Page 31 of Love to Prove You Wrong

Justin put his arm behind his head and the covers slid down, flashing a piece of bare chest. “All right. Good night, Addy.”

“Good night,” I said, my cheeks burning with mortification.

As I carefully closed the door behind me and tiptoed downstairs, I kind of regretted him not pushing his offer any further. Maybe it would’ve been nice to have him walk me to my house after all. Then again, what if he had? It wasn’t like I’d have invited him in for a drink at three in the morning.

I stepped inside my house two minutes later and headed straight for the bathroom to brush my teeth. After getting under my own duvet, I closed my eyes, but sleep didn’t come. The exhaustion I had felt hours ago was now replaced by a feeling of loneliness tugging at my heart. My bed didn’t carry Justin’s smell, nor did it have those soft sheets I used at the inn.

I tossed and turned for half an hour before getting up again. I yanked a tub of ice cream out of the freezer and turned Netflix on, scrolling to my ‘watch it again’ list. As soon as I pressed play, the now familiar intro toIn Dire Needcame on and I couldn’t help but smile as Justin’s face filled the screen.

Chapter Eleven

“What on earth is this truck doing here?”

It was the day before the Spring Picnic and a big delivery truck with “PMS” painted on the sides in bold letters was blocking the street right in front of Dave’s Diner.

Dave himself was hauling a fold-up table to the town square, where several people were getting everything ready for the picnic and open-air movie theater. His face was bright red and he shook his fist in the air, cursing the truck and its contents.

The delivery driver looked at him wide-eyed, then shook his head and mumbled something about how every town had their own collection of wacko people.

“What’s going on?” I asked, joining Dave on the sidewalk.

“None of my customers can get inside. And their view is blocked by this truck,” he said.

He made it sound as if there was an entire cruise ship parked in front of his diner instead of a standard-sized Parcel Mail Services truck. Normally, I hated to encounter PMS, but this was a different type altogether. And the view Dave was talking about? It was just a regular old town square, not some jaw-dropping tropical beach or summit.

I approached the driver. Someone had to take it upon themselves to find out what was going on. “Are you delivering stuff for the Spring Picnic?” I asked in my friendliest voice.

“I honestly don’t know,” the guy said, shaking his head. “All I’ve got is an order form for five hundred vacuum cleaners with clear instructions to drop them off at the town square. That’s all the information I can share, sorry.”

I watched in horror as the guy kept stacking all five hundred boxes of vacuum cleaners on the grass. A small crowd of people gathered on the pavement around me.

Fifteen minutes later, news of the enormous delivery had spread, and Diane came rushing toward the town square.

Diane and Dave were on good terms with each other, but judging by Dave’s glaring eyes, their comradery might be pushed to the background, at least for now.

“Good, they’ve arrived,” Diane said.

She gave the boxes an approving look.

“Good?” Dave asked, seething. “These boxes take up half the town square. It’s like you’ve taken it upon yourself to build a replica of the Great Wall of China in our small town.”

“There, there, Dave,” Diane said, swiping some imaginary speck of dust off her cream-colored sweater. “No need to get angry with me. I can’t help it that I’ve got such great business opportunities coming my way. Besides, the mayor has given me his explicit approval.”

Dave scoffed. “Of course he has.”

As the mayor’s mother, it came as no surprise that Diane had gotten some privileges. But her acting like shewasthe mayor might have gone a bit too far. Old Pine Cove thrived on a sense of community. Angering Dave was not a good move, unless Diane wanted her next sandwich to contain something gross.

“Tell you what, to make things right, I’ll give everyone who buys a TurboVac5000 Diamond Series a ten percent discount.”

The crowd went silent, none of them wanting to break the news to Diane that these vacuum cleaners were not a top priority to them, especially not at the price she was selling them for.

“Discount or no discount, that doesn’t solve the problem of this truck blocking the pavement,” Dave said.

Diane shot him a closemouthed smile. “I’m sure all the boxes will be unloaded soon enough.”

Dave put his hands on his hips to let Diane know that was not the solution he was waiting for.

All that was missing now was a lonesome tumbleweed rolling by, and Dave and Diane drawing their guns. I wondered who’d win in a standoff like that. It would be a close call, for sure.

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