Head over Heels for the Holidays - Jennifer Bernard Page 0,2
local weekly newspaper.
Lucy wore the same look of wild curiosity Maya had seen three times now. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m on a deadline and—“
“I know, I know, the police blotter. Doesn’t anyone text or email anymore?” Maya couldn’t help but grumble. She hadn’t seen Jay-Jay in twenty years. They hadn’t kept in touch after she came back to Alaska. She hadn’t even known he was in the state.
“We can do this later,” Jay said. “I’ll give you my number.”
“No. No. Stay where you are. Lucy, Sergeant Hollister can help you out. This is a very old friend of mine.” She took care to emphasize the word so Lucy wouldn’t go spreading anything false around town. She was about to say his name when she remembered that he’d used a different name at first.
When—and why—had Jay Breton become Rune Larsen?
Lucy turned to go, and Maya called after her, “We’ll have a flyer for you soon too.”
“The yak, I know.” Lucy waved her hand. “Don’t worry, we’re doing a front-page spread on it. Janet Holt sure has some major pull around here. I’m off to interview her now, actually.”
The door clanged shut again. Maya and Jay/Rune stared at each other.
“Looking forward to reading that,” he said mildly.
They both started laughing at the same moment. Just the way they used to.
“Let’s get out of here,” Maya told him. “I’m gonna put out the ‘gone fishing’ sign and let them all fix their own problems.”
“Does that happen a lot?”
“Nope. You know me and the ocean. We still haven’t really warmed up to each other.” She swung open the door, saw that everyone in the bullpen was watching with google eyes, and shut it again. “This place has lost its damn mind. They always want to know my business.”
A slow wicked smile spread across Jay-Jay’s face. “Should we really give them something to talk about?”
Oh lord. Here comes trouble. When had he gotten so freaking sexy? Twenty years sure changed a lot of things in a man.
“I think we’ve already got that covered. I have to look out for my reputation. I know my dad’s going to want to see you. How about I drive you over there and we can catch up on the way?”
He nodded, but his face went serious again. “It’s more than catching up. There’s a situation I have to talk to you about. In private, not around your father. It’s why I came to see you as soon as we got to town.”
There was that “we” again. She scolded herself to stop getting carried away just because her old friend had grown into a stone-cold fox.
“I get it. But not here, too many interruptions.” She put her hand to the door handle again, then hesitated. “So which is it, Rune or Jay-Jay?”
“Rune, if you can remember.”
“Rune.” She repeated it silently to herself. At least it suited him, but it would be weird calling him by a different name. Maybe it would help that he looked so damn different. “Rune Larsen, RN.”
“LPN,” he corrected. “Practical nurse. Also a paramedic, but I’ll explain all that later.”
“Let’s go, then. We only have about twenty years of catching up to do.”
He touched her on the shoulder, a gentle touch that made her remember how strong his arms had felt when they’d hugged. “I always knew you’d grow up to be something special.”
Her face heated, and she braced herself to meet the collective stares of the department after she opened the door. “I bet you never thought I’d be a police officer though.”
“I didn’t have a clue what you’d be. Just that you’d knock it out of the park, whatever it was.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You didn’t say that when I fell off every paddleboard you tried to put me on.”
“Anything land-based,” he corrected with a grin.
“You’ll find lots of other ocean lovers around here. It’s a fishing town, though we tend to fish from boats instead of swimming around with spears.”
His smile faded. “I won’t be staying, Maya. I only take short-term assignments. Six months at most.”
Right, he was a travel nurse. In Alaska, there was a big demand for travel health care workers, since so many villages weren’t big enough to support a full-time dentist or physical therapist or ophthalmologist.
Important to remember that he was just passing through Lost Harbor.
Also that he was a “we.”
“That must be hard on a relationship.”
He looked at her blankly. “Excuse me?”
Had that come across as blatantly fishing for information? And was that allowed? They