Chapter 24 Avery
AVERY
I’m not going to bite. Not unless you like that sort of thing.
Dane’s words echoed in my mind as I left the house for the bakery the next morning. In fact, they were pretty much all I’d thought about since he’d said them on the terrace the night before.
That and the way his knee had bumped mine under the table. I was mesmerized by every part of him, from the musky smell of his aftershave to the shaved line of hair around his ears to the heavy silver links of his watch wrapped around his wrist.
I’d tried to keep my distance — every nerve in my body screamed danger when it came to Dane Calder — but the laptop had forced me to lean in.
I’d been buzzing with desire by the time we finished going over financials for the house and bakery, and I’d spent another evening avoiding my three hot roommates, this time with my laptop in my room, digging into Hearthstone’s board of directors.
But I couldn’t dodge Beck, Noah, and Dane forever.
“Good gravy I’m in trouble,” I muttered.
“Good morning!”
I looked up to find Bastien standing in front of Bramble House, hosing down the sidewalk in his jeans and boots, his V-neck T-shirt splattered with water.
His brown hair was long enough to curl over his collar, and his hands were large and calloused.
It was hard to imagine him with the formal, staid man I’d been waving to on the porch.
“Good morning.” He shut off the hose as I made my way toward him. I surveyed the wet sidewalk and glistening grass. “You must have the cleanest sidewalk in Blackwell Hollow.”
He laughed. “That’s just a bonus. I like to start the day outside. It’s best if I give Gabriel a little space in the morning.”
“Not a morning person huh?”
“Let’s just say ‘prickly’ would be an understatement.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “How long have you been running the inn together?”
He thought about it. “Over five years. It was a dump when we bought it.”
I turned to look at the pristine Victorian, dressed in turquoise blue and buttercup yellow. The windows were so clean they shone, the porch looked solid enough to host a block party, and there wasn’t a single area of chipped paint on the entire building.
“That’s hard to believe,” I said.
“Believe it! It was owned by a hoarder who’d gotten too old to manage the place. It drove Evelyn crazy, although she tried to help.”
“I’m not surprised.” Even though I hadn’t known Evelyn at the end of her life, I knew from the way she’d tried to stay in touch with me — and from all the people in Blackwell Hollow — that she would have stepped in to help anyone who needed it.
“How are you?” He lowered his voice, like someone might overhear even though no one was on the sidewalk but us. “I heard about Harold. That must have been pretty shocking. And on your first day too.”
“Definitely not what I expected.”
“Do they have any suspects?”
I recognized the hint of excitement in Bastien’s voice. He was an undercover gossip!
“Not that I know of,” I said. “But I wondered if it might have something to do with the Hearthstone development.”
His face lit up. “That’s what I told Gabriel!”
“What does Gabriel think?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Gabriel’s above gossip, which as you can see, is a trait I don’t share.”
I laughed.
“Don’t get me wrong, I feel badly for poor Harold and everything, but it is quite the mystery,” Bastien said.
“What was he like?” All I knew about Harold Pembroke was that he’d been on the town council. It was easy to think his murder had something to do with the Hearthstone development, but for all I knew, they weren’t his only enemy.
“Harold was… fine.”
“Fine?”
“A little slippery, like all politicians I guess, even small-town ones,” Bastien said.
“Did he have any enemies?” I asked. “Other than Hearthstone I mean.”
Thanks to Rosie, I already had Victor Ames, the community liaison Hearthstone had assigned to the Blackwell Hollow project, at the top of my list. But Harold had been on the town council, and that was a position that could generate anger from every corner.
Surprise washed over Bastien’s face. “Oh, I don’t know if Hearthstone was his enemy just because he opposed the development.”
Easy for him to say. I knew how contentious the planning process could become between residents and developers. Residents were fiercely protective of their neighborhoods, but developers?
Developers were in a class all by themselves.
A big development could mean millions for the company spearheading the build, and I’d seen them do all kinds of crazy — and illegal — things to move their projects forward.
“You’re probably right.” Bastien seemed alarmed by the prospect that Hearthstone might want Harold dead. No reason to freak him out. “Was there anyone Harold didn’t get along with? Anyone who might have been angry at him?”
“Well, there was that thing with Maggie…”
“Maggie?”
“She owns the Open Book.”
The bookstore was next door to the Common Ground. I’d passed it on my way to the lake, first when I’d taken Evelyn flowers and then when I’d walked with Noah after the Mayor Biscuit Incident. “I’ve never been inside.”
“Maggie does an amazing job with it. She even managed to get that big thriller author in for a signing last year.” Bastien crinkled his forehead like he was trying to remember the author’s name. “Landon Reeves!”
Landon Reeves’ books took pride of place in the windows of every bookstore in the city. “Maggie had a falling-out with Harold?”
“Nothing major,” Bastien said. “We had a budget shortfall last year and Harold wanted to cut funding for the library. Maggie’s on the board — it’s her pet project — and they had a dustup about it. They even got into an argument in the square. Rosie took a picture and put it up on our board.”
Of course she did.
“What ended up happening?”
“Harold relented on the budget because Maggie told him it would be her mission to make him miserable every day of his life if he didn’t.”
“Thanks for filling me in,” I said.
The sun was climbing higher in the sky, and I was starting to feel like my shoulders — bare thanks to my tank top — might be getting burned.
“Anytime,” Bastien said. “Gabriel and I would like to have you over for dinner sometime soon. You can bring your three hot men.”
My face was immediately ten times warmer than my shoulders. “Oh, they’re not— ”
He laughed, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”
I suddenly wished for a sinkhole to swallow me. Or an asteroid to strike me down on the sidewalk. Literally anything to get Bastien to stop talking about the possibilities that had commandeered my mind during every waking hour.
“I don’t know them very well,” I said.
He grinned. “I can think of a way or three to get to know them.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You’re terrible.”
“Incorrigible,” Bastien said, mimicking a formal voice that I assumed was Gabriel’s. “It’s one of my better qualities.”
“I’ll let you get back to your work,” I said, hurrying away.
I did not want to talk about Beck, Noah, and Dane. I didn’t even know what to think about the situation in my own mind. I was nowhere near ready to talk about it with someone I barely knew, although I had the sense that there could be worse confidants than Bastien in Blackwell Hollow.
Rosie and Lyle were at the top of that particular list.
“Have a great day,” Bastien called out, turning on his hose.
I thought about what he’d said about Harold as I headed for the bakery. I definitely needed to find a way to meet Victor Ames.
But now it sounded like I needed to pay a visit to the Open Book as well.