Page 276 of Love Bites

Reserved under “Adelynn,”

I’ll be waiting for you.

The sight of Addy’s name made my legs shaky from the neck down. I slumped into my chair.

“What’s it say?” Mona hovered over me, her forehead crinkled with concern.

I handed the card to her and scrambled for my cell phone.

She scanned it. “How does he know Addy’s name?”

“I don’t know.” How in the hell was I supposed to keep my little girl safe with so many monsters prowling throughout this damned town? I punched in Jeff Wymonds’ phone number. It rang twice and then I heard a click. I didn’t wait to hear his voice. “Jeff, it’s Violet. Have you been sending me flowers with little notes?”

“No,” he answered. “Why? Should I be? Is that how I become one of your specialfriends?”

“No. Goodbye, Jeff.” I ended the call and sighed. “This can’t be good, can it?”

“What can’t be good?” Jane asked, pouring a cup of coffee.

I’d been so busy gnawing on my knuckles, weighing the pros and cons of shipping my kids to boarding school in another state, I hadn’t heard the clomp of her heels on the floor. “Uhhh.”

“The city planners’ idea to add another stoplight on Main Street,” Mona said, covering for me … again.

“Oh, right.” Jane joined us at my desk, her gaze locked onto me. “How did it go yesterday afternoon?”

“Pretty well.” I knew she was referring to my supposed house-showing jaunt, but Addy was alive and breathing, Wolfgang wasn’t pissed at me for standing him up, and Harvey had landed a date with one of the hospital’s blue-haired candy-stripers. All in all, Lady Fortune’s umbrella had shielded me and mine from what could have been a real downpour. “Here’s that information you wanted.”

“Thanks.” She took the copies I held out. “So where did you go yesterday?”

I sat up in my chair, doing my best not to fidget. “All over Deadwood.” No lying there. Harvey and I had covered the town from one end of the gulch to the other.

“Any bites?”

“Just a nip,” I answered, thinking of Doc’s stinginganything for a friendchomp. “But today is a new day.”

“I like your attitude, Violet.”

“Thanks.” I smiled. Mona had taught me during my first week at Calamity Jane’s that optimism would carry me a long way with the boss toward the sweet land of good graces.

“I’d like it even more if you had something to show for it.” Jane nodded her head at the Sale Pending board.

Me, too!I gulped, but kept my chin held high. “I will.”

“I hope so, Violet. I really do.” Jane squeezed my shoulder. “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help get your name on the board.”

I waited until Jane had returned to her office and closed the door before crawling under my desk and huddling there with my arms wrapped around my knees.

Mona rolled aside my chair and peeked in at me, her reading glasses dangling from her neck. “Vi, what are you doing?”

“Hiding.”

“From whom?”

“The world.”

“Sweetheart, you’re going to need to find a better hiding spot to accomplish that.”

The sound of someone clearing his throat spurred Mona upright. I peered out from under my desk and spotted a pair of black boots draped with blue jeans standing smack-dab on the front door’s threshold.

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