Julianna Morris - Undercover In Glimmer Creek

“Yes, of course. That’s what your mother would have done. Did you get your lunch? I worry when you don’t eat.”

“You don’t need to worry, but I drank your smoothie.” She kissed his cheek, thinking that he was far more prone to missing meals than her. “Thanks, it was delicious.”

“Thank Gabe, he brought it to you.”

“Mmm, yes. He wants to know if you have a special work assignment for him,” she said.

“If needed, I can stay with Tessa and continue helping with any earthquake-related tasks,” Gabe volunteered.

“We’re done,” Tessa said adamantly. “Checking on Moby Dick and Mrs. Canter is mostly a social call. Pop, wasn’t Gabe supposed to be inspecting the parking areas?”

“Oh, yes, he can continue with that,” Liam said. He turned back to the roses, his hand shaking as he cut an additional faded bloom from the bush and dropped it in a basket.

Tessa hurried into the Victorian Cat, pleased to be alone. Gabe’s watchfulness made her nervous.

Upstairs she knocked on the door of the Tea Party suite and called, “Mrs. Canter, it’s Tessa from Poppy Gold management. You wanted me to check on Moby Dick.”

A moment later, a white-haired lady opened the door. “The poor dear was sitting on my lap when the earthquake started, but now he’s hiding under the bed.”

She stepped back, and Tessa crossed to the bed to peer under the edge. Moby Dick stared back at her, blinked and began purring. The little faker. He was a flirt, pretending to be shy when guests arrived, then allowing them to coax him with treats.

He came out and head-butted her leg.

“How wonderful,” Mrs. Canter exclaimed. “You have such a way with cats, Tessa. I knew he’d feel better if you reassured him.”

Tessa dropped several treats on the ground, and Moby Dick gobbled them up. “We’re old buddies. I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s...um, resourceful.”

She’d almost said manipulative, but Mrs. Canter was one of those cat lovers who thought they were perfect angels without a devious bone in their bodies. Her twice-a-year visits to Poppy Gold had begun when Tessa was a teenager and Moby Dick was a tiny ball of white fur.

“How are you doing, Mrs. Canter?” Tessa asked. “I hope you didn’t get shaken up too badly.”

The elderly woman chuckled. “Goodness, I live in Tacoma, Washington. I’ve been through my share of earthquakes, including the Nisqually Quake in 2001. That one was a six point eight, and it cracked the foundation on my house.”

“I’ve only been in minor quakes. Something that powerful must have been frightening.”

Mrs. Canter shook her head. “Mostly I was annoyed when a plant upended over my computer keyboard. Potting soil everywhere. Fortunately the CPU was under the desk and got spared.”

“That’s good to hear. I have to go now, but I hope to see you again before you leave.”

Out in the hallway, Tessa drew a deep breath. She’d wanted to make some client phone calls that afternoon, but it might be best to continue making rounds and ensure everything was running smoothly.

CHAPTER FOUR

LANCE DIDN’T GET a chance to talk to Jamie until she finished her shift at 5:00 p.m. When she came out of Old City Hall, he pulled her close.

“I tried to find you after it happened,” he said. “Tessa told me you were okay and asked me to report to Mrs. Murphy.”

Jamie snuggled in. “I was with a school group.”

“Were you scared?”

She tipped her head back and scrunched her nose. “Not really. We don’t have many earthquakes around Glimmer Creek, but I was so busy telling the kids it was all right that I didn’t think about it.”

“Yeah. I got dizzy before it happened, but now I think it was a small tremor before the bigger quake.”

Jamie looked worried. “What if it wasn’t? You hit your head in the creek on Monday. What if you cracked your skull or something? You know my mom is a doctor and she could—”

“No,” Lance interrupted.

He didn’t want anything to do with a doctor...especially if it was Jamie’s mother and might involve X-rays or something. A few years ago, the school nurse had insisted he go to the emergency room after one of his “accidents,” and they’d asked a bunch of questions. Knowing his foster father would be furious if he told the truth, Lance had lied about falling from a skateboard. After all, it wasn’t as if they were going to do anything to keep the creep from knocking his foster kids around, so why make more trouble for himself?

“Please, Jamie, there’s nothing wrong with me,” he added, seeing hurt in her face.

She didn’t understand; her family had asked all sorts of questions the few times they’d met, like what he wanted to do with his life and about his folks. The Fullertons were nice and didn’t push when he gave them vague answers, but he wasn’t stupid. “Nice” kids had families. If Jamie’s parents learned he’d grown up in foster care and about the mess in Sacramento, they might say she had to stop seeing him.

“I just want to go sit by the creek. Okay, Jamie?”

She didn’t mention it again, but she still seemed worried as she brushed his hair back from the sore spot on his forehead. It was nothing. He’d gotten worse than that a hundred times.

At the creek they sat down by the water, and he pulled a small box from his pocket. “I got something for you.”

Jamie opened the box, and she brightened when she saw the bracelet with a miniature, silver, poppy flower charm attached. “I love it.”

He helped her put it on, and she turned her wrist back and forth, admiring the bracelet, before kissing his cheek.

“It’s perfect, but you don’t have to keep buying me stuff.”

“I like to.”

“I like giving you presents, too,” Jamie said. She reached into her pocket and handed him a bag from the gift emporium on the pedestrian shopping street. Inside was a new pair of sunglasses. “I hope they fit. I know you don’t like wearing a hat.”

“They’re awesome.”

Lance’s chest ached as he put on the sunglasses. He’d hardly ever gotten presents growing up. Sometimes one of his foster mothers had given him a gift for his birthday or Christmas, but it would mostly be stuff she would have bought him anyhow, like a shirt or socks.

But Jamie gave him real presents, not even waiting for his birthday.

He gulped and kissed her.

The idea of losing Jamie was more than he could stand. Somehow he had to find a way to prove to her family that he wasn’t a loser on a loud, beat-up motorcycle. They wanted her to go to college, not just take a few night courses the way she was doing now, so they’d never think a maintenance guy at Poppy Gold was good enough.

Jamie leaned against him as he tried to think of ways to make more money.

Poppy Gold paid him okay, and the Connors were the nicest people he’d ever met besides Jamie, but once the orchards got planted, would they be willing to have him do something else? Or would he need to find a way to start over again?

* * *

“THANKS, STEPHEN,” TESSA said to the city building inspector after he’d given her an all-clear report on Poppy Gold’s buildings.

“Wood-frame structures are fairly resilient in small quakes, but it doesn’t hurt to check,” he said earnestly.

She tried to keep from smiling. Stephen Seibert was an eager beaver—recently out of graduate school—and he relished any opportunity to employ his knowledge.

“Your concern is appreciated,” she assured him.

He grinned and left, probably intent on continuing his efforts in the rest of Glimmer Creek.

Tessa had spent the afternoon talking to guests and employees to be sure they weren’t worried about the earthquake. You never knew how people would react. A few of their out-of-state visitors had rattled nerves, but on the whole, everybody was calm.