Читать книгу Love, Lies and Mistletoe - Jennifer Snow, Jennifer Snow - Страница 13

CHAPTER FOUR

“THE STATION DECIDED to enter a float after all?” Heather asked as Jacob entered the Millers’ barn the next day. The old stalls had been transformed into a place where they could work privately on their floats and store them until the parade.

Heather was wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt, with her dark hair pulled back, and he almost didn’t recognize her as the same woman who tended bar every evening at the pool hall. This look was better, he decided. Though admittedly, he liked every look she had. There was just something about her that attracted him—her smart mouth, maybe.

For more reasons than one, he shook the thought away and cleared his throat. “Apparently they needed several more, so Sheriff Bishop signed us up.”

She looked around him and frowned. “Where’s the rest of your team?”

“Just me,” he said, feeling slightly embarrassed that he’d been deemed so unlikable by the folks in Brookhollow that he couldn’t even enlist the help of three people with his float.

Some of the guys at the fire hall had excuses for not wanting to help: Noah was already working on the community center’s float for his Turnaround program, and Ethan was helping Bailey with the garage’s float. Other guys just refused to acknowledge the email he’d sent out.

And Sheriff Bishop had simply tapped him on the shoulder and wished him luck, claiming one of them needed to be around the station in case of emergency.

Jacob was on his own, but it was worth it for the chance to check in with Emilio the day before. Besides, he’d throw a few things onto the trailer—a tree, an inflatable snowman and a cut-out Santa, maybe—and call it a day. It wasn’t as if he actually cared about winning the competition. And he knew as long as Sheriff Bishop’s nephews had something to ride on, the older man would be happy.

“The parade is in three weeks,” Heather said. “Most of us have been working on our floats for over a week now.” She glanced inside his stall and pointed to the empty flatbed he’d rented. “You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yes, I know. So, I better get started,” he said, moving around her and entering the stall where he’d placed all of his supplies the evening before. He still didn’t have a truck to pull the float in the parade yet, but he’d figure that out later. Or, with any luck, it would be someone else’s problem.

Heather followed him. “What’s your theme?”

Theme? As if. “Thought everyone had to keep their ideas hush-hush?” He stood tall, widening his chest and shoulders to prevent her from seeing beyond him. Without her crazy heels, she was only five-four, maybe five-five. Still as high energy as ever, though.

“We don’t have to,” she said with a shrug, curiosity shining in her eyes.

“Ah, but you chose to,” he said, winking at her. “Bye, Heather.” He entered his section and closed the door on her pout.

* * *

WITH VICTORIA’S MOTHER babysitting Harper and answering phones at the B and B, Heather and Victoria headed out early the next morning. Mike Ainsley had confirmed receipt of her résumé when she’d resent it to him, and within an hour, he’d requested an interview with her the following day, so the two women had decided to go interview-clothes shopping.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Heather said, as Victoria turned her truck onto Main Street, biting the curb. Heather bounced in the seat and laughed to herself. Her friend was the worst driver she knew.

Victoria didn’t seem to notice that she’d narrowly missed hitting the mailbox on the corner. “Of course. This is exciting. I’m happy for you,” she said, but her voice sounded forcibly chipper.

“I’m really sorry I’m leaving, Vic.”

“It’s totally fine. I knew you weren’t planning to stay forever.”

Even so, Heather couldn’t help but feel guilty. Victoria had lost her best friend and business partner in an accident five months before...and now Heather, too, was leaving. Her friend had been there for her when she’d lost so much, and abandoning her now made her stomach knot. “If you need me to stay longer...” Please, please, don’t say you need me to stay longer.

“No. You’re taking this opportunity—you deserve it. We really need to start thinking about a more permanent situation at the inn anyway.” She paused. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll go with you,” she said, teasing, but there was definite longing in her voice.

“You love your life here, don’t you?” Her friend had married her high school sweetheart, she was running a successful business, and now she was a mother to a beautiful baby girl. If she wasn’t happy with her choices, she was a terrific actress.

“Yes! Of course...it’s just some days, I miss it. I miss the city and the career...and feeling as though I was more than just mom and wife, you know?”

Actually, she didn’t, so she just nodded. Like her career-minded parents in the early days of their marriage, she’d never really felt a longing to have a family. She wondered if, like them, she’d have that urge someday. She wasn’t sure she would, and at thirty-five, her time to make the decision was growing short. Right now, she wanted to focus on putting the part of her life she knew she wanted back on track.

Main Street was anything but its usual calm as they approached. She frowned as Victoria parked, taking up two spaces outside Lily Duke’s clothing store. Daisies and Dukes was partitioned off with yellow police tape, and both sheriff cars were parked on the street in front of the building. The large storefront window was shattered, and the holiday display was destroyed.

“What on earth?” Victoria asked as she shut off the truck.

The two women climbed out and headed for the entrance.

“Sorry, ladies, this is a crime scene. We’re not allowing anyone inside,” Jake said, blocking their entrance to the store. Hands at his hips, a serious scowl on his handsome features, he looked...different. A good different.

Fantastic, her attraction to authority figures was turning her insides to mush. This is Jake, not a hot police officer, she reminded herself.

Well, actually...

She glanced around him. Lily was inside, her head in her hands, sitting at the counter. Lindsay and Noah were there with her. “They’re inside.” She pointed to the group.

“Yeah, they were here before us,” he mumbled.

“Well, pretend we were, too,” she said. She grabbed Victoria’s arm and moved past him.

“Hi, guys,” Lily said, glancing up as they entered, ignoring Jake’s protests.

Sheriff Bishop waved as he assessed the damage in the window. “Good morning, ladies.”

“What happened?” Victoria asked.

“Looks like someone threw a brick or something through the window last night. When I arrived this morning, it looked like this.” Lily bit her lip and stared at the mess of her window display.

“If there’d been an alarm...” Jake said behind them.

“Shh,” Heather told him. Lily was upset enough. No point making her feel worse.

“Just saying,” Jake said, but he stopped his spiel.

“Was anything stolen?” Victoria asked.

“Not that we can tell,” Lindsay said. “Noah said even the back safe wasn’t tampered with.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” Heather glanced around the store. All of the display racks were neatly arranged, and nothing seemed out of place except the glass in the front of the store. Looked like a case of minor vandalism. Brookhollow had had a graffiti problem for a few months before Jake arrived and scared all the teens stupid. This appeared to be a similar issue.

But Lily shook her head. “Not really. That means this was probably a warning.” Her hands were shaking, and her voice was unsteady. She was terrified.

“Why would you think that? Were any other buildings hit?” Heather couldn’t imagine why anyone would warn Lily about anything. She was one of the sweetest, nicest women she’d ever met.

Lindsay pulled them aside. “She’s freaked-out because her ex-husband was released from jail in Newark yesterday,” she whispered, casting a quick glance toward their friend.

Well, that explained why Lily was so distraught. She’d fled her abusive ex almost two years ago. “That’s awful.”

Victoria’s eyes were wide. “There’s no way he could know where she is, though, right?”

Lindsay shrugged. “We hope not.”

Heather sighed, but then her gaze landed on Jake, and she narrowed her eyes. She marched over to him. “Did you do this?” she hissed.

“Are you insane? I’m a cop,” he said.

“Yeah. One with something to prove.”

“Excuse me?”

“You want us all to start taking security seriously...”

“Do you hear yourself?” he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

For the first time, she noticed he wore a bulletproof vest over his jacket. “Expecting a shoot-out?” She raised an eyebrow, but again the sight of him in uniform was...uncomfortably intriguing.

He opened his mouth to answer, but a woman’s voice in the doorway caught everyone’s attention.

“Hello...”

“I’m sorry, we’re closed this morning,” Lily said.

“Did you not see police tape outside?” Jake asked. “Seriously—everyone out!” he barked. Clearly he was at the end of his rope with everyone disregarding his authority.

Lindsay and Noah started to protest, but Lily nodded. “It’s okay, guys. I’m good. Listen to Sheriff Matthews.”

“Um...sorry, we didn’t mean to cross the tape, but my son has something to say,” the woman in the doorway said, nudging a boy in a hoodie and baseball cap into the store.

The kid looked to be about fourteen; his head was down and his shoulders were slumped forward. “I wanted to apologize. I broke your window last night,” he told Lily.

“You did?” Relief, not anger, was evident in her voice.

“Yeah. It was an accident. A couple of guys and I were having a snowball fight after we left the diner...”