AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wait—Reeves! Hold on.”
I whirled around to glare at him, halfway to the bottom of the stairs. He stepped out of his apartment and approached on sock-clad feet, his hands up like he was trying to calm a spooked animal. “It’s…nice. The gesture. Thank you. I’ll have a cookie.”
“Typically when people show appreciation, they don’t do it like it pains them to say the words.”
“I’m not pained. You just surprised me. No one’s ever made me cookies before.” He cleared his throat as his gaze slid away from me, as if he hadn’t meant to admit the last part out loud.
I frowned, then looked down at the chocolate-studded treats. “Fine. Here. Wash the plate before you bring it back. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for the walkthrough.” I thrust the dish at him and turned, not looking back until I was safely locked inside my apartment.
NINE
SEBASTIAN
A peace offering, huh? I stared down at the plate of warm cookies in my hand. The rich scent of melted chocolate made my mouth water, which I resented. Did she think I was so simple-minded that a few treats would win me over?
The ceiling creaked overhead with the sound of Charlie’s footsteps. I picked up one of the homemade sweets and sniffed it again. Did cyanide have a smell? Nah. Charlie Washington Reeves, Esquire may have been a lot of things, but murderer wasn’t one of them. No matter how badly she wanted to save the theater. So I took a bite. A burst of rich buttery goodness excited my tongue. A perfect golden crisp on the outside but soft and chewy in the middle.
“Oh, my god,” I managed with a mouthful, closing my eyes, and savoring the irresistible baked bliss. I moseyed back to my bedroom with the plate in hand. At least I’d have something other than my email to share my bed with tonight. I glanced up at the towel covering our shared hole. It was looking pretty crispy too.
I took another bite and licked my lips. “These cookies are really good,” I called up to my friendly neighborhood shrew.
“Yes, they are,” she said as if the compliment annoyed her. Humility wasn’t her strong suit. How could I judge? It wasn’t mine either.
But if she wanted to try to kiss my ass, all I could do was beat her at her own game. I forced friendliness into my voice. “Nice to see you have a sweet side.” The floor creaked again but she said nothing. “You know, I’m not all bad either.”
That earned me a snort. “Oh, yeah, you’re a real model citizen.”
I chuckled with a mouth full of chewy golden dough. A few crumbs hit the back of my throat, and I coughed. Not wanting to lose a morsel, I swallowed hard, but it only set me on a coughing fit.
“You okay?” Charlie’s face appeared in the hole above my head. Red-faced and watery-eyed, I gave her a thumbs-up as I caught my breath. The concern in her eyes turned flat. “You said no one ever made you cookies, not that you’ve never eaten one.”
There was that crispy outside of hers again. Fully recovered, I sent her a snide smile to match her words. I shouldn’t have said anything at all. “Do you always serve cookies with a side of derision?” I knew Charlie brought me these cookies to butter me up, taking a different approach to get me out of this town since her original tactic was fruitless. But she was really bad at faking nice.
Charlie made a sour face like she had another biting comment locked and loaded, but she swallowed it back. “No. But you have a crumb on your lip.”
Keeping my eyes on hers, I resisted the urge to eat what was left of the cookie and flicked it off instead. They were really freaking good. “Where’d you learn to bake like that?”
“You know, my family,” she said, her gaze shifting to the side.
“Your family must be really proud.”
“And what about you? Your grandmother wasn’t the cookie-making type?”
“You mean Lydia Radcliffe? No, not exactly.” My grandmother had enough money that she didn’t have to lift a finger. She wasn’t the warm, affectionate type. While she never served up a plate of cookies, she made sure to supply me with plenty of books. Not epic adventures or creepy mysteries like most kids read, but nonfiction topics like how to build wealth in real estate and other financial literacy books like Posh Pop Pauper Pop. She was judgmental and exacting, and she liked having things her way. After my mom and I left New Elwood, I thought we were finally free of her controlling influence. Little did I know she’d reach back from beyond the grave and drag me right back.
Charlie rolled her eyes. “That’s right, I forgot. You’re the heir to the town.”
I would be as long as I could manage to live in this shack for the next twenty-eight days. I could deal with four weeks in this shithole, even if Charlie Reeves lived above me the whole time.
With the plate of cookies in hand, I hopped in bed and kicked my feet up, meeting Charlie’s gaze through the hole. “So Charlie, how long have you lived in this apartment?”
“A very long time.”
I took a bite of my third cookie of the night and nodded. “So you’re probably ready for change. Something a little more modern with reinforced flooring.”
“I know what you’re doing, but it’s not going to work. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You sure about that? I noticed your shoes today. They were very stylish. A stylish woman deserves a stylish home, don’t you think?” Why in the world would a woman like Charlie, even a history-loving one, want to live in a place like this, especially after last night?
