LITMIR.BIZ

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official business?” she asked.

      “Your neighbor up the road called in a report of trespassers.”

      “What?” Daisy’s blue eyes rounded. “I bought this house.”

      “No worries. Mrs. Shupe doesn’t see too well.” Mitch raised a hand. “She uses a set of fancy binoculars, but it can’t be easy looking across the field with those redbud trees in her line of sight.”

      Daisy’s mouth dropped open, and then she began to laugh. It was a sweet sound that warmed him from the inside out.

      “Everything okay out there, Daisy?” a female voice called.

      A mature, gray-haired version of Daisy Anderson appeared from around the other side of the house with a watering can in her hand and a redheaded baby on her hip. The woman’s steel-colored curls framed her face in a short bob.

      “Gran, this is my new boss. Chief Rainbolt, this is my grandmother, Alice Anderson.”

      “Ma’am.” Mitch offered the woman a polite nod.

      “Pleased to meet you, Chief.” She placed the watering can on the ground and offered him her free hand. “I rarely go by ma’am. Alice will do.”

      He took her hand. “Yes, ma’am. I mean Miss Alice.”

      “Gran, would you please keep an eye on the kids while I chat with the chief?” Daisy asked.

      “Of course. That apple pie has cooled. We’ll have a little snack.” Alice turned to Mitch. “Care for a slice of caramel apple pie, Chief? Daisy made it just today.”

      He looked at Daisy. “Pretty ambitious, baking a pie while you’re still in the process of moving in,” Mitch said.

      Alice laughed. “Daisy’s always ambitious. And she bakes when she’s stressed.”

      “Gran!” Daisy’s face was rosy with embarrassment when she turned to Mitch. “Baking is a constant in an often chaotic world. I’m sure the chief gets that.”

      Mitch nodded, silently enjoying the exchange between the women.

      “About that pie?” Alice continued.

      “No, thank you, but I do appreciate the offer.”

      A moment later all four children filed quietly into the house, followed by their great-grandmother who held the baby.

      Mitch’s eyes went to Daisy Anderson’s left hand. No ring. When he looked up, the blue eyes were assessing.

      “Welcome to Rebel,” he said.

      “Thank you.”

      “So you bought the Kendall place.”

      “Sight unseen, which explains quite a bit,” she said. “Like the mouse who thinks I’m invading his territory.”

      “Where there’s one, there’s a dozen. A cat or two will eliminate your mouse problem.”

      “Good idea.” She met his gaze. “Right about now, you’re probably wondering how you managed to hire an officer who’s afraid of mice.”

      “No judging here. We all have our issues.”

      She narrowed her eyes as though pondering his words, but said nothing.

      “Looks like the place needs some work.” Mitch nodded toward the house. “It passed inspection?”

      “Mostly.”

      “Mostly?” He raised his brows.

      Her gaze met his and she shrugged. “I waived a few things to lower the price.”

      Mitch’s glance skipped from the weathered railing of the porch to the questionable steps. “Not important things, I hope.”

      “I’ve got a carpenter coming out to fix the necessary items.”

      He nodded and gave the house another slow assessment. “House has sad central air and a few ceiling fans, as I recall.”

      “We’re putting our hopes on that sad central air.”

      “Ever spent a summer in Oklahoma?”

      “No. I guess this will be a trial by fire, won’t it?”

      “Oh, nothing that bad. The good news is everything grows here. Accidentally drop watermelon seeds on the ground, and they’ll have produced enough for a harvest before you realize it.”

      “That is good news since we have plans for a garden.” She beamed. “My first garden.”

      Mitch couldn’t help smiling at her response. “The kids called you Aunt D.”

      Daisy took a step away from the house, concern shadowing her face. “I’m their legal guardian,” she said quietly.

      Mitch did a mental recap. His new officer had five children.

      “All of them?” The words escaped before he could stop them. Mitch knew he was doing a lousy job remaining impassive. Still, there was no denying that five kids were more than a handful. He knew firsthand as he had been the designated adult in a family of five children himself.

      “Yes. All of them. Their parents...” She kicked at a stone on the ground with a dusty sneaker, and then met his gaze. “We lost my sister and her husband six months ago.”

      The pain he glimpsed in her eyes sucker punched Mitch and he swallowed hard, averting his gaze. It was too bad they had so much in common.

      “I’m really sorry,” he finally said, knowing the words were insufficient.

      “Thank you,” she murmured.

      The silence stretched for a moment, broken by the giggles of children that spilled out from inside the house. The joyous sounds seemed to snap them both from their reverie.

      “You’re going to raise them by yourself?” Once again the words were out there before he could rein them back in.

      “Don’t look so horrified, Chief Rainbolt. I’m a law-enforcement officer with crowd management experience. I’m confident I can control a handful of children.” She offered a little smile. “However, my grandmother is staying with us...for the summer, maybe longer.” Her smile widened, and she shrugged. “Everything will work out. It always does.”

      Spoken with the bright optimism of youth. As he recalled from her job application, she was nine years younger than him. Which made him an old realist. Looking at Daisy Anderson, he felt even older than usual.

      “Why Rebel?” he asked.

      “Why not?” she returned with another shrug of her slim shoulders.

      Why not, indeed? Mitch couldn’t resist a look around the yard. Plenty of space for kids to be kids. Yeah, Rebel was a fine town to raise children. Her passel seemed well behaved. Maybe she had worked out all the details.

      Perhaps everything would be just fine.

      A moment later he couldn’t help but nix that thought. Mitch knew only too well how raising a family could mess up the most carefully intended plans, which explained why he was still in Rebel. Yeah, it explained a lot of things.

      “The children won’t interfere with the job, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

      Mitch turned back to Daisy and offered a slight nod. Did the woman really understand the big picture? In the days when he played both mother and father to his siblings, it seemed each dawn brought a new crisis, and sometimes no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t avoid disaster.

      He tucked away his thoughts, instead focusing on the here and now. All that really mattered was that thanks to the county funding, he had a new officer. A new officer his department needed badly.

      “You can still start on Monday morning?” he asked.

      “Yes,

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