Manic in Christmas River: A Christmas Cozy Mystery (Christmas River Cozy Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

could have been easy for the two of them. I wasn’t any matchmaker, but it seemed to me that they would have made such a great couple, filling in the blanks of each other’s lives. But I also knew that recovery wasn’t an easy path, and if Tobias said he wasn’t ready for a relationship, then he wasn’t ready. And either Tiana would just have to get over it and move on, or she’d continue waiting for him, hoping that one day he’d give her a chance.
    So much of love came down to timing. I knew that from my own experience: Daniel and I could have easily been high school sweethearts, but because of life events, it was 17 years and a failed marriage before I found him again.
    Not everyone was as lucky as I was to get a second chance, and part of me wondered if Tiana and Tobias were ever going to be more than two ships passing in the night.
    I took a spoon and dipped it in the berry filling, tasting it to make sure it didn’t need any more additions. I held back from adding another squirt of lemon juice, realizing that my sour preference was most definitely not the same as my customers,’ and then I began filling up the pre-baked pie crusts with the filling. I was just about to place the filled pies in the oven when I heard a loud rap at the back door.
    Tiana glanced over my shoulder and then back at me.
    “You know, I’m gonna take a short break if that’s okay with you, Cin,” she said, nodding to where the noise had come from.
    “Sure,” I said. “But you don’t have to take one now if you don’t want to, Tiana.”
    “Are you kidding? Sir Richard Allegheny is about to propose to Beatrice Rosebud, a lowly farm girl from the northern countryside,” Tiana said, grabbing the latest Harlequin romance book from her purse and lifting it so I could see. “I’ve been dying to see what happens all morning.”
    “Well, in that case, take an extra-long break and enjoy,” I said.
    “I most certainly will.”
    I smiled, wondering if her latest obsession with romance novels wasn’t connected to her loneliness.
    She walked over to the back door and opened it.
    “Why, hello, Sheriff Brightman,” she said. “Nice seeing you today.”
    “You as well, Tiana,” he said. “And I wish you’d just call me Daniel for once.”
    “Naw, I think I’ll go on calling you Sheriff Brightman if that’s okay with you,” Tiana said. “It still tickles me that I know the Sheriff of Pohly County.”
    I heard her footsteps steal across the back deck, and then I heard heavy boots shuffle into the kitchen.
    I didn’t turn around to look at him as I took the batch of Four Berry pies to the oven and set the timer.

Chapter 9
     
    I felt his eyes on me, but I didn’t meet them. I went back to the counter and grabbed a bag of oranges for a batch of the Orange Creamsicle pies, another new pie variety that had proved to be wildly popular so far this summer. I pulled an orange out and started zesting it.
    His boots squeaked on the linoleum as he approached.
    “It’s getting hot out there,” he finally said.
    “Seems that way,” I said quietly.
    “I’ve got a bad feeling that we’re in for a real busy Fourth,” he said. “You know how crime goes up with the heat anyway. Put a holiday, a parade, and some fireworks on top of that, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for one hellish day at the Sheriff’s Office.”
    The orange in my hands had gone completely white on account of my furious zesting. I tossed it aside in favor of a new one.
    Daniel let out a long sigh. Enough of one for me to actually glance over my shoulder to look at him.
    He was leaning forward on the counter, his head bowed so that I could just see the top of his cowboy hat.
    “Cin, you’ve been so quiet all morning,” he said. “You sure you’re okay?”
    I bit my lower lip and turned back around, giving my full attention to the oranges.  
    “I’m just fine,” I said.
    “You don’t seem just fine , Cin,” he said. “You don’t seem fine at