TUESDAY TALES - WORD PROMPT "PUZZLE" - #smalltownromance #romance

Welcome! This week our word prompt is "puzzle." I am continuing the story "Renovating the Billionaire." I hope you enjoy this snippet. Please scroll down to return to Tuesday Tales and the awesome authors there. Thank you for stopping by. 

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Pine Grove Mayor, Grey Andrews, was nursing a cup of coffee when Jess entered the Cozy Cupcake. He nodded to Jess, who took his gesture as an opening. After she placed her pie boxes on the counter, she pulled out a chair and joined him.

“How come the guy who inherited that awful house on the lake didn’t put it up for sale yet?” she asked him.

“I think he’s going to keep it.”

“Keep it?” Her eyebrows rose.

“Yeah. Maybe tear it down.”

“Tear it down? No, no. He can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“There’s an ordinance or something about that, right?”

“Only if it’s a landmark, and that old place isn’t. At least not as far as I know,” Grey replied.

“Landmark?”

“Yeah. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got to get back. But what’s this about landmarks?”

“We have a committee, at least we had one, before Jonas Setton died. He’d pick the buildings we’d landmark. Once a building is declared a landmark by the town, you can’t tear it down. And any renovation has to be true to the time period.”

“So who’s doing it now?”

“No one. Why don’t you come to the next town meeting?”

“Me?”

“Sure. You can see how it’s done.”

“Do you have someone to take Jonas’ place?”

“Nope.” Grey narrowed his eyes. “Would you be interested?”

She dropped her gaze to her hands. “I might.”

“Good. Come to the meeting. I’ll bring it up and you can volunteer.”

“I just might do that,” she said, rising.

Grey reached out and closed his fingers over her arm. “It puzzles me why you’d want that job.”

“I got my reasons,” she said, smiling.

He let her go and Jess headed for her wheezy old car and home to bake.