Recognizing an opportunity to get information about my future wife from the gossipy dispatcher, I leaned on the corner of her desk. “What do you mean?”
Marci gave me a considering look, no doubt wondering why I’d shut down all of her other attempts at gossip until today.
“She had a rough childhood, from what I hear. She moved here with her husband after they got married. He was one of those who insisted that his wife needed to stay home with their kid, then he cheated on her for years before he dumped her for some chippy half his age. Left her with nothing but their house. No income, no savings, nothing.”
“Wow.”
“She bounced around doing odd jobs for a while, then the Petersons announced they were retiring and moving to Florida. Evie used to work for them when she was a kid, and she spent a lot of time at that store over the years, so she asked them to sell it to her. Our Evie’s a smart one. When she couldn’t get a business loan, she did a big fundraising thing online, and got enough money to buy the store and do the remodeling to add the café on top. I think everyone in town contributed. She also set up an online store, and I hear the business makes much more profit than it did when the Petersons ran it.”
“How do you know that?”
“My nephew is her accountant.”
I shook my head, wondering at the gossip network in small towns.
“So, um, she’s single then?”
The gleam in Marci’s eyes told me that this question would be all over town in half an hour. Maybe less. She leaned forward.
“She’s done a lot of dating, but never anyone serious, not since her divorce.”
Before she could ask me any questions, I thanked her and pushed off her desk, heading towards my office to do some paperwork. It was shocking how much paperwork was involved in being chief. And if I periodically stopped to daydream about Evie, well, that was my secret.
I spent a restless night trying to figure out how to get close to Evie. I knew instinctively that she wouldn’t make it easy for me. But I’d seen her eyeing my biceps and staring at me when she thought I wasn’t looking, and that gave me hope.
The next morning, I couldn’t keep myself from stopping by the bookstore. I told myself that it was just to make sure she didn’t have any more trouble, but I was lying. The truth was, I was dying to see her. I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since I saw her the day before.
When I walked into the store, the first thing I saw was Evie’s heart-shaped ass sticking up in the air. My dick twitched as I saw her on hands and knees, scrubbing at the floor. I had a sudden flash of me taking Evie from behind and had to take a deep breath to calm down before I was rocking a hard-on.
I cleared my throat and she looked at me over her shoulder. Her face hardened as soon as she saw it was me. I glanced past her to see she was cleaning red paint off the floor.
“What happened?” I asked.
She pushed up to sit on her heels. Today she was wearing faded jeans with a dark red short-sleeved knit top. Bracelets jangled on both wrists.
“Someone broke in again and spraypainted ‘get out’ on my damn tile,” she snapped. “It’s a pain in the ass to clean off.”
“Why didn’t you call it in to the station?” I asked.
“Because you did nothing yesterday, so why would I waste my time?”
I strode over to get a closer look. I could still see the faint outline of the words ‘get out’ on the tile despite what looked like vigorous scrubbing.
“Tell me everything.”
She sighed and pushed to standing, lifting her chin to meet my eyes. We were only like a foot apart, and for a second, I completely forgot what we were talking about. Her eyes were fascinating, dark brown but they seemed to have gold flecks that I hadn’t noticed yesterday. My heart sped up.
“I tripled checked the locks before I left last night,” she told me, her voice dripping with annoyance. “Both doors were still locked when I came in today, but there was this little love note.”
She pointed to the paint on the ground.
“Anything else messed with?”
“No.”
I pulled out my little notebook and took notes. “What time did you leave last night.”
“Nine o’clock.”