Page 15 of The Good Luck Cafe
“About that much.” Ronnie leaned back in his chair, crossing one boot over his opposite knee. “But even I remember when you and Denise Berger ran against each other for student government president.”
Gil laughed out loud. “Of all the things I’d expected you wanting to discuss, I hadn’t considered that you might bring that up this morning.” He hadn’t even thought about that fiasco in quite a while. The year he and Denise went head-to-head had been rough. Denise was voted most popular in school, but it wasn’t because of her likability factor. Her popularity was due to her family’s wealth and her parents’ prominent roles in the community. Denise acted entitled in every area of her life, including student government. She was ruthless when she ran against Gil, digging for all the dirt she could find on him. When she hadn’t been able to uncover any, she’d taken jabs at his character, making out his niceness to be a flaw. “She was a fierce opponent.”
Ronnie pressed his fingertips together in front of him in a contemplative stance. “How would you like to repeat history?”
Gil gave his head a hard shake. “I wouldn’t. That’s one chapter in my life not worth rereading,” he said, not following the sheriff’s train of thought.
Ronnie frowned. “I suspected as much. That’s why I wanted to be the one to tell you first,” he finally said.
Gil wasn’t sure what to think about this conversation so far. “Tell me what, Sheriff?”
“Denise has decided she’s running for mayor this fall. She’s going to be your opponent, and I’m afraid she hasn’t changed much since high school.”
***
The clock had been ticking extra slow today as Moira waited for her shift to end.
Sheriff Ronnie wanted to see her this afternoon, and she could only guess at the reason why. And she had been guessing all day and imagining the very worst. So much so that she was convinced Sheriff Ronnie was going to fire her for leaving her dispatch to help Doug yesterday.
To make matters worse, Moira had finally relented and gone to Reva’s town blog to see what exactly the town gossip had said about her. Moira was the very first bullet point of the day.
Moira clicked on the open tab on her computer and reread the bullet point for the tenth time.
Who knew that our very own Moira Green would become a local hero this week? When the sheriff’s department failed to do their job, Moira took matters into her own hands, drove to the mayor’s home, crawled through the doggie door, and gave medical attention to Doug Green just in the nick of time.
Moira groaned. As if leaving her dispatch while on shift wasn’t bad enough, this blog post made it sound like the sheriff’s department was deficient. Sheriff Ronnie had likely flipped his lid when he read this.
She eyed the clock over her kitchen sink. Five minutes until her shift was over. There had been only one call today, for someone who thought they’d seen a coyote on the outskirts of the woods. Moira had contacted the sheriff’s department, who she assumed had contacted the new ranger for the area. The coyote in question was likely just a stray dog, but she hadn’t heard one way or the other.
Three minutes until her shift was over.
The dispatch lit up.
A sudden spike of adrenaline shot through Moira as she answered. “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“Moira Green?”
Moira wrinkled her brow. “This is she. Who is this?”
“It’s Mrs. Denny. Conner’s mother. You remember Conner Denny, don’t you, dear?”
Moira glanced at the clock. Two minutes until her shift was over. “Yes, I think so. He was a year behind me in school.”
“I believe you’re right. Well, I was just calling to let you know Conner is on the market again. I was telling my bingo friends, and they mentioned you were also still single. Is that true?”
“Um.” Moira wasn’t sure how to respond to this conversation. “Is this an emergency, Mrs. Denny?”
“Oh, well, a single man with a good job and manners is hard to find, dear. Trust me on that.” Giddy laughter trailed her words.
“I’m not looking for a relationship, Mrs. Denny,” Moira said, trying her best to be polite. This call wasn’t really all that surprising. Over the last year, there’d been more and more attempts to set Moira up, as if people were trying to do her a favor. What was so wrong with a young woman remaining happily single though?
One minute until the hour.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Denny. I’m sure Conner is very nice and that one day soon he’ll meet the right person, which I’m sorry to say is not me.”
“Oh. Are you sure? You haven’t even given him a chance. He works at Hannigan’s Hardware. Maybe just stop by one day and say hello. You never know when sparks will fly.”
“Perhaps I will,” Moira lied. She had no intention of stopping in the hardware store for anything anytime soon.
