Free Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) by MAGGIE SHAYNE

his practice. Just decide to trust her, and give
    her some time to learn to trust him back, so they could work this place together and make both their dreams come true.
    She smiled at him, watching as he sipped his cocoa.
    * * *
    Selene and Edie were having breakfast at the Big Falls Diner, at a table right beside the giant “Big Falls’ Big Future”
    thermometer—the red was almost a third of the way to the top—when a very large, sandy-haired stranger came in. He swept the interior of the
    place, the way you do when you’re looking for someone. Selene guessed he didn’t find them, because he turned his attention to Rosie,
    who’d hustled behind the counter to wait on him. “Welcome to Big Falls,” she said, knowing, just as any local would, that he wasn’t
    from here. “Can I help you?”
    He turned his phone her way and said, “I’m looking for this woman. Have you seen her?”
    Rosie, whose hair matched her name and always would, thanks to Miss. Clairol, had been running the diner for as long as Selene could remember. Everyone in
    Big Falls loved Rosie, and Rosie pretty much loved everyone in Big Falls. But she didn’t seem too enamored of the stranger just yet.
    “I’m Rosie, and I run this place. You are...?”
    He seemed to be fighting a giant case of impatience and not winning. “I don’t mean to be rude, ma’am, but it’s important that I
    find her and I’m short on time. Do you know her or not?”
    “Funny how folks always preface rudeness by saying they don’t mean to be rude.”
    “Do you know her?”
    “Can’t say that I do.”
    “You didn’t even look at the picture.” His voice was taking on a little too much anger, and Selene was on her feet before Edie was. You
    didn’t come to Big Falls and give one of its favorite residents a hard time.
    Still Edie managed to get ahead of her before she got to the front counter. They flanked the stranger. “Is there a problem?” Edie asked, her
    voice soft and charming.
    Selene couldn’t have cared less about diplomacy. “Yeah, like maybe you have amnesia and forgot what manners are?”
    He turned all the way around, putting his back to the counter. “I haven’t forgot anything. I’m looking for this girl.” He held up
    the phone. Behind him, Rosie put on her glasses and came around front to look for herself. All three women looked at the photo, then they looked at each
    other, and then they looked at the man.
    They all spoke at once. “Never saw her before.”
    “No idea.”
    “Not a clue.” 
    He made a sound halfway between a growl and a sigh, turned, and stomped toward the door.
    “Hey, wait,” Selene called, pulling out her cell phone.
    He looked back and she snapped a pic, smiled and said, “Have a great day, now.”
    Completely perplexed, he left.
    Rosie took off her glasses and let them dangle from the excessively blingy chain around her neck. Selene bet her grandniece Cora had got it for her.
    “You girls gonna call your mamma or am I?” she asked.
    “I’ll put the family on alert, Rosie,” Edie said. “Thank you for not saying anything.”
    “Psssh.”
    “The big guy really seems to have it out for Kiley, doesn’t he?” Selene asked. “His aura is sparking like the fourth of
    July.”
    “It’s just as well we Big Falls’ folk know enough to mind our own business, and stick together when outsiders come snooping
    around,” Rosie said. “I’ll see what I can find out about this gent through the grapevine.” She lowered her voice to a
    conspiratorial whisper. “I can put Cora on it. That girl can sniff out truth like a bloodhound.”
    Selene smiled. “Doesn’t even matter that the Brand family PIs are out of town. Thanks, Rosie.”
     “You think he’s dangerous, Selene?” Edie asked.
    “He’s pissed off, and he’s a little bit panicky,” she said. “I don’t know about dangerous. I didn’t get
    dangerous.” 
    “But pissed off and panicky seems close enough to me,” Rosie said, giving them