Chapter One #2
Dalton nodded. He had already put in more than a hundred hours on this software, though it was a labor of love.
Of course, if it worked out well, he hoped to sell the program to other emergency responders.
He’d already had success selling the reservation software he had designed for his parents’ Jeep rental business.
That software, along with a few apps he had created in his spare time, was already bringing in tidy sums.
Still, it wasn’t all about the money. He wanted to give back to the organization that had welcomed him and given him a focus beyond his computer.
He figured most of the volunteers felt the same.
The work demanded so much of them all, but it also challenged them and allowed them to make a real difference in people’s lives.
“Are we good to go, then?” Caleb asked.
“I think so.” Dalton returned to the computer’s home page, the Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue logo filling the screen. “I’m sure more bugs will pop up as we use the software more, but I should be able to fix them.”
“Thanks.” Caleb shouldered his backpack. “I need to get going. Danielle has a new contract and she needs me to watch the baby. Now that Lily is crawling, Danielle has a hard time getting anything done in her studio with her around. Lily thinks all the clay and stuff are toys.”
Dalton tried not to imagine what “stuff” baby Lily might want to play with in Danielle’s studio. Caleb’s wife worked as a forensic reconstructionist, using the skulls of the dead to re-create how they would have looked in life.
After Caleb left, Dalton shut down the computer, locked up the building and drove back into town.
He had just enough time to grab coffee before his afternoon tour at Alpine Jeep.
Coming into the shop, he almost collided with a woman with long purple-red hair.
“Sorry about that,” he said, reaching out to steady her.
She smiled. “It’s okay.” She looked him up and down. “You can run into me anytime.”
He stepped back, not sure how to respond. His brother Carter would have come up with something smart and flirty to say in return, but Dalton had always been better at typing than talking. “Uh, see you around,” he stammered and went inside.
As he moved toward the front counter, he looked back over his shoulder in time to see the woman get into the driver’s seat of a black Volkswagen Beetle. “Her name is Debra. She’s single, but she’s doesn’t know how long she’ll stay in town.”
He turned to find the barista, May Delgado, grinning at him. “Why are you telling me about her?” he asked.
May shrugged. “I thought you might be interested.”
He glanced toward the Beetle, which was backing out of the parking spot. Was he interested? He only had a fleeting impression of the woman—not an unpleasant one, but not particularly memorable, either. “I don’t even know her,” he said.
“That’s how most relationships start, isn’t it?” May asked. “Two people who don’t know each other—then they do.”
He shook his head and leaned on the front counter. “Just the usual, May.”
“Double mocha, coming up.” She turned to the coffee machine. “If Debra doesn’t interest you, you just missed a pretty brunette who said she’s new to town. I think she’s renting one of Robbie Lusk’s tiny houses. Her name is Roxanne.”
“Are you playing matchmaker or something?” he asked.
“Not me. But single people are going to match up with other single people. And I’m in a position to know about most people in town—at least the tea and coffee drinkers.” She turned and slid a cup toward him. “Roxanne is a tea drinker,” she added.
He tapped his debit card on the machine to pay and dropped a dollar in May’s tip jar.
Was he so obviously bad at meeting women on his own that May had taken pity and decided to match him up?
If so, he ought to welcome her efforts. He wasn’t like Carter.
Though they were identical twins, they didn’t have identical personalities.
Carter had been born with good looks and a golden tongue, while Dalton was more quiet and awkward.
The perfect image of a computer geek, right down to the dark-rimmed glasses.
May leaned across the counter, providing a distracting view of her cleavage, but he knew she wasn’t flirting. She and Eldon Ramsey, another search and rescue volunteer, were definitely a couple. Sometimes Dalton felt as if he was the only person he knew who wasn’t paired off.
“I like the glasses,” she said.
Dalton put one hand to the black-framed eyeglasses he had recently taken to wearing. “I’ve had contacts for years, but the dry air here really bothers me,” he said. “I decided to go back to these for a while.”
“Gives you a sexy geek vibe,” May said.
Right. Whatever.
“Are you going to the Fall Festival tomorrow?” she asked.
“I have to be there,” he said. “Search and rescue has a booth.” The festival was a combination beer-tasting and fundraiser for local charities, one of several held throughout the year.
Search and rescue volunteers ran a booth to sell T-shirts and collect donations.
“I think Eldon and I are working the same shift.”
“Then I’ll see you. Though I’m working my own booth. Or rather, Chris Mercer and I are splitting a booth to sell my jewelry and her art.”
“Good luck,” Dalton said. “I hope you sell out.” If he did have a girlfriend, he would buy her a pair of the earrings May made, intricate creations fashioned out of semiprecious stones and silver and copper wire.
“I’ll send all the single women who stop by my booth to see you,” May said. “Maybe you can interest them in more than a T-shirt.”
“I thought you weren’t going to play matchmaker,” he said.
She smirked. “But now you’ve given me ideas.”