*
Katie was having one of those days. She’d somehow run low on small bills in the register, which was a problem since most people in Whitford still operated on a cash-only basis. After writing a note that she’d be back in fifteen minutes and the time she’d left, she’d locked up the shop and driven to the bank. Normally she would walk, but she usually did her banking when the shop was closed and she could take her time.
Of course there was a line at the bank and the minutes seemed to tick by on fast-forward, so she ended up rushing back. She was halfway there when the blue lights flashed in her rearview mirror.
“Please don’t be Bob Durgin,” she said as she put on her blinker and pulled as close to the sidewalk as she could get without being on it. Officer Durgin hated the Kowalski kids and she was close enough to be lumped in with them, as far as he was concerned.
Luckily it was Drew Miller who got out of the cruiser, and she rolled down her window as he approached her door. “Hi, Drew.”
He sighed and shook his head. “You guys are never going to catch on. You’re supposed to call me Chief Miller when you’re in trouble.”
“Even if it’s just a little bit of trouble?”
“You think seven miles over on the main street is a little bit of trouble?”
She gave him her best smile. “Sorry?”
“What’s really sorry is that I just busted your boyfriend on the other end of town doing the same damn thing.” It tickled her a little to hear Josh called her boyfriend. She could get used to that. “But he gave me a shitload of attitude, so I wrote him a ticket.”
Hearing that killed the tickle. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Josh, but his mood had definitely taken a turn for the worse and she didn’t know why. She’d called him a couple of days before and he’d sounded tired. When she’d brought up getting together, either at his place or hers, he’d put her off, claiming he had a lot to do. That was two days ago and she hadn’t heard from him since. Maybe she should give him a call later in the afternoon and drag him out for a burger or something.
“I needed change,” she told Drew, “so I thought I’d run to the bank real quick, but it was busy, so…I was speeding. Sorry.”
He pointed at her and gave her his stern police chief face. “Slow down. Next time, you won’t get off with a warning.”
Once he’d walked back to his cruiser, she pulled back into traffic and did the speed limit back to the shop. Of course she had a customer waiting on the sidewalk, looking unhappy.
The afternoon passed quickly as customers came and went, but she was thinking about calling Josh during a lull when the door opened and her mom walked in. “Hi, Mom. I didn’t know you’d be out and about today.”
“I needed a few things from the market and it’s been ages since I’ve sat and visited with Fran, so I decided to drive in myself instead of sending Josh.”
“I guess he’s in town anyway. Drew said he gave him a speeding ticket earlier today.”
Rose frowned. “He must have been speeding a lot to get a ticket from Drew.”
“Actually it was the attitude he gave him, I guess. Drew didn’t like it. And when I talked to him the other day, he was cranky, too. I don’t know what’s up with him. His mind’s definitely somewhere else.”
“Getting an offer on the lodge is a pretty big deal.”
“An offer?” Katie thought maybe she’d misunderstood. “To buy it? But it’s not even listed yet.”
“He didn’t tell you?” Rose pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I guess a couple that stayed there recently wants to buy it and make it a private home.”
Katie did her best not to show it, but her mom’s words made her stomach clench. So Josh’s mind was somewhere else. It was wherever he was planning to go when he was free of the lodge.
“No, he didn’t. Guess it’s none of my business.” The fact he hadn’t told her hurt so much she didn’t know what else to day. She was supposed to be his friend and he hadn’t even bothered to tell her about what had to be one of the most important things to happen in his life in years. So much for the word boyfriend meaning anything.
“Katie, don’t be like that. Maybe he can’t figure out how to tell you.”
“That’s a tough one. ‘Hey, got an offer on the lodge.’ I can see how that would be hard for him.”
“Maybe before, but now it’s different. By telling you he might sell the lodge, he’s also saying he might be leaving town.”
And therefore leaving Katie. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what it meant. “Has he made a decision yet?”
“They have to make the decision together. Ryan and Sean are both driving up tomorrow night, and Saturday morning they’re going to call Liz and put her on speakerphone.”
“So it’ll be two days before we know if he’s leaving us or not?”