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her.

  With a few smooth moves and warm kisses, she had Tuck’s attention fully on her. They might not have an explosive, hot sex life, but they had quite a satisfying one. She knew what her man liked and knew how to deliver it best. It wasn’t long before he had scooped her up into his arms and they were headed for the bedroom.

  - 2 -

  Bay stood with her hands on her hips and surveyed her new apartment. The owner of the hardware store had attempted to turn the space into two small apartments by using old existing rooms, but it hadn’t worked out quite as planned. As it was now, she had two apartments for her use, one very large open room, a kitchen area on one side, a small but decent bathroom with a loft sleeping area above it. On the other side of the kitchen wall the other apartment was nearly identical, but very tiny and compact in size, useless space in her opinion.

  On Bay’s side, the large room would easily hold a dining table and a living room suite and still have room to spare. The tallest windows she’d ever seen faced the street and let in an amazing amount of sunlight. As there was only one entrance, she’d have to go to the other apartment to use the fire escape if it was ever needed. But it was safe, warm, and clean and Bay had no complaints at all. She also had no furniture except for the bed she and Joby and wrestled up into the loft.

  With a chuckle at the huge empty space, Bay decided she didn’t care. Kitchen, bathroom and bed was all that was required and that’s what she had. Turning to the uncovered windows, she decided that no matter how nice the sunshine was, curtains were on the top of the list.

  Leaning against the window sill, she looked down on this new town, this new home of hers. It was an old place, the buildings showing wear and weather worn. Some would call it shabby and worn down, worn out, but not Bay. She thought it was perfect, comfortable like a favorite pair of jeans.

  Unbidden, an image of Tuck in worn jeans and tight t shirt popped into her head. Immediately, she broke out in full body goose bumps and cursed harshly. The man was dangerous ground and she had to maintain a distance. This was where she wanted to be, where she wanted to stay and somehow, someway, she had to get over this insane reaction to the man.

  She thought back to that first meeting. How as soon as she entered the building, the little hairs on her arms had stood straight up like she’d passed through some sort of electrical field. But then, once she saw him, oh man, had her body freaked out. Maintaining composure and thanking god she’d worn a sturdy bra to hide her suddenly freakishly hard nipples, Bay had to call on every ounce of control to get through the meeting. No matter how much she was around him, the reaction was the same every time.

  After a three horrible days of tension and awkward in-service training from Tuck, three much more informative and interesting days with Joby, two days with the swing shift guy, Dave, and Bay was patrolling on her own. Where Tuck was all ‘big bad authority’ guy, and Joby was everyone’s favorite uncle, Dave was completely different, again. He was older, nearing retirement and had very little to say on any subject Bay had asked about.

  It took only one midnight shift to discover why no one wanted to work it. With the exception of the bars, the latest any store or diner in any of the towns stayed open was 9 o’clock. Miller Springs had two bars, Collinsville had one and each closed at 10 o’clock weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Once she found that Tuck had no problems with her dropping by her apartment for “lunch”, then all was good in the finding some place to eat when everything was closed. Now, if only she had a chair to sit in while she ate, Bay thought as she grinned again at the empty apartment.

  Later that night, when she swung into the dispatch office, Flossie turned a hard eye on her. Bay paused to check to make sure her shirt was tucked in neatly and her hair wasn’t sticking up. No matter what Joby said, Flossie did not appear to be happy she was working there. Finding nothing amiss, she tried a smile.

  “Evening, Flossie. How’s it going?”

  The large woman narrowed her eyes at Bay. “I got a new couch.”

  Bay was at a loss for words. Blinking and scrambling for something to say, she offered, “Uh. Good. Um, need some help moving it?”

  Flossie snorted, “Need some help getting rid of the old one.” She turned back to the card game on the computer and Bay let out a relieved breath of air. Before she could relax though, Flossie continued, “You bring your skinny butt over to my place soon as you get off duty and get the damn thing outta my garage.”

  Joby walked over to Bay and used a finger to lift her chin from where it had dropped open. Startled Bay snapped her mouth closed and sent a frantic look to Joby. “I think she means you can have her old couch if you just come get it in the morning.”

  “Oh.” Bay wondered if her eyes were bugging out of her head like they felt they were. “Oh. Well. Um, Flossie that’s really nice of you. Thank you.”

  The older woman simply snorted and went back to ignoring Bay. Joby gave Bay a jerk of his head and they walked out back together. As soon as the door shut behind them, Joby burst out laughing. “Girl you look like you done swallowed a bug.”

  “Joby, did she just give me a couch?”

  “Ol’ Flossie… it’s how she is. She don’t ask, she tells you how it is. Don’t worry, you tell Tuck about it when he comes on in the morning and he’ll help you with it. Toss it in the back of his truck for ya.”

  That sobered Bay right up. There was no way she could insult Flossie by not taking the couch but there was also no way she could get it home by herself. Flossie lived over in Possum Crossing and Bay’s old cranky Grand Prix would not hold a couch. She knew Tuck would help; all she had to do was ask. There was no way to ask Tuck for help when she was avoiding him as much as possible.

  Shoving her hands in her pockets, she wondered what the hell she was going to do now. The midnight dispatcher, a shy quiet young man named Owen that Bay had no luck in engaging in conversation, walked up. Thinking quickly, she realized that even living in such a rural area, the only one with a pick-up truck was Tuck. She was screwed.

  “Hey, Owen. How’s Hailey?”Joby asked.

  “Ah, she’s good. The doc said everything’s looking fine,” Owen answered, his cheeks turning a bright pink. After a quick glance at Bay, he ducked his head and went inside.

  Frowning, Bay asked Joby, “Who’s Hailey and why does she need a doctor?”

  Joby’s rolling laugh echoed across the alley. “Girl, don’t you talk to anyone?”

  Bay narrowed her eyes at the round man.

  That just made Joby laugh harder. When he finally caught his breath he choked out, “Hailey is Owen’s wife. She’s expecting a baby in a couple months. Seems like you having a hard time making friends with everyone around here.”

  “He won’t talk to me!” the words nearly exploded from her. “Just turns all red and tries to hide behind the computer screen. And Flossie, geez who can talk to her?” Bay’s irritation finally got through to the still chuckling Joby.