Page 16 of A Spot of Trouble
But then Sam looked up and spied Violet exiting her cupcake-mobile carrying an enormous tray of decorated baked goods. Sprinkles pranced behind her, leaping in the air every now and then to nip at Violet’s polka dot apron strings. It was all so thoroughly charming and eccentric, save one thing—the overtly amused expression on Violet’s heart-shaped face.
She’d just witnessed the entire exchange between Sam and the surfers, because of course she had. The woman was everywhere.
“Cinder, I hope you’re in the mood for bingo,” he muttered.
Now hecouldn’tleave. Doing so would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Sam had yet to fully identify the nature of their battle, but he wasn’t about to back down.
He plodded on, reaching the doors to the senior center just a few steps behind his beautiful adversary. Her huge tray of cupcakes tipped at a precarious angle as she attempted to hold onto it with one hand and push the handicapped-accessible automatic door button with the other.
“Here. Let me get that for you,” Sam said, pressing his palm against the big blue button in an effort to avoid a cupcake avalanche.
“Thank you very much, but I can do it myself.” Violet banged the button seconds after Sam did.
The double doors slid halfway open before they stuttered to a halt and then closed again.
Violet shot Sam a frosty look, and they both pressed the button again at the exact same time.
The cupcakes wobbled, Cinder and Sprinkles trotted inside, and then the doors slid shut again, trapping the dogs on one side of the glass and their human counterparts on the other. A Dalmatian separation.
“Oh, no.” Violet gasped. “Look what you did.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “I’m hardly the one responsible for this predicament.”
He reached for the button a third time, but so did Violet. Again the doors slid open and closed as the matching Dalmatians swiveled their spotted heads back and forth in time with the movement.
“Would youstop?” Violet groaned.
“I was just trying to help.” He held up his hands. “Be my guest.”
The dogs aimed their soft brown gazes at Sam, then at Violet, back at Sam, and finally came to rest on the teetering cupcakes. Sam caught a glimpse of their matching pink tongues as they panted in unison, fogging up the glass.
Violet slammed the button again, and this time, Sam had to reach out and prop up one end of her tray to keep the cupcakes from sliding to the ground. He probably should have let them fall, but good manners plus the strange shot of adrenaline that seized him every time she was in the vicinity prevented him from doing so.
Mostly the adrenaline thing.
Violet flashed him a tight smile. “Thanks, but I’ve got everything under control.”
The doors slid open a fraction of an inch and then froze in place.
Sam arched a brow. “Completely under control. Roger that.”
“You’re impossible.” Every polka dot on Violet’s flirty little apron trembled with fury as she pressed the button repeatedly, to no avail.
Three cupcakes hit the pavement—plop, plop, plop.
Violet’s face crumpled. Sam had never known anyone in his entire life who wore their heart on their sleeve the way she did. It would have been adorable if it wasn’t so completely maddening.
She spun to face him head-on. Another cupcake flew off the edge of the tray to meet its doom on the pavement. “What are you doing here, anyway? Do you evenlikebingo?”
Sam frowned. “Does anyone?”
Violet’s mouth fell open, her cherry-red lips forming a perfectly horrified O.
“I’m not here to play bingo.” He couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do less, except maybe argue with the nutty cupcake queen of Turtle Beach while two Dalmatians and the sum total of the town’s elderly population watched from behind a pair of malfunctioning glass double doors. “I’m on duty.”
“How so, exactly?” she asked.
“Tuesday night bingo is advertised all over town. For reasons I can’t begin to contemplate, it seems to be quite popular, so I’m here to make sure it’s safe.”
