“Hi, Hannah.” Mike Kingston came in as if he owned the place, but Hannah didn’t mind. His self-confidence and assertiveness were two of the things she liked best about him. Of course she also liked his rugged good looks and the way he made her heart pound against her rib cage whenever he walked into the room. His towering height was impressive too. Hannah wasn’t petite and at over five feet, eight inches tall, she appreciated a man she could look up to, a man who made her feel dainty and feminine. This was a rare treat for the daughter Delores claimed was a throwback to her rotund paternal grandmother, not exactly petite either, but the best farmwife, cook, and baker that Hannah had ever known.

“I heard you went out to Heavenly Bodies this morning,” Mike said by way of a greeting as he seated himself on a stool at the workstation.

Hannah was so surprised she almost dropped the mug of coffee she’d just poured for him. How did Mike know that? She was about to ask him how he’d heard when she glanced at the clock. It was ten forty-five, and Andrea had most certainly called Bill at work the moment she’d gotten home from the gym. And since Mike had a meeting with Bill every morning to go over the night’s crime reports, what Hannah had come to think of as her secret exercise regime was no longer a secret at all.

“I suppose everyone in town knows,” Hannah said, delivering Mike’s coffee and two of his favorite Twin Chocolate Delights on a napkin.

“Maybe not everybody. Stan Kramer and his wife are on vacation, and I think Irma York’s off visiting her cousin in Brainerd.”

“Thanks a lot.” Hannah tried not to show how amused she was. There were times when Mike was really pretty funny.

“So what if people know you’re working out at Heavenly Bodies? That’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of. I’m proud of you for trying to get in shape.”

Trying to get in shape. The phrase ricocheted around in Hannah’s mind like a marble in a blender. It was the word trying that bothered her the most. Trying meant that she wasn’t in shape. And it also insinuated that she might not succeed in her attempt to get there. That might not be far from the truth considering her track record for starting an exercise program and then dropping it after a couple of days, but voicing it constituted an insult from the man who’d once asked Hannah to marry him. She was about to object to Mike’s turn of phrase when he popped to his feet like a marionette that had been jerked upright by invisible strings.

“I almost forgot. I’ve got something in the cruiser for you. Hold on just a second and I’ll get it.”