CHAPTER EIGHT
“This is so much better than the movies,” Emma Merill-Vulkov sighed, happily mowing down her carrot and celery hummus snack from the movie theater’s concession stand.
Eva laughed at her sister. They had commandeered worn seats in the Art-Deco theater’s middle section to make sure they wouldn’t miss any of the action. The screen was hidden behind dusty, crushed velvet curtains guaranteeing all attention would be on the podium front and center.
Emma’s husband Niko was down front in the theater, his camera at the ready. The fashion photographer and reformed ladies’ man had fallen hard for Emma and her adopted town and documented their time spent here in their gorgeous home. As a side hobby, he also fed human interest shots to Summer Pierce for her Blue Moon blog on Thrive’s website. Outsiders loved the blog.
“I freaking love this town so hard,” Eva told her sister.
“Isn’t it a thousand times better than bumming around the east coast?” Emma agreed.
Eva winced thinking about her last shitty apartment in the last crappy town she’d hidden away in. No matter how carefully she’d covered her tracks, her past had always come knocking. She only hoped that the past would be smart enough to stay far away from Blue Moon.
Gia flopped into the seat next to Eva. “Sorry I’m late. Evan weaseled an extra ten bucks out of me for babysitting duty for Aurora and Lydia, even though Lydia’s already asleep. ‘Negotiating’ he called it. I had to find and raid Beckett’s petty cash.”
“You’re so lucky you have an Evan,” Summer groaned as she and Carter filed into the aisle behind them. Carter slung an arm around his wife’s shoulders as they took their seats. “We had to piggyback on Jax and Joey’s bribe for Reva. She’s watching the twins and Caleb at our house,” Summer said, biting into an apple.
“Speak of the devil,” Emma said as the youngest Pierce brother and his wife ducked in beside Summer and Carter.
“Where were you guys? You left before us,” Carter asked, leaning over and helping himself to some of his brother’s popcorn.
Jax slapped at his hand. “Dude, we had an empty house for the first time all week. We weren’t going to waste it.”
Joey, a leggy brunette who took exactly zero crap from anyone, kicked her husband in the shin. “Jesus, Jax. Keep it down.”
“That’s what she said ten minutes ago,” Eva quipped.
“Ohhhh!” Gia offered her an enthusiastic high five.
Joey gave Eva’s hair a playful tug. “You’re just jealous.”
“Yes, yes I am.”
The house lights flickered, signaling everyone to take their seats and wrap up their conversations. A minute later, Beckett and Donovan took the stage followed by deputies Colby and Layla in uniform.
The crowd buzzed with excitement, and Eva felt her pulse quicken when Donovan’s eyes scanned the theater. He saw her, his gaze lingering a moment, before moving on. Mr. All Business. She wondered what went on beneath that stoic surface?
It was crowded. Everyone was undoubtedly curious about what prompted the emergency town meeting, and the town had turned out in full force. Rainbow Berkowicz, bank president and wife of a hapless hippie, was live streaming the meeting to the Blue Moon Facebook group from the front row.
Beckett put his hands on the lectern and leaned in to the mic.
“Okay, everyone. We’re going to get started here. I’d like to thank Sheriff Cardona for bringing this issue to our attention, and I expect you’ll be interested in what he has to say.”
Beckett backed away as the applause started and motioned Donovan up to the mic.
“Thanks, everyone, for coming out. I won’t keep you long. Who here remembers the summer of 1987?”
Eva looked around at the scattered hands that rose.
Donovan looked around. “How about who remembers everybody going crazy and acting like the Higgenworth Communal Alternative Education Day Care kids?”
Hands flew up everywhere. It looked to Eva as though everyone over the age of forty had a recollection. Eva leaned over to Gia. “Someone’s going to have to explain that one to me.”
Summer poked her head between their seats, her blonde hair falling over her face like a curtain. “HCAEDC is a free-range daycare that doesn’t believe in discipline. The kids are little monsters who never hear the word no. Don’t ask Carter about them. He’s still scarred for life.”
Carter shuddered convincingly behind her.
“Oh, my God. I love this town so damn much,” Eva sighed.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone,” Donovan said. “But we’re looking at a similar situation now.”
Soap opera-worthy gasps went up around them.
“Now, astrology isn’t my strong suit. So, I’ve invited Charisma Champion to give you a little overview on what we might be facing.”
A woman with black hair that curled to her waist took the stage to enthusiastic applause. “Thank you, Sheriff,” she said grandly before addressing the crowd. She jumped into a description of the solar system, planetary alignments, and astrological signs.
“I’m only catching every other word,” Eva whispered to Emma.
“I’m on every third word. Moon! There. I know that one,” Emma whispered back. “I can’t believe I worked the lunch shift for this.”
Emma managed John Pierce Brews, the Pierce’s brewery and business was booming… or brewing.
“Totally worth it,” Eva predicted. “Just you wait.”
Charisma was finishing up her technical description. She scanned the audience. “Are there any questions?”
Every person present raised a hand, and Eva had the pleasure of seeing the crack in Donovan’s façade as sweat broke out on his forehead.
“Hang on,” he said, leaning into the mic, to quiet the crowd. “This is what you need to know. You might be tempted to do something out of character. You might feel compelled to act out in some way or to make a big decision this month. All we’re asking is that you don’t do anything at all.”
Willa, owner of Blue Moon Boots and a self-proclaimed psychic, raised her hand from the third row. “I can’t stop thinking about getting a perm. Is that because of Uranus?”
Eva couldn’t quite stifle her laugh, and Joey leaned over her shoulder. “I think Willa just said Donovan’s anus talked her into getting a perm.”
Tears pricked Eva’s eyes as she struggled to hold in the laughter.
Willa’s blonde hair was straight as a stick and hung to her waist in the same style she’d worn since she was eight years old and told her mother to stop giving her bowl cuts. The idea of the woman getting a perm was laughable. The idea of the woman getting a perm because Donovan’s muscled ass told her to? Priceless.
Emma elbowed her in the ribs. “Stop snorting. I can’t hear what they’re saying.”
“Sorry,” Eva snickered. “I’m just so glad I moved here.” God, this town and its Ken doll sheriff were just the inspiration she needed. Maybe Donovan could unwittingly help her along by playing a starring role, she thought. She just needed to spend some time with him.
“Why are you smiling like an evil genius?” Gia demanded.
“I’m just thinking about Uranus.”
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The meeting wrapped but not before Donovan assured everyone that his department would distribute a PDF on the signs of the coming astrological apocalypse and step-by-step instructions on how to fight the urge to do illegal and/or immoral things. Wading through the crowd, he spotted Eva standing on one of the theater chairs waving at him.
He started toward her when she slid off the cushion and landed hard on the armrest.
Donovan shook his head. The woman should be wearing bubble wrap.
Of course, in Blue Moon, navigating the crowd after a town meeting took the same amount of time it took to make it three city blocks in Manhattan after five. A dozen greetings and required personal reassurances that would be rehashed on Facebook for the next twenty-four hours stood between him and the woman who was smiling at him like he was her personal hero.
He could have been a cop in a city. He could have been a sheriff in any other small town in the country, yet he’d chosen this life. For the most part, his job was peacekeeping and reassuring Blue Moon’s citizens of their safety. He’d rescued ferrets, dried tears, bought candy for lost kids at carnivals, pulled over the occasional speeder—Phoebe at least twice a year. He spoke at town meetings, attended ribbon cuttings, and visited the schools. He talked about the dangers of drugs with teenagers and stranger danger with kindergartners. He taught self-defense classes, spearheaded food drives, triple checked car seats. He did whatever it was that his neighbors needed.
The Blue Moon Police Department was more outreach than crime-fighting, and he’d like to keep it that way. So he stood and listened while Mrs. Nordemann explained how just this week she’d felt compelled to buy a murder mystery novel instead of her usual contemporary erotica. And he nodded thoughtfully when the flannel-clad Fincher brothers who ran the campground outside of town told him how “wild” the wildlife had been acting recently.
He made his way methodically through the crowd until he spotted her again. He’d seen her, eyes laughing, hand clamped over her mouth, when Willa had brought up Uranus. Evangelina Merill was already nothing but trouble. He could only imagine what the alignment of planets would do to her. She’d need a full-time babysitter just to make sure she didn’t blow up Beckett’s guest house making popcorn.
She stood in a loose circle with the Pierces, laughing at a shot her brother-in-law Nikolai was showing her on the screen of his camera.
“There’s our fearless leader,” Summer said, patting him on the shoulder. “You realize this all sounds completely insane to people who haven’t lived here their whole lives.”
Niko looked up and grinned. “I think it might sound the same to a handful of others,” he said, turning the camera screen to Donovan. It was a picture of him, standing behind Charisma in the middle of her explanation. He was mid-eye roll.
“It’s nice to know you’re just a little bit human,” Eva said at his elbow as she peered at the screen.
“You expect someone to say Uranus that many times, and I won’t have a reaction to it?”
“How seriously do we need to take this?” Jax demanded. “And is this going to do anything to stir up livestock? We’ve got a stable full of prime horse flesh that doesn’t need any encouragement to get uppity.”
“Oh, geez. Apollo with a bigger attitude?” Joey shook her head. “That narcissistic bastard can barely fit his head through the stall door as it is. No way. We’re all packing up and moving away for a month.”
“You try creating perfect equine gods and goddesses and see how big your head gets,” Carter teased her.
“Oh, hell. What’s this going to mean for kids?” Gia asked. “We’ve got babies on up through teenagers. What kind of a living hell is this month going to be?”
Good. Donovan would rather they be scared. Scared meant vigilant. And vigilant meant at least some of them some of the time would maintain their hold on their marbles. He’d die for these people. Any one of them. But he’d prefer it to be over something big, something meaningful, not being poisoned by perm chemicals or run down in the street by an irate farmer in his combine.
Eva put her hand on his arm, and all heroic thoughts vanished.
“Do you want to get a drink?” she asked.
“More than anything in this world.”
She grinned up at him, and he felt six stories tall.
He let Eva pull him toward the door.
“Hey! Where are you guys going?” Jax called after them.
“Getting a drink,” Eva said.
“I could go for a drink,” Jax said, tugging Joey to her feet.
“No, you can’t.” Carter shoved his brother down in an empty seat and sent Donovan a wink and pistol fingers. Message received. Donovan was officially on his own with Eva.