Page 12 of A Spot of Trouble
“Not so much news as gossip, really.” But once word got out to the general public, Sam’s smug face would probably be staring back at her from the front page of theTurtle Beach Gazette. “Accurate,verifiablegossip.”
“Spit it out, Vi,” Josh said blithely.
What a joy it was to live with three men. Sometimes Violet really missed her mother. It was possible to miss someone you’d never really known, wasn’t it?
“Fine.” She cleared her throat. “You know the new fire marshal?”
“You mean the guy with the dog that looks just like Sprinkles?” Joe said. Sprinkles cocked her head and bounded toward him at the mention of her name.
“The one you wanted us to throw in jail?” Josh added.
“Yes, that one,” Violet said primly. She was never going to live it down, was she?
“I caught a glimpse of that dog myself, yesterday.” Her dad shook his head. “It was an honest mistake, Cupcake. It could have happened to anybody.”
But it hadn’t happened to just anybody. Like most of the embarrassing things around here, it had happened to Violet. Then she’d tried to shower Sam with apology cupcakes, and the situation had gone from bad to worse.
“Thanks, Dad.” She took a deep breath. Her poor father had no idea what was coming. “Anyway, you’re about to wish for a real reason to toss the new fire marshal in jail, especially this Saturday.”
Her father’s smile faded. “Saturday, as in opening game day of Guns and Hoses?”
Both of Violet’s brothers grew still, their faces etched with matching expressions of concern.
There was no other way to say it, so she just blurted out the truth. “Sam’s a ringer. He’s in the collegiate Hall of Fame and could have played professional baseball but joined the fire department instead.”
Now that she thought about it, Sam had made a most unusual choice—aheroicchoice, as much as she loathed to think about him in such glowing terms. It wasn’t every day that someone gave up a lucrative sports career to fight fires.
“You’re kidding,” Joe said flatly.
Josh shook his head. “No way. I don’t believe it.”
Violet’s father didn’t say a word, even as his face turned an alarming shade of red.
“It’s true. He’s even got a framed newspaper article about it hanging on the wall of his office,” Violet said.
Seriously, who did that? There was nothing that could explain that level of egotism. Sam might be a literal hero, but he was also obviously some sort of Dalmatian-loving narcissist.
“This is bad,” Josh said.
Joe nodded. “Really bad.”
“Surely there’s something we can do. Does Turtle Beach evenneeda fire marshal?” Josh’s gaze slid to their father.
The older man’s brows drew together. “It’s Murray’s call. Emmett left, and it’s up to the chief to replace him with whomever he sees fit.”
Oh, so this whole mess ismyfault?Violet’s chest went tight. No one could seem to look directly at her all of a sudden, just like every other time Emmett’s name came up in conversation.
Sprinkles abandoned Joe to tiptoe toward Violet and drop her sweet spotted head into Violet’s lap. She rubbed one of the Dalmatian’s soft, supple ears between her thumb and forefinger and wondered if any of this would be happening if her mother were still alive. Surely not.
Violet had never known her mom. Adeline March had always been something of a legend in Turtle Beach—the hometown girl everyone fell in love with, most notably police chief Ed March and fire chief Murray Jones. After she died giving birth to Violet, it was as if the whole town lost its mind.
At least that’s what Violet’s friends at the retirement center always said. Adeline’s untimely passing cast a long shadow over their quaint little island, and sometimes Violet still felt like a little girl, fumbling her way through the dark.
“Maybe it’s time to put an end to the annual tournament,” Violet said as calmly as she could manage. “Don’t you think twenty-eight years is long enough?”
Nearly three decades, and somehow, the animosity between the two teams grew deeper and deeper every year. Whoever coined the phrase “time heals all wounds” had clearly never sat through nine innings of Turtle Beach’s first responders doing their best to annihilate one another on the softball diamond.
Josh snorted. “You can’t be serious. We’re not going to run scared just because Chief Murray brought in a ringer.”
