LITMIR.BIZ

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front door to help with medical expenses. You should have seen Brianna’s face when she told me about it. That sweet girl. Her eyes were all red and weepy and she just glowed from the inside out.”

      For the past few months, a mysterious benefactor had been stepping in to help people who most needed it. When Caroline Bybee’s ancient Plymouth coughed its final death knell last fall, she woke up one morning to find a later-model used sedan in her driveway, complete with a gift title and a note signed only “Drive Carefully.”

      A few weeks before that, a young divorced mother who sometimes came into the store told Claire someone had paid her heating bill for the entire winter. She had no idea how or why but the gas company assured her she had full credit on her bill to last into the spring.

      During the holiday season, Claire had heard that more than one struggling family—all with young children—had discovered envelopes full of cash on their doorstep with only the words “Merry Christmas from Someone Who Cares.”

      Those were only the things she knew about. She had to wonder how many acts of generosity had somehow escaped the winding tendrils of the Hope’s Crossing grapevine. She didn’t know who had first come up with the nickname Angel of Hope, but the whole town had been buzzing about the identity of the benevolent patron.

      As tough as she sometimes found living in the same town with Jeff and Holly, stories like this provided another reason to stay. People here cared about each other. How could she doubt it, with her dear friends rushing to her aid in her moment of need?

      “You’re all my angels of hope,” she told them fiercely. “I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate your giving up your lives to help me for a few hours.”

      “Of course we would come in to help you.” Mary Ella smiled, her green eyes so much like her son’s bright with affection. “You didn’t even need to ask, my dear. The moment I heard your store had been robbed and that the little shits had left such a mess behind, I knew I would be spending the afternoon helping you clean it up.”

      “I still can’t believe anybody in town would be so vindictive as to cause such trouble just for the sake of making a mess.” Katherine seemed to be taking the burglaries as a personal affront.

      “I’m betting it was somebody staying at the ski resort.” Evie tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “What are the police saying?”

      “Chief McKnight said he would touch base with me later, but I haven’t heard anything yet. It’s been only a few hours.”

      “Now there’s a familiar story. Another woman waiting in vain for one of Riley’s phone calls.”

      Alex’s levity earned her a frown from her mother. “His social life is one thing,” Mary Ella said sternly, “but you’d better not let me hear you say anything about your brother’s devotion to duty, Alexandra. Riley is an excellent police officer. You know Katherine and the rest of the city council wouldn’t have voted to hire him as the police chief if he wasn’t.”

      Katherine looked vaguely alarmed at being dragged into a family discussion. “We feel honored that Riley would even consider coming back to Hope’s Crossing. When he agreed to take the job, I was a little worried we would have a hard time keeping him busy.”

      “Is that a confession, Katherine?” Claire teased. “Are you telling us you broke into a half-dozen stores along Main Street just to keep Riley busy enough that he’ll want to stay permanently in Hope’s Crossing?”

      “Claire Renée!” Ruth sounded positively scandalized. “You know perfectly well Katherine would never hurt our town like that, no matter how good Chief McKnight might be at his job and how much the city council might want to keep him.”

      Alex rolled her eyes, just out of Ruth’s view and Claire bit her cheek, relieved she could find anything funny after this miserable day.

      “Of course I know that, Mom,” she said. “Joking. Again.”

      “It’s actually a very clever idea.” Katherine smiled. “Wish I’d thought of it. Of course, if it had been me, I wouldn’t have left such a big mess behind me for you to clean up. And I certainly wouldn’t have destroyed poor Genevieve’s wedding dress.”

      That was a phone call Claire had hated making, one she hoped she’d never have to repeat. As any bride would be, Genevieve had been traumatized to learn her wedding dress had been shredded, but another telephone call to the dress designer had ended in prim assurances that another gown could be sent within the next few weeks—for a premium, of course. Claire would have to foot the bill for it until her insurance policy paid up, but she figured it was a small price to pay to keep the peace with the Beaumont family.

      “Katherine, you’ve always got your ear to the ground.” The nimble fingers Alex used for slicing and dicing in the restaurant kitchen at the resort didn’t stop dancing through the beads as she spoke. “What’s the scuttlebutt about who might be behind our dastardly crime spree?”

      “I wish I knew. As of an hour ago when I stopped in at the diner, all kinds of rumors were flying, everything from some Ukrainian mafia moving into Hope’s Crossing to California gangs setting up a drug operation to some secret government conspiracy. Riley’s got his work cut out for him sifting through all the crazy tips.”

      “He’ll figure it out,” Mary Ella said, her voice confident. “That boy has been stubborn since he came into the world. He won’t stop until he gets to the bottom of the burglaries and puts the offenders behind bars, no matter what he has to do to find them.”

      “Which is Ma code meaning her only son is sneaky and conniving,” Alex said.

      “And manipulative and underhanded,” Maura added.

      “Don’t forget mule-headed and obstinate,” offered Claire, who figured that while she wasn’t a sister by birth, she had been the object of his torment enough that she deserved the right to chime in.

      All the women laughed, except for Ruth, whose mouth tightened. Despite her friendship with Mary Ella, Ruth held Riley in severe dislike and never found much of anything amusing when it came to him. She couldn’t get past the wild troublemaker he’d been in the past, the pain he’d put his mother through. Still, the rest of them were still chuckling when the front door chimes rang out and the man in question walked through the door.

      He stood just inside the store, his dark hair slightly ruffled from the cold wind and a brush of afternoon shadow along his jawline, practically oozing testosterone amid all the sparkly beads and chattering women. Claire had a sudden mental image of running her fingers along those whiskers, of tracing that firm jawline and the dimple at the side of his mouth.

      Color heated her cheeks. What on earth was wrong with her? The stress of the day. That’s what she would blame for her completely irrational response.

      Riley surveyed the group of giggling women and Claire noticed she wasn’t the only one unable to meet his gaze, although she was quite certain she was the only one whose insides had taken a long, slow roll.

      “Okay, now why do I suddenly have the funny feeling my ears should be burning?” he murmured.

      “No reason, darling,” Mary Ella assured him, although she winked at the rest of them.

      “A little narcissistic, are we?” Alex smirked.

      He tugged at his sister’s dark curls in response before leaning in to kiss his mother’s cheek. Claire was close enough to catch his scent, earthy and masculine.

      “How nice of you all to help Claire with her mess. This looks like it’s going to take months.”

      “Told you,” Ruth muttered.

      “I guess you know everyone here,” Mary Ella said. “Oh, except for Evie. Evie Blanchard, this is the new police chief of Hope’s Crossing and my baby, J. Riley McKnight. Evie works here for Claire.”

      Riley gave his mother an exasperated frown. “I generally prefer youngest

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