Page 7 of Fall Into Temptation
“There you are,” said his right-hand woman,Minnie Murkle, as she bustled out of the file room. “You’ve been MIA all day. Did you have lunch?” she asked sternly.
He’d been running since the fire that morning, and part of him was grateful for the action so he couldn’t keep thinking about Eva and her nearly naked appearances today. Great. Now he was thinking about it again. Minnie pulled triple duty as non-emergency dispatch, records clerk, and desk jockey. He dreaded the day she announced her retirement. But since she was sixty, he figured he could tempt her into a few more years.
“One crisis after another. I haven’t seen a day like this in… ever,” he admitted, avoiding the lunch question. Of course he’d forgotten. In the midst of the fire, the cleanup, the two fender benders between lookie-loos, and scaring the hell out of Eva Merill, food had slipped his mind.
“Something’s got this town stirred up,” Minnie agreed, leading the way into his office where she dumped a stack of files on his desk. “I sent Colby out on two calls today.”
Colby was one of Donovan’s two part-time deputies. Blue Moon had neither the budget nor the need for three full-time officers, which worked out fine for them all. Colby picked up the slack on Donovan’s days off and spent the rest of his time helping out around Pierce Acres.
If Donovan ever could offer Colby full-time employment, his friend Carter Pierce would hunt him down.
Donovan’s other deputy, Layla, had a few years on Colby and an edge that connoisseurs of her pretty, sunny exterior didn’t notice until it was too late. Between the three of them, law and order was generally upheld in the sleepy little town.
Minnie walked him through his messages and gave him a running commentary on a few pieces of town gossip. “Saw that new Merill girl ended up naked in town square,” Minnie commented.
“Her name is Eva, and she wasn’t naked. And it was two blocks back from the square,” Donovan corrected with the pertinent facts.
Minnie grinned. There was nothing the woman loved more than gossip. It was one of the main reasons the job fit her so well. “Poor girl looked a little chilly. Preliminary report from the fire chief is in that stack,” she said, pointing to a pile of folders. “And tomorrow you have a meeting with Beckett and Elvira Eustace to nail down the details for the Halloween Carnival.”
Donovan glanced at his watch. “Why don’t you go on home, Minnie? I have a feeling we’re looking at a busy week. Might as well take a break when you can.”
“Sure thing, boss. Don’t stay here all night,” she said, pointing a finger at him. She paused in the doorway. “Say, you don’t think we’re looking at another planetary crossing, do you?”
Donovan sank down in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck. “Planetary whating?”
“Don’t you remember back in the ’80s? There was some kind of astrological thing that only happens once every thirty years or so? It had everyone acting like it was full moon at an all-you-can-drink asshole reunion.”
Something tickled at the back of Donovan’s memory. Something he didn’t like.
In any other geographical location on the face of this earth, he’d put zero stock in an entire town being affected by some planet spinning through some section of space. But in Blue Moon, anything was possible. “I don’t know, Minnie. I’ll have to give my mom a call. See if she recalls.”
Minnie, a lapsed Catholic, made the sign of the cross and knocked on Donovan’s desk. “Oh, she’ll recall. Let’s hope this isn’t a repeat.”
Minnie packed it in, leaving Donovan with his first peace and quiet of the day. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. The image of Eva popped crystal clear into his mind.
It was bad enough that he’d thought of her fully clothed about fifty times a day since she moved to Blue Moon—doubling the number of times she crossed his mind since first seeing her at his friend Beckett’s wedding. Now that he’d seen her nearly naked twice? He wasn’t going to be able to use his brain for anything but fantasizing.
He loved his job. His town. And he took his job serving the citizens of Blue Moon seriously. But Donovan wasn’t used to serving under constant distraction. He’d seen beautiful women before. Seen them and forgotten them just as quickly. There was something about Evangelina that drew him in and hooked him.
He could have just drawn that pink lacy strap down one of her milky white shoulders and—
The bell on the station’s front door broke him from his fantasy. Abashed, he realized he was going to need a minute before greeting any visitors so he could get rid of the evidence of his train of thought. Donovan was on his second deep breath, mentally reciting baseball stats when Carter Pierce wandered into the office, his son Jonathan on his hip and a box from Peace of Pizza in his free hand.
“Thought we might tempt you with early man dinner,” Carter said, letting Jonathan slide to the floor.
The toddler waved at Donovan and scampered over to the file cabinet drawer that held among other things, a stuffed police teddy bear that the kid had made at Build a Bear and a bunch of plastic tools. While Jonathan giggled to himself trying to make the bear hold a bright yellow chisel, Carter slid the pizza onto Donovan’s desk and planted himself in one of the visitor’s chairs.
“Got beer?”
“The owner of a brewery asks me for beer.” Donovan shook his head at the irony. He reached into the mini fridge behind him and fished out a beer, a water, and one juice box.
“You’ve got this honorary uncle thing down,” Carter said, tearing off two paper towels and using them to plate slices of pepperoni pizza.
“When you end up with forty-seven nieces and nephews over the span of a year, you adapt quickly.”
“What can I say?” He shrugged. “All the Pierces jumped on the marriage and kid train. When are you joining us?”
Eyes narrowed, Donovan took a bite of pizza. “You join the Beautification Committee?”
