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The young woman who had waved to him earlier stumbled out of the back of the house and bent over to throw up. Judging by her vehicle, she was some kind of free-spirited type.A hippie.
Her auburn hair bounced out around her head in untidy thick waves as she hunched forward toward the ground. Maddox rubbed his face, clearing his throat to let her know he was there. She straightened up, one hand on her stomach.
“Oh, hi,” she said, smiling far too warmly. “I’m Penny, Elsie’s niece. Do you live next door?”
“Yes. Maddox Griffiths. I’m a property developer.” Hefrowned. How could she appear cheerful after what she’d just walked through? He’d had a glimpse of what the inside of that house was like. Hopefully, it would be condemned soon. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.”
He forced himself to look away from her, then cleared his throat. His eyes landed on the beady-eyed stare of a gnome, sitting on a mushroom in the grass, smoking a pipe. He should have put the creepy statues into a shed before anyone arrived to deal with the house. They were stationed all over the yard, evil smiles on their ruddy little faces.
She turned to the side, apparently curious about what he was staring at. Gurgling happy noises, she bent over to brush off the leaves covering a cracked teacup in the gnome’s lap. “Look at that detail. This is my favorite one yet.” She glanced at him over her shoulder, freckled face smiling.
He crossed his arms and didn’t say anything.
Her face transformed into a smirk, one eyebrow creeping up. “Do you dislike gnomes?”
“Let me put it this way, little bearded men with pointy hats that smoke narcotics and subjugate frogs was some cheesehead’s sick nightmare.” He took a deep breath. Why were they talking about gnomes?
He focused on her, determined to turn the conversation toward him buying this land from her so he could erase any hint of this house or the gnomes’ existence from the earth. Because she was bent over, it was impossible not to notice her chest. He shifted his weight. His stretch of celibacy needed to end if this stranger who lived in a rundown trailer could get a rise out of him.
“Obviously, you have a lot to deal with here,” he said, keeping his eyes on her face. “Let’s speak more about your plans for the property at some point. I’m interested in the future of this parcel.”
She grinned in a completely unprofessional way. Slowly, while staring at him, she turned the gnome so that it faced away from him. “Is that better?”
He glared at her. She was laughing at him. Barking erupted on the other side of the house. A Great Dane materialized, careening around the corner, then ran straight at him—a lunatic, frenzied growling coming from its gigantic head.
Penny let loose a piercing whistle. Gus galloped past the tense neighbor guy. Her dog turned himself in a wide circle in the small field behind the fence, trailing his leash.Sweet, Kat found it.
Her and Maddox stood on either side of the old wooden picket fence that was weathered to a grayish white and bare of paint.
Gus charged back toward them.
“Gus,” Penny shouted, “calm down.”
He didn’t calculate an unmovable fence into the equation of his forward momentum. At the last moment, he reared up on his back feet and smashed into the rickety fence with his front paws.
A six-foot section of old boards snapped forward and crashed to the ground. Gus landed on top of it, slipped, then hopped off and barked proudly. He pranced over to Penny, his tail wagging.
Penny watched Maddox. He was a little shocking. The heavy slashes of his dark eyebrows over deep-set serious eyes made her curious about what else got under his skin.
The neighbor guy turned around and walked off, shaking his head.
“I think you scared him off.”
Gus barked and licked her hand.
“Probably good—we can’t trust a gnome-hater.”
Kat ran around the corner, saw Penny and Gus, stopped, and bent over her knees. “That dog is a mutant pony—pushed me over. Went running off out of nowhere. Weighs more than I do.”
Gus leaned against Penny’s legs, staring up at her with his eyes half closed. Penny braced her back foot and petted his tawny fur. “He scares off nosy neighbors, don’t you, Gussy. He’s also good at knocking over fences. That’s pure talent.”
“Was that your neighbor? I saw him from a distance. Uh, wow.” Kat glanced up the road. “Look at his house.”
“Yep.” Penny waved a hand at it. “A textbook example of cold modern design.”
“It’s really nice.”
