But, thinking of Jake’s warning about the town busybody network, she kept her mouth shut.
Karl gestured to the other man sitting on the patio furniture display the group was occupying. “This is Arthur Ramsey.”
“Oh! You’re Jake’s dad!” He looked a little like Jake. They had the same green eyes and big build.
“You know Jake?” Art’s brow furrowed in a way that made Nora wonder if he didn’t approve of her.
“Um, yes. He’s doing some work on my house.” And my clinic. And my ridiculous vaccine-mobile.
And I was totally platonically cuddling with him at his house Saturday night.
“What can I do for you?” Karl asked.
“Well, I’m not here for hardware. I’m actually here to ask you a favor. I understand this is sort of the unofficial community center in town?” Karl flashed her a huge grin—he seemed to like that interpretation. “I’m planning a flu-shot clinic at the Anti-Festival, and I was hoping I could leave some flyers here to let people know about it.”
Karl started to take the stack of flyers, but Pearl laid her hand on his arm and halted his progress. “Dr. Walsh, did you know there’s a town bachelor auction as part of the festival?”
“I heard something about that.”
“This year it’s going to be a bachelor and bachelorette auction,” Eiko said mildly, but she looked at Karl while she spoke, and he retracted his hand without taking Nora’s flyers.
“Oh,” Pearl said. “And she’s a catch.”
Uh-oh. “It’s nice of you to think of me, but I’m not really looking for—”
“It’s very casual,” Eiko said. “Entrants have lunch with the suitor who wins them. So you don’t have to do anything but stand there and watch the gents compete for your favor. And then they feed you!”
“Suitor”? “Gents”? Had she time-traveled back to the nineteenth century?
“Or ladies,” Pearl said. “You tell us which, and we’ll do our thing.”
So maybe not the nineteenth century.
“The auction is how I met my wife,” Art said.
“I’m so glad we took Maya’s advice and widened the proceedings to include bachelorettes,” Pearl said. “She was right last year when she said we were being sexist.”
“I totally agree, Pearl,” Karl said. “And I happen to know that Dennis Bates is already working on his lunch hamper.”
“I’m not going to be in the auction,” Pearl said. “I’m running the whole festival. I don’t have time to be in the auction. Anyway, I’ve told you a thousand times, I will never date anyone in this town.”
“Dennis Bates has an enormous crush on Pearl, but she continually rebuffs him,” Eiko explained matter-of-factly to Nora.
“Dennis Bates who runs the lift bridge?” Nora asked, though she wasn’t sure why. Her aim here was not to get sucked into the town gossip network, merely to leave her flyers. “Anyway,” she said before anyone could answer, “could I leave these here?”
“You can leave those here if you stand in the auction,” Karl said.
Uh, what? She blinked. Was this sweet old man bribing her?
“He’s bribing you,” Art said helpfully. “He does that.”
“You really won’t let me leave these here?” Nora said.
“I will let you leave those here if you stand in the auction,” Karl said.
So much for a simple favor.
“It’s for a good cause,” Art said. “It raises money for the town library and food bank.”
“Still, I—”
“Who doesn’t love a picnic?” Eiko said. “You could meet some nice local boy.”
“Or girl,” Pearl said.
“I’m really not looking to get involved with anyone. I’m only planning to be here two years.”
“I’ll give you a free ad in the newspaper if you stand in the auction,” Eiko said.
Oh, for God’s sake.
Although she was a little bit impressed. She’d thought she was playing these people. That she would come here and exploit their goodwill and their desire to keep her in town and get them to give away her flyers.
But who was playing whom here? Jake had been right to tell her to watch her back.
“It’s just lunch,” Pearl said.
Nora sighed.
Pearl, correctly interpreting it as a sigh of capitulation, clapped her hands. “Yay! You are going to be our crown jewel.”
“Well, thanks, I guess, but I think you overestimate my draw. I just got here. No one knows me. Who’s going to bid on me?”
The chimes on the door tinkled, and in walked Jake.
Everyone said hello to Jake, who raised his hand silently in greeting and gave his father an extra nod. “I was hoping one of you knew how to get in touch with Harold…” He trailed off when he noticed her. “Oh. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Hi,” he said again.
Nora’s skin started to prickle. She could feel everyone’s eyes on them—she felt like they were zoo animals. She just couldn’t figure out why. All they had done was greet each other politely.
“Harold Burgess?” Karl finally said. “Was that what you were asking? How to get in touch with Harold Burgess?”
“I know how to get in touch with Harold Burgess,” Nora said slowly, feeling like she was missing something. “Assuming we’re talking about Harold Burgess my landlord?”
“Right.” Jake shifted his weight from one foot to the other, none of his signature steadiness in evidence. “I actually need to talk to you, too.”
“You do?” Eiko asked, glancing at Pearl, who coughed.
“Yeah, it’s about your house.” Jake stopped shuffling, but his eyes darted around like he was looking for an escape. Maybe he had the in-the-zoo feeling, too?
“Well,” she said, “I have my first patient in thirty minutes. I have to get out of these gross running clothes. You want to walk with me to the clinic?”
He nodded and held the door for her. As she followed him out, Pearl called after them, “Be good, kids.”
“Gross running clothes” was not how Jake would have described what Nora was wearing. She had on form-fitting, black running tights and a bright-green tank top. She looked like an ad for an athletic magazine.
“I didn’t realize you were a runner.” He’d known she was getting up and out early these days—he had been seizing the opportunity to do some early-morning work on her house before other jobs, so they sometimes said a quick hello as he was arriving and she was leaving—but he’d thought she was just going to the clinic.
“I’m not. I’m doing this couch-to-5K training system that’s supposed to train you to run a 5K. But I’m so out of shape, I’m winded after like five minutes.”
“Out of shape” was another phrase he would not have used to describe Nora. Her legs weren’t long—she was short enough that nothing about her was long—but he was pretty sure he could span the entirety of one of her thighs with his hands. Theoretically. And he was going to hell, but as she strode up the sidewalk ahead of him, her ass, which was small and round and perfect, bounced.