Read Online Letters and Lace (The Ronan's Harbor Series) by M. Kate Quinn - Free Book Online Page A

something?” She looked at the far wall toward what she assumed was the kitchen.
    “Nah, I was just fooling around in the kitchen. Sarah, listen, I…”
    “You’re a baker?” she blurted, unable to mask her surprise. Somehow she couldn’t imagine this guy knowing his way around a kitchen. A wrestling ring, maybe. A dance floor, God yeah.
    “Something wrong with that?” His hands rested on his hips, but she saw an unnerving tease in his eyes.
    “No,” she said, laughing a silly little sound. She silently admonished herself. She needed to knock that off. “Not at all. I guess it’s just, I don’t know, not what I’d expect.”
    “What’s that you have?” His head motioned toward her covered plate.
    “I brought you some muffins.”
    She jutted the dish toward him and he took it, his face a big fat question mark. “Why, may I ask are you bringing me muffins?”
    “To be neighborly.”
    “I see.”
    “Actually, I thought we could discuss the letter.”
    “Sarah, first let me say…”
    “No.” Her voice was louder and more emphatic than she’d intended. She wouldn’t give him a chance to explain anything. She didn’t want his excuses. She wanted him to undo his damage.
    And, in case he was about to bring up the night at the Pier House, she’d nip that before he got started. That little nightmare would never resurface.
    She took a breath. “Benny, I thought maybe if you withdrew the complaint the town might drop it and…”
    He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I cannot undo this, Sarah. I gave my brother my word. And, after all, it is a town law.” His low voice sounded pained.
    Sarah didn’t care. She wanted to throttle him. Damn him for coming to this town and upsetting her world in more ways than she’d allow herself to tally.
    “Okay,” she said, her jaw aching from the tight clench. “Just so you know I’ve gone to the police about this .” She pulled out the letter she’d found under her front door.
    “What’s that?”
    A sarcastic laugh popped from her lips. “Your stupid little note. It doesn’t scare me, and I resent you sneaking up to my door at night to leave it there.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think we’d better end this conversation before one of us says something they’ll regret.”
    Oh, she had regrets already, plenty of them. Sarah unfolded the page, read the message out loud, and then glared at him. “Are you trying to tell me you didn’t write this?”
    “That’s right.”
    “So, somebody else just happened to warn me to stop the wedding at the same time you and your complaint came to my attention? You expect me to believe that?”
    “You’re free to believe whatever you want.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But, I did not put that note at your door.”
    A buzzer sounded and he turned toward the kitchen. “That’s my strudel.”
    His strudel? She shook away the image of this goon in an apron. “Well, I believe you wrote this and that you delivered it as a scare tactic. I also believe the police will determine this to be a threat.”
    He gave a quick look over his shoulder. “Being a retired police officer, I know what a threat is, and whether it is or isn’t happens to be none of my business. I didn’t write it. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
    “Yeah, I know…your strudel. You haven’t heard the last from me, Mr. Benedetto.”
    “Sarah…”
    She stormed out the door.
    ****
    Benny charged to the kitchen to turn off the timer’s buzzing sound searing his brain. He opened the oven door and saw that the edges of his confection had browned too much, one side was nearly black. Damn it to hell. He grabbed the old burn-stained oven mitts from the counter and withdrew the strudel, placing it on top of a cracked trivet.
    He didn’t know this oven’s temperament, or the accuracy of its thermostat. It took experience to determine an oven’s heat setting level. With any luck, he’d kiss this old