Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
It hadn’t been a passionate kiss that morning. The kiss hadn’t gone hot and heavy, and yet somehow that kiss had been meaningful. He’d gotten lost in the kiss, in the way she’d softened against him, in the sigh she’d made when her arms had gone around him.
Then there was the fact that she’d actually read his damn book and wanted to talk about it. He didn’t even talk to his best friends about his writing.
She was wrong about the whole romance thing. That wasn’t a road he wanted to go down. The police detective was there strictly as a foil to his protagonist. He’d even brought in another police officer in subsequent books. A new police officer or federal agent kept things focused on his hero and the mystery he was trying to solve. Jayna was flat wrong.
Of course, she’d probably been right about the whole “using his writing as a way of processing his emotional state” thing. Now that he thought it through, he had given Armand a version of his own history and family.
Was he about to make a huge mistake? She could get under his skin like no one ever had before. The only other time he’d felt this way about a woman had been Alison, and it had taken years to get over her.
Jayna turned and started walking his way.
He tried to pretend to be doing something other than watching her like a lovesick teen.
Why the hell hadn’t he seen how amazing she was back in high school?
She knocked on his doorframe. “Hey, Britney from the courthouse called. We’re on for ten a.m. Friday, but she’s begging us to settle out of court because her granddad’s heart can’t take a long trial about a nudist colony.”
Only in Papillon would the court reporter beg for her grandpa judge. “Well, if the judge doesn’t like the view, he can buy his gas somewhere else.”
“Apparently he also buys his bait there,” Jayna pointed out. “He’s not willing to give that up. There’s something magical about Last Chance Gas Stop’s worms. I got a whole lecture about it.”
“Then maybe your client should think about planting some shrubbery or something at Geraldine’s.” It was handy to have opposing counsel right down the hall. He didn’t have to schedule a call to go over the little things. “My client merely contends that she’s an old lady who should be able to use her backyard in peace.”
Jayna was back to her usual fashion perfection in a pencil skirt and a silk blouse. Her feet were now in designer shoes instead of the bunny slippers she’d used to run his brother off. Her hair was straight, the edge running just below her jaw.
He found both versions of Jayna incredibly appealing. He liked the distinct differences in the woman who’d negotiated with him over breakfast and the one who stared him down now.
“I know the sheriff is reluctant to arrest Geraldine, but eventually he’ll have to,” she pointed out. “Wait until the tourists show up in a couple of weeks. When Geraldine’s protests start costing the town money, he’ll do something about it.”
“The sheriff is properly interpreting the law.” She’d been gone for a while. She might not remember how things tended to go here in Papillon. “And he’s smart enough to know that if he arrests Geraldine, he’ll get a bunch of geriatric protestors after him all hours of the day and night, and they do not mind using a walker on a man.”
She growled, a sound that shouldn’t be so sexy. “You have to see that it’s unreasonable to ask my client to pay for . . . what? Screens? I don’t even know how we’d get around the town fence code. Even if we could, he’s not paying for a new fence. He had every right to take down that tree, and he’s done what he could to mitigate the light coming into her house at night.”
He didn’t point out that last week she’d argued the opposite. It was a given in their world. The argument was the point. “He took the tree down, so now he gets a front-row seat to all of Geraldine’s parties.”
“Well, we’ll see what the judge thinks.” She frowned, her arms crossing over her chest. “He should recuse himself, if I’m being honest. He’s too close to the case. Those worms give him a real stake in how this whole thing goes.”
“And then who hears the case?” he asked. That was the problem with being so remote. They didn’t have a lot of choices. “If this gets bumped to New Orleans, it could be years before there’s any legal relief.”
“You think he’ll be able to be fair even though his heart health is apparently at stake?” she asked.
“I’ve known Judge Brewer since I was a kid. He’s a solid guy. I worry about what happens when he retires. I don’t know anyone who’ll want the seat.”