Letters and Lace (The Ronan's Harbor Series) by M. Kate Quinn Page B

it.”
    “You are, huh? Didn’t I tell you it was too much to take on Hannah’s wedding? Seriously, Sarah you’re your own worst enemy.”
    I can think of a worse one, Captain Viagra. She sighed like a bored southern belle “It’s not your concern.”
    “It most certainly is. Hannah’s my daughter, too.” Even in the dim light she could see the vein in his forehead bulge to the surface like a blue snaking highway on her GPS screen. “I proposed that we have the wedding at my club. It would have been so elegant, but you and your hairbrained ideas…”
    Sarah turned her gaze to the truck’s interior. Piper had unbuckled her seatbelt and knelt on her seat, reaching back to the bolstered child in her seat. Toddler Tina looked pissed at the stuffed toy her mother dangled at her.
    “Your family’s waiting, Gary. You should go.” She turned away from him, determined not to look back.
    “You call me if you get in more hot water, Sarah Doodle.”
    She made like she hadn’t heard the all-too-familiar condescending nickname; wishing, if fact, that she really hadn’t.
    ****
    They shared a bottle of chardonnay in Sarah’s apartment. Sarah pulled a bag of chips from the pantry, plied it open. “Here, help me eat these so I don’t O.D. on them.”
    Gigi reached into the bag and withdrew a cluster of the delicate golden slices. “Anything for you, pal.”
    “So, okay, what happens if there isn’t enough time?” Sarah asked between her crunching mouthfuls. “What am I supposed to do with sixty people on June first?”
    “Well, I’m sure Captain Viagra has a solution.”
    “Yeah, but over my dead body…”
    Sarah buzzed through a sequence of chips like a beaver jawing on a log. “I could try talking to Mrs. Mayor, Gretchen Reynolds, at the Garden Club meeting on Friday. Maybe she can lean on her husband.”
    “It’s worth a try. Maybe you can find out who initiated the complaint and you can approach them and see if they’ll relent.”
    “Well, after thinking about it, I’m not sure if I want to confront somebody crazy enough to slip late-night anonymous notes under my door. It’s just freaky.” She shrugged. “Anyway, how would I find out who it was?”
    “Ask John Reynolds.”
    She snickered. “He’d tell Gary that info before he’d tell me.” She had an idea. “You think it’s on the paperwork they gave me tonight?”
    She didn’t wait for Gigi to respond. Instead she found her purse where she’d flung it on the kitchen chair and fished inside for the folded documents.
    She brought them back to where Gigi sat licking her finger clean of chip salt. Sarah unfolded the papers and turned on a table lamp. She scanned the verbiage.
    “Does it say?” Gigi asked.
    “It’s refers to the complainant.” Her eyes rushed over the text. In a box at the bottom was a hand-written three-line summary of the meeting’s outcome. In essence, it was a polite way of conveying she had to do their bidding or there’d be no improvement to her inn. And no wedding, either.
    She looked further. At the bottom left was John Reynolds’s signature as well as Zoning Officer Nicholas Pallis’s. On the bottom right just below where she’d scratched her name onto the designated line there was one more signature, a name etched above the line marked “Complainant.” Her mouth clamped tight.
    “What?” Gigi said. “Why do you look like that?”
    “The name’s here all right.”
    “Who is it?”
    “Benjamin Benedetto.”
    “Are you kidding me?” Gigi darted over to look at the paper. “Well, holy shit.”
    Sarah’s heart fell in her chest like a rock thrown from a cliff. For the life of her she couldn’t wrap her brain around the emotion. Whatever it was, it was fierce and hurtful.
    “Hey,” Gigi said, starting to pace. “We can use this to our advantage.” She stopped and turned to stare at Sarah. Her eyes were wide with anticipation. “This guy, asshole that he is, probably still has the hots for