Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) by Debra Trueman

looking her up and down and
motioning to her outfit.
    “Working on funding for the shelter.  Have you missed me?”
    “Honestly?  No.”
    “You’re such a liar.  I can tell by the smile on your face that
you’re glad to see me.”
    “You didn’t ask if I was glad to see you.  You asked if I
missed you.”
    “Yeah, but you missed me and you’re glad to see me.”
    “Don’t you have some place you need to be?”  I started off
towards my mailbox and Landra followed beside me.
    “Yeah, but I’ve got a couple of minutes.  Are we still on for
tomorrow?”
    I acted like I had no idea what she was talking about.  “What
do you mean?  What’s tomorrow?”
    She took my arm and pulled me to a stop.  “The party!  It’s
tomorrow night.  You said you’d take me!”
    I let a couple of seconds tick off like I was trying to
remember, then I started laughing.  “Gotcha!”
    She slugged me in the chest.  “Jerk.  What are you doing home
so early, anyway?”
    “I didn’t feel like working.  What time should I pick you up
tomorrow?”
    “How about 7:00 o’clock?”
    “Seven it is.  I’m looking forward to it,” I told her.
    Landra’s face lit up.  “You are?”
    I held my fingers about a millimeter apart.  “Just a little.”
    She laughed and I really wanted to kiss her again – and I
didn’t want to wait until our date.
    “Me too,” she said.  She took my hand and squeezed it, then she
leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.  “I’ve got to go.  I’ll see you
tomorrow.”
    I pulled her back to me and hooked my arm around her neck and
kissed her again, and it turned into what I’ve come to refer to as the mailbox
kiss .  It was slow and intense, with neither of us making any effort to
bring it to a conclusion.  We were right out there by the street and Landra had
her arms wrapped around my waist and her body was pressed up right against
mine.  I was totally engrossed in the kiss, unaware of anything going on around
us.
    Well, I guess she leaned against me a little too hard, and
somehow I lost my balance.  We fell back against the mailbox, and the damn
thing came completely off its post and crashed into the street.  The sound of
the metal box hitting the asphalt was deafening, alerting the neighborhood that
something was going down.  I fell and landed on my butt in the grass and Landra
landed on top of me, and within seconds, neighbors came running like ants from
every direction.
    I was laughing so hard I could barely talk.  “Are you okay?” I
asked Landra.
    “Yeah, are you?”
    “I’m fine.  Damn you’re heavy!”  She was still lying on top of
me, laughing and making no effort to get off.
    “I am not!” she said insulted.  She rolled off and sat in the
grass, and I sat up and started picking leaves and grass out of her hair.  We
were both still laughing when Mrs. Howard arrived with a worried expression on
her face, followed shortly thereafter by Andy and Verna, and two neighbors I’d
never met.  I wondered how much of the show they’d caught.
    “Are you two okay?” Andy called out.
    “We’re fine,” I said, getting to my feet and helping Landra
up.  If she was embarrassed, she didn’t show it. 
    “Hi Andy, Verna,” Landra called out.  I dusted her off in a
couple of spots and picked some more leaves out of her hair.  If the neighbors
hadn’t been there, I would have picked up right where we’d left off.
    “Did you see how she was all over me?” I asked the group.
    Landra’s eyes got real big and she opened her mouth like she
was going to say something, but she slugged me instead.  The neighbors were all
smiles.  They were obviously happy about the prospect of a romance between the
neighborhood darling and the new neighbor.
    I picked the mailbox up out of the street and held it upside
down, looking for the bolt that held it to the post, but it wasn’t there.  I
was looking on the ground close to where the mailbox had landed, when