“He’s probably sending your emails to his spam folder because you won’t leave him alone long enough to do his job,” Josh said, and Mitch was about five seconds from shoving his brother off the end of the bench, cast or no cast. Instead he ignored him. “Paige looks hot as hell today.”
Mitch looked up, half-written text message forgotten, and scanned the area. It didn’t take him long to find her. In that red dress she looked like one of those women from that story he’d hated in English class—the women who lured men to their doom.
She was sitting on the base of the library statue with Hailey and they were laughing. Hailey was an attractive woman, but there was something about Paige that drew his eye and held it.
“Doesn’t she?” Josh said twice, and Mitch realized he was talking to him.
“What?”
“Doesn’t she look hot?”
“Yeah.” She did, and before the day was over, he intended to tell her that himself.
The crowd stirred with excitement as the police department’s new SUV came into sight at the end of the street, blue lights flashing. Drew hit the siren and let it wail for a few seconds, signaling the beginning of the parade.
Mitch figured they had a few minutes before it got to them, so he bent his head over his phone to finish the text to Scott. The growling sound and flash of movement in his peripheral vision gave him just enough warning to evade Josh’s grab for the phone. “What the hell?”
“Put the damn phone away or I’ll throw it in front of the fire truck.”
“You touch my phone and I’ll throw you in front of the fire truck.” Since he was done anyway, he tucked it into the cargo pocket of his shorts. “A quick text isn’t going to ruin the day.”
“But he’ll text you back and then you’ll have to respond and then you’ll check your email and next thing you know, you’re wandering around looking for a quiet spot to make phone calls.”
Mitch snorted because he had to wait for the ambulance horn to stop sounding before he could speak. “I couldn’t make a phone call right now if my business depended on it.”
Hopefully, it didn’t. There was a lot on Northern Star Demolition’s plate, but he had to trust the people he’d hired to do their jobs. This trip home to make sure Josh didn’t injure himself worse by doing too much was supposed to be doubling as his first vacation, but he wasn’t very good at it.
But work matters got slowly pushed to the back of his mind as the town’s rescue vehicles went by, followed by the Little League teams riding on floats advertising their sponsors. Butch Benoit’s wrecker was decked out in twinkling lights, though it was the candy Fran was tossing to the crowd that made the kids shout and wave. There were a bunch of little girls from dance class twirling in fluffy skirts, and a line of antique tractors.
And a pretty blonde in a red sundress he caught watching him a few times. She’d look away if he caught her eye, but her gaze was there to be caught too many times to be incidental. Even Burt Franks’ blue-ribbon-winning pulling horses couldn’t steal his attention away from Paige for more than a few seconds.
“Poor Burt,” Josh muttered.
“What’s the matter with Burt?”
“He’s so proud of those Percheron and nobody’s paying any attention to them. Everybody’s watching you watch Paige look like she’s trying not to watch you.”
Mitch glanced around and, sure enough, a whole lot of people jerked their eyes back to the horses. Whatever. He was used to these people being way too interested in what he was doing.
When the fire department’s big ladder truck went by, signaling the parade was over and people were free to pour into the street, Mitch kept track of the red sundress as the women walked down the hill and into the crowd. Paige looked like a woman on a mission, and he had to walk fast to set an intercept course.
“Don’t mind me,” he heard Josh shout from somewhere behind him. “I’ll just hobble along and hope nobody kicks my crutches out from under me.”
Just a few more milling-around people to dodge and Mitch was able to put himself in Paige’s path. She stopped short when she saw him. “Hi, Mitch. Enjoy the parade?”
“Not as much as I’m enjoying that dress. You look like every woman in a country song.”
She tilted her head, lips curving into a smile. “So I took your dog and your truck and left you crying in your beer?”
“Not that kind of country song. More along the lines of taking you for a ride on my tractor down to the creek for a little dip.”
“Do you have a tractor?”
He had to think about that for a few seconds, but it was the creek he wasn’t sure about. He’d dig a trench and fill it with the garden hose if that’s what it took. “The lodge does and I think it even runs. Wanna go for a ride later?”
Despite the blush creeping up out of the neckline of the sundress, her smile was annoyingly polite. “I think I’ll pass. And I’m going to get some fried dough, so I’ll see you around.”