Making It Right (Most Likely To #3)

Her gloss tasted like cherries, her kiss tasted like wine. He made the kiss count, tasted every possible part of her mouth open to his and went in for a little more when she came up for air. “I knew you’d miss me,” he said.

She wiped his lips with her thumb. “I didn’t say I missed you.”

“That kiss said you did.”

He let her go as she finished dressing. “I have to work.”

“I thought as much. I’m sure you won’t mind me tagging along.”

“It’s a boring town, Gill. I hope you brought a book.”

He watched her, felt something off. “No book—” His words lingered. “Hey, where is your vest?”

She finished buttoning her dress shirt, tucked it into her pants.

“Vest?”

He tapped his chest.

The placating smile said everything. “It’s River Bend,” she said as if the name of the town explained the lack of bulletproof protection.

“Nobody in River Bend owns a gun except you?”

Jo came short of rolling her eyes. “You’ll see.” She disappeared into her room again, returned with her duty belt secured around her waist and her hat in her hand. “C’mon.”

Even in the most unflattering pants, with tools of the cops’ trade wrapped around her waist, keeping his eyes off her ass as she walked out her door proved impossible.





Chapter Fourteen




Drew followed the line of cars working their way into the high school parking lot and noticed Tina leaning against her dad’s late model Civic. Her tight little running shorts had distracted him all morning, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she knew it.

She glanced up when he approached.

“Hey,” he said.

“I thought you went home to shower?” she said.

“On my way.”

Her phone buzzed.

He glanced down at Tina’s phone, saw the same image on every sent section of her text messaging. “Is that the sheriff and that guy?”

Tina opened the image for him to see it clearly. “He’s really hot.”

Drew pulled his gaze from his coach’s ass in the picture to look at the man. “If you like ancient guys.”

“He’s not old.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “He is for you.”

Tina pulled her phone away from his sight. “Whatever.” She pushed off the side of the car and slid behind the driver’s seat.

Drew backed up as she started the engine.

He’d bet money she was still upset he hadn’t wanted to go to homecoming. You would think with prom around the corner she’d be a little nicer.



Mel refilled the coffee of the guests that had come down to breakfast. Because it was midweek, Zoe wasn’t in the kitchen cooking breakfast for Miss Gina. But she had planned the menu and tutored Mel in cooking something other than scrambled eggs and bacon. Not that her culinary efforts would ever give her celebrity status. Still, the banana pancakes and quiche made the guests feel like they were anywhere but home, eating the same old stuff.

Mel felt her phone buzz in her pocket but didn’t reach for it until after she’d cleared dishes from one table and refilled juice glasses at another.

She loaded the dishwasher once she returned to the kitchen and felt her phone buzz again.

A text from Brenda at Sam’s diner was out of character.

Mel clicked on it to open a picture. She squealed, fumbled, and dropped her phone in the dishwasher.

She muttered a curse and hoped the screen hadn’t cracked.

A sigh of relief was quickly followed by another tiny squeal.

Looked like Jo’s McHottie was in town.

Mel widened the image. Oh, the man was a perfect fit for her friend. Mel did a silent happy dance, quickly copied the image, and sent it to Zoe.

Once the image said delivered, she waited.

“C’mon, Zoe.”

Finally, a dot dot dot on the screen had Mel squirming.

OMG, he is soooo Jo!

I know! Mel texted back.

I need to go to the station.

Not without me!

They negotiated a time, and Mel hurried out the back door to find Miss Gina and share the news.



Luke dug his shovel into the wet cement and kept pulling air from the mix while Wyatt and Sam continued mixing bags upon bags to fill the hole.

His cell phone buzzed.

Wyatt, bent over a new bag, reached for his back pocket. He grinned.

Luke’s phone buzzed again. When he looked, he saw Jo being kissed by a man twice her size by the high school bleachers. “’Bout time,” he muttered to himself before returning his cell phone to his back pocket.

Sam reached for the small of his back and bitched. “How many more bags is this gonna take?”

Wyatt glanced around. “Five, maybe six.”

“Damn thing is a sinkhole.”

Luke nodded. “Sure as hell is.”



Jo parked in front of the station, like she always did.

Glynis’s car rested in her designated spot. She was early.

Gill stood in front of the squad car, looked down the span of the street. “What’s going on down there?” he asked.

“Pothole.” Jo waved when she saw Wyatt’s head pop up.

“Looks like a serious hazard.”

“They can take care of it.”

If Gill had more questions, he didn’t ask.

Glynis jumped the minute Jo pushed through the door, her hand moved behind her back.

“Morning, Glynis.”

Her help stared at Gill.

Blushing.

Gossip was already flying. Jo could feel it.

“Glynis, this is Agent Gill Clausen. He works with Agent Burton. You remember her, right?”

She nodded a couple of times. “Of course I remember. You two were partners?”

“Are,” Gill said. “We work together in Eugene.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Uhm, can I get you anything? Coffee?”

Jo smirked. Since when did Glynis play hostess?

“I’m sure I can find it,” Gill said. “But thanks for offering.”

“Oh, no problem. Any friend of Jo’s is a friend of ours.”

“Ours?” Gill asked, looking around the empty station.

“The town. I mean . . . I’m not speaking for the whole town, but, well . . . oh, I don’t know what I’m saying. Welcome to River Bend.”

“Thank you, Glynis.”

Jo thought the woman was going to faint for all the color that reached her cheeks.

When Jo moved into her office, and out of earshot of Glynis, she said, “You’re going to turn a lot of heads today. Keep your ego in check.”

“I’ll try.” Gill stepped into her office. The size of the man took up quite a bit of space. “How much of this has changed since your dad was alive?”

The question took her off guard.

“Not a lot. He was efficient and wasn’t afraid of computers and technology. It wasn’t like I had to come in and update his world.”

“His world,” Gill repeated.

Jo moved around her desk, glanced at the mail from the previous day that she needed to follow up on. “It felt like his world for the first year.”

“I would think it still feels like his place.”

Jo glanced around the same walls, the same art . . . the same paint. “Sometimes. Little changes around here.”

“That should make it easier to investigate a ten-year-old case.”

She narrowed her eyes. Hope filled her chest. “Is that why you’re here? You think there’s something to look into?”