he’d just have to get himself on a plane.
They both laughed lightly at that, because Buck didn’t fly. Ever. The way Gail told it, they were supposed to have flown to Nashville for their honeymoon, but Buck only made it as far as the gate before he froze up and couldn’t go another step. They’d ended up driving to Montreal instead.
The next call was back to Maya, to explain who Kurt was and what was going on.
“Son of a bitch!” Maya cried. “He stood right here at my counter yesterday, wouldn’t leave his name or anything, just ordered those damn tulips and left. I even…Wait a second…Brett was here.”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“Yesterday,” Maya said, her voice getting higher, her words spilling out faster, “while Kurt was here, Brett came in and…yeah…when Kurt left, they sort of gave each other one of those once-over things guys do.”
“Do they know each other?”
“I don’t think so, ’cause Brett asked if I knew him. You should call him.”
“Who?”
“Brett!”
“Yeah, right,” Ellie snorted. “He can’t do anything—that’s why you need to listen to me. I don’t think Kurt’ll do anything to any of you, but please be careful. Make sure your doors are locked, and don’t let him engage you. Just ignore him.”
“I’m not worried about me,” Maya said. “But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine. He’s just trying to intimidate me.” Hopefully, that sounded more convincing to Maya than it did to Ellie.
“How stupid is this guy?” Maya laughed, but it was an angry laugh. “Ellie Palmer doesn’t get intimidated by anyone.”
Yesterday Ellie would have agreed wholeheartedly, but this morning she’d been caught off guard and hit where she was most vulnerable—in a veiled threat against her friends and old Mrs. G.
Between customers, she made the same calls to Regan and Jayne, who both begged her to call Brett. Ellie refused, instead making them both promise to tell her if Kurt went anywhere near them.
The only time Kurt left his spot was to go grab a take-out coffee from the Cactus Café, so on a whim, Ellie called the bylaw officer to ask about loitering. No surprise there; if he wasn’t obstructing anyone, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
Shortly after, as she was showing one of her regulars the new boots that had just arrived, she saw Nick come out of the café with a cup of coffee and head straight across the street toward her store. No, not her store: the bench in front of it. And Kurt didn’t look even a little bit surprised to see him.
A few seconds later, Carter came strolling up and stood beside Nick, completely blocking her view of Kurt. Their body language was neither tense nor threatening; in fact, they both looked pretty relaxed, with Nick periodically sipping his coffee and Carter nodding at whatever was being said.
Next thing she knew, Kurt stood up, gave her a slow salute, with a not-so-amused smile, and walked off.
Nick and Carter stayed where they were for a minute, coming inside only after her customer left.
“You okay?” Nick frowned. “Did you call the cops?”
“Thanks, I’m fine. I called Bylaw and they said he wasn’t doing anything wrong. What did Kurt say to you?”
“Nothing really—just that he was enjoying the weather.”
Carter headed straight for the lingerie.
“Guy seems like a prick,” he said, lifting a pink sheer babydoll from one of the racks. “D’you have this in black?”
“Are you shittin’ us right now?” Nick asked.
“What? I can’t buy Red a little something while we’re here?”
“You sure it’s for Regan?” Chuckling, Ellie twirled the rack clockwise and lifted the sheer black nightie off its hanger. “Or yourself?”
Carter’s mouth lifted in a half-smile. “She’ll be the one wearing it.”
“Yeah,” Nick snorted. “For about two seconds.”
After ringing it up, Ellie wrapped the scrap of fabric in a piece of tissue, then slipped it in a bag.
“I appreciate you guys coming down here,” she said. “But you didn’t have to. This is what he did the last time, and there was nothing the cops or Bylaw could do then, either.”
“Maybe not.” Carter shrugged. “Still, if he messes with you, he messes with us.”
Nick agreed. “The guy’s got a record, Ellie, so even if the cops can’t do anything about him sitting out there, they might appreciate a heads-up that he’s in town.”
Ellie smiled but didn’t say anything.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Really.”
By the look they gave each other, neither one of them believed her for a second.
“What time you done here?” Carter asked. “Six?”
“Usually, yeah.”
“Good—come