Falling for the Lawman--A Clean Romance by Claire McEwen

Author:Claire McEwen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-06-14T18:17:22+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“GRACIE, OVER HERE!” Maya waved at her from the sunny iron bench where she sat next to her grandmother, Lillian. Next to them was Emily, the veterinarian who Gracie had met when she came to check on Caleb’s horse, Amos. Emily waved at Gracie and went to fetch an empty plastic chair. She set it down next to hers.

It took a few moments for Gracie to weave her way across the busy patio at the edge of the Shelter Creek Farmers Market. “Thanks for the chair, Emily.”

“Good to see you.” Emily raised her paper coffee cup in greeting.

Maya held out her arms and Gracie went to give her a quick hug. She’d never been much of a hugger before, but Maya and her grandmother were always hugging each other, and now they included Gracie. She hadn’t had much choice but to get used to it.

“You found us,” Lillian said, patting Gracie’s back gently as they embraced.

“Yes. Maya gave me good directions. She said to look for masses of people with coffee cups in their hands.” The patio in the back of the Shelter Creek Tourist Office transformed into something called Coffee Corner during the Saturday farmers markets. Surrounding the patio were two market stalls featuring delicious baked goods, and four different coffee carts, all competing to fuel up the citizens of Shelter Creek. “This is pretty impressive.”

“How was your week up north?” Maya put a hand on her growing belly. “I couldn’t help but worry about you, working on your own, chasing your poacher. I think Adam was worried, too. I ran into him on Wednesday and he said you hadn’t checked in with him yet.”

“He was supposed to be enjoying a week off work with his kids, before they go back to school.” A touch of guilt clouded Gracie’s mood. The truth was, she’d been avoiding Adam. She didn’t want to miss him the way she had. She didn’t like the way he was always on her mind. So she forced herself not to call him until work demanded it. “We spoke later in the week. I got a great lead from a colleague up there.”

“That’s good news,” Maya said.

Gracie smiled, still almost unable to believe her luck. “We’re getting really close to solving this case, I think. A man up in Humboldt County was caught baiting deer so he could easily shoot them on his property. He ratted out one of his closest hunting buddies, saying the other guy talked him into it.”

Maya grinned. “And let me guess. The man he ratted out was the nephew of a certain someone who lives off the county road?”

Gracie nodded. It hadn’t taken her more than a half hour on the computer to identify Chuck Bateman, who supposedly talked his friend into baiting deer, as the nephew of Will Bateman. And she’d been able to determine that he’d recently purchased a big black pickup truck. “I can’t say more, but I think we’re getting closer to putting one more poacher out of business.

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