by Gen Griffin
“You're not serious.”
“I am as serious as the heart attack that killed Jerry Walker yesterday afternoon,” Frank said. “By the way, Kerry is supposed to come back on duty sometime in the next two weeks. I was dreading having to deal with him but now he's your problem. I've already been advised not to fire him immediately by the county lawyers. It'll reduce our chances of being hit with another lawsuit.”
With that, Frank turned on his boot heel and headed out the front door. Sully, Addison, and Katie watched as he got back into his Dodge Dually and drove away, nearly clipping a light pole on his way out.
“Can he do that?” Addison asked after several minutes of stunned silence. He still had Frank's badge in his hands.
“Yup. He can and I'm pretty sure he just did.” Sully reached over and plucked the badge out of Addison's hands. “Congratulations Sheriff. Am I still fired?”
“No. You're re-hired.”
“Shortest period of unemployment ever,” Sully commented snidely.
“Why did he just resign?” Addison asked. “It makes no sense. Shouldn't he be staying on and trying to protect Ian? He can't kill the charges against Ian or destroy all our evidence if he's not the Sheriff anymore.”
“He's saving his own ass,” Sullivan explained as if he were putting the pieces of the puzzle together for the benefit of a small child. “The weed under the house was his. If Frank gets removed from office because of his own criminal activities then he'll lose his pension and benefits. He may love Ian like a son, but he's not going to risk his retirement to save Ian. By quitting now, he's automatically entitled to his full benefits. It's much harder to strip a county employee of a pension and benefits after they've already claimed them then it is to remove them from office before they can cash in. He's covering his financial ass before the scandal starts.”
Addison thought it over and then nodded. “Makes sense.”
“It does.”
“I don't want to be the Sheriff.”
“I don't think you're getting much of a choice,” Sully furrowed his brow as he mulled over the options. “You can't appoint a replacement for yourself since you are the replacement. At least not until the next election.”
“What if I turn down the appointment?”
“Then you'll open the position up for a general election and all the crazies will come out of the woodwork to run for the job. You could wind up with Kerry as Sheriff.”
“Oh hell no.”
“Or some random person who knows nothing at all about law enforcement. That happened a few years back in Cluxton County. Pretty sure the guy was a hairdresser who ran for Sheriff to make a point after the previous Sheriff was arrested in some scandal. He won. I'm sure all the officers had great hair after he was sworn in.”
“We don't need that happening here.”
“You're going to have to take the job,” Sully told him. “At least until the next election. Maybe by then I'll have a good enough reputation around here to get myself elected into office.”
“You want to be the Sheriff?” Addison looked at Sully in surprise.
“I'm a career law enforcement officer, why wouldn't I want to be the Sheriff?” Sully sat back down on the edge of Katie's desk. “Mooney is going to be furious.”
“Why would Mooney care if Frank appointed me the Sheriff?” Addison looked baffled.
“Mooney wants to be the Sheriff,” Katie said. “Why do you think he turned down that job offer from Baker County?”
Addison scratched his scruffy, stubbly chin. “Does everyone want to be Sheriff except for me?”
“I don't want to be Sheriff,” Katie batted her eyelashes at him. “Otherwise, yes. Sully, Mooney and Kerry have all been waiting on Frank to retire so they could have a go at running for Sheriff.”
“Wow. How did I miss that?” Addison eyed Katie. “Or better yet, how did you know that?”
“You're Frank's nephew. Everyone watches what they say around you since Frank tends to be pretty touchy when people talk about replacing him to his face.” Katie leaned back in her desk chair and smiled up at him. “The real question is, now that you're Sheriff, what are you going to do about Ian?”
“Arrest his ass.” Addison held his hand out to her and she took it. He pulled her onto her feet and into his chest. “My first act as Sheriff is going to be arresting Ian and tossing him in jail for the rest of his life.”
Katie wrapped her arms around Addison's neck. “Not the most romantic gesture ever, but it has its benefits.”
“You won't have to try to hunt him down to serve him with the divorce papers,” Sully muttered under his breath just loudly enough that they could both hear him perfectly clearly.
Katie burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Y'all are terrible.”
“You love me,” Addison reminded her.
She stared up into his stunningly beautiful eyes. “I do love you. Maybe it'll even work out between us.”
“Everything's going to work out just fine, Katie. Have a little faith in me.” He leaned down and very gently kissed her on the lips.
“I've already put all my faith in you,” she told him. “Don't let me down.”
Don't Miss
Catfishin'
A POSSUM CREEK NOVEL
(BOOK #7)
COMING 2017
“Hi.” The cute brunette looked up at Addison nervously through a pair of purple-framed glasses. She wiggled her fingertips at him in a small wave. “I'm here.”
“Okay.” Addison racked his brain to try and recall if he'd ever seen this girl before. Her wild head of dark brown curls and naturally tan skin were memorable enough that Addison didn't think he would have forgotten her. Unless he'd been very drunk. All bets were off if Addison had been plastered when he'd met her. “Hi,” he said.
“It's me.” Her almond shaped eyes widened slightly. He could tell she was either very shy or very nervous by how quickly she was breathing. Her perky boobs were moving up and down just a little too fast underneath the ugliest purple sweater he'd ever laid eyes on. Daisies and cats were not meant to be embroidered on cashmere. Ugly sweater aside, she was kind of geeky hot if a guy was into nerdy girls.
“Of course it's you.” Addison faked a smile while he racked his brain to try and figure out where he'd met this girl and why she was looking at him as if he was the best thing to come into the Possum Creek Diner since the new owners had added a double chocolate cheesecake to the menu.
“You don't look happy to see me.” The brunette's smile faded and she began to get an outright panicked look on her pretty face.
“I'm sorry. It's been a long day.” Addison leaned on the corner of the counter.
Becca, the diner's newest waitress and long time best friend of Katie's older sister, tossed several to-go boxes in front of him. “Your order is ready, but I'm mad at you.”
“What have I done wrong this time?” Addison was relieved to have a distraction from the brunette, whose eyes were filling with moisture as he turned to grin cheekily at Becca. He was going to make the cute nerd girl cry. It was inevitable. He had no idea who she was and she clearly expected him to be excited to see her. He hoped she wasn't a one night stand who he'd completely forgotten about. Katie was going to murder him if some girl he didn't even know showed up and announced she'd given birth to his kid.
“You're here. I wanted Sullivan to come pick up y'alls order.” Becca blew him a kiss and then fake fanned herself.
“I'll let him know that I'm forever banned from the diner and he has to come pick up all of our meals from now on. He'll love that.”
“Tell him I'll put a little extra lovin' in his box.” Becca winked at Addy.
He tossed twenty bucks down on the counter. “You're bad.”
“You're a shitty tipper. Your order came to $19.66. You might want to toss a few more bills at me or the special sauce on your next country fried steak is going to be sardine gravy fresh out of the can.”
“Disgusting.” Addison freed ano
ther twenty from his wallet and tossed it down next to the first one.
“That's better darlin'. My kids need to eat.” Becca pocketed the second twenty at the same time as she put the first one in the cash register drawer.
Addison picked up the bag of food and turned back around to see that the brunette was no longer smiling. “It was good running into you.” He headed out the door without giving the brunette another glance. He hoped she would take it as a hint that he was completely uninterested in her.
It didn't work. She caught up with him at his truck. “You don't know who I am, do you?”
Addison opened his mouth to lie and then realized he wasn't going to be able to tell a good enough lie. He had no idea who she was or where he'd met her and that meant he wasn't going to be able to fake it. “I'm sorry. I'm bad with names.”
“Lorelei,” she said her name expectantly and smiled up at him again. “I'm Lorelei.”
“I'm-.”
“Beau Carmichael. I know who you are, silly. I just quit my job and drove 400 miles to come live with you. We've been talking about this for months. Remember?” Her words were spilling out of her mouth in a rush. “Come on, I warned you that I wasn't quite as cute as my Snapchat filters make me look, but I'm not that ugly.”
Addison accidentally dropped the bag of to go boxes onto the pavement next to his truck. He ignored the splattered cheeseburgers, chicken tenders and french fries. Had the mystery chick just said she'd quit her job and driven several hundred miles to live with him? “Excuse me?”
“Oh god. You think I'm hideous.” Her eyes took on a wide, panicked look. She clapped her hands over her mouth. She appeared to be frozen in horror.
“No. You're not hideous,” he said quickly. He was scrambling to think of something to say that would calm her down without giving her the wrong idea. “I just..think you have me mistaken for someone else.”
“Um, no.” Lorelei shook her dark curls at him. Her eyes were the size of saucers behind her glasses. “I don't make that kind of mistake. I've got your picture as the screensaver on my phone. I kind of look at it a lot.” She reached into an awkwardly placed pocket in the front of her tweed skirt and pulled out a purple cell phone. Addison was willing to bet he knew what Lorelei's favorite color was. She swiped one finger across the screen of her phone.
Addison recognized the photo. Katie had taken it of him a few years ago when they'd all taken an impulse trip to the beach without bothering to pack first. He was standing hip deep in the Gulf of Mexico in his boxer shorts and grinning like a fool because Gracie had tripped over a wave and fallen flat on her face in the water just seconds before the photo had been snapped. She'd managed to take Cal out with her when she'd fallen and the two of them had landed in a tangled, graceless heap.
Addison narrowed his eyes as he took the phone out of her hand. “Where did you get this picture?”
“You sent it to me. It's you. Don't even try to deny it.”
“It's me.” Addison felt far more confused than he had two minutes ago, and that was saying something. “I don't even think I have a copy of this picture. It's a million years old. Gracie was still in high school the last time we went down to the island. Hell, Cal might still have been in high school when this was taken.”
“Who is Gracie?” Lorelei looked hurt and confused. “Tell me she's not your girlfriend.”
“No, she's not my girlfriend.” Addison bit his lower lip. “You have any more pictures of me on your phone?”
“Dozens.” Lorelei reached out and plucked her phone back out of his hands. Tears were brimming in her eyes but she was fighting them. “Please don't do this to me, Beau. I just gave up everything for you. You swore I was the only girl in your life and you were ready to start our life together. You let me pick out my engagement ring for god's sake.” She held up her left hand to display a medium size diamond in a simple setting that Katie would have liked and Gracie would have described as boring.
“Honey, my name's not Beau.” Addison leaned back against the side of his truck. “And I'm sure as hell not your boyfriend.”
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