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“Dang, woman! You look like a movie star!”
“Right?” Hazel answered. “She was a queen on that interview. You should have seen her, Mike. I had two ring lights on her, set on soft light, of course. Then the guy noticed the old manuals you put on the shelf, and from that point on, she wasfire.”
Mike looked over Hazel’s head to Zoey. “Fire is good? You nailed it?”
“I think so,” she answered. They took their seats at one of the picnic tables. “I hope they don’t expect me to look like this when I’m crawling behind some restaurant freezer unit, but...it worked for today.” She touched her fingers to her cheek. “Let me know if my face starts melting off. I’m not used to this stuff.”
He took her hand and pulled it away from her face. But he continued to hold her fingers, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Keep your hands off it if you want it to stay put. You look nice.” He turned back to his ice cream—a banana boat sundae. “But you don’t need makeup to look nice.”
“Aww,” she replied. “Look at you being all sweet and stuff. You’re a good friend.” Her voice was teasing, but she saw immediately that her words hit him somehow. His jaw moved side to side as he stared at his ice cream. When he looked back to her, his eyes were darker than usual. Was he angry? “What did I say?”
His mouth opened, then snapped shut. He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just... I meant it. I wasn’t saying it as a friend.”
She had no idea what to say to that. Before she could respond, Hazel asked Mike about some history trivia for a school project she was working on. He turned to her and joked that he was not old enough to be the town historian, but of course, he knew the answer. He explained at length that the Hilman House in Rendezvous Falls had two front doors because it was owned by two sisters who’d had a falling out in the early 1900s. They’d inherited the house together, but divided it right down the middle after their feud, keeping everything identical on either side.
When he finished, he told Hazel she’d dropped ice cream on her shirt. When she looked down, he bopped her nose with his finger. He’d been doing that joke for years, and Hazel laughed just like she had every other time he did it. Zoey hoped her daughter would hold on to that childish delight in things, even as she moved into teenhood. And she hoped Hazel would always havejust Mikein her life to make her laugh so hard she snorted, like she was doing right now. Everyone needed a pal like that.
I wasn’t saying it as a friend...
There’s a good chance your platonic friend may be thinking differently...
Her plastic spoon fell into her bowl, but Mike and Hazel were too busy stealing each other’s ice cream to notice. Had Mason been right about Mike? Was he looking for more than friendship? Her pulse quickened. What would that be like? She studied his profile. It’s not as if she’d never noticed how good-looking he was—tall and lean, with that chestnut hair that never wanted to behave and those chestnut eyes that shone with happiness when he was with her. That mouth, with the lips that would surely feel strong and warm on hers... She stabbed at her sundae with her spoon, banishing that thought.
What about their friendship? She felt a quick surge of panic. She couldn’t afford to lose his friendship. Not now. Hopefully not ever. And if they did kiss or...anything...then their friendship would be forever changed. Maybe it would be worth the risk, but what if itwasn’t? They’d always laughed that they were living proof that men and women really could be platonic friends. Why mess with something that special?
Besides, she was just speculating on his feelings. Even if he did feel differently toward her, he hadn’t acted on it. Hadn’t talked about it. Maybe he’d already decided it wouldn’t be worth the risk to their friendship. Maybe she’d imagined it all. Just because she was all made up and put together, that didn’t mean Mike McKinnon was going to suddenly swoon over her. She wouldn’t want him to.
She dropped Hazel at her friend Sienna’s house so they could work on their project together for a few hours. Sienna’s mom, Monique, was going to bring Hazel home later. Zoey stopped to pick up the mail from the box at the bottom of the drive and heard the crunch of tires behind her. She squelched a groan when she saw who it was—Karen Schiff. Her neighbor. And an annoying thorn in her side.
Karen thankfully didn’t get out of her mega-size black SUV, she just rolled down the window and gave Zoey a sour look. Or maybe she always looked like she’d just bitten into a lemon.Neighborwas a bit of a stretch, since you couldn’t even see the Schiff house in the summer. In the winter, once the leaves had fallen, you could barely glimpse the cement and glass monstrosity dug into the hilltop. Zoey’s dad had parceled off five four-acre lots along the road from the family’s original fifty acres years ago.
“Oh, hi, Karen!” Zoey beamed, silently praying this wasn’t another complaint about the farm. “How are you today?”
“I thought you said you were moving those things.” Karen’s eyes flickered toward Dad’s sculptures. She’d been grousing about the so-calledeyesoressince she and her husband moved in three years ago.
Here we go...
“Actually, what I said was that I was planning on relocating the sculptureseventually. I have a few other priorities, Karen.” She paused, biting her lip to keep from getting too snarky. “My father built them, and he’s been dead less than a year, so...”
“Well, you may want to make removing them more of a priority,” Karen sniffed. “I’d hate to have to go to the zoning board about you running a business here.”
What?
“My father’s run a business here for decades.”
“That doesn’t make it right. I’ve checked, and this entire stretch is zoned for residential use only.” She arched an eyebrow as if she’d hit a slam dunk, but Zoey had no idea what her point was.
“And my daughter and Iresidehere.”
Karen sat back, putting her vehicle in Drive. “That argument doesn’t help you. This is a residence, and you are operating a business here. Illegally. I’m willing to ignore that if you just tear down all this wreckage in your yard.” She gave Zoey a pointed look.“Immediately.”
“Yeah? Well, I thinkyouneed to leave...immediately.”
Zoey watched her drive away, barely resisting the urge to throw stones at the SUV. Had Karen justthreatenedher? Was she right about the shop being illegal? That couldn’t be true. Dad would have known. But Karen had made her father’s life miserable about his eclectic sculptures ever since she bought the place next door. He’d just ignored her, but then again, Karen had never seriously threatened legal action against him.
Zoey drove up to the house, her emotions alternating between fury and worry. It was a good thing she knew a great lawyer, and he’d be in her workshop tonight. Mike would know what to do.
CHAPTER NINE
