Page 1 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
Chapter One
“Twatwaffle!”
“Tree hugger!”
“Jack off!”
“Grow up, Avery!” came a heated return response, followed by mocking laughter.
“Grow this!” she yelled back to the slam of the flimsy trailer door.
“Aw, c’mon, Avery! I don’t see how being a potty mouth is going to help us here. I mean, we want to be civilized, don’t we? Who’s going to take us seriously if we resort to name calling? It’s petty and kinda kindergarten.”
Avery Palmer gave Hector Adams a pointed look before she hung her head, rubbing her temples. “You’re right, Hector. That was childish of me.”
But she decided every once in a while, it was okay to let your inner child escape.
To prove it, she threw a pine cone at Lassiter Adams’ trailer window with fastball speed. “You hear me, you needle dick? You’re a condo loving, landfill snarfing, brick laying jerk!”
The door to the trailer remained infuriatingly closed.
Palmer versus Adams, round one bazillion and two was officially over.
For the moment.
Avery Palmer, environmental groupie, defender of all creatures great and small, had engaged in this argument with Lassiter Adams for three months now—ever since he’d parked his stupid construction trailer/bachelor pad on Adams land and declared it his.
Every bloody day for three months.
He’d staked his claim while Max Adams’ cousin, Julia Lawrence was out on a moonlit run with her fiancé, Xavier Wolf. Just showed up out of the blue with his backhoes and steamrolled his way right over her.
She giggled when she remembered Julia’s description of him. She’d called him a pasty fuck boy. Hot, but pale, and arrogant AF, which described Lassiter to a T.
Avery blew an escaping strand of hair from her ponytail out of her face. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and frustration as she stood, looking at Lassiter’s trailer door.
He peeked out the small window along the right side of his temporary quarters and waved to Avery with a smug smile, further infuriating her.
“Arghhh! He makes me insane! I just can’t figure him, Hector, you know? He’s been here for three months, digging stuff up, and not a single apartment complex to show for it. You’d think he’d want to get moving. Yet, he does the same thing day after day. Dig holes and cover them back up. He’s like a dog looking for a bone who can’t remember where it’s buried.”
Hector smiled at Avery, snickering while petting his beloved rabbit with a gentle hand. “Well, that dog is fond of your butt.”
She snorted. Lassiter Adams wasn’t fond of anything but money. The money building an apartment complex in the middle of nowhere would bring him. Young city dwellers looking for a bit of suburbia would swarm here for a taste of town and country.
Thus, killing the animals Avery fought so hard to protect. Which was why Hector had asked her to come and help him save Cedar Glen from disaster.
Defeated for today, she began the long walk back to the Adams house with Hector close behind.
Once more, for posterity, she shrieked into the now bulldozed clearing, “Animal killer!” Her vicious accusation echoed through the open space.
Hector clucked his tongue at her with reproach. “Avery, I really don’t think this has gotten us anywhere so far. Maybe you should try being nice to him? He doesn’t hate animals. He has a parakeet. You saw him talking to it through the window when we spied on him. So he must not hate all animals.”
Avery’s eyes flashed at Hector, making him cringe ever so slightly. “If he didn’t hate them, he wouldn’t want to build stupid condos on their homes. If we don’t stay tough, Hector, we’re going to lose the fight.”
His snort was all Avery needed, but he went ahead and said the words out loud anyway. “I don’t wanna be the bearer of bad news, but we are losing the fight, A.”
Turning on him, she threw her hands up in the air. “And so what? You want to just give up?”
“No.” He shook his dark head vehemently. “I never want to give up, but how can we fight the back taxes owed on acreage this size, Avery? Max didn’t know about them and he couldn’t come up with the money to pay it, so the town took what they were offered from Lassiter before Julia even had time to make an offer. He beat her to the punch with cold, hard cash.”
