“Signed off by the town council and everything.” Pol flashed him an angelic smile. “At least, that’s what the electronic version says.”
“Don’t let the Sweets hear you say that,” Harrison said, grinning. “Interfering with town records—tsk, tsk.”
Mr. and Mrs. Sweets held court over Hideaway Cove’s town council. Mr. Sweets was acting mayor, following the previous mayor’s retirement, and most people assumed he’d keep the position after the elections in a few months’ time. That was fine with Harrison. The old guy wasn’t the sort to cause trouble. In fact, he was so relaxed he seemed comatose most of the time.
His wife, on the other hand, was always into everyone’s business.
Harrison groaned. He’d managed to keep out of Mrs. Sweets’ sights for the past few weeks, ever since he’d finally convinced her he wasn’t interested in her granddaughter, Tessa. But he could already tell she was going to give him a headache over his work with the out-of-towner.
Pol shrugged and licked up a glob of melted ice cream and sprinkles before it fell off the cone. “Well, I’m not worried about the Sweets. After all, I’m working for the next mayor of Hideaway, aren’t I? Even the terrifying Mrs. Sweets won’t be able to rag me about paperwork when you’re stomping around in the chain and robe.”
“I’ve already told you, I’m not going to run for mayor,” Harrison said, sighing. He stuck his hands in his pockets. “The workshop’s enough for me. Besides, I would’ve thought the gold chain would be more your thing.”
Pol shrugged. “Oh, sure. If I ever decide I want to live the cliché, the mayoral bling will be my first stop. Here’s our guest, by the way,” he added, nodding at the road behind Harrison.
Harrison turned and raised one hand to block the late afternoon sun. A silver Ford Focus was making its way down the road, with the careful slowness of a driver unfamiliar with the local streets.
Behind him, the ice cream parlor door opened again, and he caught Tessa Sweets’ voice as she warned the kids to stay inside. All the children in Hideaway Cove knew how important it was they didn’t give away the town’s secret to visitors, but their excitement over possibly seeing a human visitor might be too much for them, and they might lose control over their shifter powers.
Harrison nodded in absent approval as the door swung shut again. Tessa was a good, responsible woman—so good, in fact, that he frequently had difficulty believing she was related to the awful Mrs. Sweets.
He waved a greeting to the newcomer as the silver car drew closer, and caught a glimpse of the driver as she passed them.
He saw her for less than a second. A flash of glossy blonde hair, and a round face mostly hidden by sunglasses. A Cupid’s bow mouth set in firm concentration.
That one glimpse struck him like a thunderbolt.
Harrison staggered backwards, leaning against the outside wall of Sweet’s Ice Cream Parlor.
“Oh, hell,” he breathed.
“What’s the matter? Stub your toe on the curb, big guy?” Pol elbowed him in the side as he finished off the massive ice cream cone. “Oh, geez, it looks like those kids are about to vomit themselves out of the shop. I’m off—see you at Caro’s tonight?”
“What? Yeah. Sure.” Harrison had no idea what Pol had said. He was still staring after the woman in the car. His heart was pounding. She’s the one. She’s the one, it seemed to be saying, thudding in his chest and his ears.
His feet started moving without any input from his brain, following the car, then stopped short.
He watched as she turned up one of the few side streets off Hideaway’s main road. He knew exactly where she was going. The road led to Hideaway’s sole visitor accommodation: the Innlet.
If she was staying there, she couldn’t be a relative come to visit family in Hideaway Cove. And Harrison hadn’t heard of any new shifters coming to town. So she was probably human, a random tourist who’d stumbled on their coastal sanctuary.
Harrison imagined barging in there and asking the inn’s owner, little old Marjorie Hanson, if he could speak to her guest, and groaned. Even if he didn’t freak the hell out of the blonde woman by demanding to be introduced to her, that was a bad idea. It would be a one way ticket to being the talk of the town. And making the woman the talk of the town, too.
As much as he loved his home, he couldn’t think of any worse fate for a visitor to Hideaway. Telepathic gossip moved faster than light; everywhere she went, she’d be the subject of whispers she couldn’t even hear.
No. He couldn’t do that to her.
Not to his mate.
CHAPTER THREE
LAINIE
“No. Yes. No, I—” Lainie broke off with an exasperated sigh. “I’ve arranged to meet with a local builder tomorrow, to look at the house while I see what needs to be done to complete a survey of the land. No, this isn’t work work, this is a personal project, I won’t be billing it—yes, I know the report for the Morrison account is due on Monday. The report’s on your desk. In the yellow folder. Yes, that one.”
Lainie rubbed her forehead as her manager launched into another bullet-pointed lecture on the other end of the phone.
It was times like this that Lainie really, truly wished for one of those old-fashioned landline phones. One of the ones you could slam down. Throwing her cell phone down just didn’t have the same cathartic effect, especially since she had to be careful not to break the screen. There was no way she could deal with a phone repair bill on top of everything else right now… though she might have to anyway, given how patchy the reception had been. It was as though her phone had started dying the moment she set foot in Hideaway Cove.