Page 83 of The Hermit on the Hill

"It'll just be half an hour, max."

Fluffy had his litter box, toys, water, and plenty of food in there, but I still felt like I was abandoning him to a cruel punishment.

I pulled on my boots by the front door and stomped out of the house. I didn't even lock the front door. Nana had been unlocking it and leaving it open like she was inviting in townsfolk to murder me in my sleep.

I started my truck and glitter flew from the vents on high blast and covered me from head to toe.

"Fucking assholes," I muttered. How the hell had I missed them setting that bomb?

Shaking my head, I knocked some of the glitter out of my hair and scrubbed a hand over my face, before I drove away from my home toward the town of assholes I couldn't wait to leave in my rearview.

Marcus stood on the front porch of the rental house. It was currently between renters, but Marcus had been indefatigable about checking each property and making sure it was in top condition before I left. No matter how many times I told him to just hire someone to fix any problems that came up, he refused to risk hurting our bottom line or bugging me a day or a week or a month after I'd left.

He wanted to wait at least two months to do that.

Like I was an invalid or a child, he thought I needed a clean break to get my head right.

"Let's see these pipes." I stepped up onto the porch.

Marcus grinned. "You look like a bedazzled homeless person."

"It's been a morning. And I got pranked by the Reynolds' brothers. Again."

Marcus grimaced. "Unfortunately, your day's about to get a whole lot worse. I'm sorry, but your sister can be scary when she wants to be."

"What the hell—"

The front door swung open, and Brittany bounced onto the porch. She looked me up and down and scowled. "What the hell happened to you?"

"What are you doing here?"

She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door, but I didn't budge.

"Come on, Sam. I just want to show you something."

"I'm not moving until you tell me what the hell is going—"

Something hit me at knee level and then someone grabbed my shoulders and held on while George Gregory hefted my legs. Whoever was at my shoulders and George carried me like I was a two by four.

"What the—"

"Now, now," a masculine voice said below me. "Watch the language. There are ladies present."

They carried me through the front door and into the house while I called them all kinds of names and demanded they put me down.

When they put me down, I found myself face-to-face with a grinning Cody and George.

"The glitter bomb looks great on you," George said.

I sneered. Then the men stepped aside to reveal I was in the center of a circle of people, all of them seated in folding chairs, in the living room of my rental house.

I recognized every member of Jenna's family and several people I'd seen around town, but most of the people were strangers to me.

George shoved my shoulders, and I fell back onto a folding chair of my own. I would have toppled over, but something stopped me. I looked up to see Noah Reynolds standing behind me, keeping my chair in place.

"What the he—" I stopped myself because seventy-five percent of the people in that room were elderly women. "Heck is going on?"

"This, brother dear, is an intervention," Brittany said. "Since this was Nora's idea, though, I'll let her take the lead."

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