Passion and Pearls (The pearl series) (2 page)

Aqua began to fight, kicking and struggling with all her might, mostly to no avail although it gave her great satisfaction when she’d hear him suck in his breath a bit or groan. Then he moved suddenly and it was her groaning as he had rolled
them
over and his entire weight was on top of her. With hardly any breath, at all she yelled. “I have AIDS.”  

He held her still, breathing hard and when he was a bit less frustrated with this damn spitfire of a woman finally said. “Lady, I don’t care what you have, you’re under arrest!” 

That threw Aqua completely. “What did you say?” she muttered still feeling the weight of this gulloot on top of her. 

“I said you’re under arrest, now hold still cause I’m still a bit miffed at having to chase you all over town
.
” Then he reached behind him, pulled out a little box, and barked orders into it. Aqua realized this was a police radio of some sort and
sighed
again. That made him chuckle, “That’s right lady, your caught” he
told her
. She didn’t say anything else mostly because she was trying to breath and figure out what she could have done that would send a police officer (
anyway
she hoped he really was an officer) running after her that way. 

About two minutes later the place got busy, she was lifted up by the officer as if she weighed nothing and stood upright.  Unfortunately, for Aqua she was also immediately handcuffed and shuffled into a squad car before she could ask any questions. 

“Take her to the station, I’ll be there soon to
file the
charges
and book her
,
”
Blu told one of the other officers. She was put into the back of
the
squad car and taken away from the scene. Blu finish
ed
his preliminary investigation and had a list of charges the woman would be prosecuted for.

Blufford or Blu as most everyone called him was giving directions to the other officers to go check out the building and see if their fugitive had gotten away with anything when the Chief showed up. “What ya got?” he asked in his quiet authoritative way that always made Blu feel like he was the same rookie he
had been
10 years ago. 

“Got some little gal breaking into the old Stanford building
and she
ran like the dickens
.
S
he
was pretty
feisty
when I caught her,”
he told the boss. Blu let him know that the woman was on her way to the jail to be booked and he was going to finish up the investigation on scene before going to the PD to interview her. The Chief chuckled a bit and asked for more details. Blu thought that was odd but told the Chief about seeing a light in the building and using his master keys to unlock the front door and how as soon as he got inside he heard noise
s
in the back and then the door slam. He
ran to investigate
and saw the shadow of her round
ing
the corner
of the building,
so he chased her
and finally caught her in the
park. 

The Chief wasn’t chuckling now, but sighed and shook his head. Blu stopped talking and
stared
at the Chief
,
who he’d known all his life and had always looked up to. Finally he couldn’t stand it and blurted out. “OK what gives?” 

Charles, the Chief looked at him in that same quiet authoritative way and asked if he knew that the old Stanford building had been sold and that the new owner was planning on moving in yesterday? Blu said one of those bad words that don’t often come out of his mouth. Then without another word turned and took off running towards his car which was some ways from where he’d ended up. This gave him a minute to try and think of how he was going to get his ass out of the frying pan at this stage. He came up with no ideas in the time it took to get to his car, find his keys and get headed to the station. Once there he bolted up the stairs to the booking area and came to a dead stop. There she was, the woman he’d wrestled to the ground and she was laughing and playing with his niece Amanda. At four years old Amanda wasn’t sure of most people but she obviously though this woman was perfectly ok. Then he remembered what she’d said at the park about having AIDs and scooped Amanda up and away from the woman. With a stern warning he sent the little tike running to her mother down the hall with tears in her eyes.

“What was that for?” Aqua asked, appalled at the way he’d treated the little girl.  Amanda was so cute
,
open and friendly in a way that only the very young can be.

“She knows better than to be in here or to talk to strangers” he muttered and motioned for Fred the officer that was in the process of booking Aqua to leave.

“
I’m not sure that’s wise
,”
Fred told Blu. Rules were that no officer was to be alone with a suspect especially a female one.

“
Just go!
”
Blu told him and Fred knew he was serious so he left, still muttering about rules and
how
it better not be his ass in the sling when this was done.

Blu sighed and walked over to the desk the woman was sitting on, getting his first real look at the woman he’d caught. He already knew her build which made him wince as he remembered he knew that because he’d wrestled her to the ground and then sprawled on top of her to hold her down. He also knew she was feisty because of the way she fought him every step of the way. What he hadn’t seen was just how appealing she was. She wasn’t a classic beauty and he wouldn’t really call her cute but she certainly had some type of appeal that he wasn’t immune to. He noticed her feet were tiny and that her shoes didn’t match her clothes but then again could dark purple slip on sneakers with yellow flowers match anything? Aqua did a polite cough and he looked up realizing he had been staring at her feet trying to figure out what to say.

“I know, they really don’t match anything but they make me smile,” she said when she caught him staring at them.

Blu grinned lopsidedly at her and gave a very male non-committal snort of sorts. Then he remembered his manners and walked the few steps it took to get to her with his hand out and began introducing himself.  “Hello ma’am, my name is Bluford Winslow, I’m one of the Deputies here in Colville and I’m pretty damn sure I owe you a huge apology”.   Aqua looked at him and it was apparent that this wasn’t easy for him. She’d already figured out what had happened and it truly made her laugh but, she didn’t think she’d let him off the hook t
o
o easily mostly because she was still a bit startled of his treatment toward his niece Amanda.

“Well now Bluford” she started to say
but
he
interrupted her.

“Blu, as in the color
,
for short
,
”
he muttered
.

Aqua
couldn’t help it
,
she just started laughing
.
T
he more
confused he looked,
the harder she laughed. She must have
needed to
let off all that pent-up adrenaline
,
because
she couldn’t
seem to
stop herself.

It wasn’t too long before Blu was truly confused and at this point couldn’t make heads or tails of the few words she kept trying to say in between her sputtering laughs. Finally, he just sat down and watched her, it was really amazing to see someone or at least an adult laugh with so much enthusiasm and no inhibitions. It hit him that he’d like to make her laugh more. Aqua tried to control herself and wiped the tears from laughing from her eyes. The cuffs rattled as she did and Blu quickly undid them without saying anything. She looked at him, smiled and waited a little longer knowing the laughter wasn’t quite finished and if she tried to talk it would start all over again. He just continued to watch her. He could see the control slowing coming and in a way it made him sad and again that sense of wanting to make her laugh more hit him. When he thought she was at least somewhat able to respond he told her that he knew his name was unusual but that wasn’t the usual response he got. That made her smile since that side of it hadn’t even occurred to her.

“It’s not that” she said, “It’s the headlines that got me tickled. I could see the newspaper headline
Blu catches Aqua on the green
.” She grinned because he was still looking at her completely confused. “Blu my name is Aqua and I’m pleased to meet you, sort of, I could have done without the bruises but still at least I’m getting to know the folks of Colville.”

The grin came from him then and he chuckled. “Well Aqua, I am really pleased to meet you and I promise to try and control my urges to tackle you next time.”

She smiled and thought, it wasn’t that bad actually. Blu was a handsome man with dark hair and intense brown eyes. He was a few years older than she was
,
she
was
guess
ing,
but it was his air of confidence
,
even in a situation where he’d made a mistake
that
was intriguing her. Aqua decided then and there that between his treatment of Amanda and the tingles she was feeling that avoiding this man was definitely a good idea.

“Well if we’re done here then I’d like to run on home, I think after that exercise workout I should at least sleep well tonight,” she chuckled. Aqua stood, put out her hand to Blu and smiled.

Blu was thankful she was taking this all so well. “I’ll run you home and make sure things are OK.”

“No, that’s not necessary” she said, rather too quickly he thought.

“It’s the least I can do,” he insisted.

Aqua realized there probably wasn’t generally any arguing with this man so she nodded her head and turned to leave. The ride home was quiet and a bit strained. Aqua scrambled out of the car as soon as it stopped leaned in, said “thanks for the ride” shut the door, and hurried to the front door. She had gotten it open and was just turning to shut it when Blu walked in beside her.

“I’ll just take a quick look around since it’s been left open and make sure all is well. We don’t have too much trouble here but it’s better to be safe than sorry” and off he went, wandering around the lower level. Aqua sighed then realized she really wasn’t being very friendly and that she had to be more open to people if she wanted to fit in here. Once Blu was sure about the lower level they headed up the stairs to the living quarters. Blu walked in and just stared. He had never seen so many colors and then such unusual furniture. Antiques he guessed but the style was just so unusual. He shook his head and continued his inspection quickly and quietly. Once he was comfortable with knowing all was well he headed back to the stairway.

“Ma’am I really am sorry about what happened and hope you won’t think poorly of our town because of it,” Blu said with real sincerity.

Aqua smiled and told him that at least she knew things were watched and she was feeling more comfortable about security. “No harm done Blu, I’ll have a great story to tell the Grandchildren someday about my first days moving to Colville.”

Blu smiled and waved then headed down and out into the night making sure to lock the front door as he went. Once he got back into his car he just sat there thinking about this new member of his towns community. She was interesting that’s for sure, but the AIDs thing was too bad.  He hoped he didn’t run into her too often, she worried him in some manner. He started the car and headed home. A hot
or maybe cold shower
and sleep would make everything seem better he decided.

Aqua woke the next day and smiled because she had such a sense of peace. This really is the right place for me she thought. She chucked as she thought of Blu and the drama of last night. Blu was one of those rare people she just wasn’t sure how to read. He was thoughtful in many ways, easily admitted and apologized for mistakes but his attitude was so harsh with his niece and that was a sure sign of a person she should not be interested in. However, she seemed to be, she had felt like it was so right for him to be in her home when he came back and was checking the place out. Even his obvious shock at her home didn’t bother her as she did know how unusual it was. Aqua decided to forget about Blu and just enjoy her new home and the joy of starting over. With that decided she got up, took her shower and started working on unpacking boxes again.

Two months later, everything was in place. The transformation was amazing and the place looked fantastic.  The lower section had shelves full of office supplies, scrap booking items and wonderful new books.  Upstairs Aqua had a very nice living space with the changes she’d had Darrell do and she still had a nice office to keep her books in order. Everything was set up and ready to go and tomorrow was the big day, her grand opening. She’d
gone
over everything in her mind, the snack foods were ordered and set to be delivered. The sign was up; the Chamber was going to be there for the ribbon cutting. She had coupons for the first day customers. She had gotten to know a few folks and so far everyone was very nice. Aqua was feeling so comfortable with where she was, this feeling was so new to her. She’d even met the mayor, who stopped by just to welcome her to town. There were no worried looks and hurried hushes and that felt so liberating that Aqua actually enjoyed wandering through the shops around town and just getting to know the area.