The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)(82)

But Chloe had abandoned her. Ran off and got married. And moved to Denmark. Denmark! Of all places. And what was one supposed to do when their soulmate, their other half, finds a new other half?

Well, apparently they absorb too much homesteading social media content, decide they can totally do that, use their trust fund money to buy a farm, and essentially, ruin their lives. Okay, so maybe this specific plan was a little bit of a whim…

But here she was. Miserable and alone. And really freaking cold.

Kira wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. This was ridiculous. She had to do something or that image of herself, frozen to death in her bed, was about to become reality. She shoved another cookie in her mouth for strength, grabbed her phone, wrapped her blanket around her more securely, and headed for the back door. She slid on her new boots and stepped outside. It might have been warmer outside than it had been in her house. The sun, however weak this late in November, definitely helped.

If she was going to survive this, she was going to have to get used to these northern winters. It hadn’t even snowed yet and she already felt wildly unprepared. The temperature in Georgia rarely dropped below 50 degrees and certainly not in the middle of the afternoon. Today couldn’t be warmer than 30.

She was so screwed.

No tears. Not right now. Not until later when she was huddled under her blankets in bed instead of out here in the backyard where any roaming resident of Dream Harbor could pop up like some kind of jack-in-the-box nightmare of glad tidings.

She held up her phone and started wandering through the rows of trees just past her tiny yard. Surely, if she walked far enough she’d get some kind of signal. She could probably go into town and work at the library or that café everyone seemed to love, but that would require being out in public which she did not feel up to in her current state of mental breakdown. So…wandering the fields in her flannel pajama bottoms, ratty old sweaters, and down comforter it had to be.

The trees stretched in tidy rows ahead of her ranging in height from her waist to at least a foot or two above her head. Luckily, the trees had just continued being trees even without an owner for the past few years. They could use some trimming and shaping, but overall, her crop was in good condition. It was the barn that was nearly falling down and the house that required significant work.

But first, money.

And before money, employees, and a real live business. Something Kira had never done nor aspired to do in her entire life. Her nose burned, and tears pricked behind her eyes.

But she didn’t have time to cry. Not before a giant black blur raced across her path with two smaller blurs at its heels.

Kira shrieked.

The dogs barked.

The man following them skidded to a stop.

'Elizabeth, come.' His voice was stern and harsh and the biggest dog loped happily to his side. 'Good girl.' He patted her head.

'Odie, Pudgy, come.' He tried to get the other two dogs’ attention with the same stern tone, but it was far too late for that. Kira was already squatting to pet the two little wiggly bodies at her feet.

'Look at you, sweet babies,' she crooned. 'Little angels.' The smallest dog, some sort of Westie mix with wiry white hair, pushed its cold snout into her palm, huffing in excitement. The other one, who must have been at least a hundred years old in dog years, waited patiently for scratches between its floppy ears, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.

'What good doggies you are, so sweet,' Kira went on, petting and scratching and so generally delighted to have such precious babies on her property that she’d nearly forgotten the man until he was towering over her.

'Uh, sorry about that,' he said. 'I didn’t realize…I mean, I thought this place was abandoned. Otherwise, I would have had the dogs on their leashes.'

'It’s okay,' Kira said, still crouched low, but now paying proper attention to Elizabeth who was starting to whine at not being part of the love fest happening with the other dogs. 'Look at you! What a beautiful girl you are,' Kira told her and it seemed the larger dog smiled at her. Kira smiled back, for the first time in days. It was nice.

Until she finally stood and looked at the man who had brought the puppies to her farm. The smile dropped from her face. He was staring at her with a mix of confusion and horror.

It was then that Kira remembered her unwashed hair and her red eyes and her blanket-as-outerwear fashion statement. Ugh. This day, this town, these people! They were everywhere!

'Yes, well, actually, I own this farm,' she said, standing to her full height. 'So, you are trespassing.'

Elizabeth whined and Kira scratched between her ears. 'Not you, sweetheart. You didn’t know.'

'To be fair, I didn’t know either,' the man said, a slight smirk on his face.

'How is that possible? Everyone in this nosy town knows about it.'

He shrugged. 'I don’t live in this nosy town.'

Kira frowned. 'Then what are you doing here?'

'Visiting.'

She didn’t like his tone. Or his face for that matter. It was too…too…handsome. But in like an obnoxiously conventional way. Too much symmetry. Too much perfect dark hair. It was annoying. And entirely uninteresting.

Too wholesome.

'Well, whoever you’re visiting should have told you that I own this land now so you can’t just traipse through here on your little hike or whatever you’re doing.'