Eight

The two of them walk through the hardware store, hand in hand, as she does not seem inclined to let go of him and he has not intention of pulling away from her touch any time soon.

He leads her down to the lumber section, where he prices the plank of wood that he will need. Not that money is an issue or anything, he just wants to make sure that he is getting the best wood that he can.

With everyone being obsessed by this stupid legnd and his family, the motel has done such a booming business that he can easily say that he is well off. Not that he says it.. that would be in poor taste. But he is.

“I need to find a worker, real quick. I will be right back.” Owen tell her, releasing her hand. She watches him walk away, feeling the warmth of his hand in hers still lingering. She misses his touch, which is weird, considering that she has known him for less than a day.

“I can't believe how he just walks around this town as if nothing ever happened. He is walking through this store as if he owns the place. It pisses me off to see him acting so casual around the town, as if he doesn't realize that we all hate him!” Olivia hears a voice say from the other aisle over.

The woman was not keeping her voice down, so the words carry plainly over to Liv. She listens shamelessly to the town gossip, interested. When Owen gets back she will ask him if he knows the person that they were fussing about.

“Well, hell, he can't stay up in that creepy motel all the time. He has to go into town some time to get provisions and so on.” Answer back a male voice, just as loudly.

Motel? Where they talking about Owen? Liv moves closer to the shelves of lumber, to try to hear them even better.

“Yeah, well.. he should be made to go to another town. We got some real pretty young girls around here, that we would rather not have disappearing again.” The woman says.

“Now Trudy, it has been nearly ten years since we had anyone disappear any where around us in this state. If he was up to something, the police would have got him by now.” The man answers back reasonably. Liv nods along with his words, liking his willingness to not cast stones without having the whole story.

“A brown haired woman went missing two days ago. With that big ten year anniversary of the murders coming up that the local news keeps advertising, maybe he thought that it was time to pick up the mantle, so to speak. Carry on the family's legacy.” The woman tells him, sounding angry that he isn't agreeing with her little smere campaign that she is running.

The man, still not buying into her character assassination, grunts. “That does not mean that the boy had a thing to do with it. Hell, a black man and a blonde haired twelve year old girl also went missing in the last month in surrounding towns, but you are not jumping to conclusions over that.” He sighs. “Some times people just go missing.. that's the world that we live in. We can't pass all the blame on a guy just cause of his family. I told you, I know him and he is a good guy.”

“I don't care what you say, Owen Matthews is a killer, just like his family was. He needs to stay out of this town cause none of us want him around.”

The woman yells the words shrilly, her voice carrying over to many aisles. Liv falls back away from the shelf, the word that she said still ringing in her ears.

Killer.

Owen Matthews is a killer.

Liv turns away, ready to leave the store when she sees him behind her, standing their with the most lost and pained look in his eyes. He heard what the woman said. He probably heard every word that the big mouth bitch spewed.

Liv can see the pain and the embarrassment in his eyes. But more than that, she sees shame. She does not know his story and she has no idea what those people are talking about but she does know Owen. Well, as well as she can now a man that she only met this morning.

The two of them stand their in silence, watching each other warily for a moment, Owen waiting to see what her next move is. She can tell that she surprises him when she walks over to him with a smile, taking his hand in hers once more.

“Did you find someone to come help us?”

Owen nods, not saying a word. He averts his eyes. “I will get what I need some other time. Let's go.”

“Oh, heck no.” Liv tells him, tugging him over to the teenage boy that she sees approaching with a store logo on his shirt. “We are already here. We will get what you need, then we will go back to the motel.”

She can see that Owen is uncomfortable and wants to leave, but she will be damned if he lets him scitter away just because some loud mouth woman with more volume than sense had the gall to talk shit about him in public.

Liv and Owen are standing their ground, whether Owen wants to or not. Liv has a long standing tradition of not backing down or giving a damn what people say about her. That is something that she plans to pass on to Owen before she leaves.

“Okay Owen, tell this man what wood you need.” Liv prombts Owen as the boy comes to a halt beside them.

She can feel the teens eyes roaming over her and apparently Owen notices the looks, which is enough to pull him from this little funk of his, because he pulls her closer into his side and stares hard at the kid as he gives him his order.

She nestles into his side, under his arm and listens. She is staring down the aisle when she sees a short, extremely skinny older woman in ripped, dirty pants come from the aisle over, with a tall, husky older man behind her. Trudy, she presumes, as the woman turns her overly made up face to glare in Owen's direction.

Liv, being the bitch that she is, grins real big and gives the woman a wave. If they were in a cartoon then she would have seen the red on the womans face rising up until the steam comes out of her ears. Instead the womans face just goes red immediately and she frowns so deep that her tacky blue eyeshadow disappears into the creases of her eyes. She turns around and stomps away, as the man behind her smiles back at Liv and waves.

Yep, Liv still likes him.

It takes a few minutes for Owen to place his order and for them to get everything together, so once he pays for his purchases, the two of them go to wait in his truck until the boy can bring it out.

Once they are in his vehicle, he turns to her with a frown. “I am sure that you have a bunch of questions.”

“Honestly, yeah.. I do.” Liv tells him. She looks towards the amount of wood that the two men are pushing out on one of those rolling carts and she turns back to him. “What the heck are you making your family for Christmas?”