Love Inspired November 2014 #2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

back in Chicago twice over. Not that I’d put any of them in this old dinosaur, anyway.” She shrugged. “Well, thanks, Officer—” she squinted down at the card “—Sykes.” She held out her hand.
    He shook it. “I’m not an officer, I’m just part of the volunteer brigade. So Jesse will do. I’ll see you Sunday at eleven-thirty. And as for your new house celebration, go on down to Karl’s Koffee and tell him what happened. If I know Karl, he’ll give you a free cup of tea and maybe some pie to smooth things over. You deserve a better welcome to Gordon Falls than one from us.” Jesse decided he’d call from the truck and ask Karl to do just that. Only, knowing Karl, he’d have done it with no nudging at all.
    He felt a tiny bit better for pulling that sweet smile from her. “Maybe I’ll do just that. Thanks.”
    Jesse tried to ignore the teasing looks that greeted him as he climbed into the truck. “Isn’t she the prettiest run of the day.” Yorky, an older member of the department who could never be counted on for subtlety, bumped Jesse on the shoulder.
    â€œOf the week,” Wally Forman corrected, waggling an eyebrow for emphasis. “Only it’s not so fun for you given the circumstances, is it, Jesse?”
    â€œCould have fooled me,” Yorky snickered.
    Jesse merely grunted and settled farther down in his seat. Maybe Wally would let it go.
    Wally stared at him. “It is, isn’t it? That’s the one?”
    Narrowing his eyes in the strongest “not now” glare he could manage, Jesse didn’t answer.
    Wally leaned back in his seat and pointed at Jesse. “It is. I knew it. Oh, man, tough break.”
    Yorky looked at Jesse, then at Wally, then back at Jesse again. “What? What am I missing?”
    Jesse cocked his head to one side in an “I’m warning you” scowl aimed straight at Wally.
    Not that it did any good. “That’s the house. The one Jesse talked about buying. Sweetie-Pie up there just bought it right out from underneath him. How many more months before you would have saved up enough for the down payment, Sykes? It had to be soon.”
    Was Wally going out of his way to drive the sore point home? “Two.” Up until this moment Jesse had managed to let Little Miss China Cabinet’s sweet smile tamp down his irritation at being beat to the purchase table.
    Yorky hissed. “Ouch!”
    â€œYeah,” Jesse repeated, craning his neck back to look at the tidy little cottage. “Ouch.”

Chapter Three
    â€œM elba, I’m not the first person in the world to lose my job,” Charlotte told her dear friend as they sat at her table after dinner that night. Charlotte had managed to avoid the topic of conversation with Melba for days, but tonight Clark was down at the firehouse for the evening and her friend had cornered her in the kitchen. “I wasn’t even the last at Monarch—there were three other envelopes on Alice’s desk.”
    Melba had Maria settled in the crook of her arm. “I’m just worried about you. Are you okay? You seem to be taking it well, but...”
    Charlotte kept telling herself that she was handling it as well as could be expected, but she also spent too many moments stuffing down a deep panic. “Do I have a choice?”
    â€œNot you. You’d never go to pieces, even at something like this.” She caught Charlotte’s eye. “But you could. I mean, don’t feel like you have to put on any kind of front with me. I’ve gone to pieces enough times in front of you.”
    While Charlotte was sure Melba meant what she said, the idea of giving in to the fear—even for a moment and even with a dear friend—felt like opening the big green floodgates at the end of town. Best to keep that door firmly shut. “I’m okay. I think I’m okay. I mean, I’m