Deflated, he tried to shrug off the missed opportunity. “Settling in okay?”
“Yeah. I haven’t done a lot of shopping for the house yet. Mostly I needed to stock up on staples and fill the fridge and pantry. As much as I love Fran, that kind of shopping gets expensive at the market and it’s worth the trip to the city.”
“I know you’ve got plenty of family, but you can still call me if you need anything.”
She smiled, handing him a few extra packages of crackers for his soup. “Thanks. I appreciate it. Hey, did you see on the news they caught the guy that was breaking into the camps on the lake?”
They talked about the news while he ate his soup and he would have lingered, but dispatch called him out for a possible bear in a backyard report.
An hour later, he’d coaxed a massive black dog he hadn’t seen around town into his SUV, and radioed ahead to Barbara to let her know he was bringing her another stray and to give her a description. She’d start reaching out to see if he’d been reported missing anywhere local, then take the poor guy home with her. They didn’t have much in the way of animal control outside of the police department, and Barbara always fostered the rare displaced or lost pet. They almost always traced them back to a vacationing family.
Because nothing popped immediately and the dog had obviously been wandering a while, Barbara left early. She’d make the half-hour drive to the vet, then take him home and get him fed and bathed. That left Drew as police chief-slash-office staff.
As soon as he sat down at his desk, he remembered something he’d wanted to tell Liz. She’d probably left work and, after a little bit of hesitation, he decided to call her. He’d given her his cell number earlier in the week in case she needed anything, so it had been natural for her to give him hers at the same time.
She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Drew. Are you busy?”
“Nope. I just left the diner. Still in the parking lot, actually. What’s up?”
“I meant to tell you when I stopped in for lunch, but I forgot. There’s an all-wheel-drive wagon for sale in the paper for short money.”
“I saw that. I was thinking about calling them when I get home.”
“Don’t bother. The guy selling it picked it up dirt-cheap at auction because its previous owner accidentally put it in a pond where it sat for two days before he finally confessed it hadn’t been stolen after all. I’ve had some issues with this guy selling questionable vehicles before and he might have managed to clean it up enough to sell it, but it’s going to have problems.”
“Wow. I should have known the description and the price didn’t add up.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble.”
She laughed, the sound almost musical over the phone line. “I’d rather know now than after I gave him my money.”
“If a deal doesn’t feel right to you, make sure you call me. And my dad’s got a knack for cars. You should take him with you if you go look at something. Not that you’re not capable of a test drive, but a second opinion never hurts.”
He knew he was talking just to keep her on the phone, but he couldn’t help it. At the rate he was going, she was going to start thinking he was stalking her and wouldn’t that be an awkward complaint for his department to field.
But then she mentioned she was on her way to see Rose and they talked about the lodge for a while, and then his dad and Rosie’s relationship, which seemed to have come out of nowhere. Before he knew it, almost twenty minutes had passed.
“You’re not still sitting in the parking lot, are you?” he asked when she finished telling him how she had a very hazy memory of being hidden at the end of the couch the day Rose told Frank Kowalski that if Andy Miller was allowed to visit the Northern Star, she’d quit. The fact they were thinking about eloping to Vegas still boggled their minds.
“Yeah, I am. I didn’t want to start the car because your engine’s a little loud, plus there’s the whole talking on the phone while driving thing. I’ve heard the local police frown on that.”
“They’re real hard-asses,” Drew agreed. “I’ll let you go before Rose thinks you stood her up. I’ll probably see you tomorrow for lunch.”
“It’s a date,” she said nonchalantly, and hung up.
It was just an expression, he told himself. But he still got barely any work done that afternoon.
*
Still in her Trailside Diner T-shirt, Liz drove up to the front of the lodge and killed the engine. She’d promised Rose she’d stop by after work and, after sitting in her car talking on the phone with Drew for far too long, she was running late enough so she didn’t go home and change first.
Paige’s car was in the driveway, too, which meant there would probably be tea and visiting before they got around to whatever it was Rose wanted a hand with, or to talk to her about or whatever.