Dying For a Cupcake: A Devereaux's Dime Store Mystery by Denise Swanson

Author:Denise Swanson [Swanson, Denise]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-03-02T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Whistling Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” Coop started his Ford Expedition. He purely loved competition, and doing battle for a girl’s affections didn’t scare him one little bit. In fact, it revved his motor. As did feisty gals with generous curves and red amber hair that reminded him of the heart of a fire. He could still see the bumfuzzled expression in Dev’s pretty blue-green eyes as she tried to deny the attraction that had sizzled between them.

Looking into his rearview mirror as he backed into the road, Coop caught sight of the huge neon pink Ferris wheel and bright yellow roller coaster wedged in the cargo area of his SUV and felt a twinge of guilt. His mama would have tanned his backside for misleading Devereaux into believing that he was going against the police chief and sneaking those cupcake stands out of a crime scene, when in reality he’d just asked the techs to dust the displays for prints ASAP and then taken them as soon as they finished.

It hadn’t been exactly chivalrous to bend the truth, and letting Dev think she owed him a favor wasn’t any too gallant, either. But how else was he going to get her to agree to see him again? It was clear that she was already involved with some romantic situation that was addling her brain and wasn’t too keen on adding another guy to the mix.

Coop hated to disappoint his mama, but Miss Laura Jane McCall might just cheer him on if it meant him finding a good woman, settling down, and producing grandbabies. Having settled the matter of his slight detour from the path of true righteousness with his conscience, he sat back and enjoyed the ride out to Gossip Central.

Patting the Expedition’s leather-covered steering wheel, Coop grinned. He’d been mighty pleased his first day as chief when the city council presented him with the keys to a brand-spanking-new command unit. The bright red Ford was tricked out with light bars, sirens, long- and short-range radio antennas, bumper guards, communications systems, souped-up engine, and all sorts of other cool equipment.

He’d wondered how a small town like Shadow Bend could afford such an awesome vehicle. But then one of his men had given him the scoop regarding the feud between the mayor and the police chief. The guy had explained that because of the vendetta, the lion’s share of the money that would normally have had to be split with the police was allocated for the fire department.

Coop felt kind of sorry for Kincaid, but the situation sure worked for him. And as a young first-time chief, he needed all the advantages he could get. He liked Shadow Bend. It was a nice community that reminded him of home. Small towns fit his personality better than big cities, and now that he’d met Dev, he intended to stick around for a long, long time. Maybe the rest of his life.

It was one fifty-eight when he turned into Gossip Central’s crowded parking lot.

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