“Having your regular?” Luna walked over to the coffee machine.

“Yes, please,” Ellie replied.

“Me as well. Thank you,” Chi-Chi echoed.

The three women took seats at one of the café tables.

Ellie leaned in. “So, Luna, what’s the latest with the handsome U.S. marshal?” Ellie was referring to Christopher Gaines, who worked for the service in the missing child unit.

Luna’s mind wandered. She had met him several months before the center opened when an AMBER alert was issued. She was still working in child services at the time. She and her dog, Wiley, joined the search party, and not surprisingly, Luna had a “feeling” about where the child might be. It took little convincing for the marshal to follow her lead. He understood the concept of having a “gut feeling” about things. In less than an hour, they found the missing little girl stuck in a large, felled tree trunk. She was unhurt except for a few scratches from trying to follow a bunny. The next day, Luna went to the hospital to visit the little girl and give her a stuffed bunny.

When Luna arrived at the hospital, she saw Marshal Gaines several yards ahead with a similar plush rabbit under his arm. It was at that moment that Luna wanted to swoon. The practical side of Luna told her not to even think about it. But several weeks after the missing child situation had been resolved, Gaines asked her to come to Charlotte to assist in a family emergency and a missing teenager. The service would pay her per day and her expenses, including a hotel. It was a two-hour drive in each direction, and the busy interstate was no place for a woman alone. Her boss let her use a couple of vacation days, insisting she not “make a habit out of it.” But it was an opportunity she couldn’t resist, in more ways than one. After it happened several times, her boss finally acquiesced to the needs of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Once they wrapped up for the day, Gaines, Luna, and one or two others from the field office would go out to dinner. It wasn’t easy for her to keep her giddiness in check, but Gaines was getting used to her zany but endearing personality.