BEN

I like this part of my day better than any. I sighed real quiet; eyes still closed and sniffed the scent of Tracy so close. One eye opened and I let it explore her perfect body. Nothing in life better than waking beside a naked woman, especially if it’s the woman I care about. The woman I love. Moving real slow, I leaned over and touched her soft exposed nipple with the tip of my tongue. It lightly circled until the nipple puckered for me and her hands slithered through my hair like an invitation. My teeth nipped then I opened wide to suckle like a new born babe. Rooted for the other breast and getting my fill of that nourishment, I moved lower. My face between her soft thighs, I grinned up, seeing that her eyes were still closed and her face was showing that she was gettin’ ready for what was to come.

Damn, I dove for the luscious flavor, licking and sucking, driving fingers deep until Tracy recoiled and stiffened, a muffled groan escaped her as she reached for the stars. Quick as a whip, I moved and pressed himself deep; a long, hard thrust that took me to my limit. I stilled, kissing her mouth, sharing her flavor as I moved an easy side.

Tracy was gasping, her orgasm still throbbing tight around me as I pumped. Nibbled at her lower lip then I groaned; the sign that I was about to push this ride harder and she braced herself. Her fingers digging into my shoulders but all I could feel was the growing need in my belly. And I started to think … what was it gonna take to plant a baby in Tracy the way Lachlan did with his woman? Maybe it’d be best to marry her before that happened. Sensibilities ain’t changed that much in a hundred years, I could tell by the quick wedding Curry was planning.

When I blew, it took over every thought in my head; I grit his teeth and grunted like an animal then dropped over her. She wriggled free, grinning wide and offering that little sigh of satisfaction I like so much.

“What are you going to be doing today, Ben?” she asked as she stretched her arms high then snuggled close.

“Gotta go into town, talk to some folks.”

“Do you think you’ll have time to look at that place I found?”

“Place?” my brow curled. “Ah, you mean that little store you wanna make into a hair cutting shop? Uh … Tracy, darlin’ … uh …”

She raised her head to look at me. “Do not tell me you changed your mind about setting me up with a beauty parlor, Ben Wade. You promised.”

“I did, I did. I know I did but I was just wonderin’ … what if you, I dunno … sorta … are with child?” I whispered the last two words and she skittered to sit crossed legged at my side.

“With child? With child? Who says that anymore? With child?” her eyes twinkled and I rolled to my side, kissed her knee and propped my head in hand.

“I do. Answer the question, woman.”

She shrugged, sighed. “Do you want me to be … with child?”

It was my turn to shrug. “Why not? Ain’t that what married people do? Make children?”

She giggled. “We’re not married, Ben.”

“We will be.”

“After the election and after you get settled in and after we find a house and after we get me a beauty shop. Those were your specifications Ben. Right?”

“Maybe my specifications are changin’, Tracy. Don’t you want babies?”

She ran a hand through her hair; it was currently a deep brown with fire engine red streaks here and there. Ain’t quite decided if I like it yet or not. No problem, soon as I decide, it’ll change again.

“How many babies we talking about here?” she asked.

I thought hard and twisted my mouth. In my day, a woman not wanting babies was a woman who didn’t open her legs. I was kinda surprised Tracy wasn’t already with child. Hell, I find my way between those delicious thighs almost every single day. This could be touchy. I groaned and rolled to my back. “Maybe it ain’t worth talkin’ about, sweetheart. Maybe you can’t … conceive.”

Tracy snorted. “Ben Wade, sometimes it isn’t the woman’s fault she can’t conceive, it could be you who can’t plant seeds, if you get my drift.” I opened my mouth to defend my seed plantin’ skills but she kept talking. “Besides, of course I haven’t gotten … with child. I’m on the pill, silly.”

“The pill? What pill?”

“Birth control pills. They prevent conception until a woman chooses to have children. How do you think we’ve gotten away with all this,” her hand swept the width of the bed, “without me getting … with child?”

“Ah … so they have a pill for that? Huh, so … where were we. How many babies we talking about, right?” I pulled her down and into a deep kiss that left her breathless. “As many as you want. And maybe all we gotta do is wait for the election, then we’ll get hitched, okay?”

“What about my shop?”

“Can we talk about that later? I got a need to plant a seed.”

After makin’ love again (told you, I got some serious seed plantin’ skills) and having a good Inn breakfast, I headed to town. What I found there was my face … everywhere. Posted like wanted posters on walls and polls, all tellin’ people to Vote for Ben Wade for Stowe Sheriff. There was even a big banner strung across Main Street right near my favorite coffee shop.

“Well, well, this is interesting, isn’t it?”

I turned to see Richie Roberts staring up at the same banner and I shrugged.

RICHIE

Standing there looking at all those campaign posters I gotta admit, I was starting to get the willies about all this. I agreed to do the investigation to help out; I wasn’t expecting things to be moving at this level. Ben groaned and I couldn’t help but get in a laugh.

“You know Ben, you gotta account for all these posters and signs. They’re campaign donations and the government watches that stuff real close.”

The groan grew into a moan. “How the hell am I gonna do that?”

I shrugged. “Leave it to me. I’ve just become your campaign manager. It’ll serve as a nice cover for the investigation. You just go about your business, keep smiling, shake some hands,” I started to walk away then turned. “Oh, and kiss some babies while you’re at it. Say they’re cute even if they ain’t.” Yeah, I laughed for about three blocks. Then I came across Mickey Slade. Show time.

Slade is an independent developer who sits on the Zoning Commission board for the town. Everything Cory White dug up and everything I was able to google proved the man was bad news all around. He looked like one of Frank Lucas’ goons, but I wasn’t worried. What I needed to learn could easily show up just beneath the answers to a few innocent sounding questions.

“Mr. Slade?” I reached out a hand and he shook, eyeing me curiously and sucking on a cigar.

“Yeah. Who are you?”

“Roberts, Richie Roberts. Uh …  I’m Mr. Ben Wade’s new campaign manager, just in from New York to help out a friend, ya know. Can I maybe ask you a few questions?”

“Ask fast, I got important things to be doing, Roberts.”

“Right, right. Of course you do. Listen, I’m new in town and really don’t know anyone yet, so I was hoping you could help me a bit. Uh … can you tell me … who put up all these ‘Vote for Wade’ posters? ‘Cause see, I gotta keep the accounting clear on campaign donations and I just don’t know who to write the thank you notes to.”

Slade blinked, took his cigar between his fingers and rolled it several times before putting it back between his teeth. “What if the posters are a gift? Ever think of that?”

“Well, that’s very kind of whoever is doing the gift giving and … again, I’m new at this, but the rules are pretty clear. I gotta record all gifts and donations no matter how small,” I waved my hand toward the big banner, “or how big. It’s the law. Who am I thanking for helping me get Wade’s campaign off to a rousing start?”

“Maybe it don’t matter,” he hissed.

“But, it does. See,” I pulled a loaded folder I was carrying around for no particular reason, didn’t even know what was actually in the damn thing, I snarfed it from Chef Chris’ desk. Sliding my finger down a sheet of tightly typed paper, I grunted. “Here it is, either I record the donation or all the posters need to come down.” I closed the folder and shrugged. “If you don’t know who put those posters up, I guess I could just go and ask the printer, right?”

“I put ‘em up.”

“Ah … well, wow, thanks so much.” I opened the folder again and poised my pen. “And the value of the signs and banner?”

He was so pissed I watched him actually bite too hard on the cigar, the fucking thing split in his mouth and he spit it out, tossing the rest into the street. “A hundred bucks.”

“One hundred dollars. Thank you for your campaign donation, Mr. Slade. Vote for Ben Wade,” I grinned and walked away. A hundred bucks my ass. There was at least a thousand dollars worth of printing alone. Well, now we had an idea how Slade and Water planned to get in the votes for Wade. But my bet is there’s way more to it than campaign posters.

I climbed into the car and dropped the folder on the passenger seat then glanced down at the tab. “Ah, shit.” I needed to get that thing back to the Inn. It was all the info for Curry’s wedding. My ass is grass if they find it missing.

JESSIE

My God, there’s so much to do before the wedding. There’s only going to be 50 guests attending, but who knew there’s be so many details to look after?

Lach and Jeff have been fitted for their suits, Valerie’s dress and shoes are ready and Emily’s promised to help French braid her hair on the morning of the ceremony. Monica called me late last night with suggestions for a few small changes on the cake (pale green icing roses to compliment the pale peach and yellow ones I had suggested), and the peach paper lanterns we had ordered to decorate the inside of the dining tent had arrived and turned out to be white. Riley’s assured me that she had an idea on how to make them work, and all I can do is hope that she’s right. I didn’t even bother to ask what she had in mind – I’m so frazzled by this point that all I can do is let the experts take over.

And then there’s my mother.

To say that my mom and I have a difficult relationship is putting it mildly. Don’t get me wrong; I love her with all my heart but we can’t be in the same room for more than five minutes without something being said that sets the rest of the day off on a sour note. When I called her to let her know that Lachlan and I were engaged, she zeroed in on the heart of the matter as if she were psychic.

“Are you pregnant?”

Up until that moment, I felt no shame about my condition, but there’s just something about the tone of my mother’s voice that set me on edge. I tried to keep calm. “I thought you wanted grandchildren?”

“Ah, so you are.”

“Ma, it’s okay. Lachlan is a wonderful man and we’re both very excited about all of this.”

“Lachlan? What kind of name is that? Sounds Irish or Scottish or something. Is he Jewish?”

Oh God, here we go. Neither I nor my mother has been to Temple in over twenty years yet she chooses now to remember that her grandfather was a Rabbi. “No ma, he’s not Jewish. But he’s wonderful and you’ll like him.”

“It doesn’t matter if I like him or not, Jess. You’re the one who’s been sleeping with him. If you feel he’s good enough to have a baby with and marry, then who am I to question your decision?”

Damn. “Ma, why do you always do this to me? I’m happy and I want you to be there when I marry the love of my life. Why do you have to turn it into something … tawdry?”

“Oh, pish-posh. You’re projecting again. All I did was ask if he was Jewish.”

“And I told you that he isn’t.”

“Yes dear, I heard you. I don’t know why you’re acting so defensive over an innocent question. “

“There’s other things you could ask, you know.”

She let out a long sigh and I took a deep breath. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm.

“Jessie, are you really happy? Do you love him? Does he love you? Can you really imagine spending the rest of you life with this young man?”

“Oh ma, yes, I can. He’s wonderful.”

“Then that’s all that matters. But I can’t help but be just a little concerned because the first news I got that you were even seeing someone seriously was when I received the wedding invitation. It would have been nice to have known a little bit earlier.”

“Oh ma; you know I don’t like to talk about my boyfriends to you, because we always get into a fight. Why can’t we ever just talk?”

“The phone works both ways, honey.”

Okay, she had me on that one. “Yeah, you’re right, ma. It does. Maybe we can try to start over? I’m sorry for always being so defensive, but I always end up feeling like I’ve disappointed you somehow. I don’t want to feel that way anymore. I’m marrying a wonderful man whom I’ve waited my entire life to meet, and we’re going to have a baby and I want to share this all with you. I need you.”

Another long silence on her end of the phone, and then I heard her blowing her nose. Damn, I made her cry. Again.

“Honey, you don’t know how much it means to hear you say that. Sometimes I feel like you want nothing to do with me. But we can start over, I’d like that very much. You know I only want what’s best for you, so please don’t be too angry when I ask you these questions. I can’t put bandages on your knees anymore, but don’t be upset with me for wanting to know if your young man is worthy of my only child’s affection.”

“Oh ma, he is. You’ll love him.”

“Well, allow an old lady the right to be a bit skeptical until I meet him in person, okay? Now, do you mind if I fly out a couple of days before the wedding?”

“We’d love to have you here whenever you can make it. We have plenty of room …”

“Nonsense. I’ll stay at a hotel. You don’t need your old mother hanging around making you crazy.”

I knew she was right, but why was I feeling so guilty? “We’ll book a room at the Inn for you, you’ll love it there.”

“I’m sure I will, dear. Now, tell me more about the baby; have you picked out any names yet? If it’s a boy, you might consider naming him after your grandfather Hubert, a little bit of tradition never hurts, you know …”

I slowly counted to ten. Keep calm. “I’ll think about it, ma.”

 As if.

LACHLAN

While Jess has been stressing over the wedding plans, I’ve been keeping busy with all the work that’s been started on the house. We’ve knocked out the wall between two of the bedrooms upstairs and Mitchell’s already laying the piping for the new master bath. Our new stainless steel refrigerator and stove arrived yesterday, and the washer and dryer will be here by the weekend. Kevin’s been by a couple of times, and we’re discussing the addition of a workshop to be added on to the original garage in the spring.

 I’m finally going to get the chance to have my own tools and do some real woodworking again. I guess finding the cradle up in the attic really set me going on the idea, and I’ve been keeping a notebook with sketches and ideas for a variety of projects when time permits. I can feel my fingers twitch in anticipation and it feels good.

The landscape architect arrived this morning, a bloke by the name of Matthew Reese. Jess let out a yelp as he introduced himself and grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him out into the yard.

“Oh my God, you don’t know how happy I am to have you here!”

The poor guy looked a little frightened at first, but I followed after him as back up support, nearly tripping over a tangle of pumpkin vines in the process. The yard really does resemble a jungle.

  “Oh, careful, babe!” Jessie let go of the landscaper’s arm and came running towards me.

I just laughed. “I’m okay.”

Matthew grinned and took a quick look around the yard, his eyes focusing on the massive Monkey Puzzle tree that Jessie was determined to chop down. “You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed about being able to work on this property. I once tried offering my services for free to the Widow Fuller, but she turned me down. Said she liked it the way it was.”

Jess slipped her arm around my waist and we followed after him as he inspected the rest of the yard.

“You know, we can probably save a lot of these old trees. They’ll need some serious pruning next season. Although, I’d sure hate to see that old Monkey Puzzle go. Are you sure you really want my crew to chop it down? It’s rather unusual that it’s survived as long as it has in this climate, it’s kind of an oddity.” He turned to look at Jessie and I felt her back stiffen.

“I stepped on one of those fronds, or whatever you call them, and those suckers hurt! I don’t want anyone, especially children stepping on them.”

“If I come up with a solution, would you perhaps consider keeping the old girl as she is?”

Jess bit her lower lip and considered his proposal. “I’ll try to keep an open mind, Mr. Reese. That’s about all I can promise.”

He stepped in closer and patted Jessie’s shoulder. I felt my own back stiffen when he did this, and I told myself that I was over reacting.

“Please, call me Matt. Listen Jess, I’m honored to be the one who gets to finally turn this yard back into the showcase it once was. I’ve got some old pictures from back in the day that I’ll bring with me next time so you can get an idea of how it used to look. Kevin said that you wanted a gazebo and a greenhouse, and I think we can do that easily, along with anything else you might like.”

“I want a vegetable garden and a couple of Japanese Maples …”

“Those will have to wait until the spring, but we can clear out all this overgrowth and get everything ready.” He turned and looked back towards the house. “It might be nice to extend the patio with some new decking and I believe Jess mentioned that you’d like a built in barbecue?”

It took a moment to register that he was speaking directly to me, but the mention of the barbecue pulled me back to the moment. “How long do you think this will all take?”

Matt glanced up at the sky. “Weather permitting, we can get the yard cleared in a couple of weeks. We can work on the decking and barbecue at the same time, so I’d say about six weeks total.”

Between the demolition going on inside the house and the blokes who’d be working outside, it looked like we were in for a noisy ride. “Whatever you need to do to get as much done as possible. Jess is from San Diego, so she has no idea what the fall and winter here are like.”

He gave Jess a wink. “Oh, you’re in for some surprises then.” 

Again, I felt my back stiffen, but I heard Mitchell calling out my name somewhere behind us and I tried to focus on that instead.

“Oi, mate, where’d you run off to? I need some help with this coupling …”

We all turned to look back at the house and there was Jeff standing out on the balcony, his hair and tee shirt soaking wet. “Hey Jess,” he called, followed by a high pitched chuckle. “Care to join me for a shower?”

Jess giggled. “Just save me some hot water!”

Matt looked kind of funny for a moment, as if he had a bad case of indigestion or something. “Oh, is that the plumber Kevin mentioned?”

Whether I was picking up on something in his voice or just imagining it, I couldn’t be certain. I wondered what Kevin had said to him that would make Matt’s comment come off sounding like it did, but realized that Kevin wasn’t one to pass judgment on anyone’s personal life, and maybe I was just projecting my own uneasy feelings about this landscape guy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something about him that just bothered me.

Jessie patted my stomach. “You’d better go help him, babe. Matt and I can finish the rest.”

I glanced back at the house and then back at her. Okay, I was being foolish; Jessie’s eyes looked into mine and I leaned down for a quick kiss. I then nodded at Matt and made my way back inside, careful not to get caught up again in the trailing mess of pumpkin vine.

RILEY

I wasn’t having a good day. Period. And no … that’s not why. I didn’t have my period. What I had was my hands full and things seemed to be getting crazier by the minute. First thing this morning, Natalie came over, crying her eyes out, poor thing. She still hadn’t heard from Jack since their argument, but she knows he’ll be in port in Maine later this afternoon. Me, like an idiot I told her she should go see him, that I’d be fine with the twins. What the hell was I thinking?

An hour into it and I had to quarter Nathan off in one room and the girls in another … Chelsea seems to be obsessed with attacking my son. Thank God he’s not willing to hit her back but it was time for precautions. So … I straddled the baby gate between rooms with my cell at my ear while I did my best to keep up with the insanity that had become my day.

First call I got was from Monna. The entire file for Lach and Jessie’s wedding is missing and the kitchen was going bonkers looking for it.

“Did you check the cooler?” I asked. “Don’t laugh, I once left Nathan in there … only for a minute before I remembered, but you know … it could be under a case of tomatoes or something.” She promised to search the cooler and the walk-in freezer before calling again. Guess she could tell I was stressing maybe? Ya think?

The girls got into the DVD collection and I watched them completely destroy John’s perfectly alphabetical organization of the shelves. It took him two years to do that. Maybe he won’t notice.

The next a call came from Daisy and now I was really distressed. Out of the blue she started telling me about an attack on Cory … then about some secret meeting in our pub the other night after close … then about Brian. Damn, Brian’s a nice enough ghost but why can’t he just leave well enough alone? It wasn’t enough for poor Daisy to be dealing with Cory’s ‘Bud Phase’, now she had to come to grips with the afterlife. I calmed her down the best I could and got her off my phone. I had another call to make and I had to make it right now.

Nathan had blissfully fallen asleep on my bed and Catherine had fallen asleep on Chelsea who had figured out how to open the DVD cases and fallen asleep on most of our film collection. Damn.

I quickly dialed John’s cell.

“Yeah, baby?” he answered and I simply launched.

“When were you going to tell me Cory got hurt? What the hell is up with secret meetings? And you better get your butt home to help me with the twins.”

“What are the twins doing there?”

“Nat left to see Jack in Maine this afternoon and don’t change the subject. How many damn secrets are you keeping from me, John Biebe? I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about someone bashing your head in too! And when you get home … don’t you even think about complaining because the DVDs are all messed up.” And I hung up before I went off into a Vermont rendition of West Side Story.

JOHN

I had gone over to help at Pullo and Skinner’s vineyard. It wasn’t that I didn’t have work to do at the Inn, but it was Thursday and technically my day off. What I wanted was something to do that would get my mind off all the crazy fucking shit happening around the campaigns.

The new land they’d bough had been fairly cleared and the soil proved to be even better than expected. Skinner was beaming, working hard right beside me and Pullo. Didn’t think he was the physical type but he sure was holding his own. We were gathering the last of the obstructions, loading twigs and a few removed tree stumps as well as rocks into a pick up to remove them before the soil would be tilled and fertilized. Within the week the rows would be hoed and they’d be planting the new vines.  They looked like kids loose in a candy store and I was happy for them.

Valerie came up from the house with a bottle of water for Skinner and I snorted. “Got yourself a real fan there, don’t ya, Skinner?”

“Hey,” Pullo called. “What about me?”

Valerie turned, her face blushing red. “Oh you want some water daddy?”

“Yes, I do.”

“How about you, Uncle John?”

“That’d be nice.”

She ran off and Pullo laughed as he hauled a large rock and tossed it into the truck. “Valerie fancies our Maxi,” he said and Skinner rolled his eyes.

All in all it was a good morning’s work and I was starting to feel a little more relaxed than I’ve felt for weeks. We finally went down and sat in the farmhouse, ate some lunch and were about to have a second beer when my cell rang.

I stared at it after it went dead and shook my head. “Looks like I’m in the dog house, guys. Gotta get home.”

When I got there poor Riley was beside herself. All three kids were sound asleep and the apartment looked like a tornado had torn through it. She looked up at me with those eyes all filled with tears and crumbled into sobs. I held her tight and tried to sooth her but there was no consoling her now that she had a vague clue of what was going on.

“Come on, baby. Calm down, it’s not that big a deal.”

“Not a big deal?” she hissed, trying not to wake the kids but I got the point. She was pretty damn upset with me. “How far are those guys gonna go to get what they want? Are they the kind to kill people? They hurt Cory! Would they hurt you and Ben too?”

I led her to the kitchen table and poured us both coffee then groaned and resigned myself to spilling the beans. I told her everything I knew and then I made my prediction. “They’re not gonna kill anyone and we’ve got Richie helping out. Baby, it’s gonna be fine, don’t worry so much.”

“I can’t help it,” a tear rolled down her face. “This is not what I expected from Stowe. I thought …”

“I know, I know. But there are shady people everywhere. Trust me, between Sheriff Mike and the mayor, me, Richie, Ben and Cory, we’ll have all the ammunition we need to neutralize this problem. It’ll be fine. Shh, don’t cry. I’ve faced worse. And I ain’t Cory. He’s just a kid who stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. He has no training for this kinda thing and he made a stupid mistake that almost cost him a few stitches. Worst he got was a headache. Now,” I pulled her from her chair and onto my lap. “You gotta trust me, this is all gonna be fine … but … the DVD’s?”

“It’s all Chelsea’s fault,” Riley whined and I chuckled.

“Ah well, I guess they’ll stay right where they are until she can learn her alphabet and put everything back where it belongs.” I kissed Riles’ lips and enjoyed her body melting against mine.

And I realized, in no uncertain terms, that all this campaigning crap was gonna be way harder on her than I expected. It wasn’t the first time I had second thoughts about running for mayor … probably won’t be the last, either.

KIM

I’m beginning to hate that cell phone Kevin gave to Emily. Seems like those construction guys have nothing better to do but find lame excuses to phone her all throughout the day. I haven’t said anything about it and I’m trying real hard to keep my cool; I’ve told Emmy that I’d let her handle it and I plan to stand by that promise. She’s a big girl and if she’s capable of helping me run the Inn then she’s capable of handling this. I don’t like it, but I can’t let her see that.

“Oh damn, what do they want now?” Her phone just rang again for the third time, and we’d only been at work for an hour. She flipped the phone open. “Hello, Adam. What’s happening?”

She nodded her head as she listened, uttering a few uh-huhs as she tapped her fingers along the top of her desk. “I see. Well, was anything stolen?”

She listened and nodded some more. “If only the two of you have a key, then how did the fork lift end up blocking the Inn’s delivery entrance? Are you sure someone’s not just playing a joke?”

I could hear Adam’s voice coming through the receiver, but couldn’t quite make out the words.

“Well, maybe you need to contact our security guy, Antony. If someone’s messing around with the equipment, it could set us back on our schedule. Well, okay, it’s your call, but I think you’d be best off if you did. What? Oh, thank you. You too. Bye now.”

I pretended to be busy with something else; I went to take a sip from my coffee cup, but it was empty. I took a sip of air instead.

“How many times have they called me today?”

I tried to hide my smile by faking a cough. “Who?”

“Those construction guys. Hey, are you coming down with a cold? I have some cough drops …” She went to reach for her purse, but I shook my head.

“No, I’m fine. But aren’t you supposed to have a meeting with the housekeeping staff?” I glanced at my watch.

She threw up her hands. “Oh damn! I’m so outta here!”

She grabbed the cell phone and for a moment it looked like she was about to toss it into one of her desk drawers, but reconsidered at the last moment. She stuffed it into her purse instead. “I’ll be back later!”

I watched her go, smiling innocently as she tucked her purse under her arm and darted out the door.

For the next two hours, I worked in complete peace. I submitted the payroll for the week, spoke with our distributor in Quebec and aced a great discount on the coffee account. I decided to take a break and started to stroll over to the employee kitchen when I caught sight of Emily in the hallway heading straight for me with the phone at her ear.

“Adam, I understand that your job’s at stake, but I strongly urge you to contact Antony. What’s that? Yeah, he’s the serious looking guy with a massive scowl, but he only looks that way when he’s irritated or concentrating real hard on a problem. He’s really a very sweet man and I know he’d be more than happy to look into the matter for you. I mean, it’s his job, you know?”

I caught her by the shoulders before she ran smack into me. “Whoa love, gotta keep your eyes on the road.”

She gave me a pained look. “Oh Kimmy, I’m sorry. It’s just that … Adam, unless you call Antony, I can’t help you. I’m hanging up now.”

“The boys running you ragged?” I slipped my arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick hug before letting her go again.

“Oh, it’s nothing I can’t handle. Are you going to the kitchen? Can you grab a cinnamon roll for me?”

I wanted her to come along with me, but I could see that the stress was really starting to get to her.

The rest of the day played out the same. Every forty minutes or so, the phone would ring, and Emmy would answer. I would have tossed the phone out the window a few hours earlier, but again reminded myself that this was her battle.

At four PM, the calls stopped. At six PM we were back at her place and just about to get all tangled up in the sheets, if you follow my drift. There we were, completely naked and making out like high schoolers in the back seat of their father’s car when the cell phone rang again.

“Arrrrgh! I’ve had enough!”

Pushing me away, Emmy jumped off the bed and dug through her purse for the phone. “Listen Adam, do you know what time it is? After 5 o’clock, I’m on my own time. If you don’t call Antony, then that’s your problem. I’m turning off the phone now. If you have any problems, call Kevin … you remember him? He’s your boss. Good night.”

She tossed the phone into the corner and jumped back on the bed. “You can quit laughing now.”

I wasn’t really laughing. Well, okay. I did laugh. A little. “You know, you really are beautiful when you’re angry.”

“Kim Barrett, shut up and just kiss me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

DAISY

Cory had left in such a hurry this morning, he barely said goodbye, much less eat breakfast. I was just finishing up when the phone rang. Gemma was calling from LA, checking up on Cory.

“You won’t believe it, Gemma. He’s cut off all his hair and is buying the thrift stores out of their ‘50’s clothes. He’s wearing sports jackets and trousers, callin’ me ‘doll’, of all things. I tell ‘ya, this place is freaky and it’s doin’ things to him.”

 “How is it freaky, dear?”

“Well, something weird happened to me the other day.” I couldn’t believe I was telling her this. “There’s been this guy coming to the bar fairly regularly, almost every day. Always orders a beer, but never drinks it. The other night, right when I was closing up the pub, Brian showed up and ordered his usual. We were havin’ a nice chat too, I was so pissed at Cory and was venting to poor Brian. I turned to lock up the cabinet and when I looked back and there were John and Cory, but no Brian. When I asked them where Brian went, Cory said no one had been there.”

“Do you mean Brian the ghost, dear?”

“Ghost? Come on, Gemma. You know I don’t believe in that stuff.” I protested.

“Well, dear, their existence doesn’t depend on your belief. And, Brian is a ghost. He lives at the Inn and I’ve spoken with him myself. A very nice young man, but a bit of a prankster.”

“Gemma –”

“It’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. You’re just finally recognizing your gift, that’s all.”

“My gift?”

“Yes, dear. You’re sensitive. Always have been, but just didn’t realize it until now.”

“But Gemma, I don’t believe in this stuff.”

“Well, maybe it’s time you start,” she chuckled, “considering they seem to believe in you. Brian does, at least.”

“And Cory’s granddad,” I admitted.

“You’ve seen Bud White?” she gasped.

“No, but I’ve heard him. Yelled at him, too.” I told her the story about my storming up to the left tower to have it out with the old man. She laughed. We finished our chat and I went down to the pub to set up for the day, but always in the back of my mind was what Gemma had said. I was sensitive? Me? I turned over the possibilities in my mind. Maybe if I accept this and start to believe I’m seeing ghosts, then I can travel like she does. Hold séances. Talk with spirits. Have my own TV show. I shook my head.