Playin’ Cop (Heroes of Henderson ~ Prequel) Read Online Free Page A

and jeans. Didn’t anybody dress for the weather around here?
    “What have the Devine sisters got against you, Lewis? I heard Annabelle say something about you this afternoon when she was all whipped-up into a frenzy.”
    “Yeah, what do they have against you?” Brooks teased. He and Vance bumped beer cans and laughed.
    “Oh,” Duncan apologized. “Sore subject, I see. Sorry I brought it up.”
    “No,” Lewis held up his hand, nodding his head. “It’s all right. I feel the wind of change coming, my boys, and tonight is going to be the night.”
    “The night for what, exactly?” Vance demanded.
    “Tonight is the night I’m not only kissing Grace at midnight, I’m also going to tell her exactly how I feel.”
    The deafening silence that ensued declared Lewis’ plan a bad idea.
    “For ten years I’ve been the brunt of their game. And maybe I contributed to it all along,” Lewis admitted.
    “You think?” Brooks joked.
    “But I’m twenty-nine now. I have my own company, a respectable degree of success, and it’s time to make a stand. Those girls and I are too old for teenage games, and it’s time Miss Gracie Devine put up or shut up. I’m going to make the woman mine…or die trying.”
    Unwilling to let the poor guy drown in silence again, Duncan spoke up. “Good for you, Lewis.” Which encouraged Vance and Brooks to chime in with an “Absolutely” and an “Atta-boy.”
    “You know, Lewis,” said Brooks, “there are other women. Other than the Devine sisters, I mean. While you’re all manned-up and throwing your weight around tonight, take a look around you. You might have overlooked a pretty young thing you’ve been missing out on all these years.”
    “I’ve had eyes for Grace for so long, I can’t even remember when I didn’t.”
    “I hear you. But you and she don’t even live in the same state anymore. And you see each other one time a year, at this party. What kind of relationship are you expecting?”
    Lewis tossed his arms out in exasperation. “I just want the girl to kiss me, Brooks. Just one time, I want her to kiss me like she means it. That’s my goal for the night. Been my goal all year now. If I manage to achieve that goal, I’ll just have to figure out the rest.”
    Brooks nodded his head. “Fair enough.”
    “So,” Duncan asked, in an effort to get Lewis off the hook as well as to satisfy his own curiosity, “tell me more about this Keeper of the Debutantes. Why do you call Annabelle that?”
    “Oh, we don’t just call her that,” Vance said flinging his hand around to indicate the group.
    “Everyone calls her that,” Brooks added.  
    “It’s who she is,” Lewis explained. “You see, Annabelle has a lot of interests.”
    “Yeah, like ballroom dancing and etiquette classes,” Vance said as he reached into a bag of Cheetos. “Which fork goes with what course—”
    “Thank you notes and penmanship—”
    “Proper attire, flowers, social teas, and charity events. She takes after her old Great-Aunt Helen in that regard.”
    Duncan swore he saw them all shudder at the mention of Great-Aunt Helen.
    “Don’t worry,” Brooks said. “She’s actually nothing like her great-aunt. She just appreciates all the old-school ways. Back when Tess made her debut in Raleigh, Annabelle––who is five years younger––took great interest and became an expert on what and who our Henderson debs needed to know. She coached the other debutantes from Henderson right along with Tess. And the powers that be in our little town––”
    “Meaning the old biddies who give a rat’s ass about that kind of stuff,” Vance threw in.
    “––asked Annabelle to help out the following year. Eventually, it was Annabelle who met with the debutantes’ mothers and oversaw all the party-planning, gown-picking and whatever the hell else goes on with all that.”
    “She was good at it too,” Lewis insisted. “I mean, we all clearly hated the re-establishment of cotillion