Feuding Hearts Read Online Free Page B

can be confusing—”
    “I may be eighty-five, but I’m not addle-brained. She does it on purpose, just to annoy me.” He launched into a tirade of stolen newspapers, fruit, and apple pies baked with too-ripe apples.
    Harry, already sitting beside me, shifted closer. He reached out toward my hand.
    My stomach fluttered.
    His gaze caught mine. Harry blushed and his hand dropped away.
    The heat of his body, the scent of his soap, did more to stir my blood than the multiple teaspoons of sugar I’d inadvertently put into my glass.
    “I’m so sorry,” he whispered in my ear.
    His warm breath seeded my heart and mind with visions of long nights and cozy mornings. Inhaling, I gave myself a moment to enjoy the goose-bumpy shivers, then said, “It’s fine. They’re more ornery than a restrained bull in a herd of heifers.”
    His lips twitched then he grinned and said, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
    My heart skipped a beat. Lord, I love a man who tells me I’m right. I made a pact right then, one way or another, I’d finagle a way to become Mrs. Harry Garret. I just had to find out what he could do with his tools. He touched my hand, soft enough to be innocent, but let his fingers linger in a way that was all grown-up.
    “Perhaps we should go out for dinner, just the two of us, and discuss what we can do to solve this. Do you like French food?”
    I opened my mouth to agree.
    Mr. Garret interrupted, “You children aren’t listening. You think she’s the innocent one and the fault is mine for not understanding?” He pointed at the window. “Then, what’s that?”
    I set down my glass, went to the window, and squeaked. There was Nana, prancing across Mr. Garret’s grass like a deranged pixie. She had a bag in her hand and tossed granules of some type across his lawn.
    “Oh, my Lord! Nana!” I rushed out the door and down the steps. The Miami heat hit me like a shovel across the body. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?” I strode across the grass.
    But she saw me and beat a hasty retreat to the back portion of the houses, and our property line.
    “Nana—” I broke into a run and cursed my choice of pumps over sneakers. “Don’t you make me chase you!”
    Nana kept her quick pace. The fertilizer seeds scattered behind her, and left a trail that would have made Hansel and Gretel proud.
    “Stop behaving like a degenerate!” Oh , Lord , now I was breaking out the three-syllable words. “Don’t vex me!” That stopped her.
    She set down the bag. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Her breaths came out in puffs.
    The exertion hadn’t done anything to dim the fervent look in her eyes. They burned bright and intense. I turned to the men and held out my hands in appeal. “She’s hypoglycemic. I apologize. Her blood sugar has obviously dropped and rendered her irritating.”
    Harry looked at the bag. His eyes widened then narrowed into angry slits. The hard set of his jaw swallowed the good humor on his face. “Strongman’s fertilizer?” With a swift move, he grabbed the package, turning it around to stare at the bright yellow and green design.
    “It was on sale,” she said and sniffed in Mr. Garret’s direction.
    “Of course, it’s on sale,” said Harry. His words increased in volume and sharpness. “The company’s out of business for a reason!”
    “Nana—” I grabbed her arm, perturbed to the point of vexation. She was a gopher in my garden, about to ruin my First-Date harvest before it had a chance to take root. “You shouldn’t have done this. Harry’s very particular about the products he uses on his granddaddy’s lawn.”
    “Fertilizer is fertilizer,” she said, cutting a look at Mr. Garret. “And that old coot should know all about horse puckey!”
    Shaking the bag in the air, Harry rounded on her. “Are you insane?”
    And that stopped all my visions of our shared genetics, cold. One thing for me to question her sanity, I was family. We’d cried