Page 11 of Under the Lights
“When it comes to an all-you-can-eat benefit dinner, I can pack away the meatballs. Whatever she’s made, she should double it.”
Deck laughed, then looked up at the old-fashioned clock hanging askew on the back wall of the garage. “I’d best get back to work. Promised I’d have this junk done today.”
Chase shook his hand again, slapping him on the other shoulder. “Good to see you again, Deck. No doubt I’ll see you around all the events. We might even have to practice a little.”
Deck snorted. “Like that’ll help.”
Once he was back in the truck, with no idea where to drive next, Chase put it in drive and waited for a Stewart Mills PD cruiser to go by before pulling out. He couldn’t really see the driver, but he could tell by the general build it wasn’t Kelly.
Officer McDonnell,he mused, allowing his mind to wander briefly to an image of her slapping handcuffs on him and giving him averythorough pat down.
Very briefly, though. The more he allowed his Officer McDonnell fantasy to grow, the more he was going to think about Kelly, who needed very much not to star in his fantasies. She was Coach’s daughter, and Chase was there on a mission, which was to help the man save his job. Then he’d go back to New Jersey and start putting his life back together.
—
Kelly put the finishing touches on the tollbooth sandwich-board sign and then pushed herself to her feet so she could stretch her back. If she never saw blue, white and gold paint again, it would be too soon. As soon as Gretchen finished the matching sign and Jen wrapped up the massive yard sale signs, they could wash the brushes and call it a night.
They planned to put the tollbooth signs on the yellow line in the center of town, just before the stop sign, and hoped passing drivers would drop donations into football helmets being held out by the players. Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons would yield the most traffic from out of town, and those were generally the people with a little extra cash to spend. The cheerleaders had done it a few years before to raise money for new uniforms and it had been a big success, but things were a lot different then, financially.
“I happened to drive by Deck’s place today,” Gretchen said, her voice emerging from behind her sandwich board. “Saw Chase Sanders leaving.”
“Mmhmm.”
“I think he’s even hotter now than when we were in high school.”
Kelly didn’t think that. Sheknewit. Like Albert’s homemade dandelion wine, Chase had gotten more delicious and a lot more potent with age.
Jen stood up from behind a yard sale sign and sighed. “Very take-charge kind of guy, based on how he acted with Hunter at the meeting.”
Gretchen nodded. “I bet a take-charge kind of guy is just what Kelly needs. A guy who won’t put up with that authoritative cop crap and will take her up against the wall if he damn well feels like it.”
Even as she shook her head, Kelly felt her cheeks flame and made busy cleaning her brushes so her friends wouldn’t see her reaction. She’d never been taken up against a wall, but she’d always thought it sounded hot as hell. “Authoritative cop crap?”
“You’re very bossy,” Jen said. “So you need a guy who’s even bossier than you in bed.”
“I’m bossy because you heathens would be racing all over town, breaking laws left and right, if I wasn’t. I swear, I get no respect.”
Gretchen put her hand over her heart and tried to look solemn, though she mostly failed. “I respect you, Officer McDonnell. Honest.”
Of course, hearing those words made Kelly think of the way Chase had saidOfficer McDonnellin that deep, sexy way, and her face got hot all over again.
Men did seem to be intimidated by her—or the uniform and the gun, at least—and, with her ex-husband and the very few guys since her divorce, that seemed to hold true in the bedroom. Even with the uniform dumped in the clothes hamper and the gun in the lockbox, men always seemed to hold back a little, letting her be the boss. She didn’t like being the boss.
Remembering the hard look and the stern tone Chase had used to put Hunter in his place, Kelly shivered. He didn’t seem at all intimidated by the badge or the gun, and something about the way he looked at her made her suspect he’d have no trouble taking control between the sheets.
“You know I don’t get involved with locals,” she reminded her friends. “Getting you people to take me seriously is hard enough without people whispering about my sex life.”
“Or Edna calling the FBI to tell them you’re corrupt,” Gretchen said.
“But,” Jen added, “Chase isn’t a local anymore.”
“Close enough. He’s from Stewart Mills, he’s back in Stewart Mills and, oh yeah, he’s staying with myparents.”
Jen grinned. “Just makes him easier to find.”
Kelly rolled her eyes and started cleaning up in earnest, hoping to signal the conversation was over. Her friends really had no room to talk, since they both slept alone as often as Kelly did. None of the guys in town lived up to Jen’s lofty Prince Charming standards, and working herself to exhaustion keeping the family farm in the black while caring for her grandmother didn’t leave Gretchen much time for a social life.
Her cell rang and Kelly sighed when the station’s number showed on the caller ID screen. Sometimes it was tempting to pretend she hadn’t heard it ring or that she’d been out of service, but she never did. “Hello?”
