Page 68 of What We Keep
“I know, but you helped Janet and her cat. So free donuts forever.”
I chuckled. “Luna, I can’t take free donuts forever.”
“Why the hell not?” Jude asked from my side.
I slid my gaze to my brother. “Because if I have free donuts forever, you guys are going to be on me all the time to bring them to you by the dozen.”
Luna’s lips curled in a bemused smile. “Fair point. Okay, one single free donut for you only, whenever you come in.”
Jude narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you serious?”
She rested a hand on her hip. “Absolutely. Did you carry Janet and Chunky out?”
Jude rolled his eyes with a bemused smile. “I wasn’t here, so I don’t think it can be held against me that I didn’t.”
Luna gave a saucy shrug. “Just tell me your favorite, Haven, and I’ll make sure to set one aside for you.”
“How is Janet?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” Janet replied in a singsong voice as she came out from the back and rounded the counter to pull me into a lung-squeezing hug. When she stepped back, her eyes crinkled at the corners with her smile. “Haven Silver, my hero.”
I thought Jude might choke. “God help us. Please don’t call him a hero.”
“He is my hero, though,” Janet said with a wide grin. “He’s your hero too, you know.”
Jude let out a sigh. “I know.”
Jude didn’t talk about it much. Hell, we all hated talking about the fire, but I had actually dragged him out during the wildfire at the resort. We chatted briefly before I asked, “Any updates on what caused the fire upstairs here?”
“Electrical,” Janet said simply. “This building is old and while I’ve updated just about everything downstairs, I haven’t updated anything up there. An old fuse blew and set it off.” She paused and shrugged. “No one got hurt, so it’s my reminder to get things taken care of.” Janet’s ability to roll with the punches of life was legendary and she didn’t even dwell.
She shifted topics and tossed some unwelcome gossip at my feet. “So some guy’s nosing around about Elsa’s property.”
“Some guy named Brad?” I countered quickly because I knew exactly who it had to be. “How did you hear about that?”
“I hear about everything, Haven,” Janet said matter-of-factly. “And of course, I’m old friends with one of the attorneys at Blackthorne Law. He doesn’t handle my cases, but he let me know that it came out of nowhere. Who is this Brad guy?”
“Haven refers to him as the asshole,” Jude offered.
“I’ll agree on that count because unless Elsa wants to sell—” Janet began.
“Elsa doesn’t want to sell,” I ground out. “To make it really brief, he’s her ex, and for some reason, he wants that property for collateral. I have no idea why.”
“It’s not the property here. She owns a piece of property in Anchorage.” Janet narrowed her eyes. “My lawyer friend told him Elsa isn’t interested.”
“Dude, don’t crack a tooth,” Jude said from my side.
I had to consciously unclench my jaw. I didn’t know exactly what this guy had done to Elsa, but I knew he had hurt her. I was sure she was well over him, but I didn’t like him showing up like this.
My train of thought was interrupted by Jude. “Haven might be jealous.”
“I’m not fucking jealous,” I muttered.
“Testy?” Jude clucked at my side.
“What? Just, ugh.” I let out a groan, pinching the bridge of my nose briefly. “I’ll handle it.”
“Handle what? There’s nothing to handle,” Jude pointed out.
