A Penny for Your Thoughts Read Free Page B

as if it were a malevolent creature.
    “You’re sure he’s in Michigan? How do you know?” Officer Jenkins picked up the phone and pushed a button. She showed the screen of incoming and outgoing calls to Penny and pointed to the last incoming call. “Is this the number?”
    Penny nodded. She watched the young woman write the number down on her pad of paper. “Yes, I’m sure he’s in Michigan. Well, I’m pretty sure he’s in Michigan right now. I’ve known him for five years. He wouldn’t do something like this. Not even as a joke. He said something about people buying phone cards where they can spoof someone else’s number. Have you ever heard of that?”
    Officer Jenkins nodded and sighed. “Yes, we know about them. What a pain.” She didn’t elaborate.
    A door opened from the rear of the room, and a man strode out toward them.
    Penny tossed him a quick distracted look and then returned her gaze to Officer Jenkins.
    “I’m back in for a little bit, Patty. Anything else going on?”
    Penny heard the smooth, rich voice of the man she’d once loved and whose face claimed her nightly dreams. She gasped and froze in place for a moment, then carefully turned her stunned face away from him toward the empty counter.

Chapter Two
    “No, nothing much, Chief Williams.” Patty grinned and reached for a form which Penny recognized as a statement. “Are you all right, ma’am?” Penny was vaguely aware that Patty had rolled over in her wheeled office chair and stared into Penny’s downcast eyes. “Can I get you some water?”
    Penny shook her head and kept her face averted.
    “What’s going on, Patty?”
    Penny knew he approached. She would have felt his presence a hundred yards away.
    “I don’t know, Chief. She just went pale as a ghost.”
    Penny watched two familiar blue-jeaned legs come to a halt in front of her. She kept her eyes fixed on his feet encased in black flat-soled casual boots.
    “Penny?” His voice sounded just the same--wonderfully deep and melodic--the kind of voice that made her want to jump into his arms and stay there forever.
    Penny raised her head. She tried to stand, but her legs were as paralyzed as were her lungs. She could barely breathe.
    “Matt,” she murmured. He stood before her in jeans and a forest green plaid flannel shirt, looking just like the day fifteen years before when she’d waved a tearful farewell to him at the airport in Missoula, Montana. She’d boarded the plane with her young six year-old son in tow not knowing if she would ever see the man she loved again. As it happened, she hadn’t...until now.
    She tried to stand, and Matt reached out to take her hands and pull her to her feet. As short as she was, her eyes still came only to the level of his mouth. He’d never been a tall man, and she’d loved the fact that she could kiss him without getting a crick in her neck. Back then...
    “I can’t believe it’s you,” he said. Her eyes flew to his dark-lashed hazel eyes. The color of his shirt brought out the green flecks. “What are you doing here?”
    Penny dropped her gaze to his mouth. “I’m...I’m visiting Gulf Shores for the winter. I thought you were in...Gulfport, Mississippi...a hundred miles away. What are you doing here?”
    He flashed a well-remembered charming smile of even white teeth, and she melted. He really had not changed.
    “I was...for over ten years. I got promoted to captain, but the Chief of Police in Gulfport had no intention of retiring, so when they offered me this job...” He shrugged, and his self-deprecating smile touched her as it always had. Her recent dreams remembered him accurately.
    “So what brings you to the police station? Are you all right?” He seemed to realize he still held her hands, and he released them.
    Penny finally remembered Officer Jenkins who patiently sat at her desk watching the two of them with interest.
    “I...well...um.”
    “She’s filing a report, Chief. Someone called her and