Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

Another student’s quote offered a different accolade. “She’s not a coach who makes you run, she runs with you and tells you to keep up.”


Gill thought about the text conversation he’d had with Jo on Saturday. Guess he should just give her the twenty bucks now and know he wouldn’t catch her if they raced.

He copied a picture of her from the website before clicking off the page.

He pushed from his desk to find some coffee, wondering how soon he would be able to run after the fine sheriff. Then he realized something that smacked him in the face.

JoAnne Ward hung out with high school teenagers every day.



Thunderstorms filled every hour of Jo’s life for two days and three nights after her return. Because Deputy Emery had pulled in overtime, she was almost entirely on her own. Lucky for her, the list of people she could call for roadside help extended into Waterville. The need to check on the outskirts of River Bend for the elderly that might be stranded due to the poor weather or washed-out roads had her calling in favors from neighbors. And when some of the phones proved to be out of order, she had no problem driving around town asking the business owners to take a drive since she couldn’t be in five places at once.

Meanwhile, Sam’s Lake, which was what the hole in front of the diner was starting to resemble, grew by the hour.

It was only seven thirty in the evening, but the dark sky made it feel as if it was the middle of the night. At this point, her two-way ham radio worked better than a cell phone.

The radio squawked, and she heard a familiar voice. “Jo, your ears on?”

She lifted the handheld and pressed the button. “I’m here, Luke.”

“I’m out past Grayson’s farm, about five miles. Pulling Steve out of a ditch.” Luke Miller had the only tow truck in town. On nights like this, he patrolled until most of the residents of River Bend were tucked in their beds.

“Need my assistance?”

“He swerved to miss a boulder that came off the hill. You might wanna light it up until I get him home. I’ll double back and move it.”

“I’m on my way.” Jo did a U-turn and rolled through the quiet streets of town before turning off toward Luke’s direction. Backcountry roads were notoriously dark, and most often a deer crossing in front of a passing car caused an accident and the need for Luke to tow someone out.

It appeared that all the self-respecting Bambies out there were ducked out of the foul weather, leaving the accidents to inanimate objects.

Jo rolled up on the scene, parked her car beside the boulder that took up half the road, and kept her lights flashing.

She pulled her sheriff hat over her head and tucked her raincoat a little closer to her neck when she exited her car.

Luke was soaked to the bone, and Steve waved at her from the front seat of Luke’s truck.

“Looks like he messed up the front axle,” Luke said in a voice close to a yell to be heard over the rain and the engine of his idling truck. “I was hoping he could drive it home, but it doesn’t look like it.”

Jo looked around the dark road.

“Looks like rush hour has passed,” she teased.

Luke fastened a chain to the winch on his truck and turned on the motor. Steve’s truck slowly rose so it could be towed on its back wheels.

She waited beside Luke and ignored the rain as it tried to find openings in her clothing.

Luke refused her offer of help and worked in silence.

In the ten minutes it took him to secure the truck once it was out of the ditch, not one vehicle drove by.

Jo knew the minute she drove away there’d be a call of an accident, and she’d be right back.

“I need to drop Steve off, then leave the truck at the shop. Take me a good thirty minutes,” he said.

“You know where I’ll be.”

Luke nodded before jogging to the driver’s side of his truck and darting inside.

Jo followed suit and huddled in her dry squad car for his return.

She ran the engine and cracked the passenger window a hair while listening to the crackle of the radio. The only other sound was her breathing and the beating down rain.

Times like this she would have liked to have a larger pool of local deputies.

If she received an emergency call from anyone, something would fall through the cracks. Of course, she could put a few flares on the road and hope anyone driving by would take notice. But with visibility so low, the likelihood of an accident was high.

So Jo sat in her car and waited.

The rain slowed from heavy sheets to a steady beat.

Too quiet.

The skin on her arms started to prickle.

She looked out the back window . . . nothing.

As she swiveled back around, she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

With her heartbeat speeding up, she positioned the spotlight mounted outside her car away from the boulder in the street to across the road. Rain and more rain . . . and darkness.

“Lack of sleep and no food,” she whispered to herself.

Still, she unlocked the holster on her weapon and kept her eyes scanning the dark spaces surrounding the car.



“Details, details, details . . . I want them, Jo,” Mel said, waving a bottle of wine in the air like it was truth serum.

Jo looked at her best friends, who stood at her door with sacks full of God knew what, staring at her like she was about to be the center of an intervention. “Do you have any idea how few hours I’ve managed to sleep since I got home?” she asked them, stepping away from the door.

Mel pushed past her and straight to the kitchen. Zoe followed.

“Zoe said you met someone,” Mel chattered as she set up the food she’d brought. “And Brenda caught you staring at your cell phone, giggling, at Sam’s the other night.”

Jo moaned while closing the door. “Can’t this wait?”

“I tried to tell her,” Zoe started. “You know Mel, once something is in her head, she’s dedicated.”

“Okay, okay . . . but I’m giving you the short version. I’m exhausted, and I will fall asleep on you without remorse.”

Zoe put her arm around her friend. “You look like hell.”

“Thanks, friend.”

If Zoe weren’t speaking the truth, Jo would have been offended.

“I’ve been running since I flew back.”

Zoe took a dish from the bag and moved to the microwave. “Luke said the roads were a mess.”

“And that pothole in front of Sam’s is nasty,” Mel said. “Wyatt, Luke, and Sam are getting on it first thing in the morning.”

Jo knew the town would fix the hole long before she could get anyone from county road services to come in.

“I’ve had two dozen calls from River Bend’s finest at my home to tell me about that damn hole. Like I can miss it.” Jo drew in a big breath through her nose and gravitated toward the kitchen. She looked in the microwave.

“Pasta,” Zoe told her. “Penne with chicken and asparagus.”

Jo’s stomach rumbled. “I wasn’t hungry.”

Zoe didn’t comment, took the food from the oven, and set it on the counter.

Mel pulled dishes from Jo’s cupboards. “I’m starving,” she said.

Both Jo and Zoe looked Mel up and down.