Page 1 of Wine and Research
Chapter One
Mainlining coffee wasn’t working.
At a literal loss for words, Elle Hudson set her empty mug down and sighed. It was her third cup in two hours, and the first time in her writing career that consuming the brew hadn’t helped percolate words.
She got up from the table to look out the window of the quaint little cabin she rented in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The beauty of spring’s awakening, woven into the mountains in a vibrancy of greens, warmed her heart and spoke to her soul.
Too bad her brain was still hibernating.
Elle had been here almost eleven months already. At first, she enjoyed the beauty and solitude and had allowed herself to relax and soak in the scenery, as well as observe and mingle with the locals. She’d even taken a job as a server at the town’s diner. It had been a great way to get to know people and do the “observe and mingle” thing with ease. During that time, she’d developed a soft spot for the elderly owner, Henry “Gabe” Gablonski, and she still worked there on occasion.
That form of research had been easy and still was, unlike her other efforts.
Fleshing out a police procedural romance series had turned out to be a lot harder than she’d expected…thanks to the officer assigned to take her on ride-alongs last year.
Somehow, Elle had managed to outline the entire four-book series and each individual book, but now the deadline for the first was looming, and she had barely managed to write the first two chapters.
She knew what she needed—what she’d already set in motion again—she just didn’t want to need it.
Or him.
Officer Jeremy Mercer.
Her heart skipped a beat despite the fact she didn’t like the guy.
He was as arrogant as he was handsome, and the combination drove her nuts. Blue eyes as bright as the sky, broad shoulders and muscled body perfectly outlined in his uniform, and the personality of a rock. The guy was immovable, impenetrable, insufferable…and sexy as all get out.
Elle hated her attraction to him, and yeah, she was attracted to the jerk. Why else would she have dreams about him, with his blue eyes heated and muscled body naked and entangled with hers?
Her heart did more skipping, and she set her head to the window and groaned. No sense in prolonging the inevitable. Sighing, she pushed away from the window, saved her work before shutting down her laptop, then walked across the open concept cabin to the lone bedroom to grab the phone she’d stupidly left charging on the nightstand. She didn’t have it charging from her laptop because that would’ve made sense. Just another casualty of her dormant brain.
Grumbling, she unhooked her phone and checked the screen, noting one text and a missed call. The text from her friend, Sophia, reminding her about their get together for dinner at the local pizza shop tomorrow night. Elle sent her an “I’ll be there” response, then redialed her missed call from Gabe.
“Elle, thanks for calling me back,” he said, with the sound of dishes clanking in the background. “I know you’re writing and hate to bother you, but I’m in a bind. Shorthanded. Two out of my three servers called off. One is sick and the other has a sick child. Poor Mary is trying to hold down the ship, but you knowhow Sunday afternoons can be, so I’m trying to get her some help before noon.”
Sunday mornings weren’t a walk in the park either. Poor Mary. Great food with great service made The Pocono Eatery—A.K.A. Gabe’s—a popular stop for locals and tourists.
“Of course, I’ll come in,” Elle said without hesitation. She wasn’t getting any writing done anyway.
Besides, Gabe was like the uncle she never had, and considering her father, mother, and brother were all dead, it made him the closest thing she had to family.
“Thank you,” he said, relief evident in the sigh that rustled through the phone. “You’re a doll. Mary and I can handle things right now, so don’t rush.”
She nodded as if he could see her. “I’ll be there within the hour.”
After she hung up, she changed out of her T-shirt and sweatpants and into a light green blouse and tan pants before slipping her feet into the nonslip shoes she’d purchased just for work. Gabe didn’t enforce a dress code, other than no cutoff shorts. The only thing he required was for his servers to wear one of his blue and white checkered aprons. She didn’t mind. The pockets in them were good for tips, her pad and pen for orders, and her other pad and pen for jotting down notes and ideas that always hit at unexpected moments. She was always prepared.
She was also stalling.
Straightening her spine, Elle gripped her phone and before she could chicken out, she called the precinct and asked to speak to Lt. Kroeger. Half expecting to be told he was unavailable, she was shocked enough to raise a brow when she was put right through.
“Ms. Hudson, what can I do for you?” he asked in a pleasant tone that was foreign to her and sent surprise rippling through her chest.
The lieutenant had never been rude to her when she’d met with him for the first-time last year, but she got the impression he was less than happy to grant her request to shadow his department for her research. His upbeat greeting this morning hadn’t been what she’d expected, or she would’ve bitten the bullet and called him two weeks ago when her writing ran out of steam.
This was a pleasant and welcome surprise. Hopefully, his new attitude would remain when she asked to shadow some more.
If she had to guess, the fact that the mayor was a big fan of her books may have changed his outlook about her research.
