Price hadn’t said much since his initial call to the department, the sheriff and Josiah Teller, who had been called away by work and had hightailed it to the local electronics store while Price had been en route to the house Josiah had left behind.
Josiah had profusely apologized, thinking no one was coming anytime soon to discuss the hole.
That apologizing had only tripled when he realized Price had caught someone breaking and entering.
Now, Price felt all talked out.
Though, he guessed, that was mostly from the frustration.
Whoever had been in that house had outdone him.
He grumbled.
It wouldn’t happen again.
“Just go,” Rose said after that grumble cleared. She lowered her voice. “You best believe that news of your fight is already making the Seven Roads laps. I suggest you go take that cup of coffee sooner rather than later.”
This time, Price let his frustration melt into defeat.
He knew what Rose was saying without her actually saying it.
He needed to go talk to Winnie before the talk got to her.
Sometimes dealing with a masked intruder was less daunting than dealing with a teenage girl.
Downtown Seven Roads was never a busy place. That stayed mostly true for the weekends. There were the regular walkers who made their way in a pattern across the sidewalks and stores, chatting as they went, and then there were the people who worked at the storefronts who walked between the shops. The Twenty-Two Coffee Shop, however, had become its own localized sensation over the last year or so. Mainly because it was the only coffee shop in town, but also for the popularity of the twins who ran it.
Corrie Daniels, the more popular of the two, was behind the counter and all eyes were on him the second he cleared the door. She was smirking before a word even came out of her mouth.
“I was wondering when you would roll in here.” She placed the magazine she was reading down on the countertop and, with obvious attention, eyed his jaw. “I wasn’t going to say anything if you looked too beat-up, but you seem good enough now to tease a little.” She touched a spot on her jaw and then pointed to him. “Let me know if you need some of my makeup to cover that soon-to-be pretty bruise you’ve got there.”
Price had been friends with Corrie since elementary school, though the title offriendswas used loosely. The two of them had always just been there, around each other growing up in the same small town they had been born in.Comrades in armsis what he once described their relationship. Two people who had once dreamed of crossing the county line and never coming back.
Only to still be in town, annoying each other.
Price paused at the counter and didn’t reply directly to the comment. Instead, he nodded to the hallway that led back to the main office and break room.
“Is she back there?”
Corrie nodded, her smirk turning back into a look of slight boredom.
“Her break just started, but her phone was blowing up before she even stepped foot away from here. Whoever was around you or Josiah’s place sure was talking fast. She got the news before me.”
Price sighed.
“And what news was that exactly?” He wanted to hear the gossip version so he could have a defense ready to go.
“Oh, you know how it is with Josiah Teller,” she started. “He ticked someone off because he was crying wolf about something again and you wanted to save Little Rose the trouble of going out there. But you got cocky and went out without your badge or gun and got your tush handed to you. Then the mass of muscle ran off before you could even stand straight.”
Price stared for a moment.
“That’s not what happened,” he deadpanned.
Corrie shrugged.
“That’s the cinematic version going around,” she said. “Which means that it was probably Josiah’s neighbor—you know, Tacky Tara—who was the one who started it. Remember her retelling of The Great Divorce of the Youngs when we were in high school? She had the whole town thinking that Mr. Young was some kind of mob boss and Mrs. Young had gone through heaven andh-e-double-hockey-sticks to escape his grasp.”
Corrie clutched at her chest, all dramatics. Then she rolled her eyes.
