Fries Before Guys

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Dad frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Well, you would fucking know if you answered your goddamn phone.”

  Dad’s brows rose. “I was in a closed-door meeting with the mayor—”

  I interrupted him. “I watched Rachel Howell push my girl over a fucking wall, and her neck get broken!”

  It came out as a dull roar, and I heard more than saw the room behind me go silent.

  Dad stood up, his fists planted into the desk as he leaned over. His eyes were intent on me.

  “What happened?”

  A hesitant voice came from the doorway as a woman said, “I can help explain that.”

  “Trammel,” Dad said as he gestured with his chin. “Get in here and start talking.”

  Trammel was actually my cousin, Ashe.

  She started here about a month ago, and I could already tell that she hated it.

  Though, her staying and being here in the first place had a lot to do with Ford Spurlock and less to do with herself.

  ‘Trammel’ got to talking, standing by the door as if prepared to close it.

  My dad shook his head and said, “Leave it.”

  She nodded once and walked up to stand beside me.

  “I’ve been calling the hospital every half hour for an update,” she said, her eyes on me. “Is she okay?”

  I was honestly surprised that her first words were to me and not my dad seeing as my father was the chief of police and all.

  It made me want to laugh.

  I was sure it made my dad pissed.

  But whatever.

  “She’s going to be okay,” I said. “She just got out of surgery. They placed her in a halo brace.”

  “She what?” my dad barked.

  I turned to look at him and narrowed my eyes.

  Then I explained everything that I saw, ending with getting into the ambulance to ride to the hospital with her.

  “You didn’t stay to apprehend the suspect?” Dad asked.

  I looked at him with a dark frown.

  “I didn’t give a fuck about her,” I said. “I also deemed her as no threat seeing as she’s a little goddamn cheerleader that weighs about a buck ten.”

  “I was there before the ambulance left,” Ashe interrupted.

  I liked how she was sticking up for me.

  I liked even more that she wasn’t bowing down to my father as if he was a god.

  He wasn’t a god. He was a man that was tired as fuck and wished he didn’t take the chief of police position at least once a week.

  Then again, she was my cousin and my father’s niece.

  “Trammel…” My father started.

  “Ashe,” she corrected him mockingly, acknowledging how my father only called her ‘Trammel’ at work now. “And I arrested Rachel Howell. She’s currently in the interrogation room with her lawyer. She refuses to speak to anyone but the chief of police. I tried to tell her you were in a closed-door meeting with the mayor, but she wouldn’t budge. Apparently, her father is a rather good friend of yours.”

  I barked out a laugh at that.

  Pierson Howell wasn’t a friend to my father. In fact, Pierson Howell was a douchebag who thought his shit didn’t stink.

  He’d once been on the KPD before he’d retired when he hit it big, i.e., getting married to a woman who could support him and his lifestyle he wanted to live. Now he owned a house in a gated community, helped his loaded wife do whatever it was she did and raised asshole children.

  Dad pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

  “Fucking perfect,” he said, sounding tired.

  I snorted and took a seat.

  “I want her on everything you can book her for,” I said. “Assault. Attempted murder. Breaking her restraining order.”

  “I’ve come to the same conclusion,” Ashe said softly.

  Jesus, she was soft-spoken.

  “Let’s go,” Dad said, standing up.

  I got up, but my dad snorted and pointed at the chair I was just sitting in.

  “Sit back down. You’re not coming with me,” he said. “You’re not biased about this at all.”

  I ignored him and walked behind my dad and Ashe.

  Ford passed us in the hallway, his eyes spotting Ashe and stilling.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he snapped. “Weren’t you supposed to be at your doctor’s appointment?”

  Ashe flipped him off and kept walking, effectively dismissing him without a word.

  “Looks like you have your hands full,” the mayor said as he saw us coming. “I’m done with what I needed anyway. Is there something I can be of service with?”

  I was sure my father was about to dismiss his help. But I wasn’t one to let an opportunity go without capitalizing on it.

  I stopped mid-step and turned to survey him. “There’s this girl…”

  Chapter 8

  Be mine wine.

  -Valentine Card

  Avery

  “The mayor is here to see you.”

  I blinked.

  “I’m sorry, but what?”

  Sierra started laughing.

  “That’s exactly what I said, too.” She nodded. “But that’s really who is here. The mayor.”

  I blinked my eyes, unable to come up with words, then shrugged.

  “Okay,” I finally said. “Let him in.”

  Sierra gave me a thumbs up and disappeared. Moments later, an older, very sexy man appeared.

  “Ummm, hello,” I said.

  The man grinned.

  He walked up to me and held out his hand, eyes alert and focused entirely on me.

  Though, I had a feeling that he’d cataloged everything in the room.

  He seemed dangerous to me.

  Yet, his smile seemed genuine.

  “Hello, Avery. My name is Lynn.” he said. “I heard you’ve had a rough day of it.”

  I snorted. Now that was an understatement.

  It wasn’t every day that you almost broke your neck.

  “You have no idea,” I told him. “Try the last two years.”

  His eyes went soft as he seemed to come to a conclusion.

  “You know…” He took a seat on the hospital bed across from the chair I was sitting in. “I knew your mother.”

  My brows rose.

  “You did?” I asked, surprise clearly evident in my voice.

  He nodded once.

  “I met your mother a long, long time ago,” he said. “In police academy.”

  My brows rose.

  “Wow,” I said. “That means you knew my father, too.”

  The mayor grimaced.

  “I knew your father,” he agreed. “But he didn’t much like me.”

  It was then my eyes went wide as I started to think about how he knew my mother.

  “It wasn’t in the biblical sense, was it?” I asked, genuinely terrified to hear the answer to that.

  He barked out a laugh.

  “Though it might’ve once been like that,” he offered. “She turned me down and cut me loose the moment that she laid eyes on your father.”

  That made me feel a bit better, but not much.

  I blew out a relieved breath.

  Then thought, fuck it.

  “I just found out that my dad might possibly have an infant,” I told him. “Today. Yesterday. What time is it?”

  Lynn looked at his watch.

  “It’s only nine in the evening,” he answered. “And…this infant that you speak of. Is it just speculation? Or are you sure that it’s your brother or sister?”

  Brother or sister. When he said it like that, it sent chills through me.

  I might have a brother or sister out there.

  I wasn’t alone.

  I mean, sure, the baby wasn’t able to really do anything now. But he or she was going to grow up one day.

  Then I mig
ht be able to hold a conversation with him or her.

  “At this point, it’s only speculation,” I admitted. “I read some things…”

  So there I went, explaining to the fucking mayor exactly what I found out today. Down to the last detail.

  Then I got my phone out and started to search the woman’s name up, turning it around to show him.

  The mayor, Lynn, was sitting forward with his arms resting on his knees, staring at the screen I was showing him.

  “I can look into this for you,” he said, sitting back and looking at me with concern.

  I sighed and twisted my phone in my hand.

  “I have bigger problems than that right now,” I admitted. “The cops just left here. Lynn, did you know that they’re calling this bullying?”

  I gestured to my metal halo, and he grimaced.

  “It’s rather unflattering, isn’t it?” I laughed.

  He tilted his head.

  “You’re probably going to be bullied even more by the end of this,” he admitted. “I’m sorry to say.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and carefully pulled my feet up into the chair I was sitting in.

  I was thankful that I had a blanket covering my legs, because I was still wearing the stupid hospital gown that did a terrible job at covering my body.

  “In all honesty,” I said. “I can take it. I don’t care what she does or says about me at school. I just honestly never thought she’d take it this far.”

  The mayor leaned back on my bed and planted his hands into the mattress on either side of him.

  I watched the muscles play in his forearms and thought, this man is beautiful. He’d really make a beautiful subject to photograph, too.

  Not as beautiful as Derek, but Lynn had some gorgeousness to him that was surprising. At first when he’d come in, I’d been too intimidated by the ‘mayor’ title to really take stock of his features.

  But holy shit.

  He was like the George Clooney of the regular world. Or the Richard Gere. Or Sam Elliott.

  “The problem is you shouldn’t have to ‘take it,’” he admitted. “Bullying is getting out of hand. With all of these school shootings happening around us, one would think that we’d have this under control already. This is where we should start. At the basic level. We should make it safe to be at school. Not only from the obvious—school shootings—but for the smaller but no less serious things—bullying.”

  I agreed wholeheartedly, which I told him in the next moment.

  “I agree, but I’m not sure how to fix it,” I admitted. “There are a lot of Rachel Howells in the world. You can’t just kick them out of school.”

  Lynn tilted his head. “I agree. But we know where to start.”

  We did.

  “Rachel better not be at that school when I get back Monday morning,” I told him bluntly. “Or I’m going to raise holy hell.”

  “She won’t.”

  I blinked, looking up to the doorway beyond Lynn to find Derek standing there, looking wiped.

  He was in the same thing he was in earlier, only he was carrying a duffle bag that indicated he’d gone home.

  He looked at the mayor and tilted his chin up. “Mayor.”

  “Lynn,” he corrected Derek. “Call me Lynn.”

  Derek didn’t bother to reply as he came in the room.

  He brought a brown paper bag over that I hadn’t seen until now, and then placed it on the little rolling cart before pushing it over next to me.

  “I called and asked what you were allowed to eat,” he said as he moved it to my level. “Sierra said there were no restrictions, so I got you a burger and fries. I had them put all the fixings on the side since I didn’t know what you would like.”

  The smell of the burger was tantalizing.

  I hadn’t had a burger in so long.

  It was just an expense that I couldn’t justify seeing as it would cost me ten dollars to buy it and a fraction of that to make it at home.

  I peeked into the bag and smiled when I saw not one, but two burgers and fries in there.

  “I’m sorry, but I didn’t know you’d be here or I would’ve offered to bring you something,” Derek apologized.

  Lynn waved his worry away with a flick of his hand.

  “And how did the interrogations go of Rachel Howell?” Lynn asked.

  I perked up at that.

  The police officers who had just been here had apparently been at the scene after the incident had happened. They were checking up on me and taking a statement all at once.

  Derek took the chair that was next to the recliner and reached over into the bag for his burger.

  I watched silently as he took a bite of his burger, chewed, swallowed, then went into his explanation.

  “We’ve decided to charge her for attempted murder,” he said as he swallowed. “But the interrogation went pretty dismally. She wouldn’t speak about anything at all. She wouldn’t admit to pushing Avery. Wouldn’t admit to refusing to leave the moment she knew Avery was there. She pretty much was bitter, antagonistic, and felt that her lawyer would save her from having to face the ramifications of her actions.”

  The mayor snorted.

  “She sounds like a bitter little pill,” he admitted.

  I reached into the bag, then paused. “I feel rude eating in front of you.”

  Lynn looked at me with a lazy smile on his face.

  “I’ve already eaten. I ate before I came,” he told me. “Please feel free to eat, kid.”

  I felt a blush steal over my face.

  “I’m nineteen, so not necessarily a kid anymore,” I admitted.

  The mayor’s beautiful eyes locked on mine. “You’re quite a few years younger than me, so yeah, that would make you a kid in my book.”

  I rolled my eyes and ate my burger, listening to the two men talk about what could possibly happen in the long run.

  “She won’t be at school,” Derek said as he finished off the last of his burger. “I left and my father was already calling the principal. As of right now, Rachel Howell is suspended indefinitely.”

  “Good,” I muttered, chewing slowly.

  I felt like I was going to choke.

  It was the weirdest thing, not being able to move your head or neck.

  Derek watched me eat, his eyes never leaving me for more than a few seconds.

  His worry was almost palpable.

  I took another slow bite of my burger and thought about what I was going to do for the next six weeks.

  The doctor had been in to see me right after I’d forced Derek to leave, and I’d come to find out that Sierra was correct. I would be needing help over the next six weeks. Though, he did say that I could take the padding off of the vest and then it’d become waterproof. I would just have to be very careful to keep the pin sites on my head—I had fucking holes in my head—dry and clean.

  Also, I’d have to find a way to get to classes seeing as I could no longer drive.

  Or lift anything heavier than ten pounds.

  I was so lost in what I would need help doing over the next six weeks that I didn’t realize that the conversation that Derek and Lynn were having had come to a halt and that the mayor was now leaving until Derek called my name.

  I looked up in time to see Lynn looking at me thoughtfully.

  “Mayor,” I tried to nod, but quickly found out that I could do no such thing when my entire body hunched forward.

  Lynn winked and waved his hand. “Take care of yourself, Avery Flynn.”

  I laughed humorlessly. “I thought I was taking care of myself.”

  His eyes went to Derek.

  “Then maybe you should let him take care of you for a little bit,” he suggested, his eyes once again moving back to me. “He’s gone to bat for you already today. I’m fairly sure that he’d do anything at this point. Even yell at his chief of police father in the middle of a crowded police station.”r />
  With that parting comment, he left the room quietly.

  His shoes didn’t even squeak on the tile underneath of him.

  I watched him go, wondering what in the hell his spooky thing was all about, when Derek’s big body filled my vision.

  “You’re not checking out an old man’s ass, are you?” he asked.

  He actually sounded kind of pissed, too.

  “Ummm,” I hesitated. “One, the man is hot. It doesn’t matter how old he is. B, I was watching his feet as he walked out. He didn’t even make a sound, Derek.” I paused for a breath. “Thirdly, what in the hell was he talking about you going to bat for me?”

  Derek sat where Lynn had vacated, his body practically looming over mine.

  Lynn was a big man, but not nearly as big as Derek.

  His knees were almost touching my own.

  Then again, there were things that Derek did to me that were just so much more intense just because he was Derek.

  Like look at me.

  Talk to me.

  Breathe.

  Things like that.

  “A, you need to learn how to count. B, the man is wayyyyy older than you. C, I was fucking pissed after you kicked me out of your hospital room. I might or might not have lost my shit.” He looked at me so intently that my breath caught. “I’d had a really long day, and my dad hadn’t answered any of my phone calls. And he’s my dad, not the chief of police. No matter how professional I really should be acting in front of him.”

  I agreed wholeheartedly with him.

  My dad was a cop and all, but he wasn’t a cop when it came to me. Ever. He was my dad.

  My mom was much the same, though we hadn’t had the type of relationship that my dad and I had.

  I loved her dearly, but since I was a little girl, she just wasn’t my person. My dad was my person.

  “First, I’m allowed to find older men attractive,” I told him, eyes narrowing. “B, I’m on drugs right now, so you can’t take what I’m about to say to heart.” I gave him an eyebrow raise, and he rolled his eyes. “Furthermore, I find you attractive. You’re older than me. Is that a crime?”

  “I’m older than you, yes. But I was at least born in the same time frame as you. He was born in a different century,” he countered. “And was that what had you kicking me out of your room earlier? You kicked me out, and that kind of bothered me.”