CHAPTER TWENTY
By mid-week, the entire town was in a variety of uproars, and Eva and Donovan still had failed to set and keep a date. There’d been the dinner plan for Monday. Eva had been knee-deep in a chapter rewrite that afternoon when Donovan had called to rain check. Someone had dumped an industrial size jug of organic dish soap into the fountain at the playground on the edge of town. Suds as big as SUVs were floating around the pocket-sized park.
Tuesday, Eva invited Donovan to meet her for an early yoga class and breakfast. He’d made it through one sun salutation before getting called away to deal with a vandalism emergency. Ernest Washington’s neighbor had gotten sick of him raking his leaves onto their lawn. The neighbor had filled every single one of the VW buses on his car lot with dead leaves.
The evidence photos made their way to Blue Moon’s Facebook group and the onslaught of finger pointing and social media feuding had Donovan pulling the plug on the Facebook group until further notice. Of course, that only spurred Anthony Berkowicz to announce that The Monthly Moon would become a weekly paper to keep up with all the gossip.
Every time Donovan canceled or postponed or rain-checked, a new bouquet from Every Bloomin’ Thing arrived on her doorstep. Eva was up to four arrangements and out of vases when he made the switch from flowers to food. A personal pie from Peace of Pizza arrived with her favorite toppings—black olives and green peppers—one afternoon after she’d unwittingly worked through breakfast and lunch. When she called in an order to Righteous Subs for herself and Gia’s family one evening, she arrived to find it already paid for by the generous sheriff.
Even his apologies were perfect. Was there nothing about this man that was human and flawed?
Eva blinked at her screen, realizing she’d once again spaced out. She was in the middle of prime writing time and the words were halting, stalling on the page. It was as if her inspiration had dried up without consistent access to Donovan.
She kicked back in her chair and stretched. Diesel, her furry footrest, stirred beneath her desk and rolled over onto his back.
Eva didn’t believe in writer’s block, but she did believe in resistance, and she was facing a mountain of it at the moment. There was only one way through it. Chiseling through, word by word, until she smashed it. This was where her hard-headedness came in handy. Nothing would stand in her way of “The End.”
She struggled, typing and deleting, cursing and complaining for another hour, until a knock at her door offered her a welcome distraction. Diesel gave a half-hearted bark and leisurely wandered to the door.
Julia from OJ’s by Julia stood on her porch, a smile on her pretty face and a fresh juice the color of carrots in her hand.
“Delivery from one handsome sheriff,” Julia chirped. She’d gotten rid of the summer’s pink highlights and switched over to a fall-friendly burgundy streak. “He says he’s sorry, but he can’t meet you for coffee this afternoon.”
Disappointed but not surprised, Eva sighed. “Tell me this tastes better than the Flu Fighter,” she said, reaching for the jar.
“Hey, wellness sometimes has to come at the price of flavor,” Julia snorted. “But this one doesn’t taste like dead leaves.”
Eva sipped and smiled. “Oh, that’s a good one. This should go on your permanent menu.” Julia’s shop was on the square in town and featured a rotating selection of fresh juices and healthy smoothies. Most of them tasted great. Some of them—the really healthy ones drank only by hard core hippies—were worse than chewing lawn clippings.
Julia grinned. “Sheriff Cardona thought it reminded him of your hair, and here I am.”
Of course, he did. The man would package the sunrise for her if he thought she’d like it. “Want to come in and keep me from punching my laptop in the keyboard for a few minutes?” Eva offered. It felt good that she didn’t have to hide her occupation anymore. And her book sales had seen a pleasant little bump with a few hundred Mooners and their friends picking up her backlist titles.
“Scene giving you trouble?” Julia asked, strolling into Eva’s kitchen and looking around.
“Scene, chapter, book. Want some coffee?”
“One of those days,” Julia said in empathy. “I’d love a cup.”
“How are the kids?” Eva asked, warming up her coffeemaker.
“The oldest started kindergarten this year,” Julia sighed, dropping onto a barstool. “Five seconds ago, he was a tiny baby, and I was terrified of him. Now, he’s practicing writing the alphabet and spelling ‘poop’ with the refrigerator magnets.”
“Time flies,” Eva agreed, thinking of how much Evan and Aurora and even Lydia had grown. “But the poop stage lasts a pretty long time if Aurora is any indication.”
“I’d ask what’s new with you, but I think I already know. A career as a novelist and hot pursuit by a man in uniform,” Julia said, nodding at a particularly stunning arrangement of ranunculus.
“It’s been a crazy month,” Eva said, gesturing at the flowers.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve known Donovan for his entire life, and I’ve never seen him more into a woman before you.”
Eva bit her lip. “That makes me nervous.”
“What’s to be nervous about? A gorgeous, single, heart-of-gold sheriff wants to date the hell out of you.”
Another knock sounded at Eva’s door.
“A gorgeous, single, heart-of-gold sheriff who didn’t show any interest until Pluto and Uranus started dancing the tango,” Eva said, setting the coffee in front of Julia and crossing to the door.
“Surprise!” Summer, her smile nearing crazed, shoved a toddler into Eva’s arms. Meadow smiled up at her, her blue eyes bright and mischievous.
“Come on in,” Eva said, mentally kissing her word count good-bye. Summer, holding Jonathan, strolled inside and greeted Julia. Valentina, the world’s biggest dog, at least in Eva’s experience, meandered in behind Summer. Her black and white coat and behemoth size made her look more like a cow than any dog.
Eva scratched Valentina behind the ears. Diesel, still sleepy from his nap half-heartedly nipped at the bigger dog’s leg.
Meadow reached up and tugged on one of Eva’s curls. “Hi!” she chirped.
“Hi, back,” Eva said, bouncing the little girl on her hip. “Coffee?” Eva volunteered to Summer.
“I’d love some. I’m running on zero sleep,” Summer said, putting Jonathan down on the floor and pulling a toy truck out of her suitcase-sized purse.
“Kids keeping you up?” Julia asked sympathetically.
“More like Ava Franklin’s book,” Summer announced, yanking a paperback and a Sharpie from her bag. “I started this yesterday afternoon and rescheduled a call with an advertiser just so I could keep reading. Then when these little hellions went to bed, Mama curled up on the couch to read one more chapter. Next thing I know it’s four a.m., and I’m checking Amazon for the next one. Sign please.” She shoved the book and marker at Eva.
“You liked it?” Eva asked, giddy with the face-to-face feedback from a woman with excellent taste. Summer ran a hip online magazine for women and was easily the most stylish woman in town. She’d hailed from New York, and a handful of years in Blue Moon and two toddlers hadn’t dulled her taste one iota.
“Like doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Summer announced.
“Snack pweez!” Meadow sang to Summer.
“Me, too!” Jonathan announced, driving his truck up Summer’s leg.
Summer dug back into her bag and pulled out a baggie of crackers.
“Sit at the table, and don’t feed the dogs, please,” she instructed.
She piled crackers in front of each kid and then produced two dog treats from her bag and sent Diesel and Valentina off to the living room rug to enjoy their snacks.
“There. That should buy us three whole minutes,” she said, accepting the mug from Eva. She slid onto the stool next to Julia.
“God, you’re organized,” Eva sighed with envy.
“If I weren’t, chaos would reign,” Summer laughed. “So, what are we talking about?”
“Eva was just expressing her concern that Donovan Cardona’s ardent feelings for her are because of the whole planetary disaster,” Julia filled her in.
Summer sipped her coffee and considered. “Hmm.”
“What if I go for it with him, and then Halloween is over, and he just wants to be friends?” Eva said, pacing behind the island. “Or, what if I go for it, and his feelings are real, and I screw it up somehow? My entire family finally lives in the same place at the same time. Do I really want to see an ex-boyfriend every day? What if it ends so badly that I have to move out of town? I really like it here.”
Being pushed from town to town, new start to new start, Eva had never stuck around in one place long enough to deal with an ex-anything.
Summer hmm-ed again, and Julia drummed her fingers on the countertop.
“Well? Where’s my married lady wisdom?” Eva demanded.
“We’re trying not to shove it down your throat,” Julia said cheerfully. “This town is kind of over the top with its free advice giving.”
“Julia and I have a pact not to browbeat people with our sage knowledge,” Summer told her.
“Well, I’m asking for it. So, shove and browbeat away.”
Summer let out a breath of relief. “Thank God. I didn’t think I could keep it bottled up much longer. Whew. Okay, if you’re concerned that Donovan’s feelings for you aren’t real or are being influenced by the solar system—seriously, could this happen in any other town in the world? —just wait to have s-e-x until after Halloween. The planets will have uncrossed, and everyone will be back to normal.”
“And, you can use the time of non-s-e-x-having to get to know each other,” Julia suggested. “Flirt. Date. Talk. Sext. Figure out if this is a man you’d want to keep in your life.”
The three of them shared a look and then burst into laughter. The dogs eyed them warily.
“As if there’s a woman on the planet who wouldn’t want to keep Donovan Cardona,” Summer giggled, dabbing her eyes with a napkin.
Eva slapped her leg. “I mean, he’s basically perfection,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath.
“I knew it when I said it,” Julia snickered.
“So, I should give him a chance to really get to know me, warts and all. And once Halloween is in the rearview mirror, I’ll have my answer?” Eva sighed.
“As long as you can keep your pants on, I think it’s a good plan,” Julia nodded.
“It’s only two weeks,” Summer said with the cheer of a woman getting laid with obnoxious regularity.
Two weeks. Eva could manage to keep Donovan out of her pants for fourteen days. No. Back to two weeks, she decided. Fourteen days sounded too long.