Page 30 of Enemies in Earnest

He left a p.s. on the back of the card.

P.S. – this pirate appreciates that booty too.

Well played,Wheeler,I thought with a chuckle. I tucked the card in my pocket, and placed the flowers on my kitchen counter. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad day after all.

* * *

“Holy crap!”Felicity bound into the pub, dress slung over her shoulder, Klaus following behind her as she beelined straight for me. “This place looks freaking amazing! You guys did so much more after I left yesterday!”

I took her around and walked her through the evening’s event. From who was speaking when, what passages we planned to read, and our video that made me both excited and nauseous with worry over it malfunctioning.

“While I know my cousin put you up to it,” Klaus held out his fist when Felicity and I made it back to the bar, pounding it against mine when I caught on he wanted to compliment me. “Well played. Felicity and I laughed for probably the rest of the night thinking about those two signs.”

“Speaking of.” Felicity popped up and looked around, I assumed trying to place Edwin. “Where is everyone?”

I pointed to all of my crew working hard on various projects. Of all the years that we’d had this event, this was the calmest and most organized we’d probably ever been. I hadn’t even had to screech the time at anyone like some banshee counting down to imminent demise.

“I mean, no Edwin. No Asher? Marley and Bear? I thought for sure they’d all be here, and we could all get the gossip concurrently.”

No one in the room even flinched at the word gossip. Surely someone had to have heard about me and Edwin.

“What happened to you guys last night?” Klaus asked. “When we came back around on the boat, we looked for you, and you were gone. And you weren’t at MariJo’s or at Edwin’s place –no one was home when the Master of Ceremonies dropped us off in his golf cart.”

“Did Edwin give you a taste of hiscandy caneback at your place?” Felicity nudged me with her elbow with an exaggerated wink.

I watched my staff with an eagle eye. Not a single one of them cared about our conversation. No one stopped in their tracks or looked at me nervously, none of the typical signs of town gossip.

“No,” I told them. “We packed up after the fireworks were over. Edwin was worried that I wouldn’t get enough sleep to handle the big day today. I haven’t seen him since about ten o’clock last night.”

Felicity grabbed me by the hand and pulled me toward a banquette.

“Okay, I need all the skinny. You guys are dating, right? Because I don’t want to embarrass you. Let’s just say we know you spent the night at his house. And well, y’all weren’t quiet. But Edwin is so damn tightlipped about everything. And MariJo is just like ‘you leave those two alone, they’ve been tap dancing around one another in the world’s slowest mating ritual known to man!’ And I was like ‘damn girl, that was savage!’ But also… you’re together now, right?”

There was so much to dissect. MariJo thought we’d been tap dancing around one another? Somehow I didn’t know how to process that. She’d never made mention of the fact that Edwin was interested in me. And we’d known one another for years now given we were both on the Christmas committee. The rest I chose to ignore for my own still reeling sense of mortification.

“God, you’re as bad as him.” She threw her hands up in mock frustration. “Just tell me he gave you a good dicking. Because I would hate to be proven a liar if he’s super shitty in bed after I oversold the hell out of his skills.”

Where was a drink when you needed one? I looked over my shoulder, hoping to draw the attention of literally anyone authorized to go behind the bar and grab me a beer. Or a straight shot of vodka. Anything to put me out of the soul shrinking misery of discussing just how good I’d beendickedby Edwin Wheeler.

“Our status isn’t solidified,” I replied, in an attempt to find the most neutral ground to stay on. After yelling at him the night before about being the gossip around town, the last thing I wanted to do was to be the source of gossip about the two of us.

“Bullshit. You’re flushed clear up to your hairline. I don’t know what it is about the two of you. We’re family. Klaus and Edwin are practically brothers which means you and me are practically sisters. And sisters give the skinny about the lady earthquakes that our talented men provide. But, if you’re gonna be all tightlipped and shy—fine. That’s your prerogative.”

She shrugged, airily tossing out her objections as if she wasn’t dying to get any information.

Thankfully I was saved from having to verify anything by the appearance of the very man that we’d just been discussing.

“Where are your storm shutters?” Edwin asked, in place of a hello.

“My storm shutters?” I asked, my brain struggling to quickly switch topics from Felicity begging for tawdry details of my sex life, to Edwin’s no nonsense need to fix something on my bar.

“Yes, those white pieces of wood that you hang from the beams outside and tie down in an effort to protect the bar in the event large gusts of wind threaten to blow you clear off the island.”

I launched out of the booth, hot on his heels as he stomped through the seating area and pushed through my kitchen toward my storage shed out back.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he threw the doors open and started pulling them out one by one.

“What does it look like?” he asked, looking at me as if I’d just asked him what color the sky was—which incidentally looked a menacing gray. We were definitely in for that rain storm the weather guys had been talking about. “I’m putting up your storm shutters.”

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