Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas - Volume 2 by Keri Ford Read Free Book Online

back.
    “Everything, I guess. I don’t think I ever told you so, but instead just gave you grief.”
    He stilled. His hand stopped on her back. Even the muscles in his chest and shoulder tightened. “Someone had to look after you.”
    “You didn’t have to though.”
    He gave a careless shrug. “I was around. Might as well have made myself useful.”
    He had been around because his best friend had been dating her cousin, Jessie. It seemed ages ago, and it was. Jessie, just barely over eighteen. Tiffany, only sixteen when their parents were coming home from the county fair judging and ran off the road on that rainy afternoon. Jessie inherited her parents’ house and Tiffany. Cousins by birth. Like inseparable sisters growing up. Then suddenly supposed to be mother and daughter. Jessie did well enough. Made sure social services didn’t come, but Jessie was no parent to a teenager who fell into her custody. Never was supposed to be.
    Even still, Mike was around a lot more then because his best friend was around seeing Jessie, that was for sure. He stuck around even after the best friend was gone from Jessie’s life. Air deflated from her chest. “You still did more than you had to.”
    “You’re not laughing.”
    “Huh?”
    His hand peeled off her thigh long enough to point at the TV. “I figured this to be a favorite part.”
    She glanced up at the flickering screen and chuckled right away as Dead Bernie was being towed behind the ski boat. A slight, barely registered shudder lifted Mike’s chest. She glanced up and found him honestly grinning.
    Mission accomplished for the night and she relaxed against him, her head resting back on his padded muscular shoulder.

Chapter Five

    Mike leaned against the doorway to the dispatch room and resisted a chuckle. He wasn’t sure which one of them would pull their hair out first. Tiffany or Mary Sue.
    Though Mary Sue would never show it, Mike knew her well enough to know she was getting on her last thread. It wasn’t that Tiffany was trying to be complicated, she was just Tiffany. Yesterday he’d been worried, but as the day moved on, they found a routine. By this morning, they were operating around each other with few hiccups or awkward moments. An hour ago, they'd hit their stride, and become a team. Whatever odd friction and uncertainty had been there had cleared out.
    It was the same with him. Yesterday morning he would have said hell no, but after last evening, first her respect for his needs on the courthouse steps and then just in his house, watching a movie. More than once he’d wondered, what if?
    Tiffany raked her fingers through her hair. “It’s just your husband on the other end. Why waste all this time with these codes when we can just say what we need?”
    Mary Sue straightened, serene looking as can be even though Mike knew better. By her jerky movements sorting through papers, she was seconds from exploding. “That is how things are done. Occasionally we check in with other stations and we need the correct lingo. The codes are useful in front of suspects as well. We can be frank about things and the criminals never know it.”
    Tiffany groaned and flattened her hand over a sheet of paper. “Fine.” She lifted the mic and brought her to her lips. “Deputy Watkins, that’s a 10-4 on a turkey sandwich for your wife.”
    “10-4, station.”
    The static clicked off and fuzzed. Tiffany shook her head and clicked it back on. “Ya, know what? Turns out that’s a negative, Deputy Watkins.”
    Fuzzy static and then Will Watkins clicked back on. “Negative?”
    “Negative,” Tiffany said with a nod. “Your wife wants you to pick her up and take her to lunch instead. Over and out.” Tiffany leaned back in her chair and Mary Sue’s mouth was wide open.
    Mary Sue’s thread had just snapped. “I can’t leave! You don’t know what you’re doing.”
    “Mary Sue, the only officer in town is going to be eating lunch with you. I think I’ll be fine.