Page 128 of Callahan

I chided myself, “Repeat after me Lainey Marie Beaumont. You arenotin love with Adam Callahan!”

Period. End of story.

But there was nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that seemed to indicate otherwise.

I’ll prove it by going on a date with Justin Weaver and falling in love withhim!

Take that, Adam!

Now, I needed the good doctor to ask me out already.

And maybe I should contact a lawyer about my rights if Earl tried to evict me.

Chapter Forty-Five

Adam

Tuesday night after Brian and I installed the new camera at the front of the building, Lainey went back to her apartment, and I stayed my first night in the Garcia’s house.

It was a beautiful home, but it was going to take some time to get used to the quiet of living alone. Not to mention, the groans the older Craftsman made in the middle of the night.

My body had gotten used to waking up at three a.m. to feed Conor, and precisely at three minutes after three, I found myself staring at the ceiling.

I wondered if the little guy was awake yet, and if Lainey was doing okay.

Arresting Bess had been a shock, but I was glad that part of the saga was over. I was anxious to see what a deep dive into the electronics we seized said about Earl’s involvement.

And I still needed to figure out who attacked me. One thing I knew, it wasn’t that pudgy bastard and certainly hadn’t been his crazy-ass wife.

I wasn’t leaving town until that was solved.

I grabbed my phone from the charger on the nightstand and scrolled to the app with the cameras for Lainey’s backstairs and bakery front.

I did a “live” view and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, then swiped through the videos taken earlier whenever the motion detector had been activated.

Again, nothing more remarkable than a wandering dog with a collar who’d obviously escaped his yard, sniffing around the stairs. I had a feeling if I showed Brian the video, he’d know exactly who the pup belonged to and would probably insist we stop by tomorrow to make sure it had gotten home safe.

That was the part about policing in Haven Springs that I had been looking forward to. But I knew I was holding back from fully committing myself to the job and people of the town. I didn’t want to get too invested here.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Lainey got involved with someone else, and I cut bait.

On a brighter note, Alan had texted he was stopping at a hotel for the night but would be arriving tomorrow afternoon.

I couldn’t wait to see my big brother and show him around my new little, temporary town.

And driving my Bronco again.

~~~~

After lunch, Brian and I were on our way to settle a feud between Mr. Radcliffe and Mr. Williams over azalea bushes, when my phone rang.

I saw who was calling and answered it.

“Hey! You’re on speaker in front of my boss, so don’t say anything inappropriate!”

“Well, as long as it’s not that asshole, Brian, you keep talking about, we should be fine.”

I couldn’t help but smile.Of coursethat’s something my brother would say.

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