Mr. Write (Sweetwater) Read Free

god venturing forth from Mount Olympus.  Instead of a lightning bolt, he carried a pole lamp. 
    “Holy shit.”
    “Move over.”  The stepstool Allie grabbed bumped against Sarah’s legs, and she shifted out of the way.  Eyes popping wide, Allie leaned forward to get a better look.
    “Paint’s wet,” Sarah said mildly, just as Allie swore and pulled her hand away.
    “What are y’all looking at?”
    Sarah turned to see Josie smacking the hand of Allie’s older brother Will, who was lifting two cherry oatmeal cookies from the cooling rack.
    Will danced out of Josie’s reach before ambling over, those distinctive Hawbaker blue eyes sleepy.  He peered over Sarah’s head, one of the few men she knew who was able to do so.  His eyebrows shot up, but his voice when he spoke was grim. “I guess Pettigrew found another renter.”
    “Looks like,” Sarah agreed, returning her attention to the window just in time to see Zeus casually whip off his shirt.
    Will grabbed Allie’s water bottle as she dropped it.  “Christ.” He rolled his eyes, then turned indignantly toward Josie, who’d scooted around the marble-topped island to jab him with her rolling pin.  “ What? All I said was –”
    “I heard what you said, Willis Morrison Hawbaker.  Tie yuh mout’. ” 
    “Why are you telling me to hush?”  Will frowned.  “I just got here.”
    “Spyin g on unsuspectin’ folk like some kind of peepers.” Josie started pounding hazelnuts for a cake.  “It ain’t decent.”
    “Oh, like you didn’t have your nose pressed to the window every time one of us pulled up in the driveway with a date.”
    “That’s different.”  Josie sniffed.  “It was my job to look after you.”
    “Yeah, well, now it’s my job to look after the citizens of this town.  I’m the acting Chief of Police,” he reminded her, not sounding all that happy about it.  “Their problems are my problems.”
    “Where’s the other guy?”  Allie asked.
    “There’s another one?”  Will shook his head, obviously picturing large groups of hormonally crazed women making Boundary Street impassable to vehicular traffic.
    “Don’t worry.”  Sarah waved his disquiet aside with a sweep of her hand.  “The other one struggles to walk upright.  High testosterone, low brow.  Perhaps Zeus out there keeps him as a guard dog.  Like Cerberus.”
    “You know.” Will snagged a handful of crushed nuts.  “I think Josie might have a point.”
    “Hmmph,” Josie said to Will’s back, just as Allie interjected. “There he is.  He’s…”
    “Scary?”  Sarah suggested, checking out the man she’d spotted earlier.  He looked even bigger and darker in the sun-drenched morning, like he’d sucked up all the light around him.  A human black hole.
    “ He’s not that bad,” Allie said mildly, and Sarah wondered if Josie was right. 
    Had she gotten cynical?  Or had she allowed her ill-will toward both Pettigrew and his former tenants – particularly Austin – to cast a shadow on what could be a perfectly pleasant man.  After all, it wasn’t like her to make such a snap and biased judgment.  She studied him again.
    “He looks like he eats puppies for breakfast.”
    “I bet if he shaved, and cut his hair, he wouldn’t look quite so threatening.  In fact,” Allie tilted her head “he’s… crap.”  She dropped from the chair, crouching into a fretful ball beneath the window.  “He saw me looking.”
    Sarah and Will both lifted their gazes from the tiny woman on the floor to the enormous man outside.  Sure enough, there he stood, feet braced apart, brawny shoulders thrown back, dark head lowered like an angry bull.  He was too far away for her to see his eyes clearly, but Sarah gathered they weren’t dancing gaily with amusement.
    “Well now. This is just exactly how I like to introduce myself to new Sweetwater residents.”  Will lifted the water bottle in mock salute.  “Thank you, ladies.”  He glowered