Kathryn Springer - The Prince Charming List

I had a swift flashback featuring the motorcycle maniac I’d met the night before. The one looking for Junebug. As soon as Bree had given him directions to Lester Lee’s farm, he’d given her a polite salute and hopped back on his bike. It hadn’t occurred to us that he was the one who’d been commissioned to create a statue for the park. A statue of Lester Lee’s Holstein, Junebug.

I’d heard all about her from Bernice and over Easter break I’d seen the billboard with Junebug and Elise Penny’s picture on it. A month ago, some mysterious benefactor had paid to recover it with a cute advertisement for the local 4-H. I can’t prove anything but I think Alex was the culprit.

“I have no idea where to put him,” Marissa said with a shake of her head. Which sent her curls into motion. She touched them and smiled again. “He showed up about an hour ago. Apparently Denise told him there was a vacant apartment on Main Street this summer that he could rent. Now Denise is gone to a weeklong crafting retreat and I have no idea whose apartment she was talking about.”

As if on cue, something crashed above our heads and plaster dust sprinkled down from the ceiling like bits of confetti. I winced, half-expecting my bathtub to crash through the ceiling and take up residence next to the shampoo sink.

“Is someone in Bernice’s apartment?” Marissa asked.

“It’s my apartment now,” I told her. “But I’m pretty sure Jared Ward thinks it’s his.”

Heather (find out last name) (Addition to Jared Ward’s little black book)

“You’re living in Bernice’s apartment now?” Marissa ignored the sound of the vacuum cleaner that roared to life over our heads while I sent up a silent plea that Snap wasn’t somehow involved in Dex’s latest disaster. No wonder the poor thing hid under the couch when Dex showed up.

“She and Alex offered me the house, but I thought it would be better if I was closer to the salon.” When I was nervous, my words tended to pick up speed and now they were practically rolling over the top of each other. “And it’s so cute, don’t you think? You’d pay a lot of money for an apartment like that in the Cities.”

“Uh-huh.” Marissa looked at me so thoughtfully I wondered if she’d somehow read my journal and discovered Reason Number Three. “That’s the downside to being out of the small-town loop, I suppose. If Denise assumed Bernice’s apartment would be empty, I can see her offering it to Jared. She already offered him the use of my studio.”

I was dying of curiosity here. “Jared is…he’s a student?” Ponytail? Leather jacket? Motorcycle?

Marissa must not have heard the question. “I’ve lived in Prichett for years and successfully avoided holiday open houses, sidewalk sales and the Prichett Advancement Council. I offer to help the committee with one tiny detail—choosing someone qualified to re-create Junebug the Cow in bronze—and what do I get? A homeless art student who was wolfing down the last of my granola when I left.”

But does he drive a motorcycle? That’s what I wanted to know.

“I have Jim Briggs to thank for this,” Marissa grumbled as she gave her curls one last shake and headed for the door. When she pulled it open, she paused and looked up.

“What happened to the bells?”

I sensed that Marissa was the kind of person who valued honesty. So I confessed. “Mrs. Kirkwood.”

Marissa nodded in complete understanding. “Thanks, Heather, for bringing me out of hiding. Now I have to call a certain excavator and find out if he has a guest bedroom.”

Even if I hadn’t heard the ominous sound of the vacuum cleaner upstairs, the sight of Dex’s car parked in the alley behind the salon clued me into the fact that he was still lurking around my apartment.

My feet needed a soothing cucumber rub and a long soak in the bathtub that, by now, should have a faucet. I pushed open the door and my nose immediately twitched in response to the strange smell of Chinese food mixed with…burning rubber?

“Dex?”

I heard Snap’s low, welcoming yowl from her hideout under the couch.

“You’re early.” Dex emerged from the bathroom. His hair was plastered against his head and his clothes were soaking wet. I suddenly remembered there were certain types of vacuum cleaners that sucked up both dirt and water.

“Actually, I’m late. Marissa came in just when I was about to close. It’s almost seven.”

“Seven?”

“What happened to—”

“I have to go.” Dex grabbed his bucket of tools and charged past me, leaving a trail of wet footprints across the floor.

“What do you think, Snap? Should we make a onetime contribution to his mission trip and save the apartment while there’s still time?”

At the sound of my voice, Snap crept out of hiding. I was touched by her loyalty until she rubbed her whiskers lovingly against the corner of the breakfast counter. Did I mention my nose had tricked me into believing that somewhere in the apartment was a container of sweet and sour chicken? Only it wasn’t a trick. There was a note from Dex, signing over custody of the white cardboard carton to me.

“I forgive you, Dex,” I said out loud. I grabbed a fork and shook the chopsticks to the side. They may be the authentic way to eat Chinese, but they weren’t quick enough to suit my stomach—which hadn’t had a deposit since a quick chocolate break mid-afternoon. I tap-danced my way back to the couch to find Snap already waiting there.

No way was I sharing. “I have one word for you. Indigestion. Go eat your kibbles.”

Someone knocked on the door and I figured Dex had decided to come back to confess to whatever handyman crime he’d committed. Or he’d changed his mind and wanted to share my supper. Too late for joint custody, buddy!

“All I know is there better be a faucet…” I have a bad habit of starting to talk to a person before I can actually see their face. Suddenly I was cured. Because the guy leaning casually against the railing wasn’t Dex.

“Heather, right? I’m Jared Ward.”

I’ve never been the kind of person who gets tongue-tied around strangers. Ask my parents, who claim I did my own imitation of stand-up comedy at their dinner parties before I turned three.

Come on, Heather. You could say the words “want cake” when the kids in your weekly playgroup were still blowing spit bubbles. You can do this!

“I thought I’d come by and see the apartment I’m not going to be living in this summer and meet my closest neighbor.” The teasing tone in his voice told me he had a sense of humor. The half step forward was my cue to invite him in.

“We’re neighbors?” A gold star for my advanced communication skills!

“We are now. Marissa is letting me live in the garage behind the studio.” He pointed over his shoulder and I could see his motorcycle parked next to a small concrete building at the end of the alley. He gave me a mischievous wink. “It ain’t much, but it’s home.”

“I just got off work. Things are kind of crazy at the moment.” Snap was probably finishing off my fried rice. And I still didn’t know why Dex had looked like he’d been in a dunk tank.

Jared didn’t take my not-ready-for-visitors hint. Instead, he ran a quick, appraising scan that started at my face and ended at my toes. I felt the heat from the blush that traveled along right behind it.

“You wear it well. Crazy, I mean. Not many people can pull it off.”

He had no idea. It was all in the accessories. And of course having unlimited minutes with God. I was just about to give in to a moment of weakness (that may or may not have had something to do with his eyes—which were as blue as the ocean on a travel brochure) and invite him in, when he gave me an easy smile.