She'd had pretty eyes and a nice smile. Of course, she had never smiled atme.Sure, she'd given me a fake smile or two, but nothing like the genuine smiles she'd given Lloyd Grampkin, the guy I'd fired on Lexie's final day.
Through the open doorway, I gave both women a perplexed look. For two people who, behind closed doors, had sounded ready to slap each other, they looked friendly enough now – well to each other, anyway.
Judging from the redhead's expression, if anyone got slapped it would be me – a strange guy on their doorstep.
At night.
I gave a silent curse.
This was a mistake.
I should've done this tomorrow during the day.No wonder they were ticked.
I thought of my younger sister. I wouldn't take too kindly to a stranger knocking onherdoor at this time of night.
But in my own case, I wasn't some random guy. I was a neighbor trying to do the right thing. I hitched a thumb over my shoulder and explained, "I live across the street."
The redhead glowered up at me. "We know. We saw you getting your mail."
Huh. That was strange.I suddenly realized that I'd neglected to retrieve today's mail, probably because I'd been distracted by the decorations.
The blonde turned to the redhead and said, "No, you didn't."
"I didn't what?"
"You didn't see him getting his mail. That was Sunday, and you weren't even here."
The redhead asked, "And this matters, why?"
The blonde shrugged. "I'm just saying."
"No. You're trying to distract me."
From what, I had no idea. I spoke up. "Listen, I'm sorry for showing up so late, but I figured you'd want to know. The decorating company – they made a mistake."
The redhead blinked. "What?"
"Yeah." I turned and pointed toward my house. "Those Christmas decorations – they were supposed to go somewhere else."
From somewhere unseen, a new female voice muttered, "I knew it!"
In front of me, both women froze. Neither one of them looked toward the sound.
I listened, but heard nothing more. With a perplexed frown, I asked, "Who was that?"
Nobody answered.
I tried again. "Was she talking tome?"
The blonde reached up to adjust her eyeglasses before asking, "Waswhotalking to you?"
I was still frowning. "I heard a voice."
The redhead said, "No you didn't."
I was fairly certain I did.Even worse, something about that voice made me want to smile. Why, I had no idea.
It was time to get this over with.Quickly I explained that I'd gotten their Christmas decorations by mistake, including the custom sign that had been ordered by Celia Byrd, the owner of this house.
