Sealed with a Hiss by Addison Moore (read 50 shades of grey .txt) 📕

But Mackenzie Woods is still very much in my life. Not only is she the mayor of Cider Cove, she and my brother recently got engaged this past Christmas Eve.

It was the same night Leo proposed to Emmie, and Emmie almost choked to death when she accidentally attempted to swallow her ring. In her defense, it was buried in a delicious slice of chocolate cake. The entire night was one mishap after the other, but I’m more than thrilled Emmie lived to tell about it.

“I think I’m going to do it,” I say, dropping a kiss to Sugar’s forehead. “I think I’ll head over to see Bobbie. How can I get clearance to bring a cat into the hospital?”

“You need clearance?” a voice booms from behind, and I turn to find Georgie in a baby pink kaftan as she thumps a wild and woolly looking briefcase onto the counter. “I can get you clearance.”

“Ugh.” Emmie looks affronted by the thing. “What’s with the luggage? It looks as if it got ran over with a car.”

A putrid odor hits me, and I could swear I see fumes rising off that hairy scary piece of leather like heat off a New York sidewalk in July.

“And it stinks.” I fan myself with my fingers. “I think it got ran over with a family of opossums living inside.”

“Oh pish posh.” Georgie lands the briefcase to the floor, and both Fish and Sherlock wisely move away from it. “I found it in the dumpster behind the bank. I’m having a power meeting with your mama this morning.” She makes a face my way. “And I wanted to look official.”

“My mother is the last person you need to impress,” I say. “You’re already in business with her. Trust me, Georgie. You’ve got her where you want her.” Much to my mother’s chagrin. “And were you serious about being able to get me clearance to see Bobbie? You know—along with her cat?”

“Please.” Georgie waves me off before jabbing her fingers in her hair and fluffing up her wiry curls. “I used to date the chief of surgery, Randolph Buggywhip.”

“Buggywhip?” Emmie shakes her head as if she was unsure about this cerebral journey Georgie is pulling into. “Have a cookie.” She slides the plate full of red velvet wonders her way.

“Yup, Buggywhip.” Georgie squints at the ceiling. “Or was that just something he asked me to call him? Wait a minute… or was there a buggy whip involved?”

I’m about to tell her to forget it when I spot my father and Jasper’s mother entering the café.

“Bizzy Bizzy!” Dad’s entire face brightens at the sight of me, and when my father smiles, every inch of his face smiles along with him.

He pulls me into a hard embrace, and I take in the scent of his spiced cologne as a mad rush of childhood memories comes back to me. It seems every time my father greets me he says my name twice, and I’m twice as pleased when he does it, too.

Dad has jet-black hair, light eyes, and deep comma-like dimples that adorn his boyish face. He’s had a bit of an addiction to matrimony ever since he and my mother split. She used to say she was a trendsetter when it came to other women marrying my father. She wasn’t wrong.

At least she’s able to have a sense of humor about it.

“Bizzy.” Gwyneth makes a sour face as if she were sucking on a lemon and suddenly felt the need to smile. I’m not quite sure if she likes me or not. But I do know that I’m not her favorite person. I’m certainly not the person she wanted her son to end up with, but if she can’t get past that moot point, then I can’t help her. We’re stuck with each other whether either of us likes it or not.

“Gwyn, it’s good to see you. What’s going on?” I ask as I inspect the two of them. Gwyn has the same black hair and lightning clear eyes as her son. In fact, Jasper has three brothers and a sister who all look like doppelgängers of one another.

But the whole Dad and Gwyneth thing still feels new to me even if they have been together a little over a year. And roughly about that same timeframe—within weeks of meeting one another—my father, Dad-the-Cad, proposed to Gwyneth.

They were going to get married right out the gate, but cooler, far saner heads prevailed and they have wisely opted for a long engagement instead.

Let’s hope things never get farther than that. If my father decides to send Gwyneth the way of the rest of his wives—via divorce court—things are going to be weird between our families. Believe me, I would have given anything to have had my father stay as far away from Gwyneth as possible. There are plenty of other single fish in the sea that don’t happen to be my mother-in-law.

“I’m glad you’re here, Georgie.” He pulls her in. “You too, Emmie. You’ve been like a third daughter to me. We’ve got some pretty big news.”

“Oh Lord.” That familiar sigh of my mother’s follows those words as I see her walking in with none other than Mackenzie Woods and my brother, Huxley.

“Hux,” I say as he gives me a hearty embrace. “Geez, Bizzy. Grady and Nessa just filled us in at the front desk.”

Mackenzie growls my way, “You just had to go and off another guest, didn’t you?”

About half the patrons grab their breakfast and speed for the back patio. Not that I can blame them. The back patio butts up against the aforementioned Atlantic, and it’s a show in and of itself to watch as it churns out its angry waves like only winter’s fury can produce.

“Way to clear a room, Mayor Woods,” I hiss as I hold Sugar a touch closer.

Mackenzie is a stunning woman with chestnut brown hair and eyes that shine with all the wicked intent my brother