Read A Penny for Your Thoughts for Free Online Page A

for a nonchalant pleasant tone. He mustn’t know how devastated she’d been to leave the post office every day empty handed. “Can you imagine life before e-mail?” she chuckled. “How long ago that was.”
    The waitress brought their food, and Penny busied herself pouring syrup over her waffles and methodically cutting her food into tiny pieces, hoping to stall any further conversation. She had a million questions for him, but he’d run from the fervor of her crazy, passionate love in the past. There was no reason to assume he’d changed.
    “So, how long have you been here in the South? I never got a chance to ask when I talked to you on the phone all those years ago.” She forked a piece of food and began to munch, fully intent on a scenario of settling in for an innocuous conversation with someone she once knew.
    Matt glanced at her with his winsome smile. “Oh, let’s see. Well, after I decided to leave Missoula...that was about three years after you left, I looked for jobs in law enforcement everywhere.” He chuckled. “They weren’t as easy to find as the college recruiter said they’d be. The folks in Gulfport were hiring, so I thought I’d take a chance and apply. And here I am.” He shrugged with a grin and took a bite of food.
    “You’re the Chief of Police.” She suspended her fork in midair. “Did you simply skip recruit, patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant and captain?” She cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t know the titles. I’m just guessing here.”  
    Matt chuckled. “No, I went up through ranks. They must have had a lot of retirements or something though. I have no idea how I got up to captain so fast.”
    Penny eyed him with a love that had never died. “Oh, I imagine your brains, beauty and brawn had something to do with it.”
    Matt dropped his fork and burst out laughing once again. His face turned bright red, almost the color of Penny’s.
    “I can’t believe I said that,” she mumbled behind the napkin she slapped to her mouth.
    “I can, Penny. I can. I never did know what was going to come out of your mouth.” He eyed her over the rim of his coffee cup while his shoulders continued to shake.
    “I thought I’d grown up since then,” she muttered, hopelessly aware that she’d once again reverted to a lovesick fool in his presence.
    “So, where is Travis now?” Matt asked.
    “He’s with his father for Christmas. He’s got a girlfriend now, and he wants to stay in Los Angeles to be near her.” Penny’s lips drooped momentarily. Traverse City held little life for her now that Travis was out of high school.
    She lifted her chin. Matt was not going to see her whining about lost loves--not about Travis--and not about him. It would make him uncomfortable. Displays of emotion always did.
    “What is this about a sabbatical? How did you pick Gulf Shores, Alabama of all places?”
    Penny blinked, and her mouth went suddenly dry. She dropped her eyes to her food and forced a casual shrug. “Oh, I just took the time off. It’s nice to be able to get away when I want, now that Travis is grown and out on his own. I came to Gulf Shores because a lot of people from Michigan come down here for the winter. I’d heard about it.”
    Matt nodded. “We do get a lot of snow birds from Michigan. It’s a straight shot south.”
    Penny nodded and stuffed more food in her mouth, fairly sure she was failing miserably at presenting a positive, peppy tone to convince him her life had been fabulous since last they met. She turned to look out the window while she chewed. The lights of the restaurant shone on his black SUV. Another car parked farther away from the entrance. The lights of the hotels provided a backdrop for the occupant. Penny stiffened. She saw the bill of a baseball cap turn. Surely, that wasn’t...
    Wishing she weren’t “highlighted” under the bright lights of the waffle house and the large table to ceiling windows, she leaned forward and squinted. Without turning on