Home to Sparrow Lake (Harlequin Heartwarming) (4 page)

“So what’s with you and Margaret’s niece?” Owen asked.

Alex frowned at him. “I caught her breaking into her aunt’s store, and I brought her in for questioning.”

“I hear there was more to it. A little something special going on between you two?”

Wishful thinking. Alex hadn’t had anything going on with
any
woman for far too long. “Who’s making up stories now?”

“Janet. She said the way you looked at the Lange woman and the tone you used when you spoke to her made them all think there was more to the story than you were telling.”

“They just need something juicy to chew over. A new woman in town fits the bill.”

“I might believe you, but—”

“What?”

“That expression on your face now. I know you too well, buddy. You may not have anything going yet, emphasis on the
yet,
but you’re sure thinking about it.”

Owen meant well, and he wasn’t wrong, but Alex wasn’t about to start talking about a woman he didn’t even know yet.

“Any new reports about the pranks being pulled around town last night?” Alex asked.

“Not last night.” Owen sighed. “At nine-fifteen this morning, the fire truck showed up at the library to find someone had pulled the alarm. Of course there was no fire. Not even a wisp of smoke.”

Alex shook his head in disgust. “I wonder where Brian Lange was at nine-fifteen.” And he wondered if Brian’s sister could tell him. That might be a sticking point in getting to know her better.

“If we could catch Brian and Matt and Andy in the act—”

“We could put the fear of jail time in them before they go too far.”

They talked for a bit about the situation with the boys running wild. Something bad had been brewing in this area of the state since the summer before. Alex had heard rumors of drug trafficking, and there had been a few armed robberies in nearby towns. He wasn’t about to let anything like that go down here in his town.

Sparrow Lake was pretty much crime free. So far.

Owen got to his feet. “I’d better get back to work or my boss might fire me.”

Alex grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. But once the officer left the station, Alex found himself brooding over the problem.

Since Brian Lange had moved back to town the month before, he’d been hanging out with two high school students a year younger than he was. Alex had seen the three of them together, and to his way of thinking, the local boys idolized the California transplant and would do anything to impress him. Since his return, all kinds of odd events had started happening. Pranks that made people angry. The three boys had been sighted several times in the areas where pranks had been pulled, although no one had actually seen them in action.

Nothing serious. Yet.

And Alex wanted to make sure it stayed that way by nipping trouble in the bud.

While on the job in Chicago, he’d seen terrible things happen to kids because no one got in their way when they started down the wrong path. Things that destroyed their futures. Things that took away any future they might have at all.

That was the reason he’d left Chicago. He’d been part of a gang unit in the Chicago Police Department, and they’d been dealing with a crime in progress. A crazed, drug-ridden kid had fired at his team and then had pointed a gun straight at Alex. Instinct had kicked in faster than he’d had time to blink, and he’d fired his own weapon. He’d been in the right. Had done exactly as he’d been trained to do. After the investigation, he’d been exonerated. None of that mattered, not even the fact that the kid had survived.

Alex had kind of gone crazy after that.

Haunted by the what-ifs, he swore he wouldn’t let the kids here, in his town, get on such a self-destructive road when he could steer them down a more positive path before it was too late.

Feeling down just thinking about Chicago, he went to his office and tried to bury himself in paperwork, but he simply couldn’t concentrate. He needed a distraction, something to take away the dark cloud that hung over him. Something to make him smile.

A few minutes later, he found himself in his squad car heading back to Sew Fine.

CHAPTER FOUR

“Y
OU
WERE
SCHEDULED
to work at nine this morning,” Kristen told Brian when he finally strolled in the door just before noon.

“I was? Oh, sorry. The time must have slipped my mind.”

He gave her an innocent expression, yet Kristen couldn’t tell if it was genuine. He was still a kid, though, and needed some guidelines.

Kristen sighed. “Maybe you should add your work schedule to the calendar on your phone.”

“I’ll do that.” Brian kissed her on the cheek. “Sorry, sis.”

Okay, how mad at him could she be? Instead of chastising him, she gave him a big hug.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I just missed you, is all.” She’d missed a lot of things while he was growing up, as Heather had reminded her.

His answering smile lit up his big blue eyes. He would be handsome if only he would grow out his faux-Mohawk haircut. The sides were sheared short and the top was spiked, making his already narrow face seem thinner. Not that she would make any suggestions in the haircut department and chance hurting his feelings.

Brian asked, “So what do you want me to do first?”

Not having wanted to leave the shards of glass from the window on the floor any longer, she’d swept them up herself. And after her talk about Brian with Heather, she’d gotten a better idea of how she could make him feel like a more important member of the Sew Fine team—by giving him more responsibility. Heather had enthusiastically agreed.

So Kristen asked, “How would you like to be in charge of fulfilling orders for the store?”

“What? You mean be a clerk? I don’t know anything about quilting.”

Kristen jiggled the box of orders written on scraps of paper. “I mean fulfill these. We need someone to be in charge of phoned-in orders, to make sure they all go out once each week.”

“You want me to be in charge of something?” Brian sounded surprised.

“Why not? This is a family business, and you’re part of the family.”

“Yeah, okay. What do I do?”

“Round up the items being ordered. If you need material cut, or you need to know what an item is or where to find it, ask Heather or Gloria. You’ll get the hang of how the store is organized fast enough. When you have everything in an order, package it and go on to the next one. When you complete all of the orders, sort them into store pick-up or mail. Then you can run the orders that need to be mailed over to the post office.”

Brian grinned and nodded. “I can do that.”

“Great. I’m installing a computer program so future orders will be more organized, but in the meantime, good luck with these.” She handed him the box.

Not looking in the least daunted, Brian took the handwritten orders over to one of the class tables and started sorting through them. Maybe having actual responsibility would make Brian feel more needed at the store, and encourage him to keep to the hours he was scheduled.

She’d assured her brother that he would quickly learn how the store was organized, something she hadn’t yet explored. She needed to know exactly what they were selling so she could get some marketing ideas. With that in mind, she decided to stretch her legs and take a more thorough look for herself.

Heather and Gloria were both busy with customers. As had happened yesterday around noon, the customers seemed to multiply, no doubt taking advantage of their lunch hours. So, thinking to get a more thorough idea of their product lines and whether or not they could display goods more effectively or perhaps offer some kind of incentive to customers, Kristen decided to check out the stock on her own.

Closest to the office space were shelves of books and videos about quilting. A half-dozen colorful baskets held samples of the patterns that were stored in a file cabinet. Notions—rulers, cutting tools, pins and needles, and spools of thread—took up the center of the store. And brilliantly colored fabrics were displayed closest to the windows to take advantage of the natural light. It was only when she was admiring some batik prints that she noticed a black-and-white patrol car stop next to the curb directly outside the store.

Pulse humming, she ducked down to take a better look at the driver...just as Police Chief Alex Novak looked back.

Was he checking up on her?

Without thinking it through, Kristen left the store to find out. Through the windshield, she could see that his expression changed, as if he hadn’t expected a confrontation. And then, appearing resigned, he got out of the vehicle. She came face-to-face with him curbside. His feet were still planted on the street, while she was on the higher curb, so they were actually eye to eye. Not that she could see the soft gray color of his eyes through his dark sunglasses.

“Is there a problem, Chief?”

“Alex, please.”

He was wearing a uniform today, looking unbelievably good in stark black. Not wanting to be attracted to him, she swallowed hard. “Okay, Alex, do you have a problem with me?”

“Why would you think that?”

“This is the second time today that you stopped in front of the store, as if you were casing it. Or maybe you’re expecting me to be doing something not to your liking. Maybe you just want to arrest me again.”

The way he was staring at her intently, as if he wanted to say something but was reluctant, made her mouth go dry. Was he really not going to explain himself? The way he was staring at her was so...so personal.

Her pulse quickened, and she was about to demand an answer, when he said, “When I drove around back, I noticed the glass in that window was still missing.”

“And?”

“I wondered why.”

“And I’ve been wondering why Aunt Margaret’s handyman hasn’t returned my calls. Three of them.” She couldn’t help sounding a little exasperated. “That’s why. So is having a window with no glass illegal in Sparrow Lake?”

“Just risky. You never know who might try to crawl in through an open window.”

Heat rose along her neck as she remembered the way he’d caught her the night before. Did he enjoy embarrassing her? She thought so.

“Thanks for the observation, Chief, but as long as it’s not illegal...”

She didn’t finish the statement. His eyebrows flashed upward over the tops of his sunglasses, and he looked as if he wanted to say something more. But in the end, he gave her one of those sarcastic smiles that irritated her and touched the front of his cap before backing off.

“Have a good day, ma’am.”

She stood there, feet glued to the curb, as he got into the patrol car and drove off. No man had ever made her feel so uptight before. What was with that? Tension gradually flowed out of her body, and she retreated back inside the store.

Now what had she been doing before she’d seen Alex out there? Oh, right, taking a mental inventory of the store’s wares. Her mind had gone blank. Instead of product, it was filled with Alex Novak’s face. The way his mouth always seemed ready to curl in a smile. Or was it a smirk? She shook away the image and forced herself to concentrate on work.

Happy to see that Brian was gathering items to fulfill those orders, she went back to the office area to search the internet for the computer program that she wanted to install.

Glancing back to Brian, however, she hesitated. Rather than working, he was now reading something on his cell phone. She knew he was into the whole social networking thing. He was always checking his phone and sending off messages to his friends. Nothing wrong with that—all the kids and many adults did it—but he was supposed to be working now. About to say so, Kristen stopped when Brian slipped the cell back into his pocket and got to work on an order.

Okay, then. Back to work for her.

She had the ability to concentrate even in the midst of chaos. Sew Fine was fairly calm compared to the office she’d last worked in. As she clicked on internet links to check out several potential programs, she heard the entrance door opening and closing, customer questions being answered about the pros and cons of using patterns as opposed to kits, soft laughter coming from someone at the other end of the store. Nothing affected her concentration.

Not until a jarring noise came from directly behind her on the other side of the back wall, as if someone was stomping on loose boards.

Kristen tried to ignore the noise, and for a moment it went away. Then a rough, grating sound scraped straight down her spine.

“What the...?”

She turned to see movement on the other side of the broken window. Had the handyman simply shown up and started the job without telling anyone? But wait...the person wielding a tool that scraped the frame was dressed in black.

Suspicion made her hackles rise. Lunging out of her chair, she made for the back door and threw it open only to find Alex, a rectangle of glass in hand, standing on the Dumpster. He was trying to set glass into the empty window pane.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

He gave her a quick glance before returning his attention to his task. “You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t thank you.”

He sighed. “I figured you wouldn’t, but that doesn’t stop me from being polite.”

Realizing she’d let her temper best her when it seemed he was simply trying to do her a favor, Kristen took a big breath to calm herself. What was wrong with her? She never used to be like this. Then, again, she’d never run into an Alex Novak before. Now he was using some kind of a tool to push little pieces of metal into the frame, undoubtedly meant to hold the glass in place.

“Look, I’m sorry,” she said and meant it. “You just...well, kind of startled me, is all.”

He glanced her way again and grinned. “You weren’t ready for me, huh?”

Not sure any woman would be, she asked, “Did Aunt Margaret call you to take care of the window?”

“No one had to ask me.” He rolled a cord of white stuff around the glass frame and used the tool to press it in place. “I could see you needed a little help. You couldn’t get Margaret’s handyman to return your calls, and I assumed you wanted the place locked up and the alarm set tonight.”

“Well, yes, of course.”

He used another tool to remove any goopy stuff off the glass. “And I don’t want to have to respond to a burglary in progress, so I’m taking the easy way out.”

Kristen realized he was done when he jumped from the Dumpster and landed next to her. And she realized she’d sounded ungrateful for a charitable act.

“Well, thank you, Alex. I mean that sincerely.”

He set the sunglasses back in his hair and cocked his head, his gray eyes going soft as they swept over her face. It put a knot in Kristen’s stomach.

“You’ll have to get someone to paint the compound and touch up the frame. Wait a couple of days, though, so the compound has time to dry out.”

“Okay.”

“In the meantime, I’ll take a look at your alarm system, make sure it’ll work now.”

Kristen followed him inside and watched as he pulled a chair under the window and stood on it. Glancing around the store, she realized that no one was paying them any mind. Alex checked something attached to the window frame then stepped down.

“Looks all right,” he said, returning the chair to where he found it.

“Well, thank you again.”

She noticed his attention was elsewhere. He wore a speculative expression. Alex seemed to be focused on Brian, who was still working on filling those orders. Undoubtedly he was surprised to see a teenage boy working in a store frequented mostly by women.

When Alex turned his gaze back to her, Kristen said, “If there’s ever anything I can do for you—”

“There is.” A slow, easy grin lit his face. “You can have dinner with me.”

Though her pulse fluttered at the thought, she frowned in response. “Dinner?”

“You know, that’s when you eat to satisfy those hunger pangs in the evening hours.”

“Um, I don’t—”

“Eat?”

“I was going to say that I don’t think it would be appropriate.”

“Which part?”

“My dating you to pay you for fixing the glass.”

“That’s not exactly what I was asking you to do.”

“What, then?”

“I just want to get to know you better.”

Tempted, Kristen swallowed hard. She had to admit the police chief had more going for him than she’d first thought and not just in the looks department. He might be a little snarky at times, but he was a well-intentioned person. His fixing the window had been very thoughtful. But she’d had a purpose in moving to Sparrow Lake, and it certainly wasn’t to find a man. She wasn’t going to be here that long, anyway. A few months at most. Getting involved romantically would just complicate things.

Alex cleared his throat. “About dinner?”

“I appreciate your interest, but I don’t think it’s a good idea under any circumstances.”

His expression went neutral when he asked, “Any particular reason?”

Realizing she might have offended the man again, Kristen assured him, “It’s not you, Alex. I simply have too much on my plate right now to be indulging in any kind of extracurricular activities.”

“Wow, that sounds sad.”

“What’s sad about my being focused?”

“On work?”

“Aren’t you focused on
your
job?” Which he ought to be, considering he was chief of police, Kristen thought.

“Within reason. But...hey, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll just leave now.”

“Good... I mean...all right. And thanks again.”

If he heard her, he didn’t respond, simply headed out the door.

And Kristen quickly deflated. Turning back to her computer, she realized Aunt Margaret was standing there, had probably caught the whole show.

“Aunt Margaret, I didn’t realize you were coming in this afternoon.”

“I just came back from my meeting with the dean.”

Indeed, Aunt Margaret was dressed more conventionally than usual in a skirted suit. Of course, she’d added a purple-and-blue flower-print blouse and matching earrings.

“So what are you doing here?”

“I just thought I would check in to see how things were going.” Aunt Margaret arched her eyebrows. “Which seems to be in an interesting direction for you.”