Sheryl pulled off her cap and shook out her hair. Then she twisted it up again with one hand and put the hat back on, looking up at Allie. “You been sick? You’re skinny as a twig.”
“Fashionably slim, according to my ex-husband,” Allie said, sitting down beside her. She couldn’t quit looking at Sheryl. If anything, she was more gorgeous than Allie remembered, and the uniform did nothing to detract from it. She made her cop regalia look like haute couture.
“Any more fashionable and you’d be pushing up daisies,” Sheryl said, poking Allie in the arm. She hesitated. “Ex?”
"It’s a long story,” she added. “How about you? Did you ever marry Ernie?”
“Married and divorced.” She sighed. “I should have known he was too good to be true.”
“What happened?” Sheryl and Ernie had been an item for as long as Allie could remember.
“He changed his mind.” She shot Allie a look. “You?”
Allie almost smiled. “I changed his mind."
Sheryl shook her head. “Men are pond scum.”
Even though Allie agreed for the most part, she laughed. “Not all of them.”
“Name one,” she demanded.
She could only think of one off hand. “Joe Odum.”
Sheryl sat back a bit. “Well, maybe Joe’s okay.” She flung an arm around Allie’s shoulders. “I have to get back to work, but we really need to go out and get drunk.”
Allie smiled. “Name the time.”
Sheryl grinned back. “Tomorrow night? I’m working a double today because Sidney’s on leave.”
“Sidney’s a cop, too? I had Sidney pegged as the guy most likely to go to prison the day he turned eighteen.”
“He damn near did, but the sheriff took an interest in him. Almost killed him a couple of times from what I hear, but Sidney straightened up.”
She got to her feet, nudging the forgotten gun away with the toe of her boot. “What are you doing with a gun?”
Allie’s shook her head. “It's not mine. I found it in one of Aunt Lou’s purses.”
Sheryl’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Lou? With a gun? Any ideas why she thought she needed it? I mean, we’re not exactly in a high crime area here.”
“I have no idea. I wasn’t around much the last few years,” Allie added bitterly.
“Figured you’d be beating yourself up over that. You’re being a jerk. Stop it. We need to get caught up,” she said again, and she was gone.
Allie smiled. That was Sheryl. A woman of few words and lots of action.
...
