“No, I’m good, and thanks for staying late.”
“Sure thing. See you Monday.”
Joel straightened his desk and locked the office on his way out a few minutes later. At the store, he parked and made his way inside. At the third check-out from the door he spotted Kelly Stevens bagging groceries. The guy had his head down and wore what looked to be a permanent frown. A corner of Joel’s mouth quirked up. Justice. He loved it.
Ten minutes later, everything on his mental list was in the cart except ice cream. If Brittany ended up back at his place either tonight or tomorrow, he definitely wanted to offer her ice cream again. He stood in the freezer aisle and debated the choices.
“Chocolate chip mint,” Brittany said from behind him.
Just the sound of her voice shouldn’t make his pulse race. He opened the door and reached into the case to give himself a moment to breathe. “I was going to try the Magnum bars.”
“Ooh, those are good, too.”
He set the box in his cart and finally turned to face her. She was still in her wrangler work clothes and looked pretty as ever. The welcoming curve of her lips made it impossible to contain his smile and play it cool. “Hello.”
“Hi.” Her smile faded as she cast a glance toward the check-outs. “You see who’s working up front?”
He nodded. “Did he see you when you came in?”
“Mmm, yeah. And if looks could kill…”
“Bet he doesn’t do that when he sees me.”
“Of course not. Because the idiot thinks he can intimidate me.”
Clearly, she wasn’t intimidated. He admired her resilience while at the same time worried it would make her careless.
Kelly wasn’t at the front of the store when they went through the check-out line, but he came in with a bagger’s cart as they were on their way out. With Joel at her side, the guy completely avoided eye contact with both of them.
“Typical,” she muttered as she followed him to her truck.
Joel was one step ahead of her, and as they approached, his steps slowed. Both front tires were flat. What were the odds of that? “Did you drive over some glass on your way in?”
“No, why?” She stopped beside him and spotted the tires. “Oh, come on.”
Joel took a step back to check the back passenger side, but that tire was fine. He made his way around to the driver’s side as she opened the passenger side door to set her groceries inside.
“I’d have noticed glass.”
“I hate to say it, but this looks deliberate.” The hair on the back of his neck pricked as he met her gaze through the back window. “This one is flat, too.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She slammed the door and came around to the back as he set his purchases on the ground and bent to check the tire. It only took a moment to find the slash. She moved to the front tire and found one, too.
“Well, there it is. Gutless little worm.”
Joel rose to his feet to see her headed back inside. He hurried after her and caught her arm. “Whoa—where you going?”
“It’s not like we don’t know exactly who did this.”
She jerked free, but he spun her around to face him. He’d love to go and show the guy his fist up close, but that wouldn’t help. They needed to be smart about how they handled the situation if they wanted justice.
“He’s my first guess, too, but we should let the police handle this.”
“I want to see his face.”
“And you will.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and held it up like he was ready to dial. “When the police get here.”
“Fine.” She pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest, staring him down as if he were the bad guy. “He doesn’t scare me,” she stated.