Chapter 9
NINE
Phoebe
“Phoebe, it’s just amazing.”
“Yeah?” I grinned down at Courtney Richmond from the scaffolding. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“When you told me you needed damaged books, I never dreamed this is what you’d use them for.”
I screwed a little hook into the ceiling with a pair of needle-nose pliers before carefully unfurling the fishing line full of pages I’d Mod Podged to an inch of their lives. I went a little crazy with paint, glitter, charms, and random sketches, but the effect was even better than I’d envisioned.
It was one of my more three-dimensional ideas but it made a perfect corner for Jenna’s tea display. It included a few books from Courtney’s business, the Dreamer Bookshop, in charming stacks. I’d planned on asking her if she might want a matching display.
“Can you do the same thing in my shop?”
I grinned wider. “I was going to actually ask you if you were interested.”
She clapped, her bluebell eyes shining. “More than. This is amazing.” She twirled a little and one of her pencils slipped out of her hair. “Oops.” She crouched to pick it up and tucked it right back into the mass of silky hair she kept trapped on the top of her head.
Every time I saw her I wanted to tug out the pins because my head hurt in sympathy.
“Wow.”
Courtney turned around at the customer who stopped, her mouth agape and arms full of end-of-the-day baked goods. Jenna and her sister baked new things daily and discounted their leftovers.
I frowned at the number of boxes the woman had.
I glanced over at the bakery case, noticing that there were a lot more things than usual in the case that day.
Hmm.
Now that I thought about it, the traffic in the café had been a little light today. Usually the day after a storm the place was full to the bursting with cabin-fever customers.
“Did you do that mural, young lady?”
Pulled back into the moment, I smiled down at the woman. “Yes, I did.”
“Splendid work.”
“Thank you.” I could feel my cheeks heat. I wasn’t used to being on display. I usually worked alone during the in between times of other people’s lives.
“I can’t wait to sit in here and read with a cuppa,” she said with a mild accent. “For now I have to go feed my animals.” She lifted the boxes. “Four boys—bottomless pits, they are.”
Courtney and I both watched her leave, then glanced at each other and shuddered.
“Absolutely not,” Courtney said and adjusted her bag on her shoulder.
“Oh, c’mon. Four sounds easy.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Do you want kids, Phoebe?”
“You know, I really don’t know. I practically raised Liberty since my mom was always at hockey games.” I attached another line of pages to the ceiling. “My biological clock certainly isn’t ticking at the moment.”
“Same.” She walked around Daisy, my scaffolding set up, then over to the mural. “The store is more than enough.” She touched the mantle where I’d texturized the wood. “Incredible.”
The warm glow grew.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard people talk about my work before, but it was different to be standing right beside it in progress. “Thanks.”
“I definitely want you to do it at my place.”
“I’ve got it down pat now.”
“I’ll email you to set it up. I’m actually having the new release wall repainted. Maybe we can come up with something more exciting than just shelves.”
“I’d love that.”
Courtney’s place stayed open a bit later than most of the shops on Destiny Street. She actually used that to her advantage for the subset of people who didn’t have a bedtime of eight o’clock. I’d spent more than a few evenings thumbing through the books on her shelves.
She had the prime location right beside the café which was the jelly to her peanut butter if you asked me.
“Wine and Crime night?”
“Guilty.” She walked back to me to peer up at my progress. “Now I gotta go through my illustrated novels and see which ones I can sacrifice to the gods of art.”
I laughed. “Can’t wait to see what you come up with.”
“Did I hear you have a new neighbor?”
That was Haven. Gossip could outrun any superhero speed. “Yeah, he moved in during the snowstorm.”
“Did you meet him?”
I shrugged. “Kind of.”
My natural inclination was to share a good story, but something inside of me wanted to keep it close. “He’s not overly friendly. The animal distribution system finally hit me though.”
“Animal? I thought it was only cats.”
I laughed. “Yeah, well mine is a dog. I think it still counts.”
“Sure it’s not a missing dog?”
“I suppose I should check in with Doc Jess and make sure he’s not chipped.” The thought of it made me sad that he could be someone else’s. He already felt mine, even if he was obsessed with Dutch.
“What’s he look like?”
“He’s white. A Great Pyrenees I think. Maybe mixed with something else, but he’s a big fluff of a thing with a feather duster of a tail and the biggest dark eyes you ever did see.”
“Sounds like it’s love already.”
I grinned. “It really is.”
“Where is he?”
“Back at Dutch’s house.” It flew out of my mouth before I could temper it.
Court’s eyebrow rose. “Dutch, huh?”
I blew out a breath. “We kinda found him together.” I climbed down from the scaffolding to move it over to finish hanging the pages.
Courtney hooked my arm. “Uh-huh.” She dragged me over to a table and made me sit down. “Spill it.”
“Don’t you have to go home?”
“Later. Tell me everything.”
I huffed out a laugh.
“Oh, I wanna hear!” Jenna came out from behind the counter with a large water for me, along with two iced teas for Court and herself. She sat them down on the table between us.
I sighed. “There’s not much to tell.”
That I was willing to tell. They definitely didn’t need to know I actually slept with him—even if my clothes stayed on.
“Liar.” Courtney ripped off the straw wrapper and stabbed it into her drink. She took a long drink and gave Jenna a grateful smile. “Goddess.”
Jenna jammed a straw into hers and did the same then gave me an on-with-it gesture.
“He’s very rude and grumpy.”
Court wrinkled her nose. “Good grumpy like you know—Bucky Barnes from the Avengers kind of grumpy, but you still want to rip his clothes off?”
I spluttered and coughed.
Jenna laughed. “Gonna say yes on that one.”
I coughed into my elbow. “He’s attractive. If you’re into tall guys who look like they could play in a Fleetwood Mac cover band.”
Jenna gave a little shrug. “I’ve gone through my guitar dude days.”
“Are we talking the drummer or the hot guitarist?”
I snickered. “More like just the hair. Actually, he looks more like he’d be in the Eagles.” I tapped my finger against my lip.
“Okay, so we’re talking beard then?”
My fingertips buzzed as I remembered touching his face. “Yes. Nice lips. Gray eyes that remind me more of silver than gray skies.”
“What was this about not really knowing him?” Court said as she hunched over her drink.
“I’m an artist, I notice stuff.”
“Uh-huh.” Jenna folded her hands around her cup. “Give me more.”
“He doesn’t talk much. More grunts than anything else. He had a bit of a spill on the beach and Mouse and I rescued him.”
“Who’s Mouse?”
“She’s been chosen to have a dog,” Courtney interjected.
“Ohh.” Jenna’s golden eyes widened. “There’s a dog?” she whispered.
“During the blizzard, my idiotic neighbor ran out on the beach for some reason. Bit of a tantrum if you ask me.”
Both of them leaned in. “Mantrum?” Courtney offered.
I laughed. “You’re not wrong there.” Giving up all pretense of keeping things to myself, I tossed myself into the story.
“I don’t know what made me look outside, but I saw him fall down on the beach.
I ran out to help and that’s when the dog came out of nowhere.
It seemed like he was living in the forest around the lake. ”
“The poor thing.” Courtney’s eyes filled.
“Yeah. The only saving grace against fleas was how cold it was. His coat is super thick.”
“Are we talking about the dog now?” Jenna asked.
“Yes. Anyway, Dutch fell in the snow and busted his ankle up so I had to help him back to the cottage. He moved into the old Henderson place.”
“Wow. That’s been empty forever.” Jenna twisted her cup through the condensation on the table. “Micah Tanner bought it.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Talk about grumpy meets grumpier,” I quipped.
Courtney snickered. “If this guy is as grumpy as Micah that says a lot.”
I thought about it for a minute. “I’d say on par. I actually thought he was in the middle of a bad breakup.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, thought he broke up with his boyfriend.”
“Dammit.” Jenna slumped back in her chair.
“But not gay.”
Jenna sat up again. “Oh, so we’ve still got a chance. Go on.”
I laughed. “I don’t think he likes me, so I don’t know about that. I’m not sure I like him either to be honest. He’s stupid attractive though. Annoyingly so.”
Court grabbed my arm. “You buried the lead here.”
“Not really. He’s just my neighbor and I helped him out. Not a big deal.”
She really didn’t need to know about the muscles in his arms and shoulders and the way his gray sweatpants lived up to the hype. No man should be that blessed, tall, and attractive at the same time. Perhaps that was why his personality was lacking.
Court grinned. “Your cheeks are awfully flushed right now.”
I slapped my hand to my cheek.
“Gotcha.”
I pushed my chair back. “Just because he’s hot doesn’t mean I’m interested.”
Jenna glanced at Courtney. “Doth protest too much?”
“Doth does,” Court agreed.
I went back to my scaffolding and dragged it over a few inches. “If I don’t get the rest of these up, then we can’t go home, Jenna.”
“Fine, fine.” She got up with a small groan. “My feet are killing me. I’m going to finish up the bakery case. You want anything, Court?”
“Got any of those lemon blueberry muffins left?”
“I do.” Jenna linked her arm around Courtney’s. “C’mon, I’ll feed you and we can check with the Haven Hawks to see if they have any more details about our mystery man.”
I rolled my eyes. Our town Facebook page was impressive, but I doubted they’d get any additional information about him.
Now, I just needed to get this done so I could go home and see my dog. Why I invited myself over for food was beyond me.
I’d just pick up Mouse and go home to my own food.
That was exactly what I’d do.
Resolute, I picked up my pliers and ignored my aching shoulders.