Free Love Is All Around by Rae Davies

kindness.
    Demoness.
    “I mean, it’s hard not to notice things are a bit off, what with the sign and the refrigerator and all.” Mrs. Jensen stepped between him and Patsy. Will angled his neck to keep a watch on the instigator of this torment while Randy’s mother prattled on. “Truth be told, I was a bit concerned when I drove by this morning, but after Patsy Lee explained your situation, I just knew I had to stop by and help.”
    “What situation, exactly?” he asked, his gaze boring into Patsy. Seemingly unconcerned, she shoved her hands into her pockets and leaned against the wall.
    Mrs. Jensen had wandered out of the foyer and into the front room where the floor sander still leaned near the broken window. Will stepped toward Patsy. She tilted her head up, her eyes dancing with humor.
    Will took his most intimidating stance, using all of his height to tower over her. “Thought you’d help me out, did you?”
    “It is only neighborly.” Patsy pushed away from the wall and started after Mrs. Jensen. Will laid a restraining hand on her arm.
    “There are a lot of ways to be neighborly,” he whispered. “Perhaps you’d like to investigate a few others.”
    She paused for a moment, then looked into his eyes. “I think you’ve got the wrong neighborhood.”
    Something in Will’s chest tightened at her challenge. “I spent a lot of time researching this one,” he murmured.
    “Too bad, ‘cause it looks like you made the wrong choice.”
    Mrs. Jensen came back around the corner, and Will released Patsy’s arm. This move might not have been everything he expected, but one thing was sure—he was liking his choice.
    o0o
    Patsy was in a good mood, downright skippy. She wasn’t sure exactly what had possessed her to turn Randy’s momma onto Will, or to follow her over there, but it had put a spring in Patsy’s step.
    Mr. I-don’t-need-help-from-anybody had met his comeuppance. Plus, dealing with Randy’s momma would keep him busy and out of Patsy’s life, which she needed.
    Tied up with every do-gooder in Daisy Creek, he’d be so busy ordering bric-a-brac and eating casseroles, he’d have no time to cross Patsy’s path. He might not even make the barbecue Dwayne invited him to.
    Patsy felt a stab of disappointment at the thought.
    No, she didn’t want to see him. She wanted him busy and tucked away in his Victorian mansion. Now she needed to concentrate on her goal to leave Daisy Creek.
    The first step was breaking her dependency on Granny. Patsy picked up a pen and signed away two years of payments to AT&T. No more missing messages. After waving away the clerk’s offer of a bag for her new cell phone, she jogged to her Jeep. There, she dialed Glenn’s number. She had met him a month ago during a seminar at the University of Missouri-Rolla. This morning in the Rolla paper there was a notice that an engineering team was looking for someone to do web design and Glenn’s name and number were listed. If she was lucky, this would be her big break. His voicemail answered, so she left a message with her new number.
    Finally, she was making some progress. She clicked the daisy-decorated cover onto her phone and stashed it in her purse.
    Now there was nothing Granny or Will could do that would get in her way.
    o0o
    Will could not believe the havoc Patsy Clark had wreaked on his life. Since the float trip, his nightly sleep had been disturbed by visions of Patsy parading in nothing but her bikini, water dripping from her hair, nipples erect from the cold. It was more than one man should have to bear. Then, in addition to haunting his dreams, the real living-breathing Patsy had unleashed a band of gray-haired matrons and coverall-wearing men into his home. He had no peace day or night.
    But he was not going to admit defeat.
    No, far from it. Little did Patsy know, but this was the best thing that could have happened to him—forced him to reevaluate his priorities.
    He’d made a mistake buying a house in need