Page 6 of Kissing Her Rescuer

“It's fine. Go ahead over there, and I'll give her a call.” Her dad seemed to always find an excuse to talk to his future bride. No one else could handle her dad in the years since she'd left Statem after her mom died. His gruff almost mean personality alienated virtually everyone aside from poor Juliana, who’d put up with the brunt of it. But now, Juliana was off with her own fiancé, Grayson, and their dad was marrying a woman who seemed made for him. And Eliza still had to figure out her life beyond merely surviving.

“C'mon!” Carrie set her half-eaten, totally licked muffin back into the box still open on the desk, and jumped down.

Eliza grimaced. “Sorry about that.” She grabbed the muffin and let it fall into the garbage.

Becky shrugged. “The rest of these are going to the Sheriff's Office. I would’ve put a note on the box to earmark that particular muffin for Cameron.” She handed the box of muffins to Eliza. “But you can take them on your way to Iris’s house. I don't want to run into him.”

“It's not like you to avoid a fight. Especially one with Cameron.”

Becky twirled her engagement ring around her ring finger. “What can I say? Hudson has made me a more mature woman.”

Not quite. Even though she and Cameron had some major blow-outs in the past, this time, he'd basically forced Becky into revealing a secret that she'd only shared with Hudson. Rehashing the fight would bring it back up, and Becky avoided the topic at all costs.

Eliza grabbed her camera from the desk drawer and followed Carrie, who skipped all the way to the car she borrowed from her dad. The heavy metal door creaked when she opened it for Carrie. The heat built up from the hot, Georgia sun rolled out. The fake, red velvet seats were nearly threadbare along the edges. It smelled like stale cigarettes. Ever since Carrie came home, he'd stopped smoking in the car, but by that point, it was too late. She’d bet even the maroon paint smelled.

She went ahead and cranked down Carrie's window to let the hot, smelly air out of the car. “Remember not to touch the edge of the window. It gets really hot.”

“I know, Mommy. And those seat belts.”

She had to buy herself a newer car. She saved every penny she earned working at the diner part-time and then for the paper. Although she lived rent-free with her dad, she still had expenses for Carrie. Including saving for her college in another eleven or twelve years.

Ms. Iris had offered to pay Eliza for designing and putting up the wedding decorations. She needed the money but wouldn't accept anything. Not for an event so wonderful as Ms. Iris marrying her dad.

And not when Eliza didn't have a single clue about wedding decorations. Sadly, Ms. Iris might get what she paid for...nothing spectacular.

She pulled up to the station, letting Carrie hold the muffins as they walked into the air-conditioned office. Cameron Dempsey, her cousin, sat behind his desk, typing on the computer, something she knew he hated. Dewey faced away from the door, talking to the young kid he'd picked up earlier behind the bars of the holding cell.

“We brought you muffins!” Carrie squealed and skipped over to Cameron.

He took the box and held his arms out for her to climb into the seat with him. Cameron’s dad and her mom might have been siblings, but his green eyes were the only resembling factor between the two of them. Cameron's permanently tanned skin confirmed his Native American heritage.

“Your hot girlfriend his here,” she heard the detained kid announce from the back of the room behind the bars of the holding cell.

Eliza fumbled her car keys, and they landed with a loud clank on the concrete ground.

Dewey's shoulders stiffened. He said something to the kid to make him shrink to the other side of the cell, eyes wide with fear.

She bothered him.

Like getting poison ivy in a spot that he couldn't scratch. Dewey tried to hide it, but the way his eyes tightened each time he looked at her confirmed her suspicions. He wasn't the joking, fun guy he’d been. He obviously regretted even coming to Alabama all those years ago. If only her own heart could distance itself as easily. She still remembered every word, down to the rushed proposal.

He turned around. The scowl wasn't there, but his blank look didn't feel friendly.

She motioned to the box. “Muffins. From Becky.”

He waited for a beat before walking toward her. “I'm surprised she sent Cam anything.”

Okay. Regular conversation from Dewey. She could handle this. She smiled. “She was actually going to give him the one that Carrie half ate and licked all over, but I saved him.”

“Thanks,” Cameron said before handing Carrie a yellow highlighter and a blank sheet of paper. “Where are you ladies off to today?”

“Taking her with you on another story?” Dewey bit into the muffin, accusations written all over his face.

“I'm taking her to Ms. Iris's house,” Eliza snapped. She pressed her lips together, trying to get her own irritation under control. She was doing the best she could do raising Carrie. She didn’t need judgments flying in from the peanut gallery. “Then, I'm headed out to the state penitentiary.”

The muffin hovered in the air before Dewey set it back down without taking another bite. “Why are you going there?”

“Juliana set up an interview with the warden about their budget.”

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