Welcome to Serenity by Sherryl Woods Page A

year to spend their money.”
    Not that she was one of them. She hadn’t attended the Christmas festival once during the three years she’d lived in Serenity. Even so, as hard as she tried, it had been impossible to tune out all the chatter about it.
    “Good idea about getting some fresh faces in here,” he said approvingly. “We’ll probably have to go the press release route, since I don’t think there’s money for that kind of advertising. We need to spend that budget on promoting the event itself.”
    In exactly fourteen minutes, he snapped his briefcase closed and stood up. “Well, my time’s about up. Thanks for meeting with me.”
    Jeanette was completely thrown by his abrupt end of the discussion, though she couldn’t imagine why. She was the one who’d put a time limit on the meeting.
    “Did we cover everything you wanted to cover?” she asked.
    “Pretty much. I’ll keep you posted on the responses. I suppose at some point we’ll have to start thinking about mapping out locations for the vendors to set up, but there’s no hurry on that. Howard would probably prefer it be done tomorrow, but realistically November’s soon enough. We should have all the vendor responses in by Thanksgiving.”
    “Okay, then. Have a nice evening.”
    “You do the same.” His gaze sought hers and held it.
    “Oh, hell,” he muttered, then bent down and kissed her, not on the cheek as she’d anticipated, but on the mouth…with feeling.
    Before she could react, maybe slap him silly, he was gone. She released a deep sigh. It was probably just as well. One more second and she’d have kissed him back like there was no tomorrow. So much for her theory that she was totally immune to men in general and this man in particular. Apparently her hormones had not enjoyed the drought.

6
    His impulsive decision to kiss Jeanette had been a very bad one, Tom concluded as he left The Corner Spa. He was restless and edgy with no way to work off the sexual tension. Since he wasn’t dressed for running, he decided he could at least walk back to the Serenity Inn, though he doubted that would help. If anything, it would give him too much time to think about how soft her lips had been beneath his, the way she smelled of flowers and sunshine, the little sound she’d made in the back of her throat that proved she wasn’t immune to him, after all.
    “Damn,” he muttered, getting stirred up all over again. This was bad. He had plans for the rest of his life and they didn’t include staying in Serenity forever. He’d been very careful in the past to keep his relationships casual and uncomplicated. Jeanette had complication written all over her.
    Thankfully, before he could get too worked up over the unexpected twist of fate, his cell phone rang, promising a distraction.
    “Yes, hello,” he said, hoping he didn’t sound as desperate as he felt.
    “Tom, it’s Cal.”
    He nearly sighed with relief at the distraction. “Cal, I meant to call you earlier about your Little League proposal. I wanted to let you know that I haven’t had time to get to it, but I haven’t forgotten.”
    “Not a problem,” Cal assured him. “Actually, I thought maybe you’d like to hang out with Ronnie Sullivan—you know him from the festival committee, I think—Erik Whitney from Sullivan’s and me tonight. We’re going to toss around a football in the park, maybe have a few beers after. Interested?”
    “How soon?” he asked eagerly.
    “Twenty minutes,” Cal said. “We’ll be by the gazebo. Can you meet us there?”
    “Absolutely,” Tom said. “I just need to drop off my briefcase at the inn and change.”
    Thank heavens, he thought as he stuck his cell phone back in his pocket. He hoped these guys took their games seriously. He figured it would take a solid hour of hard sweat and a whole lot of inconsequential guy talk to work the memory of that smoldering kiss out of his head. Two hours later, Tom was drained of thoughts and energy. These