She quickly changed the subject. “So, you and trailer park Terry – you never answered my question.”
She was pleased to see that he looked uncomfortable. “Never on duty. That’s all I’ll say. And only once, with her.”
“Never on duty? Ever? With anyone? In your whole career?” Ginger gave him the skeptical side-eye.
He spluttered and then made an abrupt turn at an intersection, swerving the car so hard that she banged into her door and clutched at her seatbelt.
“Cherry pie?” he said.
“I’m sorry, what?” Ginger gasped.
“You like cherry pie? We’re going to Edna’s house of pie right now. Their pie is excellent.”
“Well…sure. Although I’m more of an apple pie girl myself.”
“Good to know.” They pulled up in front of a small diner style restaurant with a handpainted billboard sign that showed a perky 50s style waitress holding up a pie in one hand.
Ginger felt everyone’s eyes on her as they walked through the door, and she blushed. One man in a booth let out a low, appreciative whistle as he checked Ginger out.
Loch’s eyes blazed amber with fury and he spun to face the man. “Watch yourself.” It came out in a growl, and the man quickly ducked his head, muttered “sorry”, and pretended to be very interested in his menu.
The waitress lit up when they sat down at the table, simpering all over the sheriff. He grinned at her and winked, much to Ginger’s annoyance, and the waitress nearly dropped her tray of plates.
Of course, there was no reason it should bother her. She and the sheriff weren’t an item. They would never be an item.
The sheriff was sitting across from her, and she could feel his legs brushing against hers, and the physical contact almost made her whimper out loud.
She stared down at the menu.
Concentrate on the pie, she thought. Come on, Ginger, you can do this.
All she had to do was resist the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on for two weeks even though he kept throwing sexy innuendo her way, and also refrain from making snarky remarks born of sexual frustration, and she’d be able to go home in two weeks and put the sheriff out of her mind forever.
Piece of cake.
“So, those archeologists…are they still getting harassed by people from the panther nation?” Sheriff Armstrong asked.
Thank God, she thought. Normal conversation! Any more flirting and I’d crawl across the table and lick his neck. I am not a woman of willpower, damn it. My size sixteen ass is living proof of that.
“They’d mentioned it. What’s that all about? They’re not on panther territory, right?”
“No, but they’re uncomfortably close. Probably not the best place for a dig. The panthers suspect them of secretly looking for tribal artifacts, and the site keeps getting sabotaged. Tires have been slashed on vehicles, tools keep getting stolen. They posted a security guard there, and the security guard quit the next day, said he saw panthers pacing around in the shadows all night long.”
Blue Moon County was located on the border of The Panther Nation, a huge section of Florida forest and swampland that was inhabited only by a small, close-knit tribe of Native American shape shifters. It was strictly forbidden for anyone who didn’t belong to the Panther Nation to venture on to the property unless invited by the panthers, and they had resolutely refused to allow any archeologists on their land.
Some of them interacted with the outside world, operating stores, bars, farm stands, and a casino on the edge of their territory; some were more reclusive and never left their land.
“Well, they’ll be out of there in a few weeks, right?” Ginger said.
“If they last that long. I’ve got a bad feeling about it. I’ve been stepping up patrols, doing everything that I can to keep the peace out there.” The sheriff frowned as he dug into his pie.
Chapter Five
Ginger stood next to a cabinet in the file room, putting away case files and pretending not to eavesdrop.
The sheriff was engaged in a heated argument with an attractive sheriff’s deputy named Portia Sinclair. Portia was a reed thin woman with shining, waist length black hair, an adorable little turned up nose, and a sulky mouth.
Portia had glanced up at Ginger and the sheriff when they walked in the door, and stiffened in her seat. Another member of the sheriff’s fan club, Ginger thought. And clearly she didn’t like Ginger.
She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she was sure it involved her.
Well, eavesdropping was the town’s national past-time, wasn’t it? Time to join in.
She ducked behind a stack of boxes and partially shifted. The bones of her face shifted and stretched, her ears lengthened, and all of her senses, including her hearing, instantly grew sharper.