Read Online Exception to the Rule by Doranna Durgin - Free Book Online Page B

revealing a complexion fair enough to match her hair and baby blues the sameshade as Carolyne’s. “Sure, we have those sometimes. I think we’re out, though. Y’uns here on vacation?”
    Rio shrugged. “Kind of. My folks are having their coral anniversary next year, and we wanted to send them someplace special. This is one of the spots we’re checking out.”
    “Coral…”
    “It’s Danish,” he said. “Their thirty-fifth.”
    “We’ve got some nice canoeing,” she said, and added doubtfully, “I don’t suppose your folks are hunters?”
    “I’m afraid not. But the canoeing…that’s a thought.” He retrieved the brochures from the cart, grabbed a paper bag and began bagging his order while she finished ringing it up. “Plus I might find something in here.”
    “How’d you settle on this area in the first place?” She totaled the order, and he thumbed a couple of twenties out of his wallet.
    He gave her a sheepish grin. “It’s just somewhere we’ve never seen.”
    This time she smiled back. And as she handed over his change, she said, “Sorry about before. I know someone who’s worried about being found, and you being such a stranger…”
    Someone else? Rio’s coincidence meter hit the far end of the scale. “A friend of yours?” he asked, trying to make it as casual as possible.
    “No…I guess she’s from this area, though. She sure talks like a yinzer.”
    “Yinzer,” he repeated blankly, thinking he knew more about some foreign countries than he did about western Pennsylvania.
    “You know.” The cashier grinned at him, and thistime she’d decided to flirt—a good sign. “‘Y’uns’ is what we all say…that makes us ‘y’unzers.’ But it’s easier to say ‘yinzer.’ Anyway, her boyfriend’s bad news and she thinks he’ll send some guys after her. So we’re spreading the word a bit. It’s easy to spot a stranger in this town.”
    “So I’ve noticed,” Rio said dryly, still wary of the coincidence factor but deciding he could certainly use it to his advantage. If folks were already on the lookout for strangers in this small tawn , then he had a small population of eyes and ears already at work. Hearing the reports might be another matter, but he’d work on it.
    Another cart pushed in behind him, and the woman began moving her looming mountain of purchases onto the conveyer. “Have a nice visit,” the cashier said as Rio gathered up his bags, pushing the cart out of the way with his foot. “Thanks for coming to Jynt Igle .”
    Ah. Giant Eagle .
    And then Rio grabbed for the cart as it nearly hit a teen headed for the register—or rather, as the teen nearly collided with it. Wearing a green Giant Eagle apron and the jacket and flushed cheeks that meant he’d been out in the cool fall air, he interrupted the cashier’s opening patter with the woman customer. “Missy! That Andrew Stonner is out there again, and he’s been drinking—he’s got a woman customer cornered! That stranger! It’s his usual—he won’t let her leave.”
    Stonnered . Suddenly the comment he’d overheard earlier made sense.
    “Like she doesn’t have enough to worry about. Poor Bonnie!” The cashier grabbed the phone from the other side of the register and hit a quick-dial button. “This isMissy down at Jynt Igle. Best send someone to come get Andrew Stonner, and do it quick—he’s gone wootz on the booze again and he’s got a woman out in the parking—what do you mean, there’s no one available right now? There been a big accident somewhere? Everyone okay?”
    Rio took it in with half an ear. Poor Bonnie? Soup-slinging Bonnie? Poor Andrew Stonner was more like it.
    But he dumped his groceries back in the cart and ran for the parking lot anyway.
     

    Kimmer had just closed the back hatch to the Taurus wagon on a small stash of quick convenience meals. She’d made a quick circuit of the main street, spread her cover story and found herself anxious to return to the motel room