Stirring Up Trouble Read online

  “Both,” he said, inching closer to her. He expected her to pull away, at least as far as she was able, but she stayed in place. His left hand reached out for her cheek and he stroked her skin.

  Maddie stiffened initially at his touch, then her eyes closed and she leaned into him. He hadn’t expected that reaction at all. Emboldened by her response, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. He wasn’t sure what kissing her would be like, but the reality was far, far better than he ever could’ve anticipated. For someone so uptight and critical, her lips were soft and inviting. She molded to him without an ounce of tension in her body. She seemed to welcome his touch, even groaning softly as his free hand stroked the long line of her neck.

  It was the sound that jerked him back to reality. What was he doing? She might be beautiful, but she was a total pain in the ass. She was the kind of high-maintenance woman who expected a kiss to lead to something more official and that was not at all what he was interested in. He just wanted to blow off some of their aggression in a more pleasurable fashion.

  He abruptly pulled back. When their lips parted, they stayed still and close, the heat of their bodies together making the air warm around them. He could smell the scent of her skin when they were this close. It wasn’t a harsh perfume, but something soft, almost like lavender-scented soap or lotion. He imagined she had a very intensive nightly ritual with expensive French skin creams. Her skin was so soft and supple, he could almost imagine what it would be like to massage a scented cream into it.

  “What was that?” she asked softly.

  “A kiss.”

  “Why?” Her blue eyes searched his face.

  “Because apparently I’m a masochist.”

  Maddie frowned and her delicate eyebrows knit together. He could just see her brain whirling as she tried to figure out what he meant by that. Before she could say anything, the buzzer on one of the ovens went off. She pulled as far away from him as she could, her cheeks flushing an attractive pink like her apron. Cool air rushed between them, bringing them both to their senses. Shaking her head, she led him over to the oven, where she pulled out pans of lemon pound cake and banana bread.

  Impossible women. He had a fatal attraction to impossible women. He needed some damn therapy.

  Simon was waiting outside Woody’s when they arrived. He was leaning casually on the hood of the squad car, sipping a cup of coffee from Ellen’s Diner down the street.

  Thank goodness he was on time. Maddie couldn’t wait to regain her freedom. She’d gotten only about two hours of sleep before all this started, and there was nothing she could do about it now. She would go back to her place for a shower and a cup of strong coffee, but then she had to get back to the kitchen. The shop opened in two hours and she was way behind on her baking. Having one arm handcuffed to Emmett had slowed everything to a crawl. They’d managed to make just a few loaves of sweet breads, a tray of sticky buns, and some lemon bars in three hours. She needed to get back in there and crank out about a dozen other items before the shop opened. She could only thank her stars she didn’t have a wedding cake being picked up today.

  “Did you two play nice?” Simon asked.

  “Extremely,” Emmett replied with a smug smile on his face.

  Maddie blushed bright red at his words. She couldn’t help it. It was bad enough she’d let sleep deprivation lower her guard; she didn’t want everyone to know what she’d done. Especially not her brother. If Simon knew, the whole family would soon know she’d made out with the local bartender, and she’d never hear the end of it. Maddie never made out with anyone, so it would turn into a huge thing. “We didn’t kill each other,” she offered, “if that’s what you were hoping for.”

  “I don’t endorse bloodshed,” Simon said. “I was just hoping you two would take this time together to talk over your issues and find a way to peacefully coexist on the same street. Any ground covered there?”

  “Not really,” Emmett admitted, and he was right. They’d shared a long night together, but not one moment of it was spent discussing how they were going to learn to get along. They were both far too focused on how they would make it through the night, much less worry about the future.

  “Well, you two better figure out how to play nicely or I’ll do this again. Don’t think I won’t.” Simon pulled out his keys and unlatched the cuffs. “Free at last,” he announced.

  “Thank the Lord,” Emmett said, rubbing his wrist and sighing in contentment.

  Maddie scoffed at his expression of relief despite the fact that he’d taken the words right out of her mouth. “You’d think being handcuffed to me was the worst thing in the world.”

  “Well, it certainly wasn’t a picnic.”

  “Hey,” Maddie complained. “I was being nice. I helped at the bar and, more important, I didn’t once ask to use the restroom.”

  Emmett’s eyes widened. Apparently he hadn’t considered how much closer they would’ve gotten if nature had called with any sort of urgency over the last few hours. “Well, thank you for your help, Fancy. The next time Joy calls in sick, I’ll be sure to give you a call.”

  Maddie snorted. She couldn’t imagine herself working at a place like that. Being surrounded by grabby drunks was her idea of her personal hell. “Don’t waste your breath, Emmett. I’m not taking another step into that dirty, stinky bar of yours.”

  Emmett’s eyes brightened in excitement, his face lighting up despite the exhaustion on his face. “Is that a promise? Can I hold you to your word? It’s not nice of you to tease about something like that.”

  “Can you two keep it down? It’s six in the morning and there are houses nearby,” Simon interjected, but neither of them paid him any attention.

  “I wish it were a promise,” Maddie said, planting her hands on her hips, “but that would require you keeping the noise down so I can stay away.”

  Emmett snorted in contempt. “At this point, I’d unplug the jukebox so I don’t have to see your face ever again.”

  “If only that were true,” Maddie snapped.

  “If what were true?”

  “Seriously, you guys, you’re disturbing the peace,” Simon complained. “Don’t make me take you in. I’m off duty and I’d much rather go home and go to bed than head back to the station and fill out all that paperwork.”

  “That you don’t want to see my face,” Maddie continued. “I think that’s a lie. You seemed quite pleased by it earlier.”

  “And you weren’t pleased?” Emmett challenged. “You certainly acted like you were having a good time. You were practically purring in my arms.”

  She had been. But she wasn’t going to admit how easily she reacted to his touch. That kiss had set off explosions in her walled-up libido, knocking down barriers and freeing the beast she’d tried very hard to keep tamed. Emmett was not the kind of man she was usually attracted to. Everything about him flew in the face of the values she held dear. And yet, when he touched her, all bets were off. Her body had betrayed her in that moment and she’d have to fight twice as hard to resist him from now on.

  “I was exhausted and you took advantage of that.”

  “Oh, please.” Emmett rolled his eyes. “You wanted me to kiss you.”

  “I did not!” Maddie stomped her foot on the sidewalk. “The last thing I want is a man like you touching me.”

  “You guys kissed?” Simon asked, looking thoroughly confused by the conversation blowing past him.

  “Don’t lie, Fancy,” Emmett said. “You stood there with those pouty lips and looked up at me with big, innocent eyes, asking if I thought you were beautiful when you know damn well that you are. If you didn’t want me to kiss you, what was that all about?”

  “It’s none of your business what that is all about!” she shouted. Maddie wasn’t about to admit to him that she hadn’t been kissed since Paris. That she was lonely in that big house with
nothing but her business to occupy her mind. That would just expose her Achilles’ heel to a man who was her enemy, despite everything that had happened tonight. “I don’t have to explain my actions to you.”

  “You’re right, you don’t,” Emmett said, holding up his arms in surrender. “And I don’t have to explain my actions to you, either.”

  “You’re both under arrest,” Simon said, his voice flat. “You have the right to remain silent . . .”

  With their arguing back and forth, it took Maddie a moment to realize that her brother was reading them their Miranda rights. “Simon, what are you doing?”

  “. . . if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you,” he continued.

  “Is your brother seriously arresting us?” Emmett asked.

  “Yep,” Simon confirmed after he finished his spiel. “Sheriff Todd said that the handcuffs tonight were your last chance and if you two started any more trouble, I was to haul both of you in for disturbing the peace.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Maddie said. Arrested? Her? She’d never even gotten detention in high school, much less committed a crime.

  “Serious as a heart attack,” Simon said, clamping a cuff back around her newly freed wrist.

  “You’re not going to handcuff us together again, are you?” she asked with a pleading edge in her voice.

  “Nope.” Simon pulled out a second pair of cuffs. “This time, you each get your own set.” He twisted her arm behind her back and clicked the other handcuff into place before turning and doing the same to Emmett.

  “Okay, now, off to the sheriff’s department. March or I’ll put you in the back of my squad car and Instagram it before I drive you around the block.”

  Maddie immediately started down the street. She couldn’t risk this moment getting memorialized on social media. This was humiliating enough. Thank goodness it was dawn on a Saturday. Any later and someone might actually see her perp-walk down First Avenue toward the police station.

  It was quiet when they arrived. It surprised her after all the police dramas she’d seen on television, but, then again, Rosewood was hardly a mecca for hard crime. Simon led them back to his desk, where he began the paperwork. To her horror, he made them pose for mug shots and then fingerprinted them both for their brand-new criminal case files.

  “I can’t believe I now have a criminal record!” Maddie wailed, trying to get the black ink off her fingertips with the baby wipe Simon gave her.

  “I guess you’ll never be First Lady,” Emmett said. He was slumped in his chair as though none of this bothered him at all. Apparently, this wasn’t his first arrest.

  “You shut up. This is all your fault.”

  “I doubt that,” Emmett said flatly.

  “I certainly haven’t been arrested before,” she said.

  “And I have?” he challenged.

  “Haven’t you? You seem remarkably calm for a first-time offender.”

  “You don’t know anything about me, Fancy, so don’t pretend that you do. You sit in your fussy little historical home and bake your snooty little pastries, all the while judging everyone around you, but you don’t know anything, little girl.”

  “I know better than to let a man like you kiss me a second time.”

  “Oh, good, we’ve gotten that cleared up. I was worried you might want me to do it again, and I’d hate to disappoint you.”

  “Disappoint me? Please. I’ll be just fine without your whiskey-tainted breath on my lips.”

  They paused in their argument as another officer came in. He sat down at a desk opposite Simon’s and started filling out some paperwork.

  “Whatcha got, Grady?” Simon asked.

  The other officer looked up with a grin. “We’ve got another giant penis. This one is on the water tower.”

  “Damn,” Simon swore. “That’s going to be hard to clean off.”

  “It’s the fourth one in less than three weeks. The Rosewood Times has started calling him the Penis Picasso.”

  “Penis Picasso?” Simon nearly choked on the words. Emmett chuckled in his seat beside her.

  Maddie shook her head. She hadn’t heard anything about more crude graffiti popping up, but she wasn’t surprised. The teenagers in town were bored. Rosewood was a dull place for kids that age. Outside of school activities and sports, there was nothing to do. It wasn’t much better for the adults in town. That’s why so many of them loitered at Woody’s and drooled over local gossip. But the Penis Picasso? Who would come up with a name so ridiculous? It would just call attention to the artist and make them go out of their way to do more.

  All she knew was that if a penis showed up on the side of her bakery, heads would roll. She’d track that little bastard down and watch him repaint her wall.

  “What’ve you got, Simon?” Grady looked over at Maddie and Emmett as they sat sulking in their chairs.

  “Disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct.”

  Grady frowned at the two of them. “Isn’t that your older sister?”

  Simon sighed. “It is. It’s such an embarrassment for the family, you know? I’m sure it will break my grandmother’s heart to know her oldest granddaughter is a common criminal.”

  Maddie wished she had free hands to reach out and throttle him. “Oh, Granny’s gonna hear about it all right,” she taunted, “but when I’m done, you’re going to be the one in trouble, Simon. This whole thing is totally uncalled for.”

  “Oh yeah?” her brother challenged. “We’ll just wait and see what she has to say after you go in front of the judge Monday morning.”

  Maddie shot up in her chair. She thought she would pay a fine and go home. Facing a judge made it seem a lot more serious. Her best friend, Lydia Whittaker, had a run-in with the local judge the year before over an incident during the Rosewood Fall Festival parade. Her antics had ruined it for everyone, traumatizing the newly crowned Miss Rosewood and nearly breaking Ivy Hudson’s neck. The judge had thrown the book at her, giving her a huge number of community service hours and an outrageous fine. But in Lydia’s case someone could’ve been hurt, and frankly, she deserved it. This dustup with Emmett wasn’t nearly as serious, and yet her stomach started turning somersaults in her belly. “The judge?”

  “Yep,” Simon said with a smile that unnerved her. “I can’t wait to see what Judge Griffin says about your little neighborhood battle.”

  Chapter Five

  Maddie was the walking dead by the afternoon. She was in the kitchen with her head down on the counter, asleep, when the door chime startled her awake.

  “Let’s go to lunch,” she heard her friend Lydia shout from out front.

  Looking down at her watch she realized she was past due to eat. Maybe some food and a caffeinated drink would help her make it to closing time. “Give me a minute,” Maddie shouted back. She slipped out of her apron and checked herself in the mirror before grabbing her purse.

  “How about we go get a slice at Pizza Palace?” Lydia suggested with a perfect and practiced smile. Lydia had always had the looks and poise of a Miss Alabama finalist. Her thick blond hair was styled flawlessly. Her cornflower-blue eyes were bright and lined by dark, full lashes. Her straight, white teeth nearly glowed against the golden tan of her skin.

  Frankly, although they were best friends, Maddie rarely liked to stand beside her. She was an attractive woman, too, but it was hard to remember that next to Chef Barbie. She wasn’t just beautiful; she was the talented executive chef at Whittaker’s.

  Maddie self-consciously smoothed her hand over her hair and nodded. Pizza Palace was close, fast, and easy. “Okay.” She flipped the WILL RETURN sign, locked the door, and walked with Lydia down the sidewalk to the local pizza place.

  “So, what’s been going on with you?” Lydia asked as they settled at a table with slices of pizza and drinks.

  Lydia typ
ically opened with that so once Maddie answered, she could dominate the rest of the conversation with her life’s drama, guilt-free. Maddie didn’t really mind, since she didn’t usually have much going on. Her love life was nonexistent. Lydia didn’t really care about renovations in the bakery. Listening to Lydia’s tales kept things interesting. Today, however, she had more to tell than usual.

  “You look rough today,” Lydia continued. “If I were you, I’d invest in some good concealer for those under-eye circles.”

  “I don’t need concealer,” Maddie snapped. Lydia was always too quick to point out things like that. “I need more than two hours of sleep a night.”

  Lydia leaned in with interest. “Is there something fun happening that I don’t know about? Is some guy keeping you up all night?”

  “No and yes,” Maddie answered. “No, it isn’t fun, but yes, Emmett Sawyer is keeping me up all night.”

  “The hot bartender?”

  “I suppose you could say that, although it’s hard to notice when we’re fighting about the noise at the bar. We’ve been going back and forth for weeks. This morning, it reached a head and we both ended up getting arrested.”

  Lydia wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Arrested? God, Maddie. Does your daddy know?”

  Maddie wasn’t sure. Simon might have said something. “I haven’t spoken to anyone about it yet.”

  “I’m sure he could make all that go away.”

  Maddie shrugged off her suggestion. It was entirely possible that her family could pull strings and fix this for her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted that. Emmett already treated her like an entitled little princess. That’s exactly what he expected her to do.

  “I mean, what’s the point of being the most important family in town if it doesn’t do you any good? I wish I’d been able to get out of my little situation last year. Community service is not fun.”

  She didn’t have much to say about that, so Maddie took a bite of her pizza and let it lie. She didn’t look up again until she heard Lydia make a sound of irritation. Maddie turned in time to see Pepper walk past their table to order at the counter. Normally, Maddie would’ve said something smart, but she held her tongue today. The last time she said something ugly about Pepper, Grant tried to stab her with a serving fork. She needed to keep peace in the family, and Pepper was going to be a part of that soon enough. Maddie actually went as far as to wave at Pepper as she left with her takeout.