Chance grinned and seemed to blush a little under his tan as he handed Rachel his debit card. “Well, I’m gonna fire one over her bow and see if we get a response.” He gave an appreciative once-over to the rest of the shop and added, “Although I’ll bet she’d love to shop here.”
“Baby steps, Chance. Right?”
Rachel handed him his purchases in a fancy bag with the Discretion logo on it, and he exchanged pleasantries for a few moments before Grace made the introductions. Chance turned his brilliant blue gaze on Maya.
“So you’re the lovely lady I’ve been hearing about.” He shook her hand congenially as her cheeks went up in flames. “Welcome to Divine, Ms. Daire. I’ll bet you’re having loads of fun hanging out with these lovely ladies.”
“I sure am, Mr. Carlisle. It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
“Likewise, ma’am. Well, I’ll get out of you ladies’ hair. Stay out of trouble.”
Chance made his exit as two more customers entered the store. Juliana came from the back room with her sleepy, auburn-haired baby tucked against her chest and a large, rather executive-ish looking diaper bag in tow.
“Hi, Maya,” Juliana said in greeting as she sat the bag on the counter and dug through it quickly. “Wallet, phone, tablet, keys. Keys. Where are my keys?”
A jingling sound got her attention, and Rachel chuckled as she dangled a key ring on her index finger. “You left them on the counter when you opened this morning. Do you have everything?”
“Yup.” William squirmed against her, yawned, and sneezed.
“Poor baby. Allergies just like his daddy. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Juliana sailed out the door, and they heard her Tahoe start out front and drive off moments later. Grace and Rachel helped the customers while Maya looked at a lingerie catalog behind the sales counter.
After the customers were finished shopping and their merchandise paid for, Grace said, “Rachel, we need to Skype with Nell and Henry Flanders for a few minutes. They wanted to talk to us about something.”
Five minutes later they were set up in the break room. Maya stayed out front to man the store, but nobody came in during their conversation. She was busying herself dusting a book shelf when Grace and Rachel returned to the front giggling.
“Maya, you’re not going to believe what we were just talking about,” Grace said as she sat down on the comfy tall chair behind the counter. “There was a small riot yesterday in the county lockup in Alamosa, Colorado.”
Rachel chuckled and gestured a thumb at Grace and said, “Turns out Prison Riot Caressa’s books were the cause of it.”
Grace laughed and said, “Nuh-uh! Porn Harlot Jane’s books were found in tatters on the floor as well when the dust settled. It turns out someone in the lockup had a small collection of erotic novels he shared with inmates who liked to…um…read. We evidently have developed a following in that jail, and someone took a book another inmate wasn’t done with yet.”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yeah. It gets better. The story made the news in the local market and the front page of two newspapers. The sheriff is sympathetic and said all the inmates involved were well behaved until the incident, but the local judge demanded all porn and smut be removed from the jail, including what remains of the book collection. Nell and Henry decided to protest the action and have set up their base of operations outside the courthouse where the judge presides over cases.”
“Poor guys.” Jail inmates who preferred erotic romance to porn? Well, romance is for everybody, I guess. “I understand why you call Grace Prison Riot Caressa. It’s understandable. But why Porn Harlot Jane?”
Rachel said, “I got an e-mail once. The opening line was—” In a melodramatic tone, in unison Grace and Rachel said, “Mizz O’Malley, you are a porn harlot and should be ashamed!”
Rachel elbowed Grace and snickered, then said, “I clicked delete, but it became a standing joke between us and was soon my nickname. So Prison Riot Caressa and I, and Nell and Henry, also known as Willow Fields, had a videoconference with the sheriff of Alamosa County and he agreed to let us replace the books that were ruined. We’re sending signed copies to Nell, and the sheriff will hold them for the inmate the collection belonged to. In the meantime, Nell and Henry will protest the judge’s decision, and if they’re successful the inmates will get the books back.”
Grace gestured with a thumb to Rachel and rolled her eyes. “Then Porn Harlot Jane has to go and ask if we can talk with some of the inmates.”