Support Your Local Sheriff

by Melinda Curtis

  Duke used melted ice cream to finger-paint the table.

  “Aren’t you going to say something?” Julie’s words were strong and demanding, but there was vulnerability in her eyes. And there were her hands covering his on the table.

  Nate shook his head, and then he blurted, “Everything I said today turned out wrong. Don’t ask me to speak. Don’t ask me to say anything.”

  “Okay.” A light smile played across her lips. “I’ll talk and you listen.”

  He nodded.

  “I had a long talk with Terrance today. Turns out he’s not only a well of wisdom about love...” She cleared her throat, casting a bit of doubt on the old man’s knowledge. “But he was also a private investigator, which is a career path that helps people obtain justice.”

  “Sometimes,” Nate allowed. No one could guarantee justice.

  Julie raised her brows. “Are you speaking or being silent?”

  “Silent.” He’d never speak again if she gave him a chance to love her.

  Julie looked like she didn’t believe he could stay silent and the more she smiled at him, the more Nate was inclined to agree with her. He wanted to talk. He needed to say what he was feeling.

  “Duke love Juju.” Duke beat Nate to the punch, dragging his ice cream–covered fingers over his face. “Duke love Nay.”

  “I want to date you, Jules.” So much for Nate being silent.

  “With your intentions being...” Julie smiled openly now. If Nate didn’t know better, he’d say there was love in her eyes.

  “My intentions...” Nate hesitated. He’d never said those words out loud and meant them with all his heart. “My intentions are love, honor and marriage.”

  Julie beamed at his words and said coyly, “I have to tell you, I’m a little gun-shy.”

  Nate loved it when she made a pun. But until they exchanged vows and signed papers, he wouldn’t blame her for doubting him. “We’ll go slow. We’ll be sure.”

  Julie nodded. And then she nodded toward the window. “The town council just pulled up. I think they’re going to beg you to take your job back.”

  “They can wait.” Nate moved closer to the woman who’d staved off rain clouds. He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I love you. I will always love you.”

  “Luv you Nay.” Duke wiped ice cream on his hair. “Luv you Juju.”

  “I love you, little man,” Julie said. And then she took Nate’s palm and pressed it to her cheek. “I love you, too.”

  The doors to El Rosal flung open. Loud voices rose above the music. They’d be surrounded by townspeople soon.

  Julie knew it. She pressed a quick kiss to Nate’s lips, one that promised more to come. “I’ve been thinking about what kind of wedding I want.”

  “Really?” Nate hadn’t gotten past the joy of the moment to logistics.

  She nodded again. “Nothing too fancy or too formal.”

  Nothing like what he and April had planned. “Whatever you want.”

  Julie’s gaze turned tender. She drew Nate closer. “But I think a bride needs a really great dress.”

  It was his turn to nod, numbly, because having Julie near and talking marriage had truly silenced him this time.

  The leaders of Harmony Valley approached with conciliatory smiles and determination in their eyes.

  Julie pressed her cheek to his and whispered in his ear, “How do you feel about pink?”

  * * * * *

  If you loved this charming small-town romance from USA TODAY bestselling author Melinda Curtis, be sure to check out the other stories in her acclaimed HARMONY VALLEY miniseries:

  LOVE, SPECIAL DELIVERY

  MARRYING THE SINGLE DAD

  A MAN OF INFLUENCE

  A MEMORY AWAY

  TIME FOR LOVE

  ONE PERFECT YEAR

  SEASON OF CHANGE

  SUMMER KISSES

  DANDELION WISHES

  Available from www.Harlequin.com today!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from UNTIL THE RIDE STOPS by Amie Denman.

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  Until the Ride Stops

  by Amie Denman

  CHAPTER ONE

  CAROLINE BENNETT CREPT into the police chief’s office and pulled the chain on the light bulb hanging over the rusty filing cabinets in the corner. She booted up the laptop and pushed the power button on the document scanner she’d borrowed from the Starlight Point IT department. All the usual sounds of the amusement park—yells of excitement, midway games and the roar of roller coasters—were eerily absent late at night and the quiet added to the sensation she was doing something wrong.

  She pulled open the top drawer labeled 1970–1973. Hanging file folders were labeled by month and year, with bits of paper sticking out of some. She took out the January 1970 folder and placed its single yellowed paper on the scanner’s glass.

  While she waited for the blue light to capture the document, she slid open the bottom drawer and took out the July 1985 folder. Caroline glanced over her shoulder before opening it.

  She found several smaller manila folders labeled Employee Issues, Dispatcher’s Log, Misdemeanors. The fourth folder was labeled Loose Cannon. She opened it and discovered it was completely empty.

  “Caroline.”

  She jumped and turned to the door.

  “Sorry,” the night dispatcher said. “I thought I’d just walk in here and tell you instead of putting it over the radio.”

  “That’s okay,” Caroline said. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. “Is there a call?”

  “One of the night cleaners reported seeing a possible trespasser enter the construction zone for the new ride.”

  “I’ll go right over,” Caroline said. She shoved the July 1985 folder back into the drawer and closed it.

  “Want me to scan some of this old stuff? Nothing’s more boring than night shift. Nothing ever happens.”

  “No,” Caroline said quickly. She smiled and tried to sound appreciative. “It’s my way of trying to get on the chief’s good side so he’ll recommend me for the police academy this fall.”

  “If you make it through all that old crap,” the dispatcher said, nodding at the filing cabinets, “you’ll deserve a badge.”

  Caroline shut down the scanner and laptop
and sped out the door.

  She crossed the midway, a wide avenue lined with shops and food stands on both sides, and checked the gate in the fence surrounding the construction area. Still locked. That meant the trespasser must have entered through one of the other four gates.

  The new ride wouldn’t open for almost a year, and there was no spectacular coaster track visible, but management wanted to protect the construction site. Crews were busy leveling and stabilizing the ground, pouring concrete footers and laying the groundwork for the first new ride Starlight Point had built in three years.

  And it would be a doozy. A combined kiddie coaster looping in and out of the track of a high-speed thrill coaster. Something for everyone, but still top secret until the big media reveal planned for later in the summer.

  “Hold it right there,” she said. The words were out of her mouth before she’d even focused on the moving shadow in front of her. “Hands where I can see them.”

  She pulled a flashlight off her belt and lit up the suspect. The suspect’s back. He wore loose fitting jeans, a T-shirt and a hard hat.

  A hard hat? Not many trespassers donned safety equipment. If he was a worker on the site, what was he doing there at midnight?

  “Don’t shoot,” the man said. “The only thing I have on me is a cell phone and a case of insomnia.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Worrying,” he said.

  “You’re in a restricted area. You’ll have to worry somewhere else. I need to ask you to come with me.”

  The man turned around, hands in the air, and faced Caroline. She kept her flashlight on him, even though he didn’t look dangerous. He had a blond crew cut and a big smile. Broad shoulders. Exposed biceps with his hands in the air. “You got coffee where we’re going?”

  “This isn’t a coffee break. I’m arresting you.”

  “Can you do that?” he asked.

  “Of course I can,” she said. Irritation tightened the muscles in her jaw. “I’m a member of the Starlight Point Police Department.”

  He laughed and put his hands down. “I didn’t mean to challenge your authority. I just wondered if you made a habit of arresting people who are legitimately working.”

  “At midnight?”

  He shrugged. “Job never rests.”

  Caroline lowered her flashlight so it wasn’t hitting him square in the face. “Explain yourself.”

  “Formal greeting first,” he said. He held out his hand, but Caroline didn’t take it. “Matt Dunbar. Construction engineer on the Super Star and Shooting Star project.”

  “Shh,” Caroline said, looking around. “You’re not supposed to use the official name. Someone might hear.”

  “Sorry,” he said. He leaned closer and whispered, “Matt Dunbar, construction engineer on the nameless mystery project opening next May. I hope.”

  Caroline let her shoulders relax but didn’t let down her guard. He still hadn’t explained himself. Not really, anyway.

  “That’s enough,” Caroline said. “Tell me why you’re here at midnight. I don’t see any of your crew, and I didn’t think there was nighttime construction going on.”

  “Couldn’t sleep, so I walked over.” He gave up on the handshake and put both hands in his pockets.

  “Walked?”

  Starlight Point was on a peninsula jutting into Lake Huron with a long bridge providing nearly the only access. No one walked to Starlight Point. They either caught the ferry or drove over. Caroline narrowed her eyes. His story was not holding water so far.

  “From the campout. My company sponsored a tent and I drew one of the lucky tickets to stay over tonight.”

  Of course Caroline knew about the campout. It was the reason she was working an overnight shift. With a five-hundred-dollar donation to a local charity, groups of four could pitch a tent and stay on the Western Trail overnight. They’d get VIP treatment when the park opened in the morning.

  “You’re here for the coaster campout?”

  “It sounded like a good idea at the time. Stay the night, campfire breakfast and coasters at first light before the crowds get here. Nice donation to local charities. However, I forgot two things.”

  “What did you forget?” Perhaps this would explain why he was wandering the construction zone. Caroline was still considering whether or not to haul him over to the station where she could question him under harsh fluorescent lights. Protecting Starlight Point was not a joke to her.

  “I don’t like riding roller coasters.”

  “And yet you’re building one,” Caroline said. She was starting to doubt he was actually in charge of the project. Shouldn’t it be someone much older? She’d been patrolling the fence surrounding the high-profile construction for several weeks now, but she’d hardly noticed the men in hard hats coming and going. “Will you ride this coaster when it’s done?”

  He nodded, his expression serious in the ambient glow from the flashlight. “It’s my job. Inspires confidence if the man who builds it is willing to ride it. Even if I have to hold my breath for the entire ride.”

  “Dedication,” Caroline said. I can respect that. But something still did not add up.

  “You said there were two things. What else did you forget?” Caroline asked. “Is it here in the construction zone?”

  “No. It’s a fact—I hate camping. When I was a kid, my older cousins used to consider it a badge of honor to scare me to death by scratching on the outside of the tent like ravenous mountain lions. This was especially effective after ghost stories and urban legends around the campfire.”

  Caroline suppressed a laugh. “I’m Caroline Bennett,” she said, holding out her hand. “I went camping one time when I was a Girl Scout.”

  “And?”

  “I was trapped in a tent with a spider large enough to cast a shadow.”

  He took her hand and gave it a lingering shake. “I’m picturing you ordering the spider out of your tent. Or else.”

  She smiled. “The spider disappeared and we never found it, even though we stayed up all night looking.”

  “I have no doubt you’re braver than I am,” he said. “Which is why I’ve already decided to surrender should you cuff me and haul me off to the Starlight Point Jail. I just hope you serve funnel cakes and boardwalk fries for breakfast. It’s the least you could do for keeping a man from his own worries.”

  “What are you worried about?”

  “Getting this done in the next three hundred and forty-two days.”

  Caroline pulled her radio off her belt and keyed the police dispatcher to let her know the situation was under control and she would be escorting a guest back to the camping area. She clipped the radio to her belt and gave Matt her attention again.

  “So you wandered off the Western Trail and thought you’d poke around here since you couldn’t sleep?”

  A line appeared between his eyebrows as he scanned the area. “I just thought it might be interesting to get the lay of the land at night. I’m trying to picture it all lit up with miles of steel track going everywhere.”

  Caroline glanced around. It was dark inside the walled-off section of the park, especially after closing time when lights all over the Point were dimmed or switched off. Only the chasing lights on the tall hills of a few roller coasters were visible.

  By next season, there would be an addition to the Starlight Point skyline. The new top secret coaster was being built on the site of the ill-fated and short-lived Loose Cannon that had claimed a life and closed after only part of one season.

  She shuddered, imagining the girl being thrown from the ride and dying on what should have been a fun day.

  “Cold?” Matt asked.

  Caroline shook her head. No way was she sharing her plan to investigate an old case no one wanted to reopen.

&n
bsp; “I wish I had a jacket to offer you,” he said. “I could give you my hard hat but it won’t do much good.”

  “I should escort you out of here and secure the site,” Caroline said. She swung her flashlight in an arc toward the gate. “Let’s go. I’ll see you back to your tent.”

  Matt blew out a long breath. Maybe he wanted to stay and work, but she couldn’t allow it. It was her job to keep the area free of trespassers all night. No matter what they claimed. She planned to check his name and credentials the next morning.

  “Will you come in and do a spider check?” he asked.

  She pressed her lips together to suppress a smile. “You’ll have to handle that yourself. Not in my job description.”

  Caroline opened the gate and they walked onto the dimly lit, empty midway. During the day, there was barely room for a shadow on the crowded thoroughfare, and now it was abandoned.

  Matt fell into step beside her as they passed the long fence concealing the construction site and then the dodgem cars and several shuttered food stands. The late May evening was chilly and the damp air smelled like the earth recently churned up in the flowerbeds. A lingering aroma of hot dogs and fried food remained, even hours after park closing.

  “Have you worked here long?” Matt asked.

  “This is my second season,” she said, hoping the finality in her tone would discourage him from asking further questions. If she hurried back to the station, she could reclaim the second half of her lunch break and get another look at that file. Was it really empty or had the contents been misfiled?

  “So you want to be a police officer, huh?”

  “I am a police officer,” she said. “I’m a member of the Starlight Point Police Department.”

  “But you don’t have a gun.”

  She shot him a sideways look and squared her shoulders. Was he planning to challenge her? He’d find out she could take down a man his size before he saw it coming.

  He laughed. “Easy, sergeant. It was just an observation.”