Love, Lies and Mistletoe. Jennifer Snow

      She glanced around him. Lily was inside, her head in her hands, sitting at the counter. Lindsay and Noah were there with her. “They’re inside.” She pointed to the group.

      “Yeah, they were here before us,” he mumbled.

      “Well, pretend we were, too,” she said. She grabbed Victoria’s arm and moved past him.

      “Hi, guys,” Lily said, glancing up as they entered, ignoring Jake’s protests.

      Sheriff Bishop waved as he assessed the damage in the window. “Good morning, ladies.”

      “What happened?” Victoria asked.

      “Looks like someone threw a brick or something through the window last night. When I arrived this morning, it looked like this.” Lily bit her lip and stared at the mess of her window display.

      “If there’d been an alarm...” Jake said behind them.

      “Shh,” Heather told him. Lily was upset enough. No point making her feel worse.

      “Just saying,” Jake said, but he stopped his spiel.

      “Was anything stolen?” Victoria asked.

      “Not that we can tell,” Lindsay said. “Noah said even the back safe wasn’t tampered with.”

      “Well, that’s a relief.” Heather glanced around the store. All of the display racks were neatly arranged, and nothing seemed out of place except the glass in the front of the store. Looked like a case of minor vandalism. Brookhollow had had a graffiti problem for a few months before Jake arrived and scared all the teens stupid. This appeared to be a similar issue.

      But Lily shook her head. “Not really. That means this was probably a warning.” Her hands were shaking, and her voice was unsteady. She was terrified.

      “Why would you think that? Were any other buildings hit?” Heather couldn’t imagine why anyone would warn Lily about anything. She was one of the sweetest, nicest women she’d ever met.

      Lindsay pulled them aside. “She’s freaked-out because her ex-husband was released from jail in Newark yesterday,” she whispered, casting a quick glance toward their friend.

      Well, that explained why Lily was so distraught. She’d fled her abusive ex almost two years ago. “That’s awful.”

      Victoria’s eyes were wide. “There’s no way he could know where she is, though, right?”

      Lindsay shrugged. “We hope not.”

      Heather sighed, but then her gaze landed on Jake, and she narrowed her eyes. She marched over to him. “Did you do this?” she hissed.

      “Are you insane? I’m a cop,” he said.

      “Yeah. One with something to prove.”

      “Excuse me?”

      “You want us all to start taking security seriously...”

      “Do you hear yourself?” he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

      For the first time, she noticed he wore a bulletproof vest over his jacket. “Expecting a shoot-out?” She raised an eyebrow, but again the sight of him in uniform was...uncomfortably intriguing.

      He opened his mouth to answer, but a woman’s voice in the doorway caught everyone’s attention.

      “Hello...”

      “I’m sorry, we’re closed this morning,” Lily said.

      “Did you not see police tape outside?” Jake asked. “Seriously—everyone out!” he barked. Clearly he was at the end of his rope with everyone disregarding his authority.

      Lindsay and Noah started to protest, but Lily nodded. “It’s okay, guys. I’m good. Listen to Sheriff Matthews.”

      “Um...sorry, we didn’t mean to cross the tape, but my son has something to say,” the woman in the doorway said, nudging a boy in a hoodie and baseball cap into the store.

      The kid looked to be about fourteen; his head was down and his shoulders were slumped forward. “I wanted to apologize. I broke your window last night,” he told Lily.

      “You did?” Relief, not anger, was evident in her voice.

      “Yeah. It was an accident. A couple of guys and I were having a snowball fight after we left the diner...”