A scene from Book of Love:

Robin and Janice took the time to write up the proposal for the restoration of the books in the basement, to get rid of the rats by an exterminator, and to install a climate-controlled environment. Janice had looked over the rooms within the library itself, and found that there was sufficient space in the Mining conference room. The Centennial conference room would be used for the computers they were planning to purchase within the next year.

Janice finally asked Robin, “How do you think Chris would vote on this?”

“Well, he’s a conservative. He may vote against it. What we would need to do is explain the circumstances as they are now, and what will happen in the future if these requests are not met. Even then, I’m not sure what he would say.”

“Do you think I should approach him before the meeting to talk to him about it?”

Robin thought for a few minutes. “You should call him and ask him to come over, and show him the basement, and explain what you want to accomplish. He just might go for that.”

“Okay, I can do that. Thank you, Robin.”

“Oh, you’re welcome.”

Janice took both the report and the proposal to the mayor’s office and gave it to his secretary to put on the agenda to discuss at their next Wednesday meeting.
Janice saw in the special events section of the town’s newspaper that there was an art show coming up in June, and she told Robin, “We should talk to Barb Wickman and see if we can get in that show to sell some of the paperback books we have and to raffle off some of the other books. Maybe we can even muster up some money to buy an e-reader to raffle off. When we can get people to buy books and support the library, we will get a lot of money that way.”

“That’s a great idea. I would be willing to work the show with you,” Robin replied.
Carly happened to be walking by and heard the conversation. “I’ll help too,” she offered.

Janice called Barb Wickman and made an appointment to have lunch with her the next day.

Later that day Janice called Chris’s shop.

“Colstrip Auto Care,” Chris said into the phone.

“Hello, Chris. This is Janice.” There was silence on the other end. “I was wondering if I could get you to stop by the library. I’d like to talk to you about something.”

“Well, is it really necessary?” he asked.

“It’s important, I think,” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll stop by after I get out of work today, about five. Is that okay?”

“Yes, that would be fine. Thanks, Chris.” She hung up the phone.

He sounded like he did not want to meet with me or talk to me. She knew she’d made a vow that she wouldn’t bother him again, but this was important to her and she needed to get him to vote for her proposals.

She had butterflies in her stomach as five o’clock came and Chris arrived at the library.

“Hi, Chris,” Janice said.

“Hello. What’s this all about?” he asked pensively.

“I wanted to take you downstairs to the basement and show you something,” she said.
They walked down the stairs, Chris following Janice. When she turned on the light a rat slithered across the floor, and she let out a shriek. Chris looked around the room.

“We have all these books here,” Janice said. She lifted one of the old books and opened it to the pages and within where some were eaten away. “The vermin and bugs have been attacking these, and in some cases, the books have disintegrated. See here? This is a book about Colstrip back in the 1800s and we can’t even open the book to read it because it has totally disintegrated inside. Some of these books are real gems. This is one of a first edition, Samuel Clemens, do you know of him?” she asked.

“No.”

“His pen name is Mark Twain. He wrote Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh,” Chris replied.

“Look at his book. It’s totally destroyed, and it would have been worth a lot of money now, if it had survived.”

Janice went over to the ladder and stepped up on it to show Chris the books on the top shelf. The ladder gave way, and she came crashing down. Chris caught her before she fell to the floor.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern in his tone.

“Um, yeah, I think so.” She put her feet on the floor and turned, facing Chris, her breasts against his chest. His arms were around her waist, holding her tightly. His breath mingled with hers, and he was looking down at her lips.

Oh, she wanted him to kiss her. Please, please kiss me. The sweet, intoxicating musk of his body overwhelmed her. He bent slightly toward her, and his lips touched hers softly. She kissed him back, lingering, savoring every moment. She felt the kiss all the way through her body as she put her arms around him. A loud rustling noise broke their kiss with a start.

Chris looked around and saw that there were rats in the corner rattling paper. He turned back to her. “Are we finished here?”

“Yes, I think we are.” Janice hoped she had convinced him that there was work to be done in the basement.

When they went upstairs, he turned around and asked her huskily, “What was the purpose of our little meeting, Janice?”

Janice thought about how she should answer the question then said, “I submitted the request to the mayor’s office for several things, and I heard that you would probably be the one person that would oppose spending any money for the project I’m suggesting, so I wanted to show you the benefit of my proposal and the problems we are faced with currently.”

Chris had a gentle smile on his face as he looked at her. “Good persuasion, Janice. Does that include the kiss too?”

Janice looked down at her feet, embarrassed. “No, the kiss was not part of the persuasion. At least, not on my part.”

He put a finger under her chin and brought her face up to look at him. “You’ll probably get what you want, but I’d also include in your proposal to have an exterminator come in and get rid of the termites,” he said, with a slight smile. He turned and walked out.

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A romantic scene from Love Songs:

Jake took Jennifer’s hand and brought it to his lips. With his other hand, he lightly touched her face and the hair at her temple. He moved his hand under her chin and tilted it up.
His eyes were smoldering black as he looked deeply into hers. He bent down and kissed her, long and lingering, tracing the soft fullness of her lips. She felt like she was in heaven when she was in his arms. She stepped closer to him. Her breasts touched his shirt and she felt his hard chest underneath. She put her arm around his waist and returned the kiss.
As the kiss ended, he lifted his head, looked up to the sky, and remarked, “We need to get the horses into the barn, it’s getting dark.”
As much as she enjoyed the kiss, she felt guilty, knowing that Jake was seeing Kaitlin. They walked the horses back to the barn. As she waited for Jake to unsaddle the horses, a voice interrupted her thoughts.

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Scene from Delayed Justice:

Sami heard a vehicle pull into her driveway, and she got up and looked out the window warily. She recognized the sheriff cruiser immediately. The person driving it was Makeeta Robertson, the sheriff of Big Horn County, but he’d brought company. A woman got out of the front passenger seat, and a deputy got out of the back seat.

Sami had a pretty good idea why they were there. They either wanted her to identify the man they’d picked up, maybe even testify against him, or they wanted to arrest her as an accomplice in the case.
She wasn’t going to answer the door, and they’d better not break into her house! If they wanted information from her, they would have to contact her attorney.

Terrified at the thought of being arrested, her natural instinct was to hide, so she went and hid in her smaller bedroom. Her desk and computer stood against the outer bedroom wall, under the window, and she slid down under the desk and waited for them to leave.
* * * *
Sheriff Makeeta Robertson eyed the scenery as he got out of the sheriff cruiser. He’d brought Dani Spencer, the district attorney, with him, along with a deputy. The logs of her cabin have seen better days, he thought. Looking around, he noted that the driveway up to the garage had ruts in it and there was no grass growing in the yard. The dry land contained mostly tumbleweeds, white wheat, and prickly pear cactuses.
The hot, early autumn sun beat down from the sky as he stepped onto the wooden stair. The stair creaked under his weight, and he knocked at the rickety screen door. They waited outside, sweat breaking out on their foreheads, and then Makeeta knocked again. Finally he hollered out, “Sami, are you in there? We need to talk to you.”
Makeeta motioned to his deputy to go around to the back and see if there was a back door and-or any movement in the house.

The deputy disappeared around the side of the house, returning a few minutes later. “No answer at the back door, and I looked into the windows and didn’t see anyone.”
Makeeta pulled his cellphone out and called Sami’s number. It went to her voice mail.
“Sami, this is Makeeta, with the district attorney, Dani Spencer, and a deputy. We need to talk to you. If you’re in the house, please open the door. Otherwise, call my number as soon as you get this message so we can make arrangements to meet with you. There are some developments in the case with the bombing at Glacier Pharmacy five years ago, and we need your assistance.” Makeeta ended the call and clipped the phone back on to his belt.

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Scene from Jarillo Sunset at the Renaissance Festival:

Vincent and Char were walking along the rough terrain that was uneven and muddy, with tree roots sticking up above the ground. Another wench came up to Vincent. She had on an Elizabethan-style dress that was very low-cut in the front, showing her cleavage. She had glued two large styrofoam cups onto her breasts. Char grinned at Vincent as he looked at the wrench and murmured, “Hmm…”
“Ale, my lord?” she asked.
He shook his head no and looked over at Char with his eyebrows raised, a grin on his face.
Soon they came upon a centaur and a hunchbacked individual walking around, begging for alms.
They walked by the Drench A Wench and Soak A Bloke booths, and Jonathan challenged Vincent. “You used to have a good throwing arm, think you can ‘Soak a Bloke?’” he asked mischievously.
Vincent laid out some money for four balls. If he hit the target, it would drop the bloke into the dunk tank. Vincent threw the first ball and missed.
The bloke laughed and said, “Ye miss, ye miss, ye thro’ like a wench.”
He threw the second ball, and it hit the target on an angle but didn’t sink the bloke.
The bloke taunted Vincent, “Ye’re wench can throw better than ye.”
Vincent snorted and threw the third ball, again just missing the target.
The bloke said, “Let me have me wench show ye how it be done” and sent his wench out to show him a mock display of how to throw the ball.
Vincent’s grin turned wolfish, and he said, “Won’t miss this time.”
He dunked the bloke. Everyone around them started clapping, glad to see someone win at the game.

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 Scene from The Last Dig:

Rand hurried over to where she and her students stood at dig site one.
“Where’s the body?” he asked.
“Over there.” Eddie pointed to the body.
Rand walked over to the dead man and peered down at him. “Tape off about one hundred feet all the way around the body,” he instructed his deputy. Then he came back to where Caroline and her team were standing.
“Who discovered the body?” He had that no-fooling-around, all-business aura about him.
“I did,” Eddie answered.
“Did you touch it?”
“No.” Eddie stood next to the sheriff and looked up at him. Caroline thought he looked like he was intimidated by Rand’s height and size.
“You won’t be able to continue your dig until after the CSI is done. I’ll have to rope off the whole area,” Rand stated in his hard-as-nails tone.
“Why?” Caroline asked. She didn’t know what she like least, being told she couldn’t dig there, or Rand treating her like he didn’t know her. “One dig is over here, at least two hundred feet from the body. Surely that dig site doesn’t have anything to do with the body,” Caroline protested.
“Standard procedure. We need to rope off this whole area. We don’t know what we will find in the way of evidence, even in your dig site.”
“What do you mean evidence? I didn’t see anything that indicated foul play. I suspect he was hiking and died of natural causes.” Caroline looked up at Rand’s tan face.
“You’re treating this as a crime scene?” Ryan came up and stood next to Caroline.
“Yes, I’m treating this as a crime scene, and until I get all the facts and all the evidence gathered, everyone here is a suspect.”
“What? You’ve got to be kidding me. I called it in, for crying out loud!” Caroline’s temper started to show.
“Doesn’t matter.” His flat reply grated on her nerves.
“Well how long will this take?” Caroline asked, trying to calm herself down. A few hours wouldn’t be too bad she guessed.
“Hard to say. The CSI will be here in about a half hour and will be searching the whole area for evidence. It could be a couple of days, or it could be longer.”
“A couple of days?” Caroline asked with her voice raised. “We can’t wait that long. Summers are short here in Montana and we need to be able to take advantage of every good day we have. Surely you can let us continue our dig at the second site. We won’t be anywhere near where the body was found.” Caroline felt her temper rising again.
“Let’s just wait and see how the investigation goes, Caroline,” Rand snapped, his voice on the edge of impatience.
So he does recognize me. “Don’t patronize me. It’s important that we get the bones to the lab as soon as possible. When these bones get exposed to elements outside the dirt they are encased in, they start deteriorating.”
“I’m sorry, Caroline, but I have to do it this way,” Rand said, taking off his sunglasses to stare back at her.
“Rand, I don’t want the CSI to mess around in the dirt immediately surrounding the bones we have partially dug up.” Caroline stared back at him and continued to argue the point.
“Caroline,” he retorted. “We have to conduct a full investigation here, and if the CSI finds anything at all that would or could be related to the victim, we’ve got to take it in and analyze it.” Rand looked over to the rest of the group. “Now, has everyone seen the body? Does anyone recognize him?”
No one seemed to recognize the body except Caroline. She was trying to think where she may have seen the victim before. Something told her she knew him from somewhere, she just couldn’t think of where that might be. Caroline stood aside quietly, lost in her thoughts. Glancing up, she saw that Rand was staring at her.
He looked away and told his deputy, “Tape off about another hundred feet all the way around the body.”

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​Chapter 15
            Nancy Powell, Marcus’s secretary, walked into his office. “There is a Debbie Lancaster on the phone. She says it is important to talk to you. It’s about a Nicole.”
            “Thanks.” Marcus picked up the phone. “This is Marcus.”
            “Mr. Blackhawk, I’m calling you about Nicole. She has just been released from the hospital and…”
            “What is wrong?”
            “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. But if you have any concerns for her, it would really help her I think, to hear from you.”
            “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Marcus hung up the phone and called his secretary in. “Reschedule my meetings to next week. I have to take off on personal business for a couple of days. What can’t be rescheduled, see if Mike can handle it or one of the associates until I get back.”
            “Is everything okay?”
            “I don’t know. I got to go to Mason and see someone.”
            Marcus drove straight through to Mason and pulled into the parking spot next to Nicole’s vehicle that evening. He knocked at the door.
            She opened the door and peered out at him. She didn’t say anything.
            “Hi, Nicole. Can we talk?”
            She stood looking at him, then finally, opened the door wider and let him in.
            He came in and sat down in one of the chairs, and she sat down on the edge of the bed.
            “How are you doing?”
            “I’m okay,” she said, abruptly.
            “I was told that you were just released from the hospital. What happened?”
            She leaned forward and hugged herself. “I was in the hospital, yes.”
            “Is everything okay? Are you ill? Talk to me, Nicole.”
            She glanced up at him, then dropped her gaze to the floor. “It’s really none of your business, I’m fine now.”
            “Okay. I deserve that. But I am concerned for you. You look pale, and thin. You’ve lost weight. I know you find this hard to believe, but I do care a lot, about you.”
            “Oh, really,” she said sarcastically.
            “I know my actions have said the opposite. But some things stood between us, things I had to clear up and take care of.”
            “I’m sure your wife would not appreciate you being over here in Mason, with me.”
            “I don’t have a wife, Nicole. My ex-wife thought we were going to get back together, but I had no intention of that ever happening. I should have never left without talking to you. I should have never left things the way they were. Can you forgive me for this?”
            She wouldn’t look at him. She kept her eyes on the floor, rocking herself on the bed.
            “Talk to me, honey. What happened?”
            “If you must know. I was pregnant. I lost the baby.” She started to whimper.
            Marcus sprang up in the chair and pulled her up to him and held her tightly in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Nicole. I didn’t know you were pregnant, but I should have expected that it might have happened.” He whispered in her hair as she quietly sobbed on his chest. “Please, please forgive me. Honey, I love you. I knew what I did back in that cave was wrong, and I hurt you so badly. I’m so sorry. I wished that I had been with you when you lost our baby.”
            She looked up into his eyes. Her eyes and face wet with tears. “Y…you love me?” she faltered.
            “Yes. I love you. I think I loved you from the moment I saw your silhouette in the moonlight the first night I stayed here. You were out walking with Sierra.”
            “H..how could you love me even then?” she asked as if she found that incredible.
            “There was something about you that really got my attention. You are so beautiful, you don’t know how beautiful you truly are. Then when Nathan came for the weekend, he took to you. He never did that with any other woman I met and introduced him to. He really likes you and talks about you often. Then with us hiking to the cave to get the arrows, I don’t know how to explain it, Nicole. I never dream, but every night since I arrived here at the motel, I’ve had dreams about you. I tried to keep my distance from you, but our last night together, well, I just selfishly had to make you mine. That night has been cemented in my brain since.”
            “You…You really love me?” she asked incredulously.
            “I really love you, Nicole. Do you love me? Do you think you can forgive me?”
            Her eyes shined from the tears that built up and glistened. She could only stare up at him, she looked as if she was speechless, trying to gather her thoughts, and take everything in. Finally, she spoke softly.
            “I love you, Marcus. I love you so much. I want to be with you the rest of our lives. I want to be Nathan’s mommy. I forgive you, Marcus because I just love you so much.”
* * * *
            The moon shined into the room through the back window in the room, and in the shadow, there was a silhouette of a man and a woman, deep in a kiss. The only world that existed was the world they were encircled within.

This concludes the story of Elkhorn In The Moonlight. I will be putting the story before my critique partners, and beta readers soon, however, I would love to hear your feedback on the story. What resonated with you? What didn't you like? What would you like to see more of in the story? Please email me at bretesc@gmail.com and let me know what you think.  Thanks so much, and happy reading!