Free Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) by Kathi Daley

reception, Hunter’s help with the entertainment, and her dad and grandpa’s help with the girls, she might actually be able to slow down and enjoy the rest of the party.
    “ Tj,” Helen, the person literally responsible for Tj’s much improved appearance, walked up, with Bonnie trailing behind her. “Where’s your prince charming?” During the makeover, Tj had shared that she planned to bring Dylan to the wedding as her date. She’d had a lot of fun with Hunter the night before, which momentarily had made her wish he was going to be her date for the wedding, but she knew that if she didn’t keep a bit of distance between them, the emotions they both knew they shared but chose to repress would make maintaining a just-friends relationship difficult at best.
    “Working .” Tj sighed. “It seems there was some kind of accident up on Angel Mountain, and he was called in to help deal with it just as he was getting ready to come to pick me up. Luckily, Grandpa and the boys hadn’t left yet, so they gave me a ride, saving me from driving my own vehicle, which, as always, is covered in dog hair.”
    “I saw Doc talking to Ben near the bar, but I didn’t see Bookman,” Helen replied.
    “He’s here somewhere .” Tj looked around the room, scanning the happy couples dancing to a popular love song. Bookman was tall and debonair, with a sophisticated style that conveyed an effortless comfort in the dark suit he’d worn. His natural grace and rhythm alone made him stand out in a crowd. “We rode over in his car, and Grandpa promised he’d check with me before they left to see if I needed a ride home.”
    “Do you t hink Doc would want to dance?” Bonnie looked nervously toward the retired coroner, who was wearing his signature Hawaiian shirt beneath his black jacket. It seemed odd to Tj that Bonnie would be nervous about asking Doc to dance, considering they’d been friends for years, but Bonnie had just recently started dating since becoming a widow two years earlier and might be looking at him in a new light.
    “I’m sure he’d love to dance . In fact, he’s looking in this direction as we speak.” Tj waved as Bookman joined Doc and headed their way. Ben, a bit less agile on his feet than his friends, had drifted over to a table where his good friend Jake Hanson was sitting with County Judge Harold Harper, who had performed the ceremonies.
    Tj tried not to laugh as both women beamed in anticipation of the waltz that had just begun to play . Tj had never seen Helen so smitten. Jenna’s dad had died when she was a little girl and her mom had dated over the years, but in every case Tj could think of, her commitment to the relationship could best be defined as amused detachment.
    Deciding to say hi to Jake while she had the chance, Tj crossed the room and headed toward the table where he still sat with Ben . Seeing the two men together gave Tj a strange sense of déjà vu. It hadn’t been that long ago that she’d assumed Jake would become her grandfather by marriage when she finally tied the knot with Hunter. Somewhere along the way, she’d begun to think of him in that context, and when she and Hunter broke up, she’d been as upset about losing Jake as she’d been about losing Hunter.
    “There’s my girl,” Jake greeted her as she walked up.
    Leaning over , she kissed each man on the cheek before taking a seat across from them. “I didn’t realize you were coming to the reception,” Tj commented to Jake. “Not that I’m not thrilled to have a chance to visit.”
    “Wasn’t going to , but Chelsea’s been on a rampage ever since that young man of hers came back to town, so I figured it’d do me good to get out of the house.”
    After Jake had a heart attack a couple of years back, Hunter had moved him into his house on the lake in an attempt to keep an eye on him. After Travis had left town, crushing Chelsea in his wake, she’d moved in as well, and the three had been living together ever