Page 38 of Spark
“Annika,” Mary said.
Her deputy immediately stopped what she was doing and spun her chair to face Mary. “Yes, Sheriff?”
“I have a cold case file for you to work on,” Mary said. “The Laura Tringstad murder.”
Annika beamed.
“Thank you for believing in me,” Sophie said to Mary. “I know it sounded crazy.”
“Crazier than people being able to shapeshift into various kinds of animals?” Mary asked, smiling. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all in Bearpaw Ridge…” She shook her head wryly. “Anyhow, good luck with your article. And least now we know who’s haunting our basement. Maybe we can ask him to cut it out.”
She and Matt left the station shortly thereafter.
“Thank you so much for suggesting this, and coming with me,” she told Matt as they walked back to her car. “And most of all, thanks for being the first to believe that I’m not just crazy.”
He nodded. “You need me to help with anything else, you let me know,” he ordered. Then he turned his head and smiled at her. Her breath caught at the warmth in his eyes. “I wanted to tell you that I’m really looking forward to our date on Friday.”
Chapter Twelve
Dancing Cow Burgers
Friday, June 8
“Did I mention that Dad left for California yesterday?” Matt said, dipping one of his seasoned fries in ketchup and offering it to Sophie.
For as long as he’d known her, she had never ordered fries with her burgers, protesting that the portions were way too big.
So, he had gotten in the habit of giving her some of his. It always made his bear happy to indulge in a shifter courtship ritual by feeding their potential mate, and it made Matt happy to see Sophie enjoying Dancing Cow’s excellent French fries.
“So, he left you in charge of the ranch?” Sophie accepted the fry, and popped it between her luscious lips.
“Yeah,” Matt replied. “Though Grandma and my uncles are keeping an eye on things, too.”
In response to a mutual aid call from CalFire, the Bearpaw Ride Fire Department had decided to send one of their two off-road water tanker trucks, staffed by the most experienced volunteer firefighters, to help with a huge wildfire burning in the mountains near Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border.
As the town’s long-time fire chief, Dad had been the first to volunteer to go.
“I know you can handle things at the ranch just fine, son,” Dane had told Matt before heading into town to join the crew of firefighters. “And your cousins Ellie, Rob, and Malia have volunteered to lead trail rides for the next week or two.”
To fill the coverage gaps left by the departing firefighters, Matt had agreed to be on call tonight for any emergencies. Which meant that they’d driven to town, and then out to Dancing Cow, in separate vehicles, so that Matt could respond to any emergency alerts without stranding Sophie.
He didn’t mind…much. Selfishly, he’d been looking forward to talking with her and maybe even holding hands on the half-hour drive into town.
At least he’d gotten to do the hand-holding part during the long…reallylong but good… movie.
The Bearpaw Ridge movie theater, located on Main Street just a few doors down from Justin’s Wildcat Springs BBQ, specialized in showing classic films with their original newsreels and cartoons.
This week, the feature was a restored print ofLawrence of Arabia, which had held both of them spellbound.
Matt had debated the right time to make his first courtship move. Sophie meant so much to him that he didn’t want to mess this up…which is why he’d held off actually courting her for this long.
But the alarming news that Chris had already kissed her had lit a fire under his ass, and Matt had spent the remaining days this week figuring out the best way to finally let Sophie know that he wanted to be more than friends.
Hoping fervently that it wasn’t too late, and that he hadn’t missed his shot with her, he’d waited until after the intermission of the long film to reach for her hand in the dark.
To his delight and relief, she hadn’t objected. In fact, she’d laced her fingers through his. He’d spent the remaining two hours of the film in a state of warm contentment spiced with anticipation about their plans to have a late dinner afterwards.
Maybe she’d even be open to a goodnight kiss. She’d kissed Chris, hadn’t she? And if she was willing to go out on a real date, like now, and do date-like things like holding hands, then his chances looked good.
