Jules angled her gaze past Ted to Cal’s youngest sister, Matti. “Tell me more about your work. You’re a social worker?”
Matilda covered her mouth with one hand as she chewed, then after swallowing, she nodded. “I am. I work mostly with at-risk children, placing them and monitoring them while in foster care. It’s very rewarding, even when it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes I’m the first stable and loving adult these children have known, and getting them to a safe placement means so much.”
“I bet so.” She had wondered, too many times growing up, if social workers might show up one day at her own house and split up her family. She’d have fought tooth and nail to stay with Abby and protect her, but no one had ever bothered to look too closely at the Bailey household.
Now, she smiled at Cal’s youngest sister, whose messy curls somehow made her look younger than Jules guessed her to be. Matti had one of those friendly faces that she could imagine served her well in earning the trust of her young charges.
“Enough about me,” Matti said. “I want to hear more about the special project you and Callum have been working on together.”
Jules’s pulse stumbled. She shot Cal a side glance. “Special…project?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Matti curled up one side of her mouth in an impish grin that looked just like her brother’s. “Unless there’s another reason you two have been spending evenings together?” The teasing lilt in her voice left no question what she was asking.
“Uh…”
Cal cleared his throat. “Matti, down, girl. Sit. Stay.”
Matti dug an ice cube from her drink and threw it at Cal. “Okay. Okay! Excuse me for hoping you finally had a love life!”
Jules ducked her head, feigning intense interest in scratching Pilot behind the ear. But his sister’s comment sparked a curiosity in Jules. Why didn’t Cal have a wife or girlfriend? He was…what? Between thirty-three and thirty-six years old, she’dguess. Handsome as the day was long. Cheerful. Employed. Intelligent by all indications. Responsible. From a good family. Thoughtful—
She interrupted her laundry list of attributes when she realized she was checking off all the sorts of things she admired and looked for in a man. Not that she’d been looking for a partner in many years…
She was saved from further discussion or contemplation of the topic of her relationship with Cal, when someone turned on music, loud enough to make conversation difficult and dancing inevitable. ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” led the playlist, and when Cal stood and held his hand out to her, Jules happily followed him onto the makeshift dance floor.
The family and their closest friends danced and sang and laughed until dark, when Dylan, under fireman Aiden’s…er,supervisionlit up the first fireworks. Colorful rockets filled the night, and a sense of contentment and joy swelled in Jules. She was havingfun. A rarity for her. And she felt welcomed and wanted in a way even her own family hadn’t made her feel. Except Abby. She and Abby had been a team, supporting and loving each other when their parents had not.
Abby. Battling down a surge of guilt, Jules reminded herself she wasn’t in Red Grove to have fun or find a surrogate family or a love match with a hot sheriff. Her sole reason for putting her chemistry research on hold and moving to North Dakota was to protect Abby. Cal and his family, welcoming as they were, could not sidetrack her from that goal. She had to make the world safe for Abby again.
And no blue-eyed man with a devastating smile and earthshaking kiss would stop her.
Chapter 17
The gift shop was dark when Cal dropped her off to collect her car. She sighed. “I told Bonnie to leave the sales floor light and exterior lights on for security.”
Cal folded his arms on the steering wheel of his Wrangler and leaned forward to peer more intently through the windshield at the dark building and empty lot. “How old did you say the girl is you have working for you?”
“Seventeen, I think. Why?”
“I just don’t like the idea of her being alone out here anymore than I like the idea of you being alone until our killer is caught.” He glanced at her. “I could assign a deputy to come out and watch the premises around closing time.”
Jules opened her mouth to refuse, but how could she deny Bonnie the extra protection? “You’d ask them to be discreet? I don’t want to scare Bonnie.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Bonnie knows about the murder at the sculpture, doesn’t she? She knows to be alert and careful?”
Jules glanced away. “She knows. You can’t keep something like finding a dead guy a secret in a small town, but… I downplayed it.” She’d thought she was protecting Bonnie’s mental health by keeping unsavory truths from her. Hadn’t Abby, when overloaded with too much frightening reality, cracked under the pressure?
Cal grunted. “Jules, Bonnie deserves to know what really happened just yards from her place of employment. More important, she needs to be fully briefed how to stay safe andwhat to look out for. And I think I’d hire another employee so you can work in teams.”
Jules shook her head. “I’ve asked the store owner about more help before, especially with the store closing for a couple of days at the height of tourist season. He always says it’s not in the budget.”
A muscle in Cal’s jaw ticked. “Then the deputy is a done deal. At least until we catch our killer.”
“You really have a man to spare for that from your small staff?” she asked.
His brow creased as if considering the hardship it would cause the department. Then, squaring his shoulders, he said, “I’ll find a way, or I’ll do it myself.”
She studied him and the resolve that sculpted his face and shone in his eyes. Had she ever known this much dedication and responsibility from any man, much less from an officer of the law? Had she met someone as reliable as Cal in the past, Abby’s life could have been so different.
