Page 18 of Break Away
When he was in town, he’d spend eveningsshooting pool at Hangman’s Brew Pub, so she’d made a point of beingthere. If the Gallaghers had a family gathering at the park, she’dbe at the park, too. She always got her coffee from Maddy’s café,making a point to chat with her future sister-in-law.
Charissa knew everything about theGallaghers. Theirs was the kind of family she’d always craved.She’d been an only child of an alcoholic single mother, but whenshe married Levi, the Gallagher family would be hers. She’d have abrother and two sisters, and Trish Gallagher, who had once been sokind to her, would be her mother-in-law. Charissa wondered if shewould call Trish “Mom.”
Now was the time to act. Hangman’s Loss wasLevi’s home and he’d finally returned. They would get married, andthis time the beautiful babies would be hers, hers and Levi’s.
She watched the lighted window of thecottage, relieved beyond measure when the door opened and Leviwalked out. He and Zoey had been together inside her house for toolong, but Charissa was thankful he’d had better sense than to spendthe night with the hippie woman. Maybe Zoey needed a warning not tooverstep the boundaries. And if she didn’t pay attention to thewarning and kept throwing herself at Levi, well then, more directaction would be taken.
Chapter Six
Levi locked the door of the cabin and walkedto his vehicle. He was enjoying working for the HLPD. Reconnectingwith the community, learning what changes had come over the pastten years, what had stayed the same, was all good. Big drawback?The uniform. As a detective in Oakland he’d been able to wearwhatever the hell he’d wanted, but now here he was in a navy shirt,name and badge on his chest, captain’s bars on his lapel. It wouldtake some getting used to. Extra-big drawback? The body armor underthe shirt. Necessary, but hotter than hell.
At least the morning air was cool, and thenthere was the call of a red-tailed hawk echoing through the trees.Gotta like that. The coffee he sipped from his travel mug gave himhis first hit of caffeine. It wasn’t as good as Maddy’s, but he’dget a refill at the café later.
He tried not to burn his fingers on therecently nuked Jimmy Dean egg and sausage breakfast sandwich. Heblew on it, took a bite, and deemed it not bad. This morning washis last with the Suburban. He had the weekend off, and one morechore to handle. He was driving the hearse back to Oakland andretrieving his motorcycle.
Settling behind the wheel, he started theengine and made the three-point turn to head for the road. Hittingthe brakes had coffee sloshing in the mug. Bear dog sat in thepatch of sunlight wearing her dog backpack, face turned up and eyesclosed like she was worshipping the sun goddess. He edged forward afew more feet, and when she didn’t move, he lowered the window andwhistled. Her eyes opened, ears perked up, and he tossed a chunk ofsandwich onto the side of the road. Bear dog heaved herself ontoall fours and sauntered to give the sandwich a sniff, beforeturning to face Levi.
“What, now you won’t eat without the magicword?”
He wasn’t fooled by the nonchalant act. Thatdog was drooling enough to fill a kiddie pool. “Crickets.” Like aswitch had flipped, the dog leapt on the sandwich, and Levi drovepast her with a grin.
***
Thirteen hours later he returned from work innot nearly as good a mood. For one, Charissa what’s-her-name hadrun into him at the café. Literally. He’d gone to Maddy’s for thatrefill and he’d ended up with coffee dumped on his pants. The smellhad stayed with him all damn day.
Charissa had always been a bit weird, and thecoffee spill wouldn’t have been a big deal, except it hadn’t feltlike an accident. Then he and another officer had responded to alate afternoon call to Hangman’s Brew Pub where a couple of broswere following up their morning fishing venture with liquidrefreshments of the alcoholic variety. What the hell would leadfriends to duke it out over who tied the best fly-fishing lure?Levi had a suspicion that a fight over the lures was more a fightover the size of their dicks. Even that wouldn’t have messed withhis mood, but the domestic violence call that followed had. As theyalways did. Especially when kids were involved.
Seeing the blue Prius coming from the otherdirection when he turned into his driveway was a nice distraction,particularly when it followed him. He parked, then walked to whereZoey stood next to the open door of her little car.
He had to admire her effort to tame the hotearth-chick look for work. The khaki and green Forest Serviceuniform camouflaged her curves, the beaded bracelets were absentfrom her wrist, and she’d tried to subjugate the wild curls into abraid down her back.
“C’mon, Lucy. Out.”
Levi dipped his head to peer into thebackseat. “Big dog, little car. I’m surprised she fits.” Bear dogsat on a thick mat that covered the seat and wore her doggybackpack. The seatbelt had a strap thing that looked like itattached to the sturdy karabiner ring on the pack. Sitting up,Lucy’s head brushed the headliner of the roof. She ignored him,staring straight forward.
Zoey bent down, her head next to Levi’s.
“She doesn’t want to come out?”
“No, she loves going to work with me, whichis what she did today. We did a survey of pika in a talus nearObsidian Dome. She thinks if she stays in the car her excellent daywon’t end.” Lucy looked at them, then returned to gaze out thewindshield. Levi felt Zoey’s frustrated sigh against his cheek. Shemoved closer and sniffed. “Did you have a donut with thatcoffee?”
“Ha. Do you think I haven’t heard every copjoke out there?”
“I couldn’t resist, but you do smell likecoffee.” She reached in and grabbed Lucy’s collar. “Come on, Lucy.Out.”
Lucy braced her feet and didn’t move so muchas an inch.
“You need a Slim Jim to bribe her.”
The minute “Slim Jim” was out of his mouth,Lucy whipped her head around so fast drool splattered thewindows.
He caught the shaming look from Zoey.
“A Jimmy Dean biscuit sandwich worked thismorning. And it’s a good thing I know the magic word.”
“You’re poisoning my dog.”
“She looks healthy to me. Want a Slim Jim,big girl? I restocked.”
