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Beau hadn’t been kidding when he said that the kitchen had been updated. Even these appliances were top of the line. It was a wonder that he wasn’t charging me more. He told me he’d worked a deal with the contractor, but still…

It took me three and a half hours to get everything unpacked and put away or put into the dishwasher. There was no way I was going to eat on the dishes after they had been packed away in newspaper.

I looked over when I heard Chaos’ claws on the wood floor. She went for her bowl of food. She took another sniff and then looked at me and whined.

“Look here, my mathematical theory, don’t turn all high and mighty. Be a heroine and suck it up. You’ll get good food tomorrow.”

I laughed when she started eating the Alpo.

Now that I was done with all the dirty work, I needed a shower and a glass of wine. I washed out one of the wineglasses, then realized I didn’t have any wine.

“Dammit!”

Well, this was not a good way to start my new life. I should have bought wine to celebrate. After all, this was a new chapter.

Well, at least I’d get a good night’s sleep.

Everything about this house was old and beautiful. I loved the original hardwood floors. I’d never seen this type of wood before. I’d have to research on the internet what kind of wood it was. I yawned so hard as I was walking down the hall to the main bedroom that I seriously considered foregoing the shower. Then I saw my bed all made up with yellow sheets and the yellow duvet with sunflowers, and I couldn’t bring myself to go to bed dirty, so I headed for the shower.

The warm water almost put me to sleep standing up, but I managed to get out and dry myself. My hair was useless. Thick and blonde, there was no way I was going to try to dry it tonight, so I just braided it and headed for bed.

I was almost asleep when the bed shook and Chaos made herself comfortable against my back. She was a cuddler. Then I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

I heard a thud that woke me up. Chaos had hit the floor. I rubbed my eyes and noted the sun shimmering through the gauzy curtains. I grinned. I couldn’t imagine Beau being the delicate curtain kind of guy. Maybe it was the last tenant. He’d said he hadn’t stepped foot in the house in over fifteen years. He had an old friend named Bernie Faulkes, who checked up on things. Beau said he was quite the character and I might want to go introduce myself.

It had been fun talking to Beau. He’d explained to me that I was looking to rent at the perfect time, because this way I could actually talk to him instead of Bernie. Normally he wouldn’t have the time to FaceTime, but his team had some downtime. I made the mistake of asking some questions, like where he was and what he was doing, and what branch of the service he was in. All I got out of him was he was a Marine in Europe. He didn’t seem mad that I had asked questions, probably because I didn’t push, I just moved onto other things.

Beau was really serious. I couldn’t get him to crack a smile on any of the three FaceTime calls we had. The only time he came close was when he mentioned getting a piece of pie at Pearl’s. He told me to skip the apple and go for the peach. When he mentioned he hadn’t stepped foot in the house for fifteen years, it took me a moment to think of something to say to that. Finally, I went with the obvious, “Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong. Jasper Creek is a friendly town, but it was time for me to leave.”

I figured I could circle back to that on our fourth FaceTime call, but that never happened. Instead, I got a call from Bernie Faulkes to complete the paperwork on renting the house. When I asked about Beau, Bernie just said that Marine Raiders were always called away at a moment’s notice.

With one last glance at the curtains, I rolled out of bed. Since Chaos was already up, I knew she needed to take a walk for her morning business. I headed to the bathroom and did my thing, then hit the small closet that almost fit my clothes. I pulled out my wide-leg jeans, the red belt with the gold Wonder Woman buckle, and the almost-pink crop top that Sue had got me. After I had that on, I grabbed one of my favorite slouchy sweaters—cream with pink hearts—and slipped on my Vans Old Skool sneakers.

“Chaos, we’re going for a walk!”

I headed to the kitchen and grabbed some poop bags and her leash. I saw her empty bowls.

“Food first?”

She headed to the front door.

“I guess that answers that.” I grinned.

I jogged down the stairs, and off we went down the street. Dogwood was a beautiful street. It had gorgeous old maple and oak trees planted on either side of the street. I grinned when I saw that almost every yard had a dogwood tree planted in it. It seemed like nobody could handle living on a street called Dogwood and not having a dogwood tree in their front yard.

“Hey there, Missy. Are you enjoying the sunshine?”

I stopped short. I couldn’t find who was talking to me. I finally spotted a woman who was on her porch across the street watering her ferns.

“Yes, ma’am. I am.”

“You must be the new schoolteacher, am I right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I am.”

“Well, come on over. I have fresh coffee cake. You can even bring that behemoth of a dog with you. My cat ain’t scared of dogs.”