Encore #2
Eli, as if sensing my skepticism, flips the page on his clipboard. “Now she’s set up an above ground pool and sunbathes at all times of the day while listening to music, totally distracting to the clients coming and going from the clinic.”
The look Audrey and I share asks the obvious question: Clients or you?
Not wanting to outright dismiss his complaints, I ask, “Is the music loud enough to be considered a noise violation?”
He lowers his evidence, muttering something like “setting the wrong tone for my clients,” which gives me the sense that no, his neighbor’s music is not a noise violation.
Straightening, he changes tactics. “She’s gone and planted butterfly bushes all along our shared property line.”
“Butterfly bushes.” I’m not seeing how such a pleasant-sounding plant can be so offensive.
“They attract bees.” He says the last as if it’s damning evidence that should send me reaching for legal paperwork.
“Aren’t honeybees endangered?” Audrey asks, not realizing she’s trying to reason with an unreasonable man. “I just read about how planting butterfly bushes can help restore the population, improve pollination, and boost food production.”
Eli deflates like a popped balloon, his next words as weak as his argument. “They could sting my patients.”
“Oh.” Audrey looks at me for help.
I’ve got nothing. While bees could be a legitimate problem if someone or some animals were allergic, I happen to know, thanks to handling the paperwork of his clinic’s purchase, that Eli has at least an acre between him and his neighbor’s supposed bee-sting death traps.
Rallying once more, Eli flips to yet another photo on his clipboard. “And now she’s gone and strung lights across her back fence.” He taps the picture that’s mostly black with a few golden spots.
I blink. “Lights.”
“Yeah.” He nods fast, gearing up. “Big, twinkly ones.” He scoffs. “It looks like a carnival over there.”
I’m seriously concerned that all Eli’s ‘evidence’ does is give his new neighbor grounds for a peeping-Tom case against my usually laid-back and easygoing friend.
“That sounds…”—Audrey’s mouth quirks, but she keeps her voice diplomatic—“…aggressively festive.”
I shoot her a look while also trying to keep my expression neutral.
“Festive,” Eli mutters. “It’s disruptive is what it is.”
Me thinks the vet doth protest too much.
Clearing my throat, I attempt to scrub all amusement from my voice. “Sorry, Eli. Lights are not a legal issue. As long as it doesn’t encroach on your property or go against township regulations, she can decorate her property as she likes—that includes lights and shrubbery.”
Eli’s expression reminds me of a child being told he has to eat his vegetables before he can have his dessert.
Rolling my lips in an attempt to remain professional, I offer, “If it bothers you, you can always put up blinds.” I rethink my peeping-Tom concern. “In fact, I strongly suggest you put up blinds.”
“Right. Yeah.” He sighs, his eyes flicking to Audrey as if just noticing her rounding stomach. Expression softening, he suddenly looks a lot more his usual calm, mature self than he did a second ago. “Congratulations, by the way.”
Audrey beams. “Thanks.”
My hand slides over Audrey’s bump, staking a claim I don’t need to make but want to. “Thanks, man.”
Eli tips his cap and makes for the door, muttering something about checking on a colicky mare—and maybe buying a decibel meter just in case.
Audrey waits until the door clicks shut before turning to me, amusement dancing in her eyes. “What was that about?”
I kiss the corner of her mouth. “About how an extravagant display of twinkle light décor can make any calm, logical man spiral into Grinch territory.”
“Grinching in July?”
“Hey, Christmas in July.” I point to her Jingle My Berries Whoopie Pie. “It’s a thing.”
Her laugh spills out, warm and wicked. “You’re ridiculous.”
Maybe. But I know an over-invested man when I see one—and Eli Bennett just found his plotline.
Meanwhile—I re-cage my wife against my desk—it’s time to get back to mine.
Her laugh is still warm on my mouth when she whispers something about buttercream smudges on important legal briefs, but I don’t care. Not when she’s here, soft and sharp all at once, strawberry dress bunched under my palms.
I traded skyscrapers for salt air, contracts for cookie sheets, and somewhere along the line, the town I swore I’d never belong in became the only place I want to be. The only place we’ll ever want to be.
Audrey tilts her head, smiling that smile that ruined me from day one. “Happy?”
Happier than I’ve ever been. Happier than I thought I’d get to be.
I kiss her slowly, savoring everything—her, this town, the life we’re building, the baby kicking under my hand like he wants in on the joke.
“Happy doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I murmur against her lips. “You?”
She answers with a sexy grin before pulling me close and giving me more of my hard-earned and well-used lifetime supply of whoopie.
Ready for more holiday fun in Hideaway Harbor? Next up…
This single mom’s sudden gloom during the hap, hap, happiest time of the year is turned upside down when a globetrotting toy industry mogul is stranded in her small harbor town and needs a place to stay.
Finding room in her heart for the silver fox hadn’t been on her Christmas list, but there is something magical about this mysterious stranger.
Something that makes her wish he could stay forever.