Stirring Up Trouble Read Online Free PDF Page B

but he couldn’t help it. There was a part deep down inside that couldn’t let her win.
    â€œWell, as you know, it started two weeks ago when she called the cops on ladies’ night and we argued the next morning at the bakery. Since then, it’s been a battle back and forth. I paid the punk band extra for a rowdier performance Friday night. At 10:10 exactly, the sheriff showed up and wrote another citation. The next day, she organized a temperance-style Mothers Against Drunk Driving protest across the street. It was like something out of the 1920s with women holding picket signs. They sang and chanted and encouraged cars to honk in support all afternoon while I was trying to sleep.”
    â€œWhat did you do?” Joy asked with wide brown eyes.
    â€œI retaliated by cranking up the amplifiers on the karaoke system Saturday night and gave out an award for the worst singer. This time Madelyn was quicker. The cops were here by 10:05.”
    Emmett watched a few regulars drift in and take a seat by the dartboards. “Then there was the princess tea party parade,” he added in a sour tone.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIt’s hard to really describe it since I was delirious and sleep deprived at the time, but apparently, she gathered every little girl in town for a special Disney princess tea party at her shop. They all dressed up as their favorite characters, had tea, and then paraded through the square singing Disney songs at the top of their lungs. They stopped right outside my bedroom window for quite some time. I was personally serenaded by a stunning, off-key rendition of “Let It Go” followed by “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.”
    Joy brought a hand up to cover her mouth, although Emmett wasn’t sure if it was to cover her shock or her laughter. It was pretty ridiculous. And if he’d slept, he might feel differently, but Madelyn wouldn’t let it rest. During the week, even when the bar was closed, she’d gotten her digs in. She’d managed to have furniture delivered by big trucks that beep when they back up and roar with loud diesel engines and air brakes. And then, for some strange reason, the city decided to jackhammer the sidewalk right outside the bar to fix some waterline.
    It felt a little paranoid of him to blame Fancy Pants for that, but he wouldn’t put it past her. With her family’s money and connections, she could do anything she wanted. Mayor Gallagher would probably trip over himself to do whatever that family asked him to, even if it meant tearing up a perfectly good sidewalk.
    â€œThat’s why I organized the motorcycle rally last Wednesday night. We had every chopper in a hundred-mile radius roaring in and out of this parking lot all night and there was nothing she could do about it. Motorcycles make the noise they make. It’s got nothing to do with Woody’s.”
    â€œHow much have you been charged in fines so far?”
    Emmett reached for the drawer by the register and pulled out a handful of tickets. “Twenty-five hundred. Tonight, I’m hoping to make it an even three grand.”
    â€œThat’s really not fair,” Joy noted. “She can make all the noise she wants during the day and no one can say anything about it.”
    Life wasn’t fair. Emmett knew that. He’d seen good people lose everything they had. He’d seen a sure thing fall flat and wipe out someone’s life savings. Shit happened. He certainly wasn’t going to cry himself to sleep over a childish battle with the stuck-up chick across the street.
    â€œAny way we could plant a dead rat in the bakery and report her to the health department?”
    Joy looked sweet, like Tinker Bell or something, but she was a devious little thing. He needed to remember that and not give her a reason to use her skills on him. “I like the way your brain works, Joy, but I don’t think it calls for that yet. In the meantime,