“I’m sure—”
“She’s sensitive.” Zoe kept looking over his shoulder.
“I—”
“And vulnerable.”
Instead of trying to comment, Wyatt nodded.
“I think she needs this reset, and hooking up with a guy who only wants to use her and toss her away again is going to screw her up.”
Wyatt stopped dancing and Zoe’s eyes met his. On some level he knew Zoe was just looking out for her friend, but she’d all but accused him of being an asshole.
“Oh, jeez, I’m being a bitch, aren’t I?”
He knew better than to answer that.
“I’m sorry . . . it’s just, I’m leaving in a couple of days and won’t be here to kick your ass if you screw her up.”
“Kick my ass?” He felt his lips lifting despite the conversation.
“I’m tougher than I look,” she said in defense.
Wyatt glanced over his shoulder and caught eyes watching them. Then he moved a little closer to Zoe and said in her ear, “Melanie’s stronger than she looks, too. Give the woman a little more credit.”
Instead of continuing to move on the dance floor, Wyatt led Zoe away by her elbow.
This time, she leaned in and whispered, “I will come back and kick it if I have to.”
“That shit is funny right there!” Luke stood with his hands on his hips, a wide grin over his face.
Zoe held her stomach, laughing hard.
Melanie bit her bottom lip as giggles kept erupting without her control. Every time she glanced toward the hot steam coming off Jo’s face, her laughter was harder to hold back.
Morning fog blanketed the mess as the sun started a slow rise on the horizon.
As the tired houses of River Bend woke, so did the crowd surrounding Jo’s home.
Squeaky brakes stopped a car and a whistle preceded the obvious comment. “That’s quite a mess you have there, Sheriff.”
Before Mel turned around to see who was talking, a half-used roll of toilet paper gave up its battle of hanging from a high branch of the maple tree and fell to the ground.
Zoe lost it once again and Jo grumbled.
Sheets of white toilet paper draped over every possible surface of Jo’s house. The masters of TPing a house had placed rolls on the end of a broom and used it to fling tissue forty feet up into the pine and maple trees. Even Jo’s squad car didn’t go unscathed.
The voice from the car started to laugh.
Jo twisted and pointed. “I’m sure you have better things to do than sit here and laugh, Deputy.”
Mel glanced at Deputy Emery, who leaned out the window of his squad car.
“Should I write up a report?” Deputy Emery asked, laughing.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Jo was ticked, but a slight amount of admiration sat behind her eyes.
Melanie exchanged glances with Zoe and Jo with a slight nod. The three of them had done their fair share of TPing as kids and couldn’t help but admire the balls of those who decked the town sheriff’s house in Charmin.
Zoe lifted the forgotten broom and nudged a piece of paper off a rosebush. “Does this happen to you a lot, Jo?”
“No one would dare.”
“Well someone dared. Probably several someones. I didn’t hear a peep all night,” Zoe said.
From the wetness of the paper, the blanketing of white happened early in the morning. The three of them had returned from the reunion and crashed at Jo’s house close to one in the morning. It was just rounding on five thirty when Mel forced herself out of bed so she could help Miss Gina and get back to Hope. One glance out the front door had Melanie calling for Jo.
“I guess we should expect you a little late this morning.”
Jo scowled at her deputy. “I’ll be on time.”
“Might wanna think twice on that, Jo,” Luke said. “It’s supposed to rain later today. Wouldn’t want this mess to set in more than it already has.”
Jo crossed her hands over her chest. “Good thing I have friends who can help me clean it up.”
Luke lifted his hands in the air and Zoe pulled the edges of her bathrobe tighter. Both of them started to mumble something about a busy morning.
Jo moved on to Melanie.
“I have to get to work. Sorry.”
“See you at the station.” Deputy Emery drove off with a wave as Jo’s neighbors started to disappear into their houses.
“I’ll try and get back a little later,” Melanie offered.
Jo waved her off. “Go. I’ve got this.” With a turn of her heel, Jo disappeared inside the house.
The second she was gone, Mel and Luke both took out their cell phones and started snapping pictures.
“You two are bad,” Zoe chuckled.
“I’ll forward you the pictures,” Mel told her.
Zoe pointed up into the tree. “Make sure you catch that.”
She pointed her camera toward the sky and snapped a few more angles of the mess.
“Epic,” Luke muttered.
As soon as Mel helped the last of the inn’s guests check out, she found Miss Gina standing on the far south lawn with a can of spray paint in her hands. Miss Gina tossed back a long strand of her peppered hair with a curse and continued to lay lines in the grass.
“Do I even want to ask?”
Miss Gina didn’t bother looking up as she held the can in one hand, the edges of her skirt in the other, and walked backward as she sprayed. “They don’t make these things like they used to,” she complained. “Stupid—” She cut herself off and shook the can in her hand before attempting to draw her line in the lawn.