Zoe waved a hand to the kitchen sink. “I have to have something to look at out there.”
They cleaned the dishes together, and Zoe took inventory of what they had on hand for dinner. The Sunday farmers’ market would be setting up in town and would offer a few of the things on her list. She dug a little deeper in the fridge. The wine she’d brought to pair with fish wasn’t inside.
She thought of Luke’s comment about how Wyatt and Mel didn’t need a wine refrigerator and had to laugh. Looked like Mr. I’m Happy With Beer was getting a taste for the good stuff.
With a big hat and a massive canvas bag, she grabbed Luke and headed to the market.
While they didn’t continue to discuss where she was going to move, Zoe did notice the space Luke had made in his dresser drawers.
Fog sat low to the track at River Bend High.
Jo sat on the last step of the stands, lacing up her running shoes and checking her watch.
This was so much better than a formal dress and high heels.
She’d never been much of a girlie girl. Probably a byproduct of being raised by a man, and a cop at that.
She learned to shoot at an early age and had skills befitting a Boy Scout by the time she entered elementary school.
At two minutes past six, the sound of a motorcycle interrupted her internal rant about the blisters on her feet created by fancy shoes.
Without words, Zane took a spot next to her and pulled off his boots. “Mind telling me what we’re doing here?”
She looked at his feet before standing. “You’re bright. You’ll figure it out.”
She leaned against the bleacher in a calf stretch and moved to the next leg.
“It’s cold out here,” Zane bitched as he tugged on a worn pair of running shoes.
She lifted her chin and took off before calling behind her shoulder, “Keep up, Brown.”
A tiny lift of her lips stayed until he matched her pace. The second lap around the track was when Zane started asking questions. “What the hell am I doing here?”
“Exercise is good for you.”
“You should only be running if a cop is chasing you.”
Jo couldn’t help but smile.
Zane let his lips split in a grin, too.
“Is Zoe still here?”
Jo considered how much to tell Zane. She knew for this to work he’d have to trust her, and that would require a few quiet moments. “No. She left last night.”
Zane didn’t comment.
“She’ll be back.”
“She seems to be here a lot this year.”
Jo ran for another quarter lap before making a comment.
“There’s a lot to bring her around.”
It was Zane’s turn to wait to talk. “There’s a lot to keep her away, too.”
Now they were getting somewhere.
“Yeah, your dad coming home has put her back.”
Zane gave her a sideways glance and then concentrated on breathing. Breathing that was becoming more and more difficult as the laps accumulated.
A mile and a half into the run, Zane started to drag. “How many do you run?”
Jo picked up her pace and said, “Not cold any longer, are you?”
She’d lost count of her laps and slowed only when she noticed the cars starting to arrive.
Finally, when it appeared Zane was either going to pass out or puke, she slowed them down to a walk for the last two hundred meters to arrive where they’d left their other shoes.
“Holy shit.” Zane lowered his head between his open legs and moaned.
Jo shoved cold water from her supply into his hands.
He downed it in one continuous swallow.
A handful of members of the cross-country team made their way from the parking lot.
“Hey, Sheriff.”
“Hey, guys.”
Zane glanced her way.
“Tim, lead everyone in a warm-up. I don’t want anyone bitching about shin splits.”
Tim saluted her, and the lot of them made their way to the center of the field.
More than one set of eyes fell on Zane.
“Looks like someone got in trouble,” she heard one of the girls mumble.
“What’s that about?” Zane asked, nodding toward the group of teens that were starting their stretches.
“Nothing. Good kids, just need a little extra push once in a while.”
“Huh!” Zane stood and grabbed his boots. “So we’re good here?”
“Until Thursday.”
“Seriously?” He turned a little green.
“Six sharp.” She didn’t give him any room to argue. Jo took off on the track. “C’mon, slackers. We have some miles to run today.”
Jo heard Tim grumble.
“And one trip up Lob Hill.”
“Why?” one of the girls asked as they all moved to catch up with her.
“I was at the wedding, Tina. I had eyes everywhere.” Which they all knew to mean she’d caught more than one of them drinking. And since there wasn’t any more bitching, she knew they’d all had a hand in something they shouldn’t have over the weekend.
Zane shook his head as he walked away.
The first box arrived two days after Zoe left for Texas.
Luke opened the package to find a set of knives and a packing slip that had him looking twice.
He didn’t hesitate, he picked up his cell phone and called her.
“Hey, baby . . . I have a package here for you.”
“Awesome.”
“Am I reading this right? You spent two thousand dollars on knives?”
Zoe hesitated. “That isn’t right. Did you look in the box?”
He fumbled with some of the packing materials and removed three smaller boxes with images of the knives inside. “There’s three in here.”
“Oh, a partial shipment then. I’ll call.”
Luke flipped the box over in his hands. “Wait, are you saying you spent two grand on three knives?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Really? What do you spend on a drill set? Hydraulic hoses for the shop? Or, hey, that lift that keeps breaking down?”
Luke put the box down and grinned. “I get it.”
“Good. I have more coming, so keep an eye out. I’d hate for the boxes to sit on your porch.”
“Because I live in such a bad neighborhood.”
“Never mind. I seem to have forgotten there are places you can leave your front door unlocked.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” But even as the words left Luke’s mouth, he knew he’d left his door unlocked more times than not in his life.
“Are you checking on Miss Gina?”
“Every day. I think she’s catching on to me.”
“Let her catch on. I hate the thought of her being in the place alone.”
Luke put the smaller boxes that held the knives on the counter and tossed the bigger one by the back door to take to the trash.
“Brenda is there in the mornings to make breakfast when she has guests until Mel is back.”
“Yeah, how is that going to work with her and Wyatt married?”
“Better, I think. Miss Gina has been known to tell people that the inn is at capacity if she didn’t like the look of them.”
“Mel told me that the inn has been losing money ever since Hope got hurt last year.”
Luke drizzled a little water over the tiny plants sitting by his sink as they spoke. “Now that Hope has her own room at Wyatt’s, my guess is Miss Gina will get back to normal. Better than normal. This town seems to have filled up in the last few months.”