Deadly Valentine (Special Releases) by B. J. Daniels Read Free Book Online

lovebirds choose their mates on Valentine’s Day? Really!’’
    ‘‘I didn’t know that,’’ Tempest said.
    ‘‘Oh, yeah, and on Valentine’s Day if you put the guy you like’s initials in a piece of bread—I guess you’d have to like carve them in—and put the bread under your pillow, in the morning, if the initials are still there, then he’s the one. Cool, huh?’’
    ‘‘Very cool,’’ Tempest said, and took a drink of her iced tea, her amused gaze meeting Jack’s over the rim of her glass.
    The waitress nodded and bobbed off, humming to herself.
    Jack smiled across the table at Tempest, noticing she, too, was trying hard not to laugh. ‘‘I’m willing to bet you’re as wild about Valentine’s Day as I am.’’
    ‘‘It’s too pink for me,’’ she said.
    The waitress came back with two salads, but no more Valentine’s Day folklore fortunately. They ate, avoiding talking about the past—or the case—or her job offer. He learned that she’d gone to college back east, mastered in criminology and taught for a while before coming back here to apply for the sheriff’s job, most of which he would have seen on her application had he looked.
    ‘‘I thought you’d be a scientist,’’ he said, putting down his fork to study her. ‘‘You were so...smart.’’
    ‘‘Nerdy, I believe is the word you were searching for.’’
    ‘‘No. I remember being so envious of you in algebra class. You always knew the answers.’’
    His praise seemed to embarrass her. ‘‘I never knew the answers to anything that mattered,’’ she said looking down as she picked at her salad. ‘‘I would have given anything to be part of Mitzy’s crowd, just to know what to say, how to dress, how to act.’’
    ‘‘Our values are so screwed-up at that age,’’ he said and wanted to say more but the waitress appeared with their dinners. They ate in silence for a few moments.
    The waitress came back by to see if they needed anything else. ‘‘Let me know if you need any...bread,’’ she said to Tempest with a wink.
    ‘‘I’ll do that.’’
    Jack watched Tempest pick at her meal, trying to imagine her putting bread under her pillow. Why had she come back? Like him, she had no kin here anymore, nothing that he could see to drag her back. But he and Tempest weren’t the only ones who’d returned recently. Peggy had. ‘‘You and Peggy were pretty good friends for a while.’’
    She looked up, surprised either by his abrupt change of subject or that he’d remembered. He’d been a junior. Tempest and Peggy were sophomores, Oliver a senior and Mitzy and Frannie freshmen. It had been such a small high school it seemed impossible they could form cliques. But even on the basketball court or football field, it proved hard to play as a team because of their obvious social differences.
    ‘‘Outcasts often band together,’’ Tempest said after a moment. ‘‘At least for a while.’’ Her chuckle was hard edged. ‘‘Peggy realized I was more hopeless than she was. Even nerds have their standards.’’ What she didn’t say, he knew, was that even money couldn’t overcome that.
    While Tempest was one of the privileged, when she was a freshman, her father, a congressman, was charged with corruption. He took off with a female aide he’d been having an affair with, leaving his wife of twenty years and Tempest. The distasteful incident made Tempest and her mother outcasts among their own, except for Ellie Sanders who remained a friend.
    Jack wished he hadn’t been such a jerk, standing Tempest up, especially since she’d been Frannie’s friend. But he’d felt intimidated by Tempest’s brain—and her money—and had been running on teenage testosterone. And then there’d been temptation in the form of Mitzy.
    He and Tempest finished their meals, the restaurant nearly empty by the time the waitress cleared away their plates.
    ‘‘I need to get your statement. Do you mind if we do it here rather