own.”
“Not me,” Bree assured her warmly. “I’ve been all over the world, but I’ve never seen anything like this. I’d love to hear the history of this place, if you have time.”
“Honey, I got nothing but time. You come right on in.” She opened the door wide and let Bree through. Cooper she stopped with a gnarled hand on his chest. “You done good this time, Mr. Mayor. The judge’ll be hearing from me, you can count on that.”
“Granddad’s been gone awhile now,” he reminded her gently.
“I still talk to him up in Heaven,” she retorted. “He hears me just fine.”
She meant well, and despite his lingering sadness, Cooper managed to smile. “I’m sure he enjoys that. And I appreciate you putting in a good word for me.”
“Don’t you be going all soft on us, though.” She pointed a crooked finger at him in warning. “This town’s in trouble, and it needs strength, not coddling.”
“Yes, ma’am. Speaking of strength, how’s that new retaining wall holding up?”
“Like a champ. Those boys you sent did good work. They ate me out of gingerbread, though.”
“That’s because you make the best in the state.”
“First place at the fair, seven years running,” she boasted. “I’ve got some fresh if you think Miss Farrell would like some.”
Cooper knew that was the height of hostess etiquette for the bristly woman, and he nodded. “I think she’d love it.”
“Fine. Now be a good boy and help me find my glasses.”
As they entered the dim front hallway, Cooper heard Bree’s sharp gasp from up ahead. “Um, a little help here?”
She was flattened up against the wall, staring down at a black potbellied pig the size of a small beagle. He sat in front of her, tail scraping across the well-worn oak planks in a friendly greeting. Judging by the horrified look on her face, she didn’t think much of her welcoming committee.
“Oh, that’s just Reggie sayin’ hello to you,” Mavis told her. “He loves it when folks come by. Honestly,” she added with a soft cackle, “he likes people better’n I do.”
“Where on earth did you get a pig?” Bree asked, eyeing him cautiously.
“When my Henry died, God rest him.” Closing her eyes, Mavis held a hand over her heart and looked down. After a respectful moment she lifted her head and continued. “I wasn’t real fond of living by myself. Pastor Allen thought I’d do better if I had some company, so I went to the shelter over in Oakbridge, figuring to get a dog or a cat.” Crouching down, she scratched Reggie behind his ears while he grunted in appreciation. “This little guy waddled over and sat down in front of me, and I knew he was the critter for me. He’s housebroken and smart as a whip.”
Clearly the skeptical journalist wasn’t convinced. “Really?”
Mavis gave her a you’ll-see grin. “Reggie?” The little porker rose to all fours, wagging his tail eagerly. “Snack time.”
Delight flashed in his black eyes, and he trotted over to a set of open bookshelves. Grasping a plastic container in his teeth, he dragged it out but left it untouched, looking to Mavis for directions. She held up two fingers. “You can have two.”
Grumbling his approval, he reached in with his snout and removed one piece of jerky, letting it fall on the floor before going after another. When he had them, he placed the container neatly back on its shelf and swooped up his reward before retreating into the parlor.
“Wow,” Bree said, shaking her head. “That’s really something.”
Mavis’s craggy face wrinkled into a proud smile. “That little guy’s smarter’n most people I know. He’s not much to look at, but then neither am I, and he don’t seem to mind. You two go sit down. I’ll put the teakettle on and slice up some gingerbread.”
As she passed by him, Cooper stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Giving her the glasses he’d found dangling from a hook on the coat stand, he said, “You might want these.”
“No, but I’ll take them all the same.” Slipping them on, she looked him over from head to toe with a critical expression. “You need a woman, Cooper Landry. Eating too much of his own cooking makes a man skinny.”
“You sound like Mom, right before she stuffs me full of pot roast.”
“That’s just plain nonsense,” Mavis scoffed. “We’re not a thing alike, and you know it.”
He did, but no visit to the lighthouse was complete without a little good-natured sparring. Nose in the air, Mavis strolled through to the kitchen, and Bree glanced over at him, amusement sparkling in her eyes. She didn’t say anything, but it didn’t take much to figure out what was going through that quick mind of hers.
“I know she’s a little eccentric,” he murmured as they walked into the sitting room, “but she’s harmless, I promise.”
Stretched out on the flagstone hearth, Reggie had obviously inhaled his first treat and was enthusiastically attacking the other.
Bree settled on the edge of an antique chair that had seen better days. She lifted one curious brow, the way she had when David Birdsall had pedaled down Main Street in his costume. “I have one question.”
“Shoot.”
“Is the whole town like this?”
“Well,” Cooper stalled, searching for a way to skirt around the truth without lying. It was a survival skill he’d perfected during his courtroom career. But these days it just wasn’t for him, so he shrugged. “I guess so.”
Laughing, she added a note to her tablet. “Amazing.”
Cooper wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that, or if the comment was intended to be an insult or a compliment.
Maybe bringing in a stranger to write about Holiday Harbor wasn’t such a good idea after all.
* * *
Bree was about as far from a tea and cookies kind of person as you could get, but Mavis’s snack was a whole lot tastier than the dry half sandwich she’d choked down at the airport earlier. While they munched and chatted, she made a mental picture of her surroundings, from the rugged landscape framed in the bay window to the parlor itself.
Everything from the oval carpet to the carved mahogany furniture was faded and worn. Even the curtains flapping alongside each of the four windows had a tired look to them, as if they could hardly stand up to one more ocean breeze.
Having lived all her life in the bustle of modern cities, Bree preferred glass and steel skyscrapers to raggedy old buildings in the middle of nowhere. Still she had to admit this one held a unique appeal. Maybe it was the setting, perched on the spit of land that made up one edge of the harbor. Maybe it was the well-salted local legends Mavis had been relaying for the past hour. Then again, Bree thought as she stifled a yawn, she was so tired from her early flight and long bus ride that anything that
