Alice choked on her coffee. “Too true!” She said, wiping coffee off her chin.
“We’ll have to have a girl’s sleepover while she’s here.” Holly Grace said, then laughed. “It’ll be just like old times.”
“Hopefully nottoomuch like old times.” Alice gave her a sideways look. “We don’t want Sheriff Carter catching us up to no good.”
“At least he can’t call our parents and rat us out these days.”
Alice shook her head. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. This is such a small town I figure he’d do it just because he can.”
Both laughed as Mollie came through the front door bringing a gust of cold air into the room.
“What’s got you two laughing so early in the morning?” She inquired, placing a cardboard carrier with three coffees on her desk. “This is why I’m a bit late. I got held up at the Grits and Gravy. They have peppermint hot chocolate back on the menu for Christmas!”
“Yum!” Chorused Alice and Holly Grace, each of them taking a cup.
As they settled around the wobbly table they referred to as their conference table, Mollie said, ‘I heard through the grapevine that the Stewart kennels are under investigation again for suspicion of being a puppy mill.”
Holly Grace gulped down a big swallow of her hot chocolate, coughed until she thought she would never breath again, and finally got herself back under control.
“Good. I hope they don’t weasel out of the charges again. Maybe I should do something to help the investigation along.”
Mollie shook her head. “No. Let the experts handle it.” She narrowed her eyes. “I mean it, Holly Grace. Don’t get involved. Those people are dangerous.”
