Once more she heard a phone ringing. It rang about seven times before an older woman's voice said. "Hello?"
She felt terrible waking an old woman so early in the morning. "Is this Enid Parkinson?"
"This is she. How may I help you?"
"I am so sorry to bother you so early, but are you by any chance missing a snake?"
"Alice! Have you found her?"
"Is Alice a very large snake with brown and gray and green markings?"
"Yes, that sounds exactly like her.” The woman sounded delighted. “Wait until I get my hands on my little girl."
"If you could come quite soon, that would be great. Do you know where the Sunflower Coffee and Tea Company is?"
"Of course I do, dear. In fact, if it wasn't so early, I’d ask you to make me a pot of your lovely English breakfast tea. It’s the best tea I’ve had outside of England."
"I'm so glad you like our tea." She widened her eyes to James who was pointing at the snake and then at himself.
"Not just the tea. I think your baking is excellent. I'm particularly partial to the lemon dream bars. Although, I can't eat too many, I have to watch my sugar intake."
"So, we’ll see you in a few minutes?"
"Yes, I'll get dressed and be right down."
She hung up and said to James. "She's very partial to our lemon dream bars."
"I should lock that woman up and throw away the key."
"Don't do that. Who’s going to look after Alice?"
“Alice? She really named a snake Alice?"
“I think so." She glanced at the clock and saw that she’d wasted all the extra time she’d given herself for the baking, and more. “Do you mind if I start baking? We’re way behind."
"Don't mind me. Alice and I are happy to watch you work."
She felt a little self-conscious doing the morning baking in front of James. Normally she worked alone, or if there were multiple bakers, everybody was measuring flour, rolling pastry, icing, mixing, passing back and forth behind each other to get to the ovens. It was strange to have this immobile and very sexy man with nothing better to do than watch her.
And talk to her. “I missed you last night,” he said.
She dropped the stainless steel flour scoop so it clattered to the worktop. “That’s nice.”
“I missed you the night before, too. In fact, I miss you a lot.”
She heard the sincerity behind his words and confusion as though he was wondering why she had avoided him since that amazing session in her apartment kitchen. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No. Oh, no.” She wanted to tell him that was the best sex she’d ever had, but then he’d want to know why they weren’t having more of it. “I’ve been busy, that’s all. With Iris home and the bakery so busy…”
He didn’t push the issue, merely stood quietly while she worked.
She felt a strange urge to tell him what she was doing, as though she were offering him a cooking course on television. She bit back the impulse, trying to focus on making sure she made the recipe correctly. She was so flustered between the snake and the man she was certain she was going to goof up somehow.
She had just finished putting the first tray of muffins into the oven when she heard the chimes of the front door and voices out front. A moment later a tiny woman with corkscrews of gray hair dressed in a royal blue jogging suit entered the kitchen. Kim noticed that she hadn’t left her house without applying pink lipstick. When she saw Kimberly, she said, "You must be the girl who called me. Thank you so much, dear. I hope Alice hasn't been any trouble."
James spoke from the corner in a tone Kim had never heard him use before. He was all tough cop. "Alice has been a world of trouble. She terrorized these two poor women when they came into the bakery this morning."
Enid Parkinson put a hand to her chest. "Oh my goodness. Sheriff Chance. I'm so very sorry that you should be bothered." She glanced at the basket. "May I see her?"
"I was hoping we could transport her in the basket.
She shook her head so her curls danced. "Oh my goodness, that won’t be necessary. Alice has been my dear friend for ten years. She walked forward.
With a glance at Kimberly and a slight shrug, he slowly lifted basket off the snake. She felt her breath hitch for a moment as once more the coiled serpent was before her. The lady bent over and said, “What do you have to say for yourself you naughty girl?"
It was astonishing but the snake moved towards the sound of the woman's voice. She reached out and stroked the sinewy body and then before Kim's horrified gaze she picked up the snake, handling it as though it were a child. The snake began to wrap itself around her. For a moment Kim had a terrible vision of it wrapping around the woman's neck and squeezing the life out of her, but it merely settled itself around her shoulders like a snakeskin shawl.
“Alice is a carpet python.”
“Still deadly, I’m guessing.”
“Well, to a small rodent, perhaps. But not to a human. We’re too big, you see.”
“That’s a relief.”
"I’m very sorry to cause so much trouble. I left her sitting in the window. She likes to sun herself and see what’s going on outside. I must have forgotten to put her back into her tank and the little monkey slipped out the cat door."
"You have cats?" Kimberly asked.
The woman with the cherubic cheeks smiled at her serenely, "Not anymore."
"Did Alice…?" She couldn't even finish the sentence.
The woman laughed merrily. "Of course not. The cats died of old age. Anyway, she doesn't eat anything that large. She likes a nice mouse. Oh, I don't have mice in my house, I buy them from the pet store. It is a bit gruesome at first, but you get used to it. And she's a lovely companion." She stroked the snake’s neck as she spoke. “I’ll take her straight home and I'll make sure she doesn't get out again."
"You do that," James said. And the pair of them watched as the woman walked out chattering away to the snake.
When the bells jingled again to signal Alice’s departure, she let out a sigh of relief. James picked up the laundry hamper. Glanced at it. “Doing my laundry will never be the same.”
“Thank you," There didn’t seem to be any more she could say that wouldn’t sound trite.
“Only doing my job." Then he assessed her progress. "I’ll let you get back to baking." And he was gone.
Well, snake invasion or not, they still had to get Sunflower open in time to greet the early birds, preferably with some of the baking that drew not only residents, but commuters who veered off I-5 on a regular basis for their morning fix. By working flat out, Kim and Dosana managed to get enough baking in the oven that the crisis of an empty bakery case was averted.
She thought about James as she worked. She thought about what he had said. "Only doing my job." She knew there was a darkness to his former work in Seattle that cast a shadow. She understood that this young, vital man had chosen to become a sheriff in Hidden Falls for that very reason. He probably liked the fact that nothing much ever happened here. In a way, he was a refugee from a harsher world like she was. She'd been running one way or another since she'd left Nelson.
She was tired of running. She began to wonder, what if? What if she told a law enforcement officer, a sheriff, about her past? Would he have her deported? Jailed? Worst of all, would they force her to testify against her father? Of all the possible evils of her situation, testifying against her father was the worse. It wasn’t that she wanted to protect her dad so much, it was her mom and siblings she worried about. He talked about retiring but never had. He’d become too addicted to the easy money.
She wondered what the chances were that she and James could have a successful relationship and decided they were small to none. Still, she made time to put six of the most perfect of his favorite muffins into a bag. As Dosana was heading out, she said, "Can you drop this off at the sheriff's on your way to the other bakery? It's a thank you for Sheriff Chance."
"What a great idea." Dosana took the gesture a step farther by retrieving one of the special cards Iris had had printed on recycled card stock with the Sunflower logo. Dosana, who’d recovered her good humor now the snake was gone, wrote in her big, loopy handwriting, "Thanks, Sheriff, for saving two damsels in distress."
Kim smiled when she read the younger woman's inscription. She simply added a “Thank you. Kim”, in her own much less exuberant writing.
"Okay, gotta run," Dosana said, grabbing the muffins and card and heading out with a wave. She got to the door and then turned and said, “Oh, by the way, next time I help with baking you have to get here first." The jingle of sunflower bells joined with Kim’s laughter and Dosana was gone.
James walked into the meeting room in the library, which was separated only by a wall from City Hall where his own offices were. It was a couple of minutes before the meeting about the Fourth of July celebrations began and he heard chatter coming from the boardroom long before he got there.
He was a couple of minutes ahead of the start time and still the last to arrive. He liked to see that sense of dedication in his committee members. Edna May and Harold were chatting like old pals. He caught what sounded like ‘fife and drums.’ Loreen was talking to his mom and it was all about the kitten Loreen had adopted from Lauren. “It’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. I know I shouldn’t, but I let it sleep on the bed with me.”
Better the kitten, he thought, than her trying to get him as her bed partner.
No one even noticed him so he took a minute to settle himself at the head of the boardroom table, pull out the file folder his predecessor had left and click open a ball point pen which he laid on top of the blank pad of paper before him. "Okay, folks, I call this meeting to order."
James glanced around. One thing you could say about this committee, they weren't a quiet bunch—they were still chatting and gossiping. This was the same room where the town council held its meetings, so he grabbed the Mayor's gavel and banged it sharply. That got their attention. They took seats around the table and all stared at him.
In the sudden silence, he said again, "I call this meeting to order."
James wasn't big on formality, but sometimes it really helped keep things moving. He said, "Edna May, can I ask you to take notes and act as secretary for tonight's meeting?”
She blushed with pleasure. "Certainly, Sheriff, I'd be happy to." He glanced around his committee. I think we all know each other, but let's go around and introduce ourselves anyway. We'll start with you, Harold."
The older man beamed." I'm Harold Biedleman." Harold was a retiree who had relocated to Oregon to escape the harsh winters Back East where he’d spent most of his life. He had a booming Boston-accented voice. He said, "I wanted to get involved in something interesting and help support my town, so here I am."
"Welcome. Loreen?"
Loreen had chosen to wear a clinging, low cut black top, and he noticed that Harold’s eyes darted to her impressive cleavage as she introduced herself. "I'm Loreen Ludlow and the Sheriff asked me specially to take part in this committee." She glanced at him from under her eyelashes as though he might have said the words to her from across the pillow. “And since I’m also working for the local TV station, I thought I’d volunteer myself as media liaison.”
"Excellent. Thank you, Loreen." And he raised his brows at Edna May. She put down her pen.
"I'm Edna May Tittlebury," she said. "I've lived in this town all my life and I am here to make sure that we uphold the noble traditions of Hidden Falls. Our Fourth of July celebrations have always been a real highlight of our town’s social calendar. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that continues."
"Thank you Edna May. Daphne?"
His mother twinkled at them all. "I'm Daphne Chance. I’m excited to help make this year’s festivities the best ever.”
“Wonderful.” He continued around the table. There were four other committee members there, all community-minded citizens he felt he could trust. All of them had served on the Fourth of July committee at least once before.
"Okay, everybody," James said opening the file before him. He’d glanced at it earlier, and he felt sure that he and his committee could follow the same format without too much trouble.
"I've got the schedule of events from last year.” He passed copies around the table. “I thought we’d run through the schedule and see if we want to amend it in any way, otherwise, we’ll go ahead and order the same fireworks.” They went through the list of attractions that had been part of the event every year. “In the morning, we’ve got the 5K fun run, followed by a pancake breakfast. Then the family fun fair, with balloon animals, a petting zoo, a few games and music. Last year we had a climbing wall and a bouncy castle. Do we want those again?”
“Oh, yes,” Daphne said. “I missed out on the climbing wall and I definitely want to try it.”
He’d kind of imagined the climbing wall was for kids, but he kept his mouth shut.
“Before we start deciding who’s in charge of what, does anybody have any questions or additions or suggestions?”
Harold spoke up. "I've got a suggestion. I think we should do a Revolutionary War reenactment."
James stared at him feeling his jaw go slack. "A Revolutionary War reenactment?"