Wife Wanted in Dry Creek. Janet Tronstad

      Conrad grunted. She sure seemed innocent. “I’m just saying.”

      She gave him a look and turned back to the window.

      By now he figured he didn’t have to worry about being drawn into her web. The expression on her face said she wasn’t planning to cozy up to him anytime soon, either. Well, he supposed it was for the best.

      He took a few steps farther away from her.

      His uncle walked over and leaned closer to him. “You could be a little nicer. She might be your calendar lady.”

      His uncle’s voice was low and Katrina couldn’t hear them.

      “She is the calendar lady,” Conrad said.

      “Really? Then that means—”

      “It means nothing. I was joking when I said what I did. There’s no miracle answer to prayer going on here.”

      “But—”

      Conrad ignored his uncle. “The fact is, I’ve been thinking I should ask Tracy at the Quick Clip in Miles City out to dinner.”

      “Really? Linda at the diner said you two might make a couple.”

      Conrad nodded. He was glad to see someone else had some sense. “We’d be comfortable together.”

      “Comfortable?” Uncle Charley exclaimed with a frown.

      Katrina turned around and looked at them in puzzlement.

      “Nothing’s wrong,” Conrad said to her and she went back to her window Then he turned to his uncle and said in a low voice, “Yes. Safe and comfortable.”

      They were both silent for a minute.

      “It’s my fault you’re willing to settle for that,” Uncle Charley said, his voice upset. “I should have paid more attention to you when your mother died. I didn’t know your father was so wrapped up in his grief he wasn’t even home most of the time.”

      “We got by.”

      “Yes, but—”

      “I do okay,” Conrad said. He could hardly even talk about those days after his mother died. Some things were just better left unsaid. There was no undoing what happened anyway.

      The older man nodded and started to walk away.

      Conrad didn’t mean to upset his uncle. The man was only trying to help him out.

      Just then it struck him. “Why, you don’t even know any young blondes to use in the picture of that sign. How are you going to find a model?”

      His uncle winked at him. “I figure that’s your department.”

      “My—” Conrad was speechless. How was he supposed to find a pretty blonde willing to pose by an old stop sign?

      No one said anything for a moment.

      “It could be she’s innocent,” his uncle finally added with a nod toward the window. “Just like she says. I’d hate to think we treated her unfairly in Dry Creek if she is. God wants us to do better than that.”

      Conrad didn’t have a chance to answer because just then Katrina stepped back from the window. She was beaming.

      “I think I saw it,” she said.

      Conrad sighed. His uncle was right. He needed to see that she was given the benefit of the doubt. If for no other reason than that she was still his customer. He’d built his business on doing everything he could for his customers. Usually, that didn’t include standing beside them as they were arrested, of course, but he would do what he could. Besides, seeing her with her face lit up touched him somehow. No wonder he’d been willing to put a two-hundred-dollar muffler on her car and not charge her for it. The woman was a wonder. Well, either that or a very good actress. He wished he knew which it was.