It had been a successful, if not entirely fun, three days.
The identity of his visual target was confirmed when she appeared through a gap in the parked cars, turning away from the street and facing the wall of one of the shops. She set a stack of papers on the ground and held a staple gun up. Pressing one sheet of paper to a bulletin board and holding the gun against it, she efficiently shot a staple into each corner, before bending and picking up the flyers again and moving on to the next shop.
They were maybe fifteen feet apart, but that didn’t stop her from adding a flyer to that board, too.
“Sorry,” he said to Lydia. “I have to...law enforcement business.”
He walked to the end of the sidewalk, to the crosswalk, and moved quickly across to where Sadie was.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She turned, her expression fierce as she pressed the trigger on the gun and shot a staple through the paper and cork board. “Posting posters,” she said.
She lowered her hand to her side and lifted her eyebrow, the staple gun menacing in her dainty hold.
“I can see that.”
He looked behind her head and read the words.
Logan County Community Barbecue
Independence Day
Come to the Garrett Ranch for food, fun and games.
Horseshoes, pie eating contest, live music
and a barbecue battle.
“Well, this is...firming up.”
She looked down below his belt pointedly, raising her arm, and the staple gun with it. “Is it?”
He frowned. “Sadie...”
“Give the guy a little sex and suddenly he gets the dick jokes.”
“Are you mad at me?” he asked.
“Did you expect me to be super thrilled with you?”
“I expected you to do the socially acceptable thing and pretend nothing happened while you brooded silently. That was my plan.”
“Too bad for you, I’ve never excelled at the socially acceptable.”
“Look, let’s talk about this,” he said, indicating the poster. “Not...the other thing. This is good. The other is bad.”
“The other was actually quite good, if I say so myself. I am apparently not only good in bed, but good against the wall. Adding it to my résumé.”
“Why are you so difficult?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Character flaw? Asset? You be the judge.”
“And I’m trying to be nice.”
“Not doing a very good job.” She propped her chin on the staple gun handle.
“So why don’t you try to play nice for two seconds. Why don’t you go ahead and not keep bringing up what I think is sort of an awkward moment for both of us.”
“I don’t think awkward is the word I would use,” she said, frowning.
“It’s not?”
“It was actually really athletic. I thought we were kind of awesome.”
“Yeah, I guess we were,” he said, taking a sip of his latte as an involuntary smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
“Ah, the male ego,” she said, giving him the squinty eye. “So susceptible to praise. Now suddenly The Sex exists.”
“I know it exists. I just don’t see the point of doing a postmortem on something that we both know can’t happen again.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because. Because it can’t,” he said, feeling the conviction leak out of his words as he spoke them.
“Because why?”
“Because we don’t get along. And I’m busy running for sheriff.”
