She clicked on the reply arrow.

Hello
JustJosh,

This
is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, so I’m not really sure how
it works. Your message was nice and I enjoyed reading it. I don’t have much of
a social life either. I work outside and own my own business, so I’m usually
pretty exhausted by Friday as well. However, I’d go out more if I had good
company. What do you do in your spare time when you’re not tired?

~SugarBear24

Sugar
Bear,

Thanks
for getting back to me. I usually hang out at local pubs or play cards with the
guys from work. Kind of boring, which, being from Center County, I’m sure you
understand. Maybe one day I could take you out and treat you to some of that
good company we both seem to be looking for. Just to talk of course. There’s a
bar near me called O’Malley’s. Do you know of it?

~Josh

She
blushed. It was the first time a guy ever asked her out. Surprise folded into a
warm, buttery thrill. Maybe there was more to be said for this online dating
thing. Ignoring the fact that O’Malley’s was Kelly’s bar, she replied.

Hi
Josh,

I
know O’Malley’s. It’s only a few miles from my house.
Lol
…Yes,
Center County can be quite boring at times. I’d love to meet you. By the way,
my name is Ashlynn.

~Ashlynn

Hi
Ashlynn,

That’s
a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. How about next Friday? Say we meet at
O’Malley’s around seven?

~Josh

Nerves
twittered up her spine and in her belly. Was it really that easy? Should she
say yes? It wasn’t like she was agreeing to go to his house. O’Malley’s was
familiar and seemed a safe place to meet a stranger. Besides, there was no
stopping any other stranger from approaching her all the other times she
visited the pub. What was the harm?

Hi
Josh,

Friday
night at seven sounds great. I look forward to meeting you. I’m going to say
goodnight now, as it’s way past my bedtime.

Nice
meeting you.

~Ashlynn

As
she shut her laptop she smiled. She had a date!

Chapter Two

Kelly
shuffled and dealt out the cards. “Sevens are wild.”

His
brother Finn passed him a beer as he scooped up his hand. “Come on, the twins
need new sneaks.”

“Saw
you and Mallory running the twins with that new, fancy jogging stroller the
other day.
Manly
,” Kelly teased his newlywed brother as he dealt out the
cards.

The
McCullough brothers had been gifted with two sisters-in-law over the past few
years, first his brother Colin’s wife, Sammy, and now Finn’s charming lady,
Mallory. The bachelors were dropping like flies, but Kelly was doing his best
to maintain his reprobate image.

“You’re
just jealous,” Finn remarked as he dropped two cards and Kelly dealt out two
new ones.

“Luke,
put down the phone and take your turn,” their dad grumbled.

Luke,
Finn’s twin, pocketed the phone. “I, ah, was just cleaning out some apps.”

Kelly
raised a brow. His brother was so secretive. He’d obviously been sending a
text. “Did you ever notice how when you start deleting apps on an iPhone the
other apps start trembling like they’re wondering who’s next to get the ax?”
Kelly joked as Luke took his turn.

Luke
traded in a card and said, “Josh here has a date tomorrow night.”

Josh,
one of the guys from their family’s lumberyard who played cards with them
regularly, shot Luke a look, likely telling Kelly’s brother to can it.

“Is
that so?” Kelly teased the younger man.

“It’s
no big deal. We haven’t even met yet.”

Frank,
Kelly’s father, laid down a flush and Kelly folded. He turned to Josh. “How do
you get a date with a lassie you’ve never met?”

Josh
grimaced. “I met her online.”

Everyone
stilled then laughed. “Online? That’s no way to meet a woman. She won’t look
anything like her picture, I bet,” Kelly said as his father took the pot.

Josh
shrugged. “She’s pretty enough. I’ve talked to her a few times over the past
few days. She seems nice, easygoing, no frills.”

“Of
course she
seems
pretty enough. Lassies have special cameras for that
sort of shit. I think there’s a special lens setting they use just between
portrait and landscape called
dating site.”

Josh
rolled his eyes. “We’re meeting at O’Malley’s tomorrow night.”

Kelly
grinned and passed the deck to Finn. “Oh, I can’t wait to see this. Should we
have some sort of signal in case you need rescuing?”

Josh
put down his cards and shrugged. “Even if she isn’t what I expected I’ll still
treat her to dinner. She seems shy and I don’t want to be rude.”

“Is
she from around here?” Finn asked.

“Yeah,”
Josh said, peeling back the label of his beer. “She went to high school with us
actually, but I don’t remember her. I think she was in your grade, Kelly.”

“Oh
yeah? What’s her name?” He’d likely sampled the goods, but he’d keep that to
himself. Josh was a good guy and he didn’t want to throw him just before his
date with his possible destiny.

Finn
snorted. “Knowing Kelly, he probably slept with her.”

Kelly
narrowed his eyes at Finn and sipped his beer. It was one thing for him to take
a jab at himself, but when the others ribbed him it got old. It was old a
decade ago, but that was who he was and they all knew it.

“Her
name’s Ashlynn.”

Kelly
stilled, a mouthful of beer still on his tongue. He forced it down. “Ashlynn
Fisher?” What the hell was a girl like Ashlynn doing agreeing to meet strangers
she found online?

Josh
shrugged. “We didn’t exchange last names, but Ashlynn isn’t a real popular name
so that’s probably her.”

Kelly
purposefully blanked his expression as his mind tried to make sense of the
information unraveling and why it irritated him so much.

After
running into her the other day he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He couldn’t
quite remember what it was she said, but it pissed him off. Assuming she was
too sweet to judge others, it jarred, the way she insulted him. Apparently even
the church folk knew his reputation.

Finn
scratched his chin and leaned back in his chair. His brother sucked at poker
and folded again.

“Ashlynn
Fisher,” Finn said retrospectively. “I remember her. Quiet little thing, sort
of bookish looking, always hiding behind those glasses. Her dad owns Fisher
Farm. It was a shame when her mom died. She used to be really pretty.”

Kelly
frowned. “She’s still pretty.”

“I
just mean she used to wear dresses and have her hair braided. After her mom
passed away she sort of turned into a straggly tomboy. I have no idea what she
looks like now.”

Josh
laid down a straight and twisted the cap off another beer. “Well, if it’s the
same girl, she’s pretty. She’s got short spikey hair and I think she wears
contacts now.”

Ashlynn
didn’t wear contacts. “She has glasses,” Kelly said, unsure why he cared.

Josh
shrugged. “She didn’t have them on in her picture.”

He
frowned. Why would she remove her glasses for a picture? Those glasses only added
to her cuteness. He liked the little gems in the corner of the frames.

Luke
sniggered. “You probably should’ve picked a better place to take her than
O’Malley’s.”

“What’s
wrong with O’Malley’s?” Kelly asked defensively. O’Malley’s was his place, for
the most part, and it was the hot spot in their Podunk town.

Luke
raised an eyebrow. “Nothing, but it’s common knowledge Ashlynn Fisher only goes
there for one reason.”

“What’s
that?” Josh asked.

“To
gawk at Kelly,” his brothers said at once.

Kelly
scowled at them. “Bullshit.”

“Oh,
come on, Kel! That girl’s had a thing for you since high school. Even Sheilagh
knows it.”

“I
know what?” their sister said, coming into the den. Great. His little sister
was a shark when it came to
Hold’em
. “Deal me in,
boys.” She straddled the chair beside their father.

They
all sighed. “There go my winnings,” Luke said.

Finn
snorted. “Like you’ve won.”

“The
intention was there,” Luke commented.

Sheilagh
scooped up her hand. “So, what do I know?”

“That
Ashlynn Fisher has a thing for Kelly.”

Sheilagh
laughed. “Oh yeah. That poor girl’s got it bad for Kelly, has since we were
little.”

“Great,”
Josh mumbled. “Is there anyone in Center County you didn’t ruin for the rest of
us?”

“Have
no fear, my friend. Ashlynn’s not my type,” Kelly reassured the man, even
though he couldn’t deny the girl’s sex appeal.

“Why?
What’s wrong with her?”

Kelly’s
brain blanked as he thought of a way to explain. “She’s just…”

“
Farmish
,” Finn offered.

“Quiet,”
Luke added.

“
Virginal
.”
Sheilagh spoke knowingly, hitting the nail on the head with an arrogant smile.

Josh’s
eyes widened. “She’s a virgin?”

“No,”
Kelly snapped, defensively lying for the girl without thought, but at the same
time the rest of them unanimously said,
“Yes.”

“Holy
shit. She’s twenty-four.”

“Nothing
wrong with that,” their father mumbled, as he switched out his hand.

Josh
appeared shocked at this bit of information. “I know. It’s just…unheard of.”

Finn
waggled his eyebrows. “Maybe you play your cards right and she won’t be a
virgin for long.”

Kelly
shoved his brother. “Don’t say shit like that.”

They
all turned and gawked at him.

“What’s
it to you, Kelly?” Sheilagh asked, her pert mouth twisting mischievously.

He
shrugged and tried to distract himself with his shitty hand. “It’s nothing to
me.”

“Well,
I know how you can cash in on that deal, Josh. Full house, boys,” Sheilagh said
as she scooped up the pot.

“How’s
that?” Josh asked and Kelly scowled. He wasn’t cashing in on shit.

Sheilagh
stacked her chips and smiled shrewdly. “Marry her.”

Josh
paled. “Uh, I didn’t even know her last name until five minutes ago.”

“Well,
it’s Fisher and I know all about her. We went to CCD together to learn our
sacraments. Everyone knows that ring on her finger’s a promise ring her dad
gave her when she was sixteen. She’s old school, saving herself for the man she
marries.”

Their
father grumbled something in Sheilagh’s direction Kelly didn’t catch. His
sister was the wild child and there were certain things he was sure his father
didn’t want to think about, like the ways Sheilagh and Ashlynn Fisher differed.

“Well,
shit,” Josh said as he put down his beer. “I’m just looking for a date, not a
wife.”

“Then
maybe you should look somewhere else,” Kelly mumbled, standing from the table
to toss his bottle in the recycling. When he turned everyone was frowning at
him. “What?”

Finn
smiled. “Maybe
you
should date her, Kelly. You seem awfully protective
of her.”

“I
don’t even know the girl.”

Josh
continued to frown. “Don’t tell him that. If Kelly goes after her I don’t have
a shot in hell.”

“I
think Josh should date her,” Sheilagh said, an evil glint in her green eyes. “I
think he should woo her and all kinds of good stuff. We can have a secret pool
on how long it takes for her to take off that ring.”

“Sheilagh!”
Kelly snapped.

“What?”
His sister shrugged innocently. “It’ll be fun.”

“I’m
in.” Luke tossed a twenty on the table. “I say she holds out for marriage.”

“Damn
it, Luke!” As someone who was frequently stereotyped, he didn’t like the turn
the game was taking. Sure, it was a private joke, but his brother’s
insensitivity was appalling.