Page 20 of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

I knew all about Mo and Molly. They’d spent more time than I liked trying to convince everyone I was a fraud, but thankfully, they’d moved on to Magnolia Steele andThe C-Mark Serial Killer Podcast.

“Do you know if there are any maps in town showing where all your investigations took place?” she asked with a hopeful look. “That would surely keep Brad and the kids busy for a few hours. Because Ireallywant to spend some quality time with Teddy.”

“Yeah,” I said. “No maps. Sorry.” I knew I didn’t sound like I meant it, but…really!How dare she! “Teddy’s all tied up today.” But as soon as the words left my mouth, I instantly regretted them.

Her eyes lit up, and she licked her upper lip. “Yum. Yum. I could get into that.”

I took a step back in horror, refusing to think of my cousin in some kind of bondage situation, and then the door dinged behind me. I backed into the broad chest of my boyfriend, Luke Montgomery, the Sweet Briar police chief.

He grabbed my upper arms to steady me, then moved to my side and wrapped an arm around my lower back, tugging me into him.

“Hey, darlin’. You that happy to see me?” he asked with a wide grin.

“You have no idea,” I said, keeping my eyes pinned on Teddy’s biggest fan.

Her eyes brightened, and it only took me a hot second to realize she would happily exchange my cousin for my boyfriend.

“Good mornin’, Sheriff,” she said, batting her eyelashes, then flashing him a come-hither look she couldn’t quite pull off.

Luke leaned a bit closer. “That’s chief, not sheriff,” he said distractedly, keeping his gaze on her. “You got something in your eye, ma’am?”

She looked slightly put out. “What? No.” Then she sidled closer to him and squeezed his bare bicep just beneath the short sleeve of his uniform shirt. “You sure do grow ’em big here, don’t you?”

“Well,” Luke said, taking a step back and casting a questioning glance at me. “It’s all the clean country air.”

“Who are you talking to, Mommy?” her little girl asked her, latching on to her leg.

The woman sighed as she glanced down at her daughter. Brad was now sniffing the muffins through the plastic while Sandy, the cashier, was not so patiently waiting.

“I take it y’all are visiting our fine town?” Luke asked, laying on his usual charm, but it sounded strained.

The woman’s head bobbed. “When Brad said he was taking us to Pensacola for fall break, I said, ‘Brad, we havegotto stop in Sweet Briar and see thatGotcha!girl.’ And Brad, well, he knows better than to put up a fuss, so here we are, and as I said, he liked that podcast and all.”

Luke stiffened at the mention of the podcast. Mo and Molly hadn’t been very kind to him either, but he’d seemed more affronted about them questioning my character.

“Well, isn’t that nice,” he said, not even trying to sound like he meant it.

“I’d like to file a complaint,” the woman said in a deep voice that she’d probably intended to sound sexy, but instead it smacked of a truck driver who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day inside his truck, sucking in plenty of secondhand smoke to boot. “Can I stop by your office to talk to you in person?”

“How about we talk about it here?” Luke said, casting a glance back at the woman’s husband, who was still oblivious. He’d left the muffins and was now sniffing bananas.

She batted her eyelashes again. “We need privacy for what I need to talk to you about.”

His arm tightened around me.

I forced a smile. I’d love nothing more than to tell this woman off, but my temper had been what landed me in Sweet Briar in the first place. I took Luke’s hand, linking our fingers, and realized that things hadn’t ended up so badly. Nevertheless, I didn’t need the bad press.

“Actually,” I said, “he’s busy today, but y’all have a great time in Sweet Briar.” Then I dragged him out the door and down the sidewalk, not stopping until I’d locked us in my office and had taken him into the back room.

He grinned down at me, mischief filling his eyes. “Missed me, huh?”

I reached up on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss, but he wasn’t having any part of that. He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me to his chest, deepening the kiss.

“I missed you last night,” he murmured against my lips. “Makes me want to pawn off night duty on Willy and the sheriff’s department.”

He had night duty once or twice a week, which usually consisted of being on call, but lately, the department had been busier. Sometimes I stayed with him while he was on call, but last night I’d stayed out at the farm.

“How’d your shift go?”

---