Lynn Patrick - Home to Sparrow Lake

Feeling down just thinking about Chicago, he went to his office and tried to bury himself in paperwork, but he simply couldn’t concentrate. He needed a distraction, something to take away the dark cloud that hung over him. Something to make him smile.

A few minutes later, he found himself in his squad car heading back to Sew Fine.

CHAPTER FOUR

“YOU WERE SCHEDULED to work at nine this morning,” Kristen told Brian when he finally strolled in the door just before noon.

“I was? Oh, sorry. The time must have slipped my mind.”

He gave her an innocent expression, yet Kristen couldn’t tell if it was genuine. He was still a kid, though, and needed some guidelines.

Kristen sighed. “Maybe you should add your work schedule to the calendar on your phone.”

“I’ll do that.” Brian kissed her on the cheek. “Sorry, sis.”

Okay, how mad at him could she be? Instead of chastising him, she gave him a big hug.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I just missed you, is all.” She’d missed a lot of things while he was growing up, as Heather had reminded her.

His answering smile lit up his big blue eyes. He would be handsome if only he would grow out his faux-Mohawk haircut. The sides were sheared short and the top was spiked, making his already narrow face seem thinner. Not that she would make any suggestions in the haircut department and chance hurting his feelings.

Brian asked, “So what do you want me to do first?”

Not having wanted to leave the shards of glass from the window on the floor any longer, she’d swept them up herself. And after her talk about Brian with Heather, she’d gotten a better idea of how she could make him feel like a more important member of the Sew Fine team—by giving him more responsibility. Heather had enthusiastically agreed.

So Kristen asked, “How would you like to be in charge of fulfilling orders for the store?”

“What? You mean be a clerk? I don’t know anything about quilting.”

Kristen jiggled the box of orders written on scraps of paper. “I mean fulfill these. We need someone to be in charge of phoned-in orders, to make sure they all go out once each week.”

“You want me to be in charge of something?” Brian sounded surprised.

“Why not? This is a family business, and you’re part of the family.”

“Yeah, okay. What do I do?”

“Round up the items being ordered. If you need material cut, or you need to know what an item is or where to find it, ask Heather or Gloria. You’ll get the hang of how the store is organized fast enough. When you have everything in an order, package it and go on to the next one. When you complete all of the orders, sort them into store pick-up or mail. Then you can run the orders that need to be mailed over to the post office.”

Brian grinned and nodded. “I can do that.”

“Great. I’m installing a computer program so future orders will be more organized, but in the meantime, good luck with these.” She handed him the box.

Not looking in the least daunted, Brian took the handwritten orders over to one of the class tables and started sorting through them. Maybe having actual responsibility would make Brian feel more needed at the store, and encourage him to keep to the hours he was scheduled.

She’d assured her brother that he would quickly learn how the store was organized, something she hadn’t yet explored. She needed to know exactly what they were selling so she could get some marketing ideas. With that in mind, she decided to stretch her legs and take a more thorough look for herself.

Heather and Gloria were both busy with customers. As had happened yesterday around noon, the customers seemed to multiply, no doubt taking advantage of their lunch hours. So, thinking to get a more thorough idea of their product lines and whether or not they could display goods more effectively or perhaps offer some kind of incentive to customers, Kristen decided to check out the stock on her own.

Closest to the office space were shelves of books and videos about quilting. A half-dozen colorful baskets held samples of the patterns that were stored in a file cabinet. Notions—rulers, cutting tools, pins and needles, and spools of thread—took up the center of the store. And brilliantly colored fabrics were displayed closest to the windows to take advantage of the natural light. It was only when she was admiring some batik prints that she noticed a black-and-white patrol car stop next to the curb directly outside the store.

Pulse humming, she ducked down to take a better look at the driver...just as Police Chief Alex Novak looked back.

Was he checking up on her?

Without thinking it through, Kristen left the store to find out. Through the windshield, she could see that his expression changed, as if he hadn’t expected a confrontation. And then, appearing resigned, he got out of the vehicle. She came face-to-face with him curbside. His feet were still planted on the street, while she was on the higher curb, so they were actually eye to eye. Not that she could see the soft gray color of his eyes through his dark sunglasses.

“Is there a problem, Chief?”

“Alex, please.”

He was wearing a uniform today, looking unbelievably good in stark black. Not wanting to be attracted to him, she swallowed hard. “Okay, Alex, do you have a problem with me?”

“Why would you think that?”

“This is the second time today that you stopped in front of the store, as if you were casing it. Or maybe you’re expecting me to be doing something not to your liking. Maybe you just want to arrest me again.”

The way he was staring at her intently, as if he wanted to say something but was reluctant, made her mouth go dry. Was he really not going to explain himself? The way he was staring at her was so...so personal.

Her pulse quickened, and she was about to demand an answer, when he said, “When I drove around back, I noticed the glass in that window was still missing.”

“And?”

“I wondered why.”

“And I’ve been wondering why Aunt Margaret’s handyman hasn’t returned my calls. Three of them.” She couldn’t help sounding a little exasperated. “That’s why. So is having a window with no glass illegal in Sparrow Lake?”

“Just risky. You never know who might try to crawl in through an open window.”

Heat rose along her neck as she remembered the way he’d caught her the night before. Did he enjoy embarrassing her? She thought so.

“Thanks for the observation, Chief, but as long as it’s not illegal...”

She didn’t finish the statement. His eyebrows flashed upward over the tops of his sunglasses, and he looked as if he wanted to say something more. But in the end, he gave her one of those sarcastic smiles that irritated her and touched the front of his cap before backing off.

“Have a good day, ma’am.”

She stood there, feet glued to the curb, as he got into the patrol car and drove off. No man had ever made her feel so uptight before. What was with that? Tension gradually flowed out of her body, and she retreated back inside the store.

Now what had she been doing before she’d seen Alex out there? Oh, right, taking a mental inventory of the store’s wares. Her mind had gone blank. Instead of product, it was filled with Alex Novak’s face. The way his mouth always seemed ready to curl in a smile. Or was it a smirk? She shook away the image and forced herself to concentrate on work.

Happy to see that Brian was gathering items to fulfill those orders, she went back to the office area to search the internet for the computer program that she wanted to install.

Glancing back to Brian, however, she hesitated. Rather than working, he was now reading something on his cell phone. She knew he was into the whole social networking thing. He was always checking his phone and sending off messages to his friends. Nothing wrong with that—all the kids and many adults did it—but he was supposed to be working now. About to say so, Kristen stopped when Brian slipped the cell back into his pocket and got to work on an order.