Page 33 of Chasing Kaylee Kringle

“I’m a baker. You?”

“I’m a—” A sharp, bony elbow connected with his ribs, and he coughed, covering a laugh. “Cop.”

“Really? What are you doing here?”

“I’m on vacation and visiting my old friend Kaylee. We went to the same college.”

“Oh yeah? Which one?” Curtis slowed down so they could all walk and talk together.

“University of Oregon,” Kaylee blurted out the lie, silently begging Rick to stay quiet.

Rick nodded and said, “Yeah, go Ducks.”

Kaylee breathed a sigh of relief as Curtis chuckled. “Nice. I attended Boise State, but nothing really appealed to me, so I returned here after college and discovered I love baking. I apprenticed at Butcher and Baker, and now they are talking about making me a manager.”

“That’s awesome,” Rick said.

There were no more lights on in the houses they passed, and the wind had picked up, dropping the temperature by at least ten degrees. When Kaylee shivered, the thought crossed her mind that Rick might offer to keep her warm just to mess with her, but she’d tell him to fuck off. When he didn’t, a sense of relief and disappointment washed over her. These conflicting feelings were getting out of hand, and she wanted him gone so she could go back to the quiet, simple life she’d built here. She’d pushed the woman she used to be so far away, leaving her family and everything she knew behind, but Kaylee didn’t want to spend her life running. In high school, she’d never backed down from a fight, challenging teachers, other students, and even the vice principal. Being this scared felt alien and consuming. Like drowning in muddy water, her oxygen was cut off, and her ability to swim was curtailed by the sludge dragging her down to the bottom.

“Tonight was fun,” Rick said, breaking through her thoughts and pulling her up for air.

“Glad you liked it.”

“I can see why you picked this place. It’s welcoming and quirky. Most of the people I met tonight were friendly and chatty.”

Josie turned around, asking over her shoulder, “Who wasn’t friendly?”

“I don’t know, this guy who had a booth set up with books. I was flipping through one, and when I tried asking him questions, he gave me one-word answers.”

Josie laughed. “That’s Colin for you. He owns Book and See. He’s pretty introverted until he gets to know you. He really is a sweet guy, but he does prefer books to people.”

“I can tell,” Rick said, chuckling.

“If you ask him about certain authors, he lights up like a Christmas tree,” Josie gushed, her words running together the way they do when she is really passionate about something. “I love his store. The setup is almost OCD in its perfection, and his romance section keeps me stocked in smut.”

“You read that stuff?” Curtis asked, a judgmental tone in his voice that Kaylee bristled at.

“Yeah, I do. It gives me ideas,” Josie teased suggestively, and to Kaylee’s surprise, Rick burst out laughing.

“You don’t read dark romance, do you?” he asked.

Both Kaylee and Josie jerked their heads around, staring at Rick.

“How do you know about dark romance?” Kaylee asked.

He shrugged. “I like motorcycles, so I follow a lot of bikers. They’re always talking about the ‘BookTok girlies’ and posting ‘when she reads dark romance’ videos, where the guy is usually being dragged into a bedroom.”

Josie giggled gleefully. “That would be me, but let’s go back to motorcycles. You have one?”

“Yeah, I do. I rebuild them.”

Josie waggled her eyebrows at Kaylee, and she resisted the urge to strangle her.

“What do you do for a living, Josie?” Rick asked, waving a hand. “Curtis bakes, Kaylee makes coffee, and I’m a cop.”

“I’m a specialty counselor. I travel a lot for work, mostly to Sun Valley and Boise.”

“That’s really cool. Isn’t that a long way to go for work?”