Page 7 of The Deputy's Secret Double

“When really Mrs. Young was caught with the literal mailman and all Mr. Young did was pop him once in the eye and then move.”

Price remembered the incident, just as he remembered the then-teenage girl Tara who had told anyone who would listen her side of someone else’s story.

“In this regard, and this regard only, do I appreciate your brand of nosy,” Price had to tell Corrie now. “You at least get the facts straight before you open your mouth.”

Corrie smiled sweetly.

“Thank you. I’m glad to be appreciated.” She motioned to the hallway. “Now, go set her straight before Tacky Tara’s story evolves enough to win an Emmy.”

Price nodded.

“Roger that.”

The break room was the smallest room in Twenty-Two Coffee Shop but, according to its youngest staff member, that’s what made it the coziest. Easy to clean, easy to see and easy to relax in. No matter how stressful the customers became.

Though,relaxedisn’t the word Price would use to describe what the teenager sitting on the edge of its sofa looked like when he knocked on its open door.

Winnie Collins looked every inch like her mama, but for every single one of those inches, she was Price in personality. Dark eyes narrowed in on him while her mouth thinned into an expression that wasn’t a frown, but it wasn’t a smile either. It was an in-between look of worry and annoyance.

She stood to her impressive height and closed the distance between them with her index finger outstretched. She didn’t poke the skin, but he felt her fingertip hover near his growing bruise.

“Is this the worst of the hits or just the only thing I can see right now?” she asked, instead of giving a greeting.

Price waved her off.

“This was a lucky hit,” he said. “I can’t even feel it.”

Winnie tipped her head to the side and narrowed those eyes again.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to be working today. Why were you at Josiah’s?”

Price had a rule. He had had it since he brought Winnie home from the hospital and he had kept it during the seventeen years since.

We don’t lie to Winnie.

“Your favorite Sheriff Trouble asked me to check out some weird hole dug in Josiah’s backyard. I ran into someone who had broken into his house instead. We fought a little, they ran a lot. Lost them out in the woods before Rose showed up.” Price smiled. “See? Not as bad as the rumor mill, huh?”

Winnie’s eyebrows knitted together. She wasn’t upset anymore, but she was confused.

“A hole?”

“That’s what I was focusing on too,” Price said. “Either way, it’s on Little Rose now. I’m only here for some kid, coffee and contemplation.”

Winnie didn’t look like she wanted to drop the current topic. She opened her mouth to say something, but footsteps made her pause. Price turned to an already-smiling Corrie. He knew what she was going to say before she could even say a word.

She wanted a favor from him.

A gut feeling that proved true with impressive speed.

“Hey, Price, you drove here in your truck, right? Do me a favor and help JJ out?”

Price raised an eyebrow at that.

“JJ?”

“The newest hire,” Winnie added from behind him. “Though she isn’t new anymore.”

Price knew there was a new woman who had been hired part-time, but he only came into the café when Winnie was working. That apparently hadn’t synced up with this JJ’s schedule yet.