Sweet Heart (The Hearts of Sawyers Bend #2) - Ivy Layne Page 0,3

leaned in and unstrapped his phone from his arm. I definitely did not notice the bunch of his bicep under my fingers. Not at all.

“Would you pull up West in the contacts and give him a call, tell him we need him over here?”

I angled the phone at Royal’s face to unlock the screen and found West in the list of favorites. Weston Garfield was the police chief of Sawyers Bend and apparently a friend of Royal’s. With a few words, he was on his way.

“Do you want me to call Tenn?”

“If you don’t mind,” he drawled. The comment could have been sarcastic or impatient, but the smile curving his lips told me it was neither. How could he be smiling when he had sweatshirt guy pinned on the ground and that box a few feet away?

The box. Tenn answered, and I filled him in as I crossed the grass to the box, still laying where he’d dropped it, mostly on its side. As I’d hoped, a few cockroaches still scrabbled at the bottom. Gingerly, I nudged it upright to keep them inside.

I moved to hand Royal back his phone, then shoved it in my pocket when he shook his head.

“Hang on to that for now, would you? Do you have a few minutes before you have to get back to the bakery? West is going to want to take your statement.”

“I’m good for now. I just have to find my phone and text Grams. J.T. is working today, so he can help her out.” The guy who’d hit me was lying motionless under Royal, his chest jerking as he sucked in breath. “Why would he want to dump cockroaches into your air vent? Is he trying to get you shut down?”

“That’s a good question,” Royal said conversationally. “I’m sure we’re going to have all sorts of questions for this guy. I’d like to know if this is the first time he’s tried something like this. And if it was his idea or if he’s working for someone else. But West is going to have plenty of time to ask while he’s rotting in jail.”

“Fuck you,” came from the face shoved in the grass.

“Creative. I expected better from someone who was about to dump roaches into the HVAC.”

Tennessee Sawyer came around the corner of the building, almost a carbon copy of his brother, except Royal’s hair was more of an auburn brown and Tenn’s was pure espresso. Tenn had the same build as Royal, the same perfect Sawyer bone structure, but he’d never done it for me the way Royal did.

Then again, Hutchins women were always a sucker for a charming smile. It was our downfall, generations deep. Royal’s was so full of charm it was lethal. Tenn had a nice smile too, but he was straightforward. Serious. Royal had the kind of grin that had a girl out of her panties before she could think twice.

“What the hell is going on?” Tenn demanded, his brow furrowed with concern. “Daisy, are you okay? Hope said you’d bring some samples by, but it’s barely dawn.”

I gave an embarrassed shrug. “I’m up early to start the baking. I knew the kitchens would be open and I wanted to have the basket delivered before you both got to the office—”

All of a sudden, I remembered the basket of cookies and brownies I’d baked early that morning and had painstakingly wrapped in the ribboned packaging I’d decided on for The Inn, now scattered all over the side lawn along with my phone.

Before I called Grams to seriously underplay the reason for my delay, I had to find my phone.

I stood and looked around, catching sight of my basket by the corner of the building, upside down on the grass, the light catching the cellophane-wrapped treats that had spilled everywhere. Dammit.

I tried not to think about my tired fingers tying all those ribbons into bows only hours before. I was supposed to make a good impression. To wow them with my delicious treats presented so temptingly in their pretty basket with ribbons that matched The Inn's logo.

Instead, everything was scattered all over the grass. The brownies had probably held up, but the cookies would be a crumpled mess.

“One second,” I said to Royal and Tenn. “I dropped everything when he ran into me. I have to find my phone.”

I went to my knees in the wet grass, turning the basket upright and filling it with as many packages of cookies and brownies as I could