Page 47 of Perfect Harmony

Sean muttered something under his breath. “Youneed to hire another deputy. Twelve just ain’t enough with this town gettingbigger by the year. I’m gonna set up a meeting with the mayor. The HarmonyFalls downtown business association has been talking for months about how the crimedowntown is steadily increasing. In another month, it’ll only be worse whenthe tourists arrive.”

Gideon took another sip of coffee as Seansat back in the booth. “You’ll get that idiot Darryl to do another drive-bythen?”

“Yes, I’ll talk to him,” Gideon said. “Aswell, I know who the group of teens are you’re talking about. I’ll have a talkwith them about respecting your property.”

“Thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate that.”Sean’s nervous energy relaxed a fraction more. “You know I just care about thistown and the people. Anyway, I’d better run. Brenda’s shift doesn’t start foranother half hour and it’s dangerous to leave Shelly alone at the till. Swearto God, that woman loses me more money through till mistakes during a shift thanwhat I pay her.”

“Before you go,” Gideon said, “you heard thatWanda’s doing a silent auction and dinner for a cancer fundraiser, right?”

“Ayuh, I heard,” Sean said.

“Good. We’re looking for donations for thesilent auction from local businesses. You can donate a product, or you canmake a cash donation. Which would you like to do?”

Sean scratched at his smooth jaw. “I dunno,sales have been down as of late.”

“You can write it off as a businessexpense,” Grace said.

Sean eyed her before nodding. “I guess Icould do a donation. You take cheques?”

“We do,” Gideon said.

Sean reached into his wallet and produced asingle cheque. “You got a pen?”

Gideon handed him a pen and Sean wrote outthe cheque before handing it over. “I gotta go. Good-bye, Sheriff. Nice tomeetcha’, Grace Larken.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Grace said as Seanslid out of the booth.

He walked away and Grace stared in surpriseat Gideon.

“What?” he said.

“That was… unexpected.”

He smiled again at her and her breath caughtin her throat. Two smiles from Gideon in less than an hour? WhatTwilight Zoneepisode had she fallen into?

“Trust me,” he said as Georgia arrived withtheir food, “you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Chapter Nine

“You have no idea how impressed I am right now,”Grace said.

Gideon grinned and wiggled his eyebrows ather before downing half the water in his glass. Grace figured his throat hadto be bone dry after all the talking he’d done in the last two hours.

Scratch that, she decided. It was lesstalking and more listening to the over a dozen people who had joined them intheir booth.

“At least now I know how you can eat at Nan’severy morning and not gain weight.” Grace pointed to Gideon’s half-eaten plateof now cold food.

She sat back in the booth. “Does thishappen every morning?”

“Yes.” Georgia arrived and cleared theirplates. “Every single damn morning. Sheriff sits down, and anywhere from adozen to two dozen people join him and air their complaints. Even when he’snot in uniform, they want to talk about their problems to him.”

“It’s not all complaints,” Gideon said.

“It’s mostly complaints mixed in with astupid amount of gossip. God, the people in this town are worse than a bunchof preteen girls with their gossip. Such is the life of a small town, am I right?”Georgia grabbed Grace’s plate. “You want a refill on your coffee?”

“Sure,” Grace said. “Thanks, Georgia.”

“No problem.” Georgia walked away.

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