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She’d yelled at me across the room to get my drink order, and the same for my food order.

When she’d brought out wilty bacon and burned pancakes I’d wanted to get up and leave.

But then the police chase had started.

“Whoa,” another patron said. “That hot sheriff of ours just threw out spike strips.”

I got up to look out the window, careful not to get too close to anyone, and saw Black jumping back into his cruiser and hastily pulling on his seat belt.

The smoking truck hit the spike strips, spun out, and took a left-hand turn out of sight.

That’s when, according to social media, the truck started heading toward Bear Pass.

My phone chimed, and I returned to my seat to check the text.

It was from Milo.

Milo:

Talked to the lawyer. Town’s ours. They’re filing the necessary paperwork. We’ll need a town council of at least five. A mayor. And a possible police force. Unless we want to yield all police presence to the county sheriff like the towns surrounding us do.

Messages poured in after that, excited and questionable.

In the end I said only a few sentences.

Me:

I vote Milo as mayor. Sheriff Black can oversee. Let us know if we need to sign anything.

I got a bunch of thumbs-ups.

One from Milo came in to me personally.

Milo:

I’d rather die than be town mayor.

Me:

I would die. Also, don’t add me on the town council. We want people to actually be able to talk to them. They won’t like that I’m there, no matter if they are on my side right now or not.

Milo’s frustration came through via text.

Milo:

It’s bullshit. But if that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.

I didn’t reply to any more text messages after that because some comments from the other tables were catching my ear.

I picked at my burned pancakes, thinking about not eating any of it, as I listened.

“I hear Sheriff Black is dating that reporter that came to town and reported on that bullshit incident they’re accusing him of,” I overheard Vera say to her friend in a few booths over. “They’re really cute together. The sheriff needs someone that can handle him.”

My stomach sank.

“I saw her at the police station the other day, too, when I went in to pay my parking ticket. They were together in his office for a really long time. And when he came out, they were both smiling really wide,” her friend said.

I closed my eyes as a wave of pain rolled through me at the thought of him being with someone else.