Page 94 of The Holiday Grump
“We must’ve been too close to the window!” Noelle covered her face.
“Where did you do it? Against the door?” Felicity squeaked.
“Against the window?” Jackson grinned.
“No! On the armchair!” Noelle yelped, then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Somebody shut me up!”
“Oh, my God! The slot machine!” Felicity stared at her, equally shocked and entertained.
I narrowed my eyes at Ralph. “It was dark. The bookshelf blocks the window. You didn’t see anything.”
His smirk grew. “Didn’t have to. I saw your car parked outside. Thought you were working late. Then Kailee said Noelle’s been living there, so I put two and two together.”
“No, you didn’t!” Felicity shot back. “You got it out of her at crochet club. But you still played it pretty well.” She turned to Noelle. “Since now everybody knows about your… armchair activities.”
Ralph’s grin spread even wider, like he’d just realized his leverage. “Exactly. What’s to stop me from dropping a little anonymous tip to Lady Lovewatch? Signed, Larry theLobstah.”
I stared at him. The fool didn’t understand what “anonymous” meant but had still managed to play us. I wanted to grab him by the foam tail and toss him into the harbor, but I caught Noelle’s panicked look. I couldn’t blow our cover.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said. “She can go out with whoever she wants.”
Why wasn’t she my girlfriend?
Noelle forced a grin. “That’s right. Nothing going on here. No stories forThe Almanac. But I promised the lobster one drink, so…” She gestured toward the bar.
“Good thing it’s not a private venue,” I muttered. “I’m suddenly in the mood for chowder.”
Ralph looked horrified. “He’s not coming with us.”
“No, he’s not,” Noelle confirmed quickly.
But I followed anyway.
“Way to look totally sane and not at all like a jealous boyfriend,” Jackson murmured behind me.
“I want chowder,” I insisted. “I’m not joining them at the bar.”
“In that case, I’ll sit with you,” he said, still eyeing me like I was unstable.
“Keep him twenty feet away,” Ralph ordered Jackson.
When we reached the bar, I realized that Felicity and Kailee had also tagged along.
“What?” Felicity snapped when I looked at her. “The whole town’s going to be watching. I want a front row seat.”
Noelle sighed, opening the door for Ralph, who was struggling to wedge his claws through the handle. “I guess we’re all going in, then.”
CHAPTER 30
Noelle
Ihad a feeling Ralph struggled with units of distance because I wanted my current lover at least twentymilesaway from any date I was on. Even if it was a fake date.
Aside from being fake, this was also the most public date I’d ever been on. I’d noticed several people taking photos on their cell phones, and one casually walking by holding a Polaroid camera. Fredrik had taken his usual corner table, a good fifty feet from us, but I could feel his eyes on me.
Why was he making this so difficult?
I sipped my mulled wine, nodding at Ralph’s long-winded story of how he might make a good private detective and why he might consider this as a future career path.
