“No!” Mr. Boyde said crossly. “The gator! I want to be on theGuinness Book of World Records!”
The alligator started hissing and took a few jolting steps toward me. I was from the American West, and as such, I had dealt with lizards but never gators. I was very aware of the crowd watching me. I braced myself.I am not going to get eaten by an alligator and have the video posted all over the Harrogate Facebook group.
The gator hissed at me and lunged then was flattened as Meg flung herself on top of it, taping its mouth closed with a roll of duct tape.
“Holy smokes,” I said, grabbing the front quarters of the animal while Meg grabbed the back.
“Let’s just put it in the back of the police car,” Susie instructed, wrapping a blanket around the struggling creature.
“I found it!” Mr. Boyde said loudly, hobbling after us. “I want the reward money.”
“There is no reward money,” Meg said. She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. “But thank you for your service to the community,” she told Mr. Boyde. “You’re going to be awarded a medal.”
“A medal!” He puffed out his chest. “You hear that, Art? A medal!”
Meg smiled up at me. “We make a great team,” she said, wrapping her arms around me, like she loved me.
But I was about to break her heart. Again.
77
Meghan
“We need to call animal control,” Susie said. I released Hunter and went to talk to my friend.
“I do not get paid enough to deal with alligators.” She went over to handcuff Leif.
“I’m filing a criminal complaint,” I said. “This man tried to kill me.”
Susie listened to her radio scanner for a moment. “Since animal control says they’re off the clock, Leif can ride to the station with his new friend. And since Meg is an elected government official, I think the FBI will be very interested in talking to Mr. Leif.”
I breathed a sigh of relief after Susie hauled him to the car and forced him into the back seat.
“Hunter,” I said, turning back to him. He wasn’t smiling. I wrapped my arms around him. “You came to save me.” I snuggled against his chest.
“I’ll always come and save you, Meg,” he said. He still looked so sad. He stroked my hair.
“I think we should call a truce,” I suggested. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. You know that. I do want to spend the rest of my life with you. After your super messy divorce of course.” I laughed anxiously. Howwasthat going to work?
“Fortunately, I know a good lawyer,” I quipped.
He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m not married. It was fraud, which is par for the course for my father.” He sounded tired.
I reached up to stroke his face.
“Then everything’s fine! Bullet, and alligator, dodged! But I think we should forget about moving into my old home,” I joked. “We pretty much laced that with bad memories.”
“Meg…”
“Or,” I continued, chattering on, “the building across the street from Hazel’s is going to go up for sale; we could move in there…”
“Meg,” Hunter interrupted. “We’re not moving in together.”
“Oh right, because of our siblings.” I laughed. “Sneaking around like teenagers it is, then!”
“Meg, we’re…” Hunter shook his head. “We’re done.”
“No we’re not!” I said in disbelief. “We’re just getting started!”
