Page 8 of Southern Storms

My heart leaped in my chest as I pushed myself up to a sitting position.

“Oh hush, Kate. Me stepping on these bushes would be doing them a favor—trust me,” the other woman whispered-shouted back. They were tiptoeing around the property, sneaking peeks into the windows as they both held plastic containers in their hands.

“Do you think it’s a big family?” Louise asked. “Lord knows the last thing we need is more kids running around the neighborhood.”

“I don’t know but based on the lack of furniture in the house, they might be struggling.”

I cocked an eyebrow at the snooping ladies, who hadn’t noticed me sitting feet away from them.

“I hope they hire someone to take care of this pigpen of a yard. I don’t need the property value going down because of the newcomer. The last family who stayed here already did enough damage,” Louise huffed in disgust.

“Can I help you, ladies?” I cut in, watching the nosy women jump right out of their Louboutin heels at the sound of my voice. They caught their balance and luckily kept the containers in their grips as they rotated to see me sitting in my car.

“Oh my gosh, sweetheart, you shouldn’t sneak up on people like that,” said the one in the yellow sundress—Kate, I gathered—while holding one hand against her chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

I almost rolled my eyes at the irony of it all, but instead I just gave her my best Southern smile as I climbed out of the car and walked their way. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Louise’s eyes danced over my vibrant outfit then locked with mine. “Well, yes, you should be more careful.”

“I’ll do better next time. So how can I help you?”

Kate stepped forward with her perfect blond curls dangling in her face. “Oh, yes. We’re your neighbors! We saw you were moving in last night and thought we’d stop by to say hello. I’m Kate, and this is Louise.”

“No relation,” they said in unison, and then they giggled. “Just kidding, we’re twins!”

Because of course they were.

“I live two houses down from you to the left, and Kate lives two houses down to the right,” Louise said. “You’re right smack dab in the middle of the twin sandwich.”

Lucky me.

“Well, I’m Kennedy. It’s nice to meet you.”

They kept their big smiles on their faces as they glanced at my parents’ convertible. Then their glares danced across my appearance and back to the car.

“I must say, that’s quite the unique-looking car,” Louise mused, her tone dripping with judgment. “Do you drive it around, or is it more of a…statement piece?”

“It belonged to my parents. It holds a bit of family history on it. I haven’t started it up to take it out on the road yet, but I might give it a go at some point.”Maybe tomorrow. Maybe in a year. Who knows…

The women grimaced. “Interesting,” they said, once again, in unison.

“Are those for me?” I asked, trying my best to shift the conversation and get it moving along. If I knew anything about small towns from all the books I read, I knew these twins were the perfect recipe for trouble.

“Oh, yes. We each made you a pie. Best strawberry pie and apple pie you’ll ever come across in your life. We stayed up late last night cooking them when we saw you moving in.”

“You shouldn’t have,” I said.

“Sweetheart, of course we did. We are, after all, your new neighbors. We take our Southern hospitality seriously in these parts,” Kate commented, still frowning at my property.

Louise cleared her throat. “Speaking of landscaping”—Were we speaking of landscaping?—“who’s handling yours? I can get you a few names of individuals who do great work.”

“Well, thanks, but we have that all lined up. I’m not the actual owner of the place.”

“Oh my.” Kate whimpered as her fingers landed on her lips. “Are you a squatter? You don’t actually live here? I mean, I guess that explains the car, but that’s quite illegal.”

“We should inform Sheriff Reid,” the other sternly stated.

Are these women serious right now? Am I being Punk’d? Is Ashton Kutcher hiding in the Louboutin-crushed bushes?

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