Santa's Posse (9 page)

She eyed him
questioningly.  “You’re … leaving?”

“Tonight,” he told
her.  “I have training up North.”

She digested the
information, attempting to stave off the feeling of disappointment.  What did
she have to be disappointed about?  It wasn’t as if the two had plans to spend
time together over the weekend.

“I’d hoped you and
I could get together this weekend,” he told her, snaring her gaze.

She gulped.  So
Miles had hoped to spend time with her.  Once again, despite the fact that
she’d sworn off a possible relationship with him, she felt a sense of
melancholy that it wasn’t to be.  She smiled despite her mood.  “Maybe when you
get back…”

She barred the
grimace that threatened. 
Why
had she said that?  It was as if her mouth
had a mind of its own.

“It’s a date then,”
he said eagerly.  “We’ll plan something when I get back.”

“Hey, you’re going
to miss the Harvest Day festivities at the mall,” she said suddenly,
remembering that Jill had mentioned that mall stores always gave out candy to
children during a specified set of hours on Halloween.

He grinned
ruefully.  “I’m not sure what time I’ll be back Friday.  Jill tells me it’s
absolute mayhem here on Halloween.  She mentioned that last year, several
stores ran out of candy and that she had to run out to a nearby market and buy
more.  She said by the time all was said and done, she made five or six trips
and they still came up short.”

Suddenly, Kellie
wondered when her assistant had found the time to talk to him.  It seemed Jill
was a wealth of information—but when was she actually finding the time to talk
to Miles during the workday?  Kellie had seen so little of him herself.  She
roused herself from her thoughts.  “So I may want to stock up on candy now,”
she mused aloud. 

“Might be a good
idea,” he agreed.  “Hey, did you get your boxes unpacked?”

She smiled
sheepishly.  “Well, no … but, I plan to get busy this weekend.  I thought I’d
see if Daniel might have a couple free hours.”

“I know he’d be
glad to help.” He checked his watch.  “I’ve gotta move,” he told her, his face
registering regret as he rose from his chair.  When he extended a hand to her,
she placed hers in his, surprised at the warmth that permeated her fingers.  Now
standing beside him, she was surprised when he bent and gave her a quick kiss
on her cheek.  “Take care while I’m away,” he told her, and then strode off.

She watched after
him.  Tall and broad, he stood a head above the crowd of mall goers milling in
the food court.  She sighed loudly. 

“Miles is a good
guy.”

The words, spoken
with emphasis, came from a male voice to her left.  She spun around and saw a deputy
sitting at a nearby table, apparently enjoying an early dinner or a late
lunch.  She smiled, eyeing him somewhat questioningly.  She was surprised when he
motioned her closer.

She glanced around
uncertainly.  She was eager to get back to her office, since she figured Jill
was wondering where she’d gone off to.  Just the same, she crossed the distance
to the deputy.  He nodded at the chair across the table from him.

She sat down,
smiling uncertainly.  “Did you need something?” she inquired, glancing at her
watch.

The man wiped his
hands with a napkin and then extended a hand to her.  She accepted it, still
watching him questioningly. 

“I’m Fred Norton,”
he told her.  “I work with Miles.”

“Nice to meet
you,” she said, and glanced at her watch again.

“Look, I know you
have places to be,” he said, “but I…”

“Yes?”

He smiled
sheepishly.  “Look, Miles is a good guy.  We, his friends,” he clarified, “well,
we don’t want to see him get hurt.”

Once again, Kellie
was taken aback.  This man was one of several people who had warned her about
hurting Miles.  She hardly knew him.  Besides, she wondered, did she look like
some femme fatale, determined to crush men beneath her feet.  Suddenly, she
felt flustered and offended.

“I don’t…”  She
smoothed a hand through her hair.  “I’m not sure what to say.  I don’t even
know him very well…”

“It’s obvious he
likes you,” the man said succinctly.  “A lot.”

She sighed.  “Uh,
well…”

When her cell
phone suddenly trilled, she jumped, but studied the screen with relief.  Jill
was calling.  “I have to take this call.  It was … nice to have met you,” she
directed to the deputy, and then hurried off, answering the call as she went. 
“What is it, Jill?”

“Good news.  Mr. Barnes
called and…”  She let the words hang in the air.

“And…,” Kellie prompted,
holding her breath.

“He wants you to
call him right back.”

“Is he…?”

“Yes.  He wants to
rent the space!”

***     

Kellie landed in her
office chair with a fatigued thud, her arms and legs splayed out like a ragdoll’s. 
Jill sat across from her, the exhaustion apparent on her rosy cheeks.  “I told
you Halloween at the mall is a free-for-all,” she said, wagging a finger at her.

“You did,” she
admitted.  “Who knew so many little kids would show up here on Halloween? 
Well, I suppose with the rain we’re having, they’d rather be undercover than
getting soaked in their neighborhoods.”

Jill nodded.  “It’s
a good thing you bought all that extra candy,” she observed.

“I’ll say,” she agreed,
and laughed.  “Daniel was a godsend.  If he hadn’t come by, I don’t know what
we would have done.”

She had enlisted
the little boy as a runner, delivering candy to stores that ran out of or ran
low on candy.  She’d given him a walkie talkie as a means to communicate with
him, and he had beamed with the responsibility. 

“Wasn’t he cute?”
Jill said.  “Carrying that walkie talkie like he was some kind of military man
on a mission.”

“Adorable,” she
agreed, stretching her tired muscles, and then checking her watch.  “I can’t
wait to get home and submerge myself into a steamy, hot bath.”

“There’s always
the hot tub at the condo,” a male voice informed.

Both women glanced
up to see Miles stride into the office.         He noted there wasn’t a chair
for him, and quickly dodged into the outer office for one.  He returned and set
it firmly on the floor and dropped heavily into it.

“Tired?” Jill
inquired with concern.

“Yes, I am,” he
admitted.

“Training was
rough?” Kellie asked, meeting his gaze.  She felt a jolt of attraction pass
between them.

He nodded,
sleepy-eyed.  “Yes, it was.”

He didn’t
elaborate, and neither woman pressed—largely because both were too exhausted to
press.

“How was Halloween
at the mall?” he inquired with a grin. 

“Mayhem,” Kellie
said succinctly.

He laughed.  “Glad
I missed it.”

“If it wasn’t for
Daniel, I don’t think Jill and I would have lived through it,” she told him. 

“Oh, Daniel helped
out?  Smart move.”

“He did.  And he
was worth every cent we paid him.”

He smiled
good-naturedly.  “Money talks.”

“Plying him with
candy didn’t hurt either,” Kellie observed, and then frowned.  “I hope his
mother isn’t upset with us.”  She glanced at Jill in alarm.  “Maybe we should
have checked with her before sending him home with all that leftover candy.”

Miles laughed out
loud.  “Did you save any for me?”

She winced. 
“Sorry.  Maybe you can talk Daniel into sharing with you.”

Jill rose from her
chair with a tired sigh.  “I’ll bring you any leftovers from my house,” she
declared.  “And now, I’m off.  I’ll see you both Monday.”

“Have a great
weekend,” Miles and Kellie said in unison.

Jill offered a
weary wave and disappeared from the room.  Miles turned his attention to Kellie,
eyeing her speculatively.  “Forehead looks good,” he told her.

She raised a hand
to it.  “I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Hey, I was
wondering…”  His words trailed off as the radio on his belt crackled to life. 
He listened intently, her brows furrowing into a frown. 

Kellie heard a
voice speaking in police ten codes and couldn’t understand a word of it.

He groaned.  “I
have to go,” he said with fatigue in his voice.  “And I was going to ask you to
dinner.”

She smiled shyly. 
“That would have been nice.”

Since she was
exhausted, the prospect of assembling and cooking dinner didn’t appeal at all. 
She yawned loudly, prompting Miles to grin.  “You are exhausted,” he observed. 
“And if you think Halloween is mayhem at the mall, I understand it’s only going
to get more hectic as Christmas approaches.”   

“Thanks for the
warning,” she said, returning his grin.

He nodded, rose,
and with a weary wave, said, “I’ll be in touch.”

Kellie sat at her
desk, reviewing paperwork and attempting to keep her mind on the task in front
of her.  Suddenly, Miles’ words of warning sounded in her ears, as they had
done for the past several weeks. 
It’s only going to get more hectic as
Christmas approaches. 

Of course she’d
known that mall traffic would increase, but she hadn’t anticipated just how
much.  Typically, the day after Thanksgiving marked the start of the busy
shopping season, but apparently, mall goers were determined to get a head start
this year.  The increased activity, coupled with getting Mr. Barnes settled
into his new store, kept her moving from early morning until late evening.

While she actually
enjoyed the pace, she found it left little time for a social life.  She hadn’t
seen much of Miles, since his workload had increased along with the mall
traffic as well.  When she did see him, he was usually moving at a clipped
pace, with his radio pressed to his mouth, and wearing a determined expression
on his face.  Of course, when he spotted her, he always waved.  And they had
shared small talk on occasion, but little more than that.

Kellie told
herself that was fine—that she hardly knew him anyway—and that it was for the
best that they keep their relationship purely business.  Besides, she realized
just how much an object of speculation she’d become, since nearly every store
manager in the place had, at one time or another over the past several weeks,
inquired about the nature of her and Miles’ relationship.  Ironically, they had
no relationship in any real sense of the word, but typically, the intrusive
questioning was followed by a warning:  Don’t hurt Miles.  Frankly, it was all
beginning to grate on her nerves. 

“Seen Miles
lately?” Jill inquired as she entered her office without knocking.

She jumped. 
“Huh?” 

“Seen … Miles …
lately?” she repeated in measured tones.       

“Oh, no, I
haven’t,” she said, and waved a dismissive hand.  “You know, if I’d known how
demanding our Mr. Barnes was going to be, I’m not so sure I’d have rented to
him.”

“Changing the
subject?” Jill said knowingly.  “Well, you’re the boss, so I’ll bite.  Yes, he’s
demanding all right.”

Apparently, with
that declaration, she decided to shake off talk of the mall’s newest tenant
with an impatient flutter of her hand.  “Hey, did you hear that Miles arrested
one of the teenagers involved in the car prowls we’ve been having?”

“Prowls?” Kellie
harrumphed then.  “These kids aren’t prowling.  They’re stealing.”

“Well, true,” she
conceded.  “But Miles caught some teenager in the act.  He mentioned he hopes
the kid will talk, so he can arrest his kiddie co-conspirators.”

“Here’s hoping
he’s successful, because the truth is, even I don’t feel safe walking in the
parking lot lately,” she admitted.

“I know.  I’m
concerned enough that I just bought a personal alarm.”

She gave her
assistant a questioning glance. 

“Be right back.”

Jill soon returned
and to Kellie’s surprise, pulled the pin on the tiny alarm.  The piercing wale
that emanated from the security device prompted Kellie to raise her hands to
her ears.

“Okaaaay, Jill, it
works,” she said, a grimace marring her face.  “You can turn it off now.”

Jill attempted to
slip the pin back into the alarm, to no avail.  “I can’t get it back in!” she
cried, after several failed attempts.

Kellie took it
from her and struggled to slip the pin back into the hole.  She just couldn’t
do it either. 

Miles suddenly charged
into the office.  “What’s happening?”

She thrust the
faulty alarm at him.  He quickly registered the problem and attempted to shut it
off.  Unable to slip the pin in to quiet the thing, he dropped it onto the
floor and stomped it to pieces.  “That oughta do it,” he said with a rueful
grin.

“Why didn’t I
think of that?” Kellie murmured.

“You know, these
things are great,” he told her, “but you’re better off buying one at either a
sporting goods store or a police supply store, rather than a dime store.”

“It was mine,”
Jill acknowledged with a groan, “and I’ll remember that.  I’m sorry about all
the commotion.”

“Not a problem,”
he said good-naturedly, smiling at Jill, and then turning his attention back to
Kellie.  “You should probably get one too.”

She shrugged. 
“Maybe.”

An awkward silence
ensued and her eyes dropped to the paperwork in front of her.  She suddenly
felt self-conscious, but forced her eyes up to meet his questioning gaze.   “Haven’t
seen much of you,” she observed.

“Right back at
ya,” he told her.

“I’ve been right
here,” she said too brightly.

He scrubbed a hand
across his jaw.  He opened his mouth to speak, but promptly clamped it shut.  Jill
watched the two, and opted to bid a quiet and hasty retreat to the outer
office. 

Miles snared
Kellie’s gaze with earnest blue eyes.  Her heart gave an erratic thump, and
then began pumping wildly.  She forced herself to maintain eye contact.