Letters and Lace (The Ronan's Harbor Series) Read Free

conform to societal morés. Sarah knew that pretty prop in her hand had been less her norm than the pipe she was rumored to have smoked out on her front porch—much to the shock of the townsfolk.
    What would Cornelia have done about the filed complaint? She looked the old girl dead in the eye. “We won’t stand for it, will we, Cornelia?”
    Sarah retrieved the letter and shoved it into her jeans pocket. She needed to remember to bring it along with her tonight to show her best friend. Gigi would help her come up with a strategy.
    She spent the day going over her lists, cross-checking her calendar, careful not to forget any of the wedding details appointments or the workmen’s projected scheduling. She marked down Monday night’s meeting at the town hall regarding the complaint.
    No matter how she tried to avoid thinking about it, the news hung in her head like an infection, throbbing against her temples, reminding her she had a problem.
    It was dusk when Sarah finally put away her paperwork. As if on automatic pilot she entered her bathroom and ran water to fill the tub. A hot soak usually worked miracles whenever she needed to wash away stress.
    How much of my adult life have I spent with pruny skin? Based on the possibility of some saboteur ruining her sunroom plans—and halting Hannah’s dream wedding at the inn—Sarah figured she’d have oak tree-like bark for skin before Monday night at seven-thirty.
    The phone rang while she soaked. Sarah was careful not to drop the handset into the water where the previous one, as well as her MP-3 player, had met their sudsy demise.
    She heard her friend, Gigi’s sensuous tone. “Ready for action?”
    “Ready,” Sarah said, attempting to sound enthused. She closed her eyes, leaning against the inflatable pillow Gigi had given her one Christmas. “Just taking a bath.”
    “A, you don’t sound ready, and B, you only switch from shower to bath when you need to escape something cruddy.”
    Sarah smiled against the device in her wet hand. A, Gigi often spoke in bullet points, and B, she knew Sarah better than anybody on the planet. So C, there was no sense in giving her friend lip service. She blew out a long breath, chasing some bubbles off her fingertips. “Cruddy’s the right word.”
    “Okay, spill it.”
    “We’ll talk about it later at the Pier House. I got a letter today from town hall. Somebody filed a complaint against me.”
    “What asshole would do that?” Gigi’s normally deep tone changed to her angry rasp. “Are you serious?”
    “Yup.” Sarah was too tired to discuss it now. The high temperature of the water was making her drowsy.
    “Okay, Sarah, look. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it. Nobody’s pulling that shit and getting away with it. Remember that time the Coopers tried to sue me because their geraniums died after a week?”
    A lazy grin grew on Sarah’s face as she remembered the disgruntled customers trying to poison townspeople’s minds against Bayside Blossoms, her friend’s treasured flower shop.
    The only poison that had taken hold was the entire box of plant food Gigi discovered the fools had dumped onto their freshly planted bed of geraniums, wiping out the poor plants like a plague. Sarah recalled how she and Gigi had sneaked onto the woman’s property after dark to get a soil sample.
    Yes, Gigi was right. Nobody pulls that shit and gets away with it.
    Sarah sat up straight in the tub. It was time to get out and give her skin the chance to resume what smoothness it had left after forty-six years of bubble therapy.
    “You know what, Gigi, you’re right. Whoever this complainer is better watch out.”
    “Tonight we’ll make a toast,” Gigi said. “To the sorry ass who thinks they can mess with us.”
    “You got it,” Sarah said. “See you later.”
    She pressed the “off” button and the handset began to slip from her grasp. Frantically, she jerked her hand out from the tub and the handset fell to the floor and skidded