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Dani was stunned. Her eyes welled before she knew it, and then the tears were running down her cheeks, which scared the holy shit out of Aaron.
“No, no, don’t cry! I didn’t mean… I was just trying to…”
Dani shook her head. “Don’t apologize for being nice. These are emotional tears. I can’t remember the last time anyone offered to help me do anything. I would appreciate you and your family’s help. You’ll be my first friends in Jubilee.”
Aaron breathed a quick sigh of relief.
“Thank God. I thought I’d just made everything worse.”
“Well, you didn’t, Officer Pope. You just made everything better.”
Aaron frowned. “None of that ‘officer’ business. Whenever you see me, wherever you see me, in uniform or not, it’s just Aaron.” And then he held out his hand. “Deal?”
Dani hesitated briefly, then clasped his hand and shook it.
“Deal.”
“Great! You have my number in your phone now; will you add it to your contacts list?”
She nodded. “Yes, I will do that.”
“So, in three days, just text me when the moving van arrives. By the time I get everyone gathered up and get to your house, the movers should be finished and gone. We can help move boxes to the right rooms and help you sort what needs to be sorted,” he said.
“I will, and thank you, so much.”
“No thanks needed. We haven’t done anything yet,” he said, and got up.
“You’ve done more than you know. Thank you,” she said, and stood to see him out. As she did, the breeze tousled her hair and plastered the T-shirt she was wearing against her body.
It would have been all too easy to cast an appreciative eye on her shapely body, but instead he just shifted his gaze. “I look forward to it. Now, follow me out so you can lock the door behind me.”
Dani stood in the doorway, watching until he drove out of sight, then went back inside and locked the door. She had butterflies in her stomach and her heart wasracing just a little. Just enough to remind her Tony Bing hadn’t beaten the life out of her, after all.
To Alex’s undying relief, when the movers stopped for the night, he stopped with them. He’d cursed Dani’s name every mile that he’d driven, and the farther they went, the angrier he became.
After the movers registered and went to the rooms, he went into the office and got his own room next to theirs. The first thing he did when he entered was lock the door and strip. He showered and washed his hair, and then hand-washed his underwear and his T-shirt and hung them on the shower rod to dry.
He had pizza and a liter of Coca-Cola delivered to his room, and ate his fill before crawling into bed. The last thing he did was set his alarm for 4:00 a.m. He didn’t know when the movers would leave, but he couldn’t afford to lose track of them. He could sleep all he wanted after she was dead.
After his talk with Dani, Aaron went home that night feeling happier than he had in months. He kept telling himself it had nothing to do with the pretty witness. She was alone. They could help. End of story.
Later that evening when they all sat down to supper,Aaron listened to everyone’s chatter and the stories of what happened at work, laughing when it was appropriate, commiserating with them at the roadblocks in their day.
It wasn’t until Shirley took a chocolate pie from the refrigerator that Aaron broached his request.
“Hey everyone, in three days, a new friend is moving into Jubilee and I offered to help in the move. Would you guys be willing to help?”
Wiley waved his fork in the air. “I’ll check to see if I can get that day off.”
B.J. frowned. “I don’t know. Maybe…if I ask Aunt Annie when I get to work tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know.”
Sean nodded. “There’s something to be said for being your own boss. Yes, sure. What’s up?” he asked.
“I can help, too,” Shirley said. “Who are we going to move in?”
“The new first-grade teacher at Jubilee Elementary. She’s rented a cottage in town next door to Benny and Lisa. A moving van is due to arrive tomorrow afternoon. They’ll unload all the boxes and set up her bed and dump the furniture, but she’s going to need help settling in, and I sort of volunteered us for that. I kept remembering how it felt to drive up to a place I barely remembered and meet family I only knew by name. It took away so much confusion. I just thought we could do that for her.”
Shirley gave Aaron’s hand a quick squeeze.
