Ari gave a small smile. “I guess it’ll have to be for now, but I want to do more. To help more. Anyway, the reason I stopped was to see if you met the new neighbor. Well, she’s down a bit from the farm and across the street from us, but still close enough in terms of farm life.”
“Oh, the Seasons Nursery and Garden Center?” Colton asked.
Ari nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve heard there was a lot of work going on out there, but I haven’t met the owners yet. Have you?” Jace asked.
“No. I was hoping you all had. I heard there’s a woman with a kid out there a lot. I drove by today and there’s a sign out front that said they are having a grand opening this Friday. Do you all want to go with me to meet the owners?” Ari asked.
Jace and Colton looked at each other and shrugged. “Sure. What time?” They pulled out their phones and looked at their schedules and decided on a time.
“Perfect.” Ari smiled at them and slipped her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “Now I need to go put on a suit jacket and sound stuffy while on this call. Good thing about video calls. They can’t see I’m not wearing shoes. Bye, guys.”
Jace and Colton said their goodbyes and watched Ari walk out with a to-go bag.
“Does she seem off?” Jace asked.
“Has been for months. I think she’s having an identity crisis.” Colton looked like he was going to say more but his second phone rang. He cursed as he set down his sandwich and answered it. “Keeneston Fire.”
Jace listened as his cousin turned into full professional mode. It was strange to think of them as grown up. One minute they’d been pulling childhood pranks on each other, and now they were both responsible adults trying to save lives in their own ways.
“What is it?” Jace asked the second Colton hung up.
“Kid got bit by a snake at the nursery we were just talking about. I guess I get to be the first to meet the new owners.”
“I’ll come with you.” Jace was already running through the anti-venom he had at his office.
“I’m an EMT. I can handle this.”
“I know, but you’d bring her to me anyway since I’m the only one with antivenin.”
“Fine. Get your stuff. We’ll pick you up in three minutes.”
Colton shoved the last bite of sandwich in his mouth and ran out. Jace knew he wasn’t exaggerating. He had three minutes, tops. Jace pulled out his phone as he sprinted toward his practice. “Sarah! Get Molly to pack everything I need for a snakebite. She has two minutes.”
Colton hadn’t lied. It had been under three minutes when the fire truck and ambulance arrived. The fire truck continued on as Jace yanked open the door to the ambulance and hopped in.
“What’s up, Jace?”
Jace held on as Flint drove the large box-shaped ambulance like a sports car.
“You know, just the usual small-town doctor stuff.”
Flint was a good guy. Last week all the guys shaved their heads into military-short cuts, high and tight. Flint’s black hair and deep brown eyes gave him a brooding, sexy look, but the guy was oblivious to his appeal and wanted nothing more than to help people.
“I’ll tell you what. I thought small towns were boring. I’m from Louisville and couldn’t imagine the job here being exciting, but it is. Just in a completely different way. Plus the food is way better. I can’t tell you how many cakes and pies are dropped off every week. You know how firefighters love good food.”
“I’m glad you like it here.”
“And thanks for letting Jack, Conley, and me move into the house on the farm,” Flint said with a smile, even as he practically took a curve on two wheels. “Hey, what was with those panties you left behind? From the gossip around town, you aren’t getting any. But those panties gave a whole other story.”
“What panties?”
“The fire-engine red satin ones that were partially under the bed in the master.” Flint held out his fist for a fist bump. “Nice.”
“The panty dropper,” Jace said under his breath.
“The what?”
“How have you not heard of the panty dropper?”
“I’ve only been here a month, Doc.”
Jace saw they were coming close to the nursery and pulled the stethoscope from his bag and shoved a pair of exam gloves into his pocket. “There’s been this couple or maybe just this guy having sex all over town. The only way we know this is from the panties left behind. We assume the man is so good at causing those panties to drop that the woman forgets to pick them up afterward. Or maybe it’s one woman and it’s like a calling card. We have no idea, but it’s the biggest bet on the Blossom Café betting books.”
“I didn’t see that one yet. I did see the one about you becoming a priest. I don’t think so. I’ve seen you scoping out some of the Belles when you don’t think anyone is looking.”
Great. Now there was a bet on him in the café. Just what he needed. He had been checking out the Belles and was surprised no one but Flint noticed. Although, to be fair, he hadn’t asked a single one out.
The Keeneston Belles were a group of unmarried twenty-something women who wore the guise of a charitable foundation but were really just husband hunters. Once they were married, they moved onto the Keeneston Ladies Group. They basically ran the town behind the scenes. While the Belles were husband hunters, the Ladies were more mature and actually did do a lot of charity work. His mother and all his aunts were even part of it.
Flint turned the ambulance up the gravel drive lined with freshly planted trees and flowers. It looked amazing. Three months ago this was a rundown farm that had sat empty for years. The short drive gave way to a large open area with rows and rows of trees, bushes, and flowers going out in every direction like sunrays. In this case, the sun in the middle was a barn and a parking lot.
Jace saw that Colton was already off the fire truck and rushing toward the barn. Jace lost sight of him as he hurried from the ambulance with Flint. Jack and Conley were the other two in the truck and met Jace as he raced by.
A frantic looking woman who was doing her very best to not look frantic was holding a little girl with blonde pigtails in her arms. The child cried as she buried her face in her mother’s neck. Her arms were practically strangling her mom as her little legs wrapped around her mother’s waist.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here. I told April some very nice men were coming to take a look at her boo-boo.” The mother’s big brown eyes showed relief as Colton and Jace stopped in front of her. Her dirty-blonde hair looked as if the kid had pulled it loose from the rubber band holding it in a ponytail. Everything from the shoes to the cargo pants to the tight T-shirt that showed off a mixture of curves and muscle told Jace the mom actually worked in the nursery, too. As did the dirt on her hands currently clinging to her daughter. Normally, Jace would be all about flirting with a woman like this. She was beautiful in this girl-next-door way that he loved. She even had freckles across the bridge of her nose. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
“April,” Colton said, stepping behind the mother so he could come face to face with the little girl looking over her mother’s shoulder. “I’m Colton and behind you is my cousin. Do you know what makes my cousin special?”