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Chapter 22
Precise – ensuring details are correct to the point of annoying every other person in the room
Beckett
I walk into the bar named Electric Vibes. If I weren’t in Winter Falls, I’d assume I was in the wrong place. A hippie bar with every type of paraphernalia from the height of the hippie revolution you can think of displayed in every nook and cranny is not where I would expect a monthly pub quiz to normally happen.
But there’s nothing ‘normal’ about Winter Falls. I’m discovering I enjoy the quirky little town. Which is a good thing since I know Lilac is committed to staying in the area. And I have no plans to give up on her, which is why I’m here this evening.
Ashlyn waves from a table in the middle of the room. I start to make my way there but am stopped by someone who appears to be the reincarnation of John Lennon.
“Holy shit,” I mumble as I notice his round glasses, shaggy shoulder-length hair, and scraggly beard.
“Nothing holy about my shit,” he mutters. “What team are you on?”
“I’m with the West sisters.”
He glances up from his clipboard. “You’re Lilac’s man?”
“Um…” I want to be, but since she kicked me out of her parents’ house on Sunday, I don’t think I have the right to refer to myself as her man. In fact, I think she’d give me a lecture about women’s equality if I dared to say I was her man.
“What’s the holdup?”
I turn around to discover the elderly women who watched me clean the gutters at the West house standing behind me.
“Hello,” I greet.
“I have ten dollars on Lilac walking out,” Sage says in response.
“No way,” Feather argues. “I have twenty dollars on the West sisters winning the quiz.”
“You can’t bet on them winning,” Sage claims. “They always win, unless Lilac isn’t here.”
“Is Lilac coming tonight?” Feather asks.
Cayenne pokes me in the chest. “She’s asking you.”
“Um…”
Ashlyn wraps her hand around my bicep. “Leave him alone.”
“Leave him alone? Why would we leave him alone? Have you met us?”
“Of course, I’ve met you, Sage. You brag about changing my diapers all the time,” Ashlyn says before dragging me to a table in the middle of the room where Juniper and Aspen are already seated.
“You need to avoid the gossip gals while you’re in the courting stage,” Ashlyn explains as we sit down.
“Where’s Lilac?” I ask since I already plan to avoid the elderly ladies and their scheming. Plus, I have no intention of discussing my courting Lilac with her sisters.
“We’re giving you the benefit of the doubt here,” Aspen says instead of answering my question.
“Yeah,” Juniper agrees. “But if we discover you’ve been flirting with another woman again.” She draws her index finger slowly across her neck.
“I have glitter bombs and I know how to use them,” Ashlyn sings.
Damn it. I don’t want to explain to Lilac’s sisters how I was flirting with Brandi to get a rise out of Lilac. I know it was wrong and immature and I shouldn’t have done it. But I need to apologize to Lilac before I explain my reasoning to any of them.
Lilac arrives, but she doesn’t sit down. She glares at me instead. “What is he doing here?”
