Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“We do need a small zoo in this town,” Amanda stated. “Just local animals and ones for the kids. I do think the dog park you proposed is a marvelous idea.”
“Thanks,” Lorne replied, smiling at her, and then returned to glaring at his deputy.
I really tried not to smile.
His growl was not subtle. “Do you understand how ridiculous it is that I’m having a conversation, as the chief of police, about goats and alpacas despite being told by my two deputies that they could handle this situation?”
“I do,” Victoria granted, which was quite brave of her. From the look Lorne shot her, she understood immediately that the question had been rhetorical.
Lorne kissed my cheek before turning for his car. “We’re doing it my way now, Deputy,” he ordered. “Get in your vehicle.”
She bolted away, and Amanda and I watched them go.
“You know, I bet he didn’t have to worry about livestock in Boston.” She snickered.
“I would have to agree.”
“About now he’s thinking, Why did I even come to this ridiculous town?” she said with a snort of laughter, like the thought was hysterical.
I did a slow pan to her.
“What?”
Narrowing my eyes slowly, I stared until she understood her faux pas.
“Oh yeah. Huh.”
It was my turn to smack her.
“The hell was that for,” she yelled at me.
“You can’t even kid about him not being here.”
In the beginning, Amanda didn’t like Lorne. But over the course of us falling in love, he grew on her, and now she was fairly smitten with him. She saw the full breadth of his warrior heart, and she appreciated how good and grounding he was for me. For his part, Lorne was not the kind of person who warmed up fast to people, so it took a while. The fact that he now counted on her as a friend meant a lot to her. And me. Amanda and her husband and kids were the closest thing I had to family, my own having crossed over ages ago, to Summerland, the place souls went between incarnations.
“Well, then maybe you should try and stay alive long enough so you can get married,” she snapped, returning my focus to her from my wandering thoughts.
I sighed. “Point taken.”
We were quiet a moment.
“Aren’t you late for something?” she mentioned casually. “Something at the library?”
“Sorry?”
“A place where you need to clock in, perhaps?”
I was supposed to be there at one, and it was currently five after. “Shit,” I groused, kissed her on the cheek, and was off.
“You would have been there already if you hadn’t nearly been killed!” she called after me, having to add some guilt to me already feeling bad. She was a mother, after all.
The good news was no one noticed I was late. Joanna Milton, the truly horrible woman who worked with me on the day shift at the library, had left precisely on time at one, with people at the counter, but there weren’t only the two of us during the day anymore. With more interest in all the historical happenings in Osprey from both locals and tourists alike, there needed to be more staff. One of the new hires was Danesha Stanek, a new resident of Osprey with her wife, Joelle, who was the new city manager, and their two sons. She worked the middle shift, from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon, so she could drop off her six- and eight-year-old in the morning and pick them up after school. So far, it was a perfect fit.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said, lifting the pass-through and then lowering it back into place so I could slip around the counter to help her with the small line.
“You’re fine,” she told me through clenched teeth.
After we got everyone checked out, I turned to her. “Why’re you grouchy?”
Her stare should have incinerated me. I smiled back, knowing it wasn’t meant for me.
“Seriously,” she snarled. “I’m a pacifist, but that woman—ohmygod, Xander, that woman could turn me into an axe-toting serial killer!”
“That’s a terrible thing to say about Nico,” I scolded her. Our colleague, and my friend, worked part-time. “You only have to see her on Tuesdays anyway, and you don’t even work on the weekends.”
“Xander!” she nearly yelled. “I am so not talking about Nico.”
I knew she wasn’t. “Shhhh,” I baited her. “This is a library.”
She glared harder.
“I’m sorry, are you speaking of Joanna?” I asked innocently, fluttering my lashes.
“Do not make me laugh.”
“Never,” I said, chuckling as she smiled back. “Now deep breath in.”
“Ugh.”
“Oh, come on, it’s funny.”
“What is?”
“That we have a troll working in the library of all places.”
“What the hell, Xander?”
I shook my head. “Listen, you have to understand she doesn’t just hate you, or all the kids who come here. She hates everyone equally.”
“I—”
“Don’t you feel better knowing that?”
“Xander!” she snapped. “How does she work here?”