Page 2 of Wine and Research
Whatever the reason, Elle was grateful. The less heads she had to butt to get her research done, the better.
“Do you need to do more ride-alongs?” he asked before she had the chance.
Once again, surprise rippled through her.
“Yes,” she replied, more than relieved at the ease of the conversation. “I just need another week or two to get everything nailed down and make sure I represent the force correctly.”
This series was very special to Elle. She was writing it to honor the men and women in blue, especially the officer who gave his life trying to save her brother twenty-five years ago. Her chest squeezed tightly. Neither of them had survived, but she respected the man and his sacrifice.
“No problem,” the lieutenant said, sounding sincere. “Come by the precinct tomorrow morning around ten.”
She experienced another bout of that rippling surprise. The guy was three for three.
“I will. Thank you so much, Lt. Kroeger.”
When they hung up, she sank down on her bed and stared at the darkened phone in her hand. That conversation had not gone at all the way she’d expected. Maybe her luck was changing. Maybe she wouldn’t be paired with officerhot-n-coldthis time.
Maybe she should worry about all of that tomorrow and get her butt to the diner.
At thirty minutes to noon, Elle walked into Gabe’s, pleased to see it was only half filled and that Mary had everything under control. Although the relief lighting the woman’s eyes told her she was happy for the help.
“Bless you for coming in, Elle,” Mary said while refilling a customer’s coffee cup.
She smiled. “No problem. Let me grab my apron, then you can tell me how you want to split up the tables.”
Elle greeted Gabe behind the counter with a kiss on the cheek before heading into the back.
Mary, the sixty-seven-year-old bundle of energy, soon followed. “If you can take the next few who come in, it’ll give the ones already here a chance to finish up, then we can split the place like normal.”
“Sounds good,” she replied, tying her apron.
This meant Mary took the window booths and half the tables, and Elle took the wall booths and the other half of the tables.
After glancing at the daily special written on a dry erase board, she returned to the dining room just as the bell attached to the bar on the glass door jingled, signaling the arrival of customers.
“Elle, I didn’t know you were working today,” Sophia Nardovino said with a grin, just inside the door, holding her fiancé’s hand.
Sophia was one of the first friends she’d made in this town.
“Yeah, I thought you’d started writing,” Ryder said.
Not only was the handsome brown-eyed, brown-haired man her friend’s fiancé, he was also Gabe’s son, and Elle’s landlord. He was the owner of the cute cabin she’d grown to cherish.
Smiling, she shrugged. “I wasn’t and I am. You two want the usual?”
“Yes,” they both replied.
“All right. Grab a seat.” She nodded toward the empty tables and booths. “I’ll put in your order and be right back with your drinks.”
“Grab Phoebe’s and Ethan’s too. They’re going to join us,” Sophia said.
Again, she nodded. “Will do.”
Ethan Wyne was one of four brothers who owned and operated a large resort ten miles out of town, and his wife, Phoebe, was a world-famous actress who opened a theater behind the resort. Sophia was a set designer who worked with Phoebe at the theater. Elle enjoyed the company of creative minds and had hit it off with them a few weeks after she’d settled in last year.
She’d actually hit it off with a lot of people in the friendly town.
In the beginning, she’d only intended to stay long enough to write her first book, but now, Elle was considering sticking around until she finished the series. It wasn’t like anyone was waiting for her to return home…if you could call the house she owned in upstate New York a home. Other than writing there, she wasn’t around long enough to grow roots. Once Elle surfaced from her writing cave, she usually took off again. If she wasn’t at book signings, she was traveling and doing research.
