The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch - Maisey Yates Page 0,20
Yeah.”
“See you around,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said, which she knew with some certainty, given that she had seen him around much more frequently than she might have anticipated since the first time she had pulled him over.
“Tomorrow I’ll get to work on that roof.”
“Are you going to do all of the repairs?”
He winked. It felt like a punch. Square in the stomach. “I told you, Officer Daniels. I always do my due diligence.”
He nodded once, and then walked out of the house, leaving her standing there. And it wasn’t until he was gone and silence had settled over her that she realized her heart was beating so loudly that it was echoing in her temples. It was a little while longer before she realized that the sensation was not entirely unpleasant.
CHAPTER FIVE
PANSY HAD THE day off, and she decided to join Rose and Iris for a trip to the brand-new bakery, Sugarplum Fairy, which was situated across from Sugar Cup.
“I feel a little bit guilty,” Iris said as they walked into the small shop.
“I don’t,” Rose said, immediately going to the case that held cupcakes, cake pops and macarons.
“They have cake at Sugar Cup,” Iris pointed out.
“Not consistently,” Rose replied. “And anyway, that’s one cake. This is many cakes. Many, many cakes.”
Pansy and Iris exchanged a glance. Their younger sister liked sugar more than any one person should. And no matter how many woeful warnings Iris had dished out about what her body would do when she turned thirty, Rose didn’t care to listen.
Rose got a blended coffee drink and some sort of filled cupcake. Iris chose a morning bun and a hot coffee, while Pansy got a cinnamon roll and the same coffee as Iris. The three of them sat at a small bistro table by the window, looking out onto the street. From this angle they could just see onto Main Street, and the shops weren’t very busy yet. It was a weekday morning, but given that it was just on the edge of summer, and the sky was blue, the weather beginning to turn after the long gray winter, sometimes there were a lot more people out and about than you would expect.
“Heaven,” Rose said, taking a bite of the cupcake. “It’s perfect. My teeth are vibrating.”
“Sounds great,” Iris said. Then she took a bite of her pastry, and her eyes went wide. “That is good.”
Pansy took a bite of her cinnamon roll and chewed, giving thanks that she was eating sugar this morning and not going on one of Chief Doering’s runs. She hadn’t realized how much she needed the day off.
“We missed you at dinner on Sunday,” Iris mentioned.
“I was tired,” Pansy said. “I went home. And then... I sat on the couch and I couldn’t get back up.”
“Why?” Rose asked.
Leave it to her sister—who had never worked anywhere but the family ranch—to ask why in a mystified tone as if all Pansy did all day was wander around the streets of town at her leisure. And yeah, maybe that was true sometimes, but still.
“Work. You know. I want to get the new position as police chief.”
“That’s great,” Iris said. “That’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“I know,” Pansy said, feeling cagey and a little bit irritated at the idea that she might have to talk about this with her sisters.
It meant a lot to her, and she didn’t even like saying it, in case she jinxed it or something.
“Is that stressing you out?” Iris asked.
“I just don’t know how it’s going to go. And yesterday there was a break-in... Well, somebody stole Barbara Niedermayer’s wallet.”
“Out of her purse?”
“Yeah, out of her car,” Pansy said.
“From her house?” Rose asked.
“Yes,” Pansy said.
“Well, that’s unusual.”
“I know,” she said.”
“Oh,” Iris said. “And she’s on the City Council.”
“Yes. And you can bet that she’ll be involved in the panel ultimately making the selection for the job.”
“Well great,” Rose said, rolling her eyes.
“Barbara is sad,” Iris said. “She lives alone since her husband left her and her son is struggling with addiction issues...”
“She’s mean,” Rose said, as if that settled it.
“Someone was in the barn the other night,” Iris said, as if it had just popped into her head.
“What?”
“Ryder didn’t tell you?”
Pansy shook her head. “No.” Her brother was not the best communicator.
“He saw a flashlight beam when he was driving in the other night, and he went to check it out. It was one of the old barns we don’t use, out on the edge of the property near the woods.”