Liberty Heights Holiday Duo Adams and Eve and Pranksgiving: Liberty Heights Romance

By Elle Druskin

Holiday season in Liberty Heights! Come dressed as an Adams. Weird party invite, right? Everyone in town is heading to LouAnn's for a Halloween party. One guest is bent on murder. Who wants to murder LouAnn? Why? How can the folks in Liberty Heights prevent a murder? Catch up with all your favorite characters as they celebrate Halloween. Don't forget to dress as an Adams!

Kidnapped! Or is that birdnapped? Who snatched Jerome the famous Ledbetter turkey? Why? How did he turn up in Liberty Heights? Can Jerome be saved from a Thanksgiving dinner table? Celebrate Thanksgiving Liberty Heights style where fun, mayhem and a little romance are guaranteed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elle Druskin
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201034382

Book preview

Acknowledgements

Liberty Heights continues to surprise and amuse me. Just when I think nothing more can happen, well, it does and I’m so glad.  Halloween seemed the perfect holiday for a short story rather than the usual full length novel.  As usual, I am indebted to my beta readers Crys Rafuse and Trudi Hagen. Trudi says if the series ever comes to the big or little screen, she wants to play LouAnn. (Don’t hold your breath, but I can understand. You can’t help liking LouAnn even if she is a ditz, or maybe because she is). Finally, thank you to the readers who tell me Liberty Heights is a wonderful addiction. You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.

Adams and Eve: A Liberty Heights Halloween Story

Liberty Heights

Animal Crackers

Life of the Party

Hanky Panky

Light My Fire

Rodeo Daze

Wait Watchers

Elle Druskin

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Night Owl Romance Reviews Adams and Eve

Adams and Eve A Liberty Heights Halloween Short Story

Elle Druskin does Halloween with Liberty Height’s flair in this short, sweet and slightly spooky story. A return visit just in time for the holiday is a fabulously fun trick and a wonderful treat for fans of this quirky town and its off-beat inhabitants. Catching up with many of the residents and seeing just how life has been treating those who have settled down and scoping out those attachments yet to be made is a pleasant way to pass the time. I also enjoyed chuckling out-loud at LouAnn’s naiveté and her conversations with Wayne the psychic dog. The overall amusement made this a real feel-good story and the ending left me anticipating the next exploits. If you aren’t a fan this fun short will introduce you to the crowd and it won’t be long before you’ll be making regular visits to one of my favorite destinations. It might be easier to follow along if you have read a previous adventure but it is still a cute holiday romp that will make readers smile.

Leave it to Liberty Height’s most idiosyncratic resident to throw a Halloween party and request that everyone dress as their favorite Adams. So while the inhabitants are preoccupied with who they will come as an uninvited guests stalks the unwitting hostess. Will the party be a success or will someone end up in the graveyard next door?

Chapter One

LIBERTY HEIGHTS, ESTABLISHED 1706.

Calvin Ripple jerked the steering wheel of his rented car to the side of the road and squinted at the white wooden sign with black script letters.

Hallelujah. He’d been driving around the sticks in New Jersey for hours looking for the place, starting to wonder if the town existed. Without warning, Liberty Heights popped up like a New Jersey version of Brigadoon that materialized once every one hundred years.

Just like that flaky LouAnn to relocate to some dumb place nobody could find, Calvin muttered. Good thing she’d left a forwarding address in California. Calvin couldn’t prevent a smile from spreading on his thin lips. So far, so good.

Being back in New Jersey unnerved Calvin although there was no reason to fear Eve. Eve was one tough babe, as scary as her brawny brothers. Jersey girls.

Calvin swallowed hard. Eve couldn’t know he was back in the Garden State. Instead, he should concentrate on the second part of his brilliant plan. Find LouAnn who was dumb enough to think she was still married to him even if he ditched her more than three years ago. Any other woman would have filed for divorce on the basis of desertion. Bad luck for LouAnn, great luck for Calvin.

For the past three years, he’d been living la vie de loca in Rio. Booze and chicks, especially raven-haired Renata, who thought they were married. Another dummy. She could think what she wanted. Rio was an endless summer until the money ran out. He’d barely escaped the Brazilian loan sharks with his life. Just to be sure he got the message, one of them nicked his cheek with a blade sharpened like a guillotine and a warning: Payback time. They’d track him down anywhere in the world. Calvin had wet his pants in terror like a baby, swearing he’d get the money. He knew where to find one hundred thousand dollars.

LouAnn qualified as a genuine nutcase, but she had a genius for making money. Her weirdo smelling candles featuring scents like sweet potato and ratatouille sold like hotcakes which, come to think of it, was another one of her realistic looking and smelling candles. LouAnn would have plenty of dough.

Calvin’s index finger tapped his forehead. Brains. Something LouAnn was more than a little short on. All he had to do was get rid of her. Permanently. Collect the inheritance as her grieving husband and head back to the good life, Renata, and the Copacabana. He started the ignition and paused.

Wayne.

That damned beagle. Wayne was devoted to LouAnn who claimed the dog was psychic, more than sufficient proof she was a total lunatic. Yet, in California, celebrities flocked to Wayne for readings. More nutcases.

Wayne could be a problem. For starters, he loathed Calvin. No matter how many times Calvin shoved the dog in the car when LouAnn wasn’t looking and threw him out miles away, Wayne had the instincts of Lassie. Like a magnet pulling him back to LouAnn, Wayne always returned home. Footsore, hungry, and worst of all, furious and snarling at Calvin.

Darned dog. Better not show his face in Liberty Heights until he did some reconnaissance on his wife and that pesky dog. All he had to do was lie low, case the town, and find a foolproof way to kill LouAnn.

* * * *

Please come to my party for the most important holiday of the year at seven p.m. Dress as an Adams.

LouAnn, Howie, and Wayne

Hayley Marx stared at the handwritten invitation slipped under the back door. She unbolted the locks and stood aside as the Marx dogs barrelled past her, heading for relief in the backyard. Three green-eyed children in assorted high chairs and booster seats toyed with cereal and juice in sippy cups.

Jake shuffled into the kitchen and snagged a mug, the size of a soup bowl, from the cupboard. He sniffed with longing at the percolator before pouring himself a double dose of caffeine and joining his wife at the breakfast table. She shoved the invitation to the other side of the table. Jake studied the writing as he slurped the coffee with a satisfied Ahhh.

I’m assuming the most important holiday of the year must be Halloween, Hayley commented. At least, as far as LouAnn is concerned.

Jake sighed. Pine forest eyes identical to the children’s met her own.

I hope this doesn’t mean that nutty sister of hers who claims to be a witch is coming. Not that LouAnn is all there, but she almost seems normal compared to BettyAnn.

Hayley’s index finger slid across her throat as she made a gagging sound. Come as an Adams. Makes you wonder what LouAnn will do to Wayne, Jake said.

Giggles erupted from Hayley’s mouth. No idea, but hey, dressing dogs in costumes is big business for Halloween.

Jake shrugged. Leave it to LouAnn. She manages to throw a whammy every time. So, we’re going, I guess?

Dark brows arched in question.

A huge grin spread on Hayley’s lips. Sure. Another one of those things I missed in high school because I was too busy studying. A costume party for Halloween. I thought I made up for everything I missed, including that crazy senior prom you staged just for me, but a costume party slipped past us. So which Adams are we going to be? I wonder why she chose that as a theme, although there are certainly enough famous people named Adams.

Jake sipped his coffee and snagged a piece of toast from Hayley’s plate.

Beats me. Maybe there’s some colonial outfits left over from Founder’s Day.

Hayley rolled her eyes. I thought we had a rule. No reference to that fiasco. Phoebe Wilson could have been killed.

Jake nodded. Yep. Only in Liberty Heights would a drunken Stonewall Jackson and a Confederate troop turn up for a Revolutionary War re-enactment. Just lucky Jim Kildare stopped that horse running wild through the crowd. Wonder if he’s invited to this shindig? Think there are any cowboys named Adams?

Blue eyes widened. No idea. So what’s this colonial thing you’re thinking about?

Jake shot Hayley a grin. John and Abigail Adams.

Works for me. Love those tight breeches on your cute ass.

Hey! I’m a married man, Jake said but couldn’t hide a grin.

Hayley rose from her seat and leaned over to kiss Jake. Yep. Anyone can look, but only I get to goose that cute rear end.

* * * *

Dana Axelrod shivered and tightened the belt of her velour robe around her waist.

Cold? Hank asked. He flipped eggs in the frying pan and sprinkled a generous portion of shredded cheese into the mixture. Hank snagged his wife’s waist, planting a kiss on her cheek. I can think of lots of ways to warm you.

Dana’s arms reached around Hank. She leaned into his shoulder and rubbed against his body.

Keep that up, and you won’t be getting breakfast. Fine by me, Hank said and winked.

Dana pulled away and grinned up at him. Two times this morning wasn’t enough?

Whatever works. Anything to keep you happy, sugarplum. Speaking about happy, take at look at the invitation I found taped to the front door when I went out to get the paper. I’m not sure if it’s going to make you happy or scream.

Dana’s brow furrowed. Invitation? Nobody’s getting married as far as I know or engaged. No babies due. Is it someone’s birthday, and I forgot?

Hank slid the eggs onto the plates and headed to the kitchen table.

No birthday. Even better.

He sat down but eyed Dana’s face as she read the crayon-lettered invitation.

Most important holiday of the year, huh? Leave it to LouAnn. For anyone else it would be Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or New Year’s Eve.Dana sat down opposite Hank and cut into her omelette. She forked a bite into her mouth and sighed.

Perfect. Just the way I like them, she said. What does this mean, come as an Adams?

Hank chewed and shrugged. Kind of strange, but I’ve got my outfit figured out.

He removed his shoe and held it to his ear.

This is Maxwell Smart reporting to the chief, he said in a nasal voice.

Huh?

Hank shook his head. Boy, you’re slow in the morning. Don Adams. Aka Maxwell Smart, bumbling secret agent. A sixties’ classic. Been watching those reruns for years. It’s perfect for us. You can be Agent 99. It’s typecasting. Smart and sexy, even in a bathrobe.

Dana giggled. Guess I’d better rent some of those old television shows and watch, so I know how to be an Agent 99. Does that count as an Adams? I wonder what Grandma will wear? We can be sure she’s invited, too.

Hank smeared raspberry jam on his toast. If she wasn’t, she’d gatecrash, but yeah, it’s a good bet Grandma got an invite. Knowing LouAnn, she could have saved time and put up a billboard for the whole town or taken an ad in the newspaper. Could be fun, although you never know what she’ll cook up at a party. Let’s hope she got Ellie Resnick to organize the whole thing.

I’ll ask Ellie at work, Dana said. Plus, I’ll find out which Adams they’re going to be. I can imagine Ellie at a costume party, but in my wildest dreams I can’t picture Zach in some crazy get-up.

Hank shrugged. You’d be surprised. Just because he’s a writer and pretty serious most of the time, Zach’s learned to lighten up. Ellie didn’t give him much of a choice. I bet anything you want he comes up with some sort of costume as a famous author named Adams.

A bet? What did you