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“I’ll slow down from now on. Pinky promise?” I offer my pinky through the open window. The jerk just stares at it.
“License and registration.”
“Is that really necessary? You know who I am. You towed Bess once before. You know I didn’t steal her.”
“License and registration, Gray.”
“But—”
“You’re the one making this take longer.”
“Fine.” I grab my purse, spilling half the contents onto the passenger side floor in the process. Including my billfold. I reach across the center console, my fingertips brushing the faux pink leather. “Almost gotit.” The seatbelt yanks me back into my seat with force. “What thehell, Bess?” I hiss at the car.
“You okay in there?” The smug cop leans down, peering into my car. He actually has the audacity to smirk.
I unclip my seatbelt and dive for the billfold, in too big a hurry to care that I basically pop my ass in Garrett’s face. His fault for propping himself in my open window. After what turns into an embarrassing wrestling match with the discarded items on the floor, I finally hand over the requested items.
Garrett doesn’t say a word as he turns on his heel and heads back to his car.
“Seriously?” I grumble through gritted teeth. I consider texting Grandma Rose, but it’ll be late tonight before she even discovers my message. She’s only learned how to text since she returned from her world cruise, and she’s still not used to checking a cell phone she rarely remembers to bring to the diner. I consider calling her, but I don’t want to risk her overhearing Garrett in the background. I’m only seven minutes late.
Might as well be seven hours.
I’m never going to prove I’m responsible enough to take over the diner if this bad luck keeps up. No one takes me seriously as it is. Simple, clueless Aurora. She means well. But she can’t be trusted to do anything right. At least that’s how my two older sisters see me. A vision they’re not shy about sharing with the entire town of Caribou Creek.
“Aurora Gray?”
“Do you have to be so stuffy and formal?”
Garrett’s tight lips don’t bend into the slightest hint of a smile. He lifts his sunglasses, placing them on top of his head. Those stormy eyes are void of emotion. Unreadable. His grim expression creates a solid knot in my stomach. “I’m placing you under arrest.”
CHAPTER2
Garrett
It’s been an unusual day.
My baby sister Jade showed up on my doorstep with nothing more than a battered barely-holding-itself-together suitcase. The Crowley brothers—crotchety old grumps notorious for reporting each other for the slightest infraction out of sheer mutual spite—were spotted at the diner sharing a booth and laughing over coffee. And I’ve responded to half a dozen frantic calls from tourists after Etta Carver fired a shotgun round into the air to scare away a grizzly.
But nothing is more unexpected about my day than having to put Aurora Gray in handcuffs.
“Are these really necessary?” she hisses through her reluctant cooperation as I tighten the cuffs around her wrists, forcing myself to ignore the silky texture of her skin as my thumb slides across her wrist. I focus instead on leaving enough slack so the metal rings won’t leave marks.
“Did you miss the part about having the right to remain silent?”
“Sure, I was going a little fast. But Bess doesn’t even reach speeds that could get a person arrested.”
“Bess?”
Aurora shakes her head as I lead her to my patrol car and open the back door. She aims a fiery glare at me over her shoulder. “You’ve towed her, but you can’t even remember her name?”
“In the car, Gray.”
“Can you at least grab my purse so it doesn’t get stolen?”
“Sure.”
Once I’ve put her in the cage and shut the door, I return to her car and collect her things. Grabbing and stuffing the half spilled contents back into her purse, I try not to linger or dwell on the memory of her upturned face as I shut the patrol car door. She was devastated, and my instincts tell me it’s about more than being arrested.
