Page 2 of Grumpy Spring Sunshine
“I have a great family. I just don’t like new people. I like my town just the way it is, and I don’t think that a ton of people need to keep moving here.”
She wrinkled her brows slightly and it felt nice to throw her for a loop. It also felt nice to see that smile fade slightly. She was far too bubbly and happy for my good.
“You really think that don’t you? That more people coming, falling in love with this place, wanting to stay here, is a bad thing. You don’t see it as more money coming your way or more money for the city. It’s just bad.”
“I don’t do well with people.”
“Right,” she said, crossing her arms before nodding at her dogs. “They don’t like strangers. Certainly, don’t like men. Yet they ran back to you, anxious for a new friend. I wonder why that is?” She stepped a little closer, invading my space in a way I didn’t like, but didn’t stop, something I couldn’t understand about myself. “Maybe, Keith, because you’re not the grump you think you are, or like you want people to believe?”
I glanced at her dogs who were looking at me, tongues hanging out of their mouths, almost as if they were smiling, waiting for me to play some game with them. But I didn’t do that either.
Okay, that was a lie. I loved dogs and loved playing with my cousin’s. But I wasn’t about to tell her that because it would only give her a big head.
“You think you have me figured out?”
“Oh, no Keith, no one could do that because you don’t let anyone do that. Well, besides your family.” She glanced at her watch and then swiped her hand over her face. “This has been fun, but I have to get ready for work. Have a good day, Keith, and maybe we’ll run into each other again.”
She jogged back the way she came, whistling at her dogs to come. They paused, looking at me for just a second longer before they turned and followed her.
I let out a whoosh of air, feeling like I had just run a marathon.
I wasn’t sure if I could add it up to the fact that I was talking to her, that she had gotten a little too close with some of the things she had said, or if just being around her was making me feel things I normally didn’t.
Whatever the case, I knew I didn’t like it and I didn’t want a repeat. So, I was going to have to avoid her at all costs.
Which wouldn’t be hard given that I avoid everyone really. I didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t really look at anyone. And even when people sat in my chair, I was the king of small talk, nothing too personal. Even if the client shared, mum was usually my policy.
I glanced back down the way she came before turning around and heading back to my place. I needed a shower before I got ready for work because I had a packed day, just the way I like it.
Chapter 2
Brittani
Ipulled my hair up in a ponytail then fixed my postal shirt. It had already been a morning and running into Keith threw it for a loop that I wasn’t expecting.
It wasn’t even his cold personality that got to me, because I didn’t see him as cold. A grump, sure, but cold, nope. That wasn’t quite the case.
There was more underneath that skin of his that he kept hidden, and I had to respect him for that.
Sure, I moved to this town about six months ago and fell in love with it. The trees always called to me, so if I wasn’t working, I was out in nature. Going on walks or runs with my dogs. Have solo picnics. Take in trails alone.
It doesn’t really matter what I’m doing, as long as I get to enjoy all this beauty, even in the heart of winter, I’m happy.
And now that spring is rolling in, I certainly stop more often to smell the flowers.
See, what a lot of people don’t get about me is that I’ve done the fast pace of cities, the hustle and bustle, and I hated it. I felt like my soul was dying in places like that.
Yet here, I can feel it come back alive. Feel it thrive in a way it hadn’t before.
And I want more of that.
So, Keith, the town grump, can certainly keep his aloof manner, didn’t bother me. And he might not wish for new people in town, but I sure wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, if the amount of mail I sort in a day, and deliver, is any indication, we’re getting more people all the time, and he’s just going to have to suck it up.
“Chance, Bubbles, behave,” I told them, patting their heads as I leave, knowing that they’ll be laying down for the next four hours, because that’s just what they did.
I slung my purse over my shoulder and walked down the pathway of my little house and onto the main road, heading toward the post office.
I paused for just a second as I saw Kylie and Nick outside a bookstore, their body language telling me they were fighting yet again. Which, I found funny because as best friends, it would just be better for them to screw each other and get it over with, given how close they were.
