Let It Be (Butler, Vermont #6) - Marie Force Page 0,78

done after this week, right?” Elmer asked.

“Yes, sir. My temp replacement is due to start later this week so I can show her the ropes.”

“No one can replace you,” Elmer said.

“Aw, thanks. I’ll be around, and I’m sure I’ll be here every day with the baby. I won’t know what to do with myself.”

“Megan,” Butch called from the kitchen. “Order up.”

“Duty calls.”

The door jingled, and Linc’s nephew Grayson Coleman came in, smiling when he saw them.

After Grayson hung his coat on a hook by the door, Elmer moved over to make room for his grandson.

“What’re you two up to?” Gray asked. “Solving the world’s problems as usual?”

“Mostly still recovering from too much Christmas,” Elmer said.

“That was a throwdown and a half,” Gray said. “Thanks for including us and the rest of the Colemans.”

“Of course we included you,” Linc said. “And I hear there’s more partying in store on New Year’s Day at your mother’s.”

“That’s right. All the Colemans will be there, or so I’m told.”

“Did you ever hear from Noah the other day?”

“Nope, he was a no-show for Christmas and wasn’t answering his phone. I went by his place, and his truck was gone, but I saw it at the inn this morning. Wherever he went, he’s back to work today.”

“Our international man of mystery,” Elmer said.

Megan brought Grayson a mug that she filled after setting it on the table. “Breakfast?”

“Yes, please,” Gray said. “I’ll have the usual.”

“Coming right up.”

“How does she remember everyone’s ‘usual’?” Gray asked.

“It’s her special gift.”

“So I did hear one thing about Noah that you might find interesting,” Gray said.

“What’s that?” Elmer asked.

“One of the guys who works for him is a high school classmate of mine. I ran into him at the grocery store two days before Christmas. He told me that Noah and the architect that Mrs. Hendricks hired to redesign the inn have been locking horns big-time. Like full-on screaming matches right in front of everyone.”

“Is that right?”

“Yep, and… The architect is a woman named Brianna, and according to my friend, she’s, as he said, ‘a smoke show.’”

“Translation, please,” Elmer said.

“She’s hot.”

One of Elmer’s white eyebrows lifted toward his hairline. “Is that right.”

“That’s what he said.”

“Well, it might be time to stop over at the inn and ask my grandson to give me a tour of the progress.”

“I’d be happy to help you with that,” Linc said.

“Figured you might, but if this turns into something, it goes in my column.”

“Have you two stopped bothering to try to hide the fact that you’re minding everyone else’s business?” Grayson asked.

Elmer gave him a blank look. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Grayson lost it laughing. “Whatever you say, Gramps.”

Watch for Noah Coleman’s story, COME TOGETHER, out on July 13, 2021!

Three years after his marriage ended in dramatic fashion, Noah Coleman has one goal—to steer clear of romantic entanglements. In fact, he steers clear of most human interaction, studiously avoiding his large, meddling extended family, working until he’s exhausted and then repeating the pattern day after day. His strategy has worked well for him for years, keeping him sealed off from anything that can cause him pain or angst. Or it was working for him... before his company was hired to rebuild the Admiral Butler Inn after a fire reduced it to rubble, and he was forced to co-exist with the exasperatingly difficult, gorgeous architect the inn’s owner, Mrs. Hendricks, hired to oversee the project.

Brianna Esposito is determined to complete the Butler Inn construction under budget and on time—and to make partner in the Boston firm where she’s been working fourteen hours a day for five years. Finally, she has a chance to oversee an entire project from start to finish, and to show the firm’s leadership that she belongs among their ranks. Nothing is going to stop her from achieving her goal, especially a cranky contractor with the people skills of a rabid cougar. Noah Coleman is the most exasperating human being she’s ever had the misfortune to tangle with. She’s never had screaming fights with anyone the way she does him, and the fact that he’s also the sexiest man she’s ever met makes it that much more difficult to hold her ground.

So how is it that when a snowstorm strands her in Butler for Christmas, she ends up spending the holiday with the man she wants to stab one minute and kiss the next? And will he ever tell her why he’s so bitter and angry? Brianna suspects the answer to that