A Heart Knows: Lake Chelan, #15

By Shirley Penick

Dispatcher Michelle Dubois reluctantly attends the conference in Pittsburg. She doesn't mind the idea of a conference but this one takes two days to get to, with the road travel from the remote Washington town she lives in and then an all day air trip. Once the travel is over, she throws herself into the conference to make the most of it. She's not looking for a man, but the sizzle from the guy at the registration desk has her mind whirling.

Officer Peter Wright always looks forward to the conference they hold in his city, especially this year after closing a brutal case. When sparks shoot up his arm by shaking hands with one of the dispatchers he's compelled to spend as much time with her as possible. Michelle in only in Pittsburg for a week, so she'd a distraction with an expiration date, then it's back to the real world. The brutal real world.

Could Michelle's small town be the change he's looking for?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shirley Penick
• Release date: Mar 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201028022

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Michelle Dubois stood with her hands on her hips, she thought about stamping her foot but didn’t want to look like a twelve-year-old. It wouldn’t be befitting her thirty-nine years. She refused to acknowledge she would be forty in a few short months. I don’t want to go to Pittsburgh. It takes two horrendous days to get there, Greg.

Greg Jones looked at her in his quiet way. He’d already laid out all the reasons he wanted her to go. He’d made the same exact trip back in October.

Can’t someone else go? she whined; perfectly aware she was the most qualified.

He nodded and her heart leapt. "Yeah, someone else could go, but you’re the head dispatcher. You implement all the policies and keep the other dispatchers in line. So, while one of the others could go, you’re the one that would benefit the most. You saw all the information I brought back."

She had, dammit, and the changes he’d implemented from the conference he’d attended had everything running smoother at the Chedwick Fire Department. The vendors he’d talked to had suggested some up-to-date equipment, that quite frankly, were a godsend.

But now the persistent man was nagging her into going to the Fire and Police Dispatcher conference, at the end of March. Greg didn’t know it, but the dates of the conference coincided with a book signing event that some of her favorite authors were attending. She’d love to go to one of those. But two days of travel, yuck.

Michelle. He interrupted her thoughts.

With a huge put-upon sigh, she said, Fine, sign me up.

He pulled a three by five index card out of the pocket of his shirt and handed it to her. Already done. Here is all the information. Conference registration, ferry booking, airplane tickets, and hotel reservation. I gave you an extra day in Pittsburgh for sightseeing. He shrugged. I don’t know what there might be to see but…

She frowned and shook her finger at him. Greg Jones, you can’t just sign someone up for all those things. You have to know stuff, like my birthdate.

He rubbed a hand over his mouth, probably to hide a smile. I looked it up in the employment records. The only thing I didn’t have was a frequent flier number.

"You know damn well I don’t have one of those. The last time I flew anywhere was to join my sister and her family in California. That was five years ago. Since we have our own amusement park now, they come here to visit. Thank God. I’m not a fan of travelling."

I know, and I’m sorry the conference is so far away, but it really will be beneficial. His eyes twinkled. And the conference ends early enough on Saturday for you to go over to the Authors in the Steel City book signing, it’s only a half hour away from the conference hotel. He winked at her and walked out the door.

The damn man knew everything. She looked at the index card, all the information written out clearly and concisely. She might use that extra day for shopping. Their town was so tiny, they had no stores. Almost everything