“Is it really that bad?” Reynaldo Cruz echoed in horror. “Let me put it to you this way. Do you want to see me, as Alpha, challenged by the Alpha of Blue Moon Junction because one of my pack insulted him?”
“What?” Ginger gasped, stunned. That would be a disaster. No, actually it would be a bloody massacre. The red wolves were the smallest of the wolf species. Sheriff Armstrong was twice Reynaldo Cruz’s size, and Cruz was a fuss-budgety, designer-suit wearing little city wolf. A Chihuahua shifter could probably kick his ass without much difficulty. In New York, the prestigious Alpha position tended to be held by those who excelled in business and social climbing. That clearly wasn’t the case here in the more rural areas of the country.
“I’ll apologize to him, for God’s sake!” she spluttered. “This is being blown way out of proportion!”
Marigold was eavesdropping avidly, arms folded, with an “I told you so” look on her face.
Ginger glanced at the boarding house. The dining room windows were open and everyone was leaning out, craning to hear.
“You’ll do more than that,” Mr. Cruz said icily. “When I asked him what we could possibly do to make up for your terribly inappropriate behavior, he said that he needs a new assistant because his assistant is out on maternity leave. I mentioned your particular talents to him, as well. You will be working for him for the next two weeks, and you will be VERY deferential. Do you understand? I do not want to hear any more complaints about you, or the implications for you and your family will be…unfortunate.”
“What?” Ginger protested. “But I’m supposed to go back to the city next week! I can’t stay here – they don’t even have dryers! We have to hang our clothes out back on a clothes line! I ruined my best shoes stepping in a cow patty!”
“Consider yourself lucky there was such an easy solution,” Mr. Cruz said, ignoring her protests.
“I’m supposed to be teaching summer school in two weeks!”
“That’s been cancelled. And the renewal of your teaching contract will depend on your ability to repair relations between our two packs.”
“Cancelled?” Ginger wailed. This couldn’t be happening to her. She’d been counting on that money from the summer school job to pay off her credit card debt.
“The sheriff will come by shortly to pick you up at the boarding house, so I suggest you get ready and make yourself presentable. Good day.”
Ginger stared in horror at the phone, listening to the dial tone.
“Wow. I will have to admit, I did not see that coming,” Marigold’s eyes were wide. “I thought we’d be ridden out of town on a rail, or tarred and feathered. But not that.”
“How do you ride someone out of town on a rail, anyway? It might be a better alternative. I mean, if I got to choose,” Ginger said, mind reeling.
“I always assumed that it’s like taking Amtrak. Probably a one way ticket.”
Then, simultaneously, the wedding march ring tone sounded and the sheriff’s patrol car appeared, steering round the bend, heading right towards the boarding house.
Sheriff Sexy-butt sure hadn’t wasted any time in coming to rub her nose in it.
She heard the door to the dining room open, and the boarders trooped out onto the lawn, some of them still holding their coffee cups. This had to be the best entertainment in town, next to the drive in movie theater.
She quickly put her cell phone on silent. Her mother would, of course, have heard about Ginger’s bad behavior and was now calling her up to have a long-distance conniption fit. Ginger didn’t have time for a conversation with her no-doubt-hysterical mother at the moment; she was too busy panicking.
It suddenly occurred to her that she was still wearing her pajamas and slippers. Should she run inside and change?
Too late. He was already out of the car.
Mortified, she watched as the sheriff walked up the driveway and came around to the side of the house where she stood, cell phone in hand, future in doubt.
He looked her up and down with that perpetual quirk of amusement to his lips.
“Morning, Miss Colby,” he said. “I understand you’ve volunteered to be my assistant for the next couple of weeks.”
Chapter Three
He smelled masculine and earthy, with a hint of some woodsy-scented cologne. His uniform was pressed crisp and clean, the tan polyester molding perfectly to the curves of his biceps. It was obscene how good he looked this early in the morning.
Her pink button-front pajamas were rumpled, and she hadn’t combed out her big mop of red curls after she’d climbed out of the shower that morning. She was wearing bunny slippers. With button eyes and little ears. A gift from Marigold.
I am going to kill Marigold later, she thought irrationally. This is somehow all her fault.
“Absolutely,” she said, pasting a big smile on her face. “The Red Wolf pack of the Upper East Side is happy to assist you in any way we can.”
“You sure you know how to take orders?” He quirked an eyebrow at her skeptically. “Because I need someone who knows how to defer to authority.”