Home to Sparrow Lake (Harlequin Heartwarming) (9 page)

“You want to set them up?” How silly that she’d thought the man was interested in her.

“I figured they didn’t get a good start with Alex arresting Kristen and all. The fish fry would give them a chance to get to know each other better.”

“It would,” Margaret agreed. “I’ll do it, John! I’ll find a way to convince Kristen to come with me.”

“Good. Good. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Same here.”

“Okay.” He sounded happy when he said, “See you next Sunday, then.”

Margaret was happy, too. Conspiring with John McClintock to get Kristen and Alex together could be rewarding.

Not only would it be fun for her, if things worked out between her niece and the police chief, it would give Kristen another reason to stay in Sparrow Lake.

* * *

T
O
B
RIAN
’
S
RELIEF
,
Matt pulled his beat-up car over to the curb on a dark side street. It was well after midnight. Most houses around the area were dark, too. People in this town were already in bed.

“Why are you parking here?” Andy asked. “What if we need to make a quick getaway?”

“We’re only a block from our target,” Matt told him as he put the car in Park and removed the key. “This way, no one can place my ride at the scene of the crime.”

Just hearing the word
crime
made Brian wince. Things were getting out of hand, and it was more and more difficult to keep his buddies from crossing the line.

“We’re pranksters,” Brian insisted. “Not criminals.”

And not vandals.

They got out of the car, and Brian dragged behind Matt and Andy to the gas station, thankful that he’d talked them out of using that can of purple spray paint. Matt’s idea. Brilliant. If they did get caught spray painting a building, they’d be arrested and thrown in jail. That’s why he’d insisted on stopping at FamilyMart to buy a box of giant colored chalk, the kind kids used to draw lines for hopscotch and other games on sidewalks.

Only sidewalks weren’t their target.

The gas station was.

“I still don’t see why we couldn’t use my paint,” Matt said.

“That’s what everyone would expect,” Brian told him, trying to make it sound like what they were going to do was more interesting—cooler—when he was simply trying to avoid doing something he’d regret. You couldn’t just wash spray paint off a wall the way you could chalk. “Think of us as street artists. We can tick off Mr. Hansen while entertaining the people in town who appreciate what we have to say.”

His words were sounding hollow even to his own ears.

But once at the gas station, Brian relaxed and got into the prank. It was so late that no one was around to see them.

The building’s walls were covered in stucco, so it wasn’t as easy to use the chalk as he’d thought, but he’d always loved drawing, so he made the effort. He supposed he’d gotten that from Aunt Margaret.

Each of them had thought of something to say about energy reduction.

Andy drew an outline of a car hooked up to an electric pole and scrawled “Save the Earth, Buy Electric Cars.” Matt drew a blobby guy wearing a mask with the words
Gas is Toxic
over his head. And Brian drew an intricate windmill and told the onlooker to “Save on Gas, Buy Hybrid.”

“Cool,” Matt said when they all stood back to admire their handiwork barely illuminated by a streetlight.

“People will be talking about this for a while,” Andy said.

Unless the owner cleaned it off the building in the morning before anyone got a chance to see it, Brian thought. “Let’s get to the car before some cop trolls the area.” A cop named Alex Novak, he thought sourly.

They walked fast. Didn’t run. No need to draw attention to themselves in case someone was looking out a window.

When they were all in the car, Brian drew a deep breath. What had he been so worried about? It had been fun and the whole town was going to see their handiwork.

“So what are we gonna do tomorrow night?” Matt asked.

“We can meet with these guys I know,” Andy said.

Brian frowned. “What guys? You haven’t told anyone what we’ve been doing, have you?”

“Nah, they wouldn’t be interested in kid stuff.”

“What would they be interested in?” Matt asked.

“Making money.”

Brian had a weird feeling about this. “Doing what?”

“Don’t know. That’s why we need to meet with them.”

Matt snorted. “I don’t want some dumb job.”

“Who says it’s a job?”

That’s what Brian was afraid of. “Forget about it. We don’t need anyone messing up what we’re doing now.”

Neither of the other boys protested, but Brian feared this wasn’t the last they were going to hear of the making-money deal. Pulling pranks was fun. Sort of. He didn’t want to cross the line to dangerous.

CHAPTER NINE

A
LEX
ENTERED
S
EW
F
INE
on Monday afternoon, his gaze automatically going to the rear of the store where Kristen sat at her computer. Ignoring curious shoppers, he headed straight for his target. He was halfway there before she looked up and saw him.

Kristen’s expression closed, and by the time he got to her she was on her feet. Dressed less formally than usual, she wore wide-legged trousers and a pretty blue blouse the same color as her eyes. Her blond hair was pulled high into a sleek ponytail that made her look both elegant and casual.

“Alex. I didn’t know you were a quilter.”

He laughed. “Sorry, that’s not my interest.”

She narrowed her gaze on him. “Then why
are
you here?”

“Don’t worry. I’m not here to make any arrests. I just want to help out a friend is all.” Not to mention that he wanted to manufacture another opportunity to spend some time with her.

“Go on.”

“His name is John McClintock. He’s a nice man, retired from a demanding job. He now owns McClintock Boat, Bait and Tackle.”

“
He’s
interested in quilting?”

“Uh, no.” Alex moved closer and lowered his voice. “I think he’s interested in Margaret.”

Her expression softened. “Really.”

He could see that perked her up, just as he’d hoped it would. Her big blue eyes rounded, and she bit at her lower lip. He had to force himself not to stare.

Clearing his throat, he said, “John’s giving a fish fry next Sunday. It’s to support a fishing camp for kids.”

“Yes, Aunt Margaret mentioned that last night.”

“Good. You’re coming, then.”

“Aunt Margaret wants us both to go.”

“What about you?”

“I told her I would see.”

See about what? he wondered. Why did she hesitate? Was she so immune to having a little fun?

“If you agree,” he said, hoping this would convince her, “then it’ll be a slam dunk that Margaret will go. That will give her and John a chance to get to know each other better without expectations.”

“Let me get this straight. You came here to ask me to go to a fish fry with Aunt Margaret so that your friend John can spend time with her.”

“Exactly.” He could see her mind spinning, searching for another angle. Alex kept a neutral expression when he said, “Margaret and John both lost their spouses a few years back. They probably could both use a little company once in a while. You admitted Margaret has done a lot for you. Surely you can do this for her, right?”

“Well...of course.”

Apparently, she couldn’t come up with an excuse
not
to go, and he would find a way to turn that to his advantage.

A grinning Alex said, “Great. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

She seemed to choke a little before her gaze narrowed again. Her tone was dismissive when she asked, “Is that it, then?”

“For now.”

Not wanting to blow what seemed to be a truce of sorts, Alex left without saying another word.

* * *

“A
UNT
K
RISTEN
!”

“Aunt Kristen!”

Kristen closed the front door of Heather’s charming two-bedroom cottage and braced herself as the twins tackled her, nearly sending her flying backward.

Laughing, she stooped and gathered them to her to give them big hugs and noisy kisses on their chipmunk cheeks.

“Are you gonna take us to the park?” Addison asked. “I wanna go on the swings!”

“No! Let’s make popcorn and watch
Princess Lara and the Butterflies!
”

“We watched that, like, ten times before, Taylor!”

“So? It’s my favorite!”

Addison shoved Taylor. “Swings!”

Taylor shoved back. “Princess Lara!”

And Kristen stood there frozen for a moment, grateful when Heather entered the living room.

“Girls, girls, give your aunt some breathing room.” She set her briefcase near the door. “Go pick out a book for her to read to you at bedtime.”

“Yay!” they both yelled, running into the other room like miniature tornadoes.

Kristen laughed at herself. How could five-year-olds intimidate her? “So what do you think we should do tonight, Mom? Swings or movie? Or maybe both.”

“Actually, I have another favor to ask. Would you mind taking the girls on a little shopping trip instead? FamilyMart is having a big one-day sale today and the girls need a few things.”

Kristen forced a smile. “No problem.” She hadn’t counted on taking the twins anywhere in public. Just dealing with them in their own home was challenge enough. But if it would help Heather, of course she would do it.

“Great. I hope you don’t mind switching vehicles, then. Easier than hauling the car seats from my SUV to your car.”

“Right. No problem,” Kristen said again.

Heather handed her an envelope. “Here’s money and a list of what clothes they need with sizes. The clothes should be a little big on them. They’re growing like weeds and these outfits have to last the whole season.”

“Got it.” Trying not to feel overwhelmed, Kristen tucked the envelope into her shoulder bag. “Go to class with an easy mind.”

Heather nodded and hugged her. “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.” Picking up her case, she called to the girls. “Addison...Taylor...I’m leaving now. You be good for Aunt Kristen.”

The twins raced back to the entry to get hugs and kisses from their mother. Kristen thought her sister looked a little sad leaving them.

For a moment, Kristen thought of herself in this situation. She couldn’t imagine not working. Still, she imagined she would be every bit as torn as Heather was.

Not that she was going to have to deal with being a mother anytime soon.

She wasn’t even dating...no matter what people thought about her and Police Chief Alex Novak.

He had looked awfully cute, though, when she’d seen him that morning. And he’d actually been nice. More than nice, really. He’d been thoughtful enough to want to give his older friend and her aunt a chance to size each other up. There was more to him than she’d realized.

And his smile had been enough to make her breath catch in her throat....

Once the front door was closed, she shook away his image and concentrated on her nieces. It took another five minutes to get them to the bathroom, dress them in clean T-shirts and strap them into their car seats.

FamilyMart was on the highway a few miles outside of Sparrow Lake. The twins alternately argued with each other and sang together, and in between asked her “how much longer,” even though the ride was less than ten minutes.

It was with relief that Kristen spotted the FamilyMart sign and pulled into the lot.

Getting the girls out of the car, she held each one’s hand and cautioned them to stay with her inside the store.

That lasted for maybe five minutes.

Somewhere in the midst of looking over T-shirts, Taylor disappeared.

“Did you see where your sister went?” Kristen asked Addison.

“That way.” Addison pointed.

“C’mon, let’s go find her.” Wielding the shopping cart with one hand, holding Addison’s hand with the other, Kristen made her way back to the main aisle. “Tell me if you see her.”

A moment later, Addison said, “There!”

Taylor stood amidst counters of stuffed animals, her little hand skipping over each head for a pat.

“Taylor, come back here, please,” Kristen called.

The little girl glanced back at her, then picked up a black-and-white spotted stuffed horse before obeying. “Look what I got. It’s Spotted Pony!”

Kristen humored her. “So it is. Very nice. But put it back so we can get those clothes for you.”

Taylor’s face wrinkled. “I want Spotted Pony.”

“Maybe next time,” Kristen said, even as crocodile tears rolled down Taylor’s cheeks. Her chest tightened and she tried not to sound desperate. “Today we’re just buying clothes.”

“Don’t
want
clothes! Want Spotted Pony!”

“
I
want clothes, Aunt Kristen,” Addison said, her little face set in a smirk.

Kristen started. Was Addison trying to outshine her sister for approval? “We’ll get them in a minute, as soon as your sister puts the stuffed horse back on the table.”

Her face set in a stubborn expression, Taylor threw the toy to the ground.

Kristen kept her temper with difficulty. “That’s no way to treat a poor, sweet animal, and this one doesn’t even belong to you.”

Rather than trying to force the child to do something she probably would refuse to do, Kristen picked up the spotted horse herself and put it on the table where it belonged. Then she took Taylor’s hand and pulled her back to the aisle—the little girl dragged her feet, of course—and placed the child’s hand on one side of the cart.

“Hang on to that, Taylor. Don’t let go.”

Without prompting, Addison did the same, holding on to the other side and beaming at Kristen.

“Okay, girls, let’s get back to the reason we’re here.”

How did her younger sister deal with the twins alone all the time? Kristen wondered. Ten minutes in the store and she was already exhausted. At least Addison was behaving herself.

She went through Heather’s list, all the while keeping an eye on Taylor. At first sulky and uncooperative, the little girl got tired of being left out and was soon running around the table of T-shirts. It was all Kristen could do to get her to stop long enough to try them on.

“Can I have this one?” Addison asked.

“You can have whatever you want as long as it’s a little loose on you,” Kristen said.

By the time she had everything on Heather’s list checked off, she was so frazzled she could hardly focus.

“Okay, we’re done!” she said. “Taylor. Addison. Come on.”

She kept up a good face as they headed for the cashier, but inside she just wanted to be home. Not that she could sleep until Heather returned. But she could get comfortable on the couch with the girls and read a book to them. That sounded like heaven.

The line was short and the cashier was quick. And Kristen was so grateful that she could actually imagine herself on that couch, feet up, head back, for a moment ignoring the girls squabbling.

Then it hit her as they exited the store. The girls
weren’t
squabbling. That was an alarm ringing.

She hurried the twins to the SUV and strapped them into their seats after throwing the bags into the rear of the vehicle. She slid into the driver’s seat as a uniformed security guard rushed out of the entrance and yelled, “Hey, lady, wait a minute!”

Glancing back toward the building, she saw another woman who’d followed them outside turn around.

Too tired to wonder what was going on, she took off.

She was just turning off the highway toward town when she saw the flashing lights of a police car behind her. Wondering who he was after, she pulled over to the right to let the vehicle pass.

Only it didn’t.

The police car pulled up directly behind her, and a uniformed officer got out.
Oh, what now?
she wondered, rolling down her window. She recognized the officer from the night Alex had brought her into the station.

“Is one of the taillights out, officer?” she asked. “This is my sister’s vehicle. I’ll be sure to tell her right away.”

“Sorry, ma’am, but you’ll have to come with me,” he said. “You set off the store alarm at FamilyMart.”

Horrified, Kristen said, “Me? Wait! I didn’t do anything to set off an alarm.”

“You’ll have to tell it to the chief.”

Kristen frowned. Had Alex put him up to this? And here she’d thought they’d called a truce that morning.

“Drive straight to the station,” the officer said. “Just don’t try to get away or there will be consequences.”

“Consequences!”
Addison chirped from the backseat.

Both twins were now acting like they were having a fun time, giggling and poking each other.

Feeling as if there was a black cloud over her, Kristen took a deep breath and drove. Consequences! What did the officer expect her to do? Take off for Mexico with two five-year-olds?

* * *

“I
DON
’
T
UNDERSTAND
why the alarm went off,” Kristen said.

Alex reached over to Addison and showed her the store tags. “Those sweaters look like the reason.”

“Sweaters?”

Kristen took a good look at her niece. Addison was wearing two store sweaters she’d been trying on in FamilyMart. Kristen had been so frazzled she hadn’t noticed.

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry.” She quickly got the contraband off her niece. “They were trying on sweaters and Addison must have forgotten to remove these.”

“I didn’t forget,” Addison announced. “You said we could have what we wanted.”

Kristen fought a rising sense of panic. “Look, I’ll just pay for them now.” That Alex was swallowing a smile didn’t affect her, at least not in a good way. Her stomach was swirling, sending a weird sensation shooting through her. She couldn’t stop herself from challenging him. “Do you enjoy bullying innocent people?”

“I’m not sure how innocent you can be when you have two sweaters you didn’t pay for,” he countered, his lips spreading into a big grin.

“You know, Chief, you should look into getting a job in a big city like Chicago where there are
real
criminals.”

His smile quickly faded. “Okay, let’s stop right there. I believe walking out of the store with those sweaters was simply a mistake. I just couldn’t help myself from giving you a little grief. Sorry. And I’ll keep this incident off the books if you take your niece back to the store and have her give the sweaters to the manager and apologize.”

The stress that had been building in Kristen flowed right out of her. “Of course we’ll do that, won’t we, Addison? You’ll apologize to the nice man at FamilyMart for wearing the sweaters out of the store.” At least she hoped he would be nice about it. “We don’t take things from stores unless we pay for them first.”