I cut Maxine off again, on a roll, “Ah yes, Harper the mastermind with the eyes. Her first battle plan is a town squarecovered in tomorrow’s trash disguised as decor, smelling like a dog’s asshole, a pile of bolts that haslawsuitwritten all over it, an amateur disk jockey manning two-bit speakers, and world’s driest—what would we call those, cookies?—no wonder this place is on it’s last legs if that’s the kind of product she slings at the,” I make air quotes, “bakery.”
Renaldo widens his eyes at me.
Maxine sags and looks past my arm.
I turn to look but I already know what I’ll see.
There she stands, the baker, frowning and red-faced with a large clover tucked behind her ear. She’s holding a tray of tiny green drinks that nearly match her eyes. Her nostrils flare and I can feel it,sweet Harper who wouldn’t hurt a fly, so Ben says, is about to show her true colors once again. The hairs on my neck stand to attention in anticipation.
She opens her mouth and I shift to face her head on, ready and deeply intrigued.
She…smiles?
A closed, shy, small grin before setting the tray down near Mayor Junior and turning to flee.
I almost call out to her as her back retreats but I’m not sure if I want to apologize, antagonize or rationalize. Everything I said was absolutely true and I take none of it back.
If she doesn’t like it, that’s her problem.
She can’t expect to save her bakery with cookies like that. She should shut down the food part of her business and focus on the coffee. But without food she won’t have the margins. It’s best that she know now so she can prepare herself for dissolution. And I should be relieved that she simply walked away, already resigning to her inevitable fate.
So why am I…what am I?
Disappointed.
I’m disappointed.
Very weird sensation.
I am not used to it and don’t care for it at all.
So I signal to Renaldo and we get out of the square as quickly as possible. I make sure to avoid walking by or even looking at the bakery or its owner as we pass. She’ll come around eventually. A few more failed events and she’ll line up with her hippie friend and all the other owners, begging for me to save them.
CHAPTER 6
Harper
“The more I get to know this guy, the less I like him,” Maxine says to her phone screen. She’s been standing at the counter with the aunts and Steven, doing what he’s taught them is a “deep dive” on Aiden. “Look, trip after trip, never in one place for longer than a damn day, and suit after suit after suit, not one photo in a normal shirt!”
She holds up the phone to me.
I just smile and shake my head at their antics.
I am very aware of how handsome he looks in his million-dollar suits. So is everyone. So ishe.No need to comment.
“No normal women, either,” Steven murmurs.
I frown at that, “Hey, now,” I say, defending all women everywhere.
“Honey, you look at these women and tell me they’re normal,” Steven takes a turn holding up his phone. I see what he means. Lithe, tan goddesses with legs for days, every single one. I raise my eyebrows and cock my head in assent. “Exactly. Supermodels, heiresses. He doesn’t even mess with actresses or influencers, they’re all literally straight off the runway.”
“And so many of them,” Aunt Bobbie comments.
“Right? Not sure which kind of conquests he has more of, women or real estate,” Steven keeps talking more to his palm than to us. “We’re like the fourth or fifth small town he’s, uh, reworked. Hard to tell.”
“Reworked? Nice way of saying demolished,” Maxine side-eyes Steven who was, for a time, firmly on Team Sell.
“Not…totally,” he counters, but he’s wincing.
