The Christmas Scoop by Mimi Wells

Author:Mimi Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
Publisher: The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2019-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

After Ivy dropped Rand off at the Cooper House and drove away later that day, she realized she missed being cocooned in the car with him. Something about his solid frame leaned back in the seat next to her felt right. She’d caught him looking over at her a few times, his earnest blue-green gaze the opposite of nearly every man she’d met in New York lately, and that felt right, too.

But then he’d hopped out of the car and headed inside the inn without a backward glance, like their previous six hours of plotting and strategizing hadn’t even happened. That didn’t set right with her. At. All. She wasn’t sure what bothered her more, not finding Julian after all that work or realizing that she cared what Rand might be thinking about her. It made her cranky.

Now the stars were out and here she was, back in a car but with Laurel this time. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Ivy groused.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about Julian Wolf, but we all have our issues.” Laurel hummed as they headed down the road toward town.

Issues is right, Ivy thought darkly.

“It’ll be fun,” Laurel assured her. “New York doesn’t have the market cornered on things to do.”

“It does as far as this is concerned,” Ivy grumbled, propping her elbow against the door of Laurel’s old Chevy two-door. “New York is glamorous. Interesting. It has hole-in-the-wall clubs, amazing food from all over the world, and culture.”

“Handcrafts are a mark of culture. Plus, they’re a thing these days. Don’t you ever go on Etsy?”

“To buy things, yes. To make and sell them? Nope.”

“It won’t kill you,” Laurel said pertly. “And you did promise.” She pulled the car up at a red light.

Ivy glared out the windshield at the Cooper House Inn looming at the top of the hill. She wished she hadn’t confessed everything to Laurel earlier—her story, bumping into Rand, his promise to help her investigate.

Laurel’s response was both predictable and over the top. Rand, so helpful. Rand, how kind. Rand, Rand, Rand.

Barf.

She was overreacting, but honestly, the idea of Rand Cooper was working her nerves. She wasn’t ready to admit the familiar thorn in her side was becoming more like an unsettling itch under her skin. She could deal with Rand as a rival. Rand as something else was, well, something else.

“Earth to Ivy,” Laurel teased as she swung her little car in a U-turn and parked. “We’re here.”

Ivy sighed. She got out of the car but avoided looking over at the Cooper House. All she needed now was for Laurel to start up again.

The windows of Stitch and Thyme glowed in the early evening dimness, casting yellow oblongs of light on the sidewalk. The shop was an interesting blend, with gourmet cookware, kitchen staples, and quirky food-related gifts on one side, brimming bins and shelves of yarn, fabric, and needlework supplies on the other. It was a perfect reflection of the shop’s owners, BeBe Vogel and Daphne Broussard.

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