Read Online A Minute on the Lips by Cheryl Harper - Free Book Online

down the street. Jackie was looking out the window of the diner. If she didn’t get out of there pretty soon, he’d be headed her direction to demand some progress. “You made a mistake. I understand that. I’ve made a few. But...that doesn’t make it easy to forget, M-Mark.”
    He nodded. “Fine, but maybe now...maybe we can work together. How about you let me call you Andi like a friend?”
    She thought about it for a minute. Her friends called her Andi, that part was true. He wasn’t really a friend at this point, but she didn’t figure it would hurt anything. Andi forced her clenched fists and tight arms down by her side and gave each hand a shake to loosen things up. She took two quick steps toward him, held her hand out and shook his twice when he finally responded. Then she was shuffling back toward the SUV. She laughed at his disgruntled expression before she waved. “You can call me Andi, Mark. Thank you for dinner.”
    She hopped in the truck and forced herself to calmly buckle the seat belt and check oncoming traffic before she pulled out. Her stomach was a knot of nerves, and she felt this stupid smile trembling along the edges of her lips. This didn’t feel like her rut anymore. Mark Taylor was dangerous.
    She waved at him again. He was motionless on the sidewalk. Andi wanted to burn rubber but acted in the absolutely appropriate, speed-limit-obeying manner befitting an officer of the law and drove sedately away. She looked in the rearview mirror again and for the second time that day, Mark Taylor was watching her drive away.

CHAPTER FOUR
    A NDI WAS STILL rattled when she came to a stop in front of her grandmother’s unit at the assisted living facility. Shady Pines had opened just as they needed it. Gram was now recovered from the fall that brought Andi home to Tall Pines, but she wasn’t well enough to live alone. They argued on a pretty regular basis about her living arrangements. Andi wanted her to come back home. She wanted to take care of Gram the same way Gram took care of her when Andi’s mom had lost her battle with cancer.
    Gram was happy in Shady Pines and had no desire to return home where she’d have to cook and clean and entertain herself. At Shady Pines, she had shoppers and cooks and a constant stream of card games whenever she wanted. That was her story. She never deviated from it.
    As stubborn as Gram was, there was no way Andi was leaving. Not yet.
    As long as she won the election. When she’d first come home, she’d applied more than once for the sheriff’s office. She would have been content as a deputy, maybe even in dispatch, but Ray Evans held a mean grudge. When she’d first come back, desperate to make a good impression, she’d swanned into the sheriff’s office and proceeded to tell Ray just how much she could improve the workings of the sheriff’s office with her advanced training.
    Obviously she’d been gone so long she’d forgotten some key factors about living in Tall Pines. Natives were pretty sure the way they had done things for decades or centuries was the right way. No newcomer would tell them any different. The fact that she’d made her little speech in front of the mayor, the president of the bank and richest man in town, and other assorted head men in charge had pretty much sealed her fate. Ray would hold a grudge. He might even deserve to. If she could figure out the kind of apology it would take to set things right, she would make it. When...if she lost this election, Ray would have the last laugh.
    Andi loitered outside until the heat and the flutter of the living room curtains signaled it was time to go in. Dealing with her grandmother was tough on the best of days. She was sharp. Nobody pushed her around, not even for her own good. She might need a walker to get around and a little help keeping the floors scrubbed, but she had eagle eyes and a mean intellect. Andi didn’t think it would do any good to pretend everything was normal, but she