Free Goody Goody Gunshots by SAMMI CARTER

more, and I knew Elizabeth would keep the kids home—which seemed blatantly unfair. On the other hand, if I could figure out what was going on, maybe we could put a stop to all this nonsense before the whole thing got out of hand.
    After attacking my hair with a blow dryer, I dressed in an oversized green sweater, a soft pair of jeans, and tennis shoes, then hurried downstairs to Divinity a few minutes before we opened at ten.
    It was Sunday morning, so I wasn’t expecting much foot traffic. I’d just finished making a pot of coffee and digging out the lone remaining piece of leftover coffee cake when the front door opened, and Jawarski stepped through.
    I smiled when I saw him—right up until I realized he had his cop face on. Letting my smile evaporate, I poured two cups of coffee and shoved one across the counter at him. “You look down in the mouth. What’s going on?”
    Jawarski leaned on the counter, grabbed the mug with one hand, and wiped the other across his face. He has a nice face. A solid, steady, reliable kind of face that also happens to be sexy as hell. In the time I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him without his regulation cop mustache, and I’m not sure I want to. It suits him.
    When he finally looked at me, I saw that his eyes were the color of storm clouds, and I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he’d come to say. Two seconds later, he proved me right. “Tell me what you were doing at the recreation center last night,” he said.
    “I was there for basketball practice. I’m assistant coach of the Miners this year.”
    One of Jawarski’s eyebrows rose. “I heard about that, but I wasn’t sure it was true. Since when?”
    “Since yesterday. At least, yesterday was my first practice. I actually joined the team earlier in the week.”
    “Why are you coaching basketball?”
    I ignored the implied insult in that question and spooned sugar into my cup. “Why shouldn’t I coach basketball?”
    “No reason,” Jawarski said quickly. “I’m just surprised, that’s all. It doesn’t seem like something you’d enjoy.”
    I slipped out from behind the counter and carried my cup and cake to one of the wrought-iron tables in the seating area. I settled in comfortably and helped myself to a chocolaty bite. “That shows how much you know. For your information, I wasn’t always this sedentary. When I was a kid, I did a lot of things I don’t do now.”
    Jawarski dipped his head, conceding the point, and joined me at the table. “So you just had a desire to turn back the clock, is that it?”
    “No, Brody and Caleb asked me to take the job. They needed another adult on the coaching staff, or the team was going to fold. Now tell me why you want to know.”
    He propped his feet on an empty chair and scrunched down on his tailbone. The day had barely started, and already he looked beat. “I want to know because Kerry Hendrix thinks you vandalized his truck last night.”
    “What?” The coffee cup was halfway to my mouth when he said that, and the shock made me spill about half of it into my lap. I let out a yowl and stood, brushing ineffectually at the hem of my sweater and the front of my jeans. “Kerry Hendrix thinks I —? What a jerk! He thinks that I —?”
    Jawarski listened to me sputter for a few minutes, then offered another bit of information. “He says he saw you in the parking lot when he came outside last night. Everyone else had been gone for half an hour or so, and you had no reason to stick around.”
    “What an idiot.”
    “He also says that you were upset with him for—” He consulted his notebook and read, “—‘for putting you in your place in front of the boys.’ ” Jawarski gave me a long, slow look. “You want to tell me about that?”
    “No, but I will if you insist. I thought he was pushing the boys too hard. He didn’t agree with me, and he didn’t like me challenging him in front of the kids. The boys insisted they were all right, and Hendrix sent