by L. A. Fiore
“Seeing those pictures of Jake and you, the life you had, the life you lost and now here you are in my bed. Giving me all of you when I’ve never had anything. Having Jake’s father talk to me like I was good enough to fill his son’s shoes.”
Touching his chin, I turned his face to me. “Jake was a wonderful man, the finest I’ve ever known, and you are every bit as fine a man, Abel. Jasper and I had a heart-to-heart before I left. He told me that you were the last person he would have picked for me, so different from Jake in every way.”
“Yeah, I am very fucking different.” Abel moved so fast, throwing his legs over the side of the bed.
Gathering the sheet, I scurried off the bed and blocked him from leaving. “I’m not done. Please look at me.”
There was a storm of emotion brewing behind his eyes.
“Jasper also said that had I met Jake as the woman I was now, with all I’d been through and lost, he wouldn’t have been the man for me. I needed someone to snap me out of it, to wake me up. And so though he never would have put us together, he approved of you because you brought me back.”
Abel’s next words were no louder than a rough whisper. “I never had a family, never thought I needed one.” His fingers curled around my hips, pulling me to him. “Until you.” I wanted to weep, not from pain or sorrow, but profound happiness. Instead, I threaded my fingers through his hair and held him while speaking the words I never thought I’d ever say.
“I loved Jake. When I met him I was hungry for love, starved for it, and he gave it to me unconditionally. Life with him would have been beautiful. But he died and I can’t tell you what that feels like. I didn’t want what I had with him again, not the beauty of it because the pain of losing it was unbearable. But I did find it again and Abel, in a lot of ways the love I feel for you is even stronger than what I felt for Jake because I didn’t want it, fought against it, and still it found me. You found me. Jake will always be a part of me, but my heart belongs to you now.”
He moved so fast, pulling me down onto the bed as his body moved over mine. Cradling my face in his hands, bright eyes stared down at me, before he kissed me—the sweetest and most poignant kiss of my life.
“You have a few papers to sign and the LLC is setup. D.J. is on board, taking over as branch manager for this location, but he was pretty adamant that he still wants to run all the builds by you. The boy is starting to realize that he takes too much on. I think he’s in for a rocky road in the beginning, but he’s smart so he’ll get there.”
“And the spaces the realtor called you about? When can we check those out?”
“Whenever we want.” Tiny leaned back in his chair. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re doing this and not just because I like seeing Pipes growing and expanding. I think it’ll be nice to slow things down and...”
I had known Tiny for a long time and the amount of times I’d seen him tongue-tied was never. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing, I just think this is a good thing.”
“Bullshit. Are you blushing?”
“What the fuck, no.”
“You’re blushing, you are fucking blushing. What the hell?”
One of his meaty paws rubbed his bald head, resigned to sharing since he knew I wouldn’t let up until he did. “Fine. You’re not the only one with a woman waiting in Sheridan.”
“You’re shitting me.” Instead of rising to the challenge, Tiny remained silent. A clear sign that this lady was more than a bed warmer. “Who?”
“Right, so you can fucking annoy me with your bullshit.”
“Seriously man, who?”
“Stella.”
No fucking way. “Stella, the baking goddess? I didn’t know you even knew her.”
“I lived there too, remember. We had a thing once, it was rekindled.”
“Does she bake for you?”
“Why the fuck would I tell you that?”
“She does, doesn’t she?”
“You’re an ass.”
“I’m happy for you, brother. She’s a good woman. It’s about time you settled your ugly ass down.”
“Coming from you, I’ll take that advice with a grain of salt.”
He wasn’t wrong; my past history was not good when it came to women. “It’s different with Sidney.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. When we make the move back, I want her ass in my house.”
“Even if she doesn’t want that?”
“I’ll be persuasive.”
“From what I’ve seen, you won’t have much to do.”
He was right about that.
Tiny stood. “I liked her from day one. She didn’t take your shit. A special kind of woman to stand toe-to-toe with you and end up the victor.”
“Victor? I think that’s stretching the truth a bit.”
“Not from where I’m standing.”
Fucker walked out before I could reply, not that I had one since he was right, and I could think of far worse things than having a woman like Sidney claiming my heart. Plus her ass would be warming my bed permanently when I moved back to Sheridan. Life was fucking good.
Leaning against my kitchen counter, eating my dinner of Ramen noodles, I eyed the counter across from me and couldn’t help the grin seeing Sidney spread out naked on it like some offering. Just another example of how I needed to make this move because here I was standing in my kitchen eating a shit dinner and thinking about fucking my woman instead of actually fucking her. I needed to check out those locations sooner than later.
I wasn’t expecting anyone so when I heard the door I immediately thought of Sidney surprising me again with a visit.
Pulling the door open, “Hey, babe,” was as far as I got because standing at my door wasn’t Sidney but my fucking father, Owen Madden.
“What the hell do you want?”
“I was driving through, thought I’d stop by and say hi.”
“You should have thought again.” His foot stopped the door from closing. “You’ll want to move that. Now.”
“How’s your girlfriend?”
My entire body went tight, primed to protect what was mine.
“Sidney Stephens isn’t it? Small world. I was reading the morning paper a couple of weeks ago and right there in the social pages was a picture of one half of Princeton’s most influential couples, Lauren Stephens and her daughter-in-law, Sidney, heading into the hospital to see Jasper who had just suffered a heart attack. You can imagine my surprise to see my own son holding the hand of the young, beautiful widow. I didn’t know you knew such established people.”
It wasn’t just rage that had my hands balling into fists, but a sickening sense of dread. My father had no morality, the score was all that mattered, and to get what he wanted he’d do anything. And from that gleam in his eyes, he’d found his new mark.
“Stay the fuck away from them.”
“Come on. We should have a family dinner.”
Instinct demanded I slam the fucker’s head into the wall—repeatedly, but my father was the master of the underhanded. If I slammed his head into the wall, I had better be certain I killed him and going to prison because of him was not on my bucket list.
“You do know I’ll warn them about you.”
“I’d expect nothing less, but it just ups the stakes, which will make the payoff that much sweeter.”
He moved his foot; I closed the door in his face, but I heard the fucker whistling as he walked away.
Grabbing my phone, I called Tiny. “Owen was just here.”
“What the fuck did he want?”
“He saw me with Sidney and her mother-in-law. He’s found his next target.”
“Goddamn it. That fucker needs to be put down.”
“I’ve got to take a few days, give the Stephenses a heads up.”
“And Sidney?”
“I’ll tell her, but this is my shit spilling onto them. I need to handle it personally.”
“You think that
’s a good idea? Going behind her back to her in-laws?”
“I don’t know, but I’m still doing it.”
“In your place, I would too. Don’t worry about things here.”
“Thanks, man.”
“I won’t lie, I was surprised by your call. What can we do for you?” Jasper Stephens gestured to a chair in his office. He looked good, healthier and stronger and it hadn’t even been a week since I’d last seen him. From the way they were both studying me, they thought this was a shakedown. And in some sense it was.
“My father’s name is Owen Madden and he’s a con man. I haven’t seen him in over a year. To be fair, he kicked me out of the house at fourteen when I realized I was a part of his cons and he no longer had a use for me. He comes back from time to time when his money is running low. I don’t acknowledge him, he moves on. He came to see me the other day. Apparently he’s been living out here and saw a picture in the paper of us entering the hospital and now he’s seeing payday. I don’t know what he’s up to and what he has planned, but I do know he’s capable of anything. Everything in me says I should take a step back, remove myself from the equation, but my life has been influenced enough by that fucker. I’m not about to give up the best thing that’s ever happened to me because of him. I know you may feel differently, may even encourage Sidney not to associate with me because of my father. If that’s the case, I’ll fight you too. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“She means that much to you?” Jasper would make an excellent poker player; I couldn’t read him at all.
“Yeah, the fucking air I breathe.”
“That’s all I needed to hear. I’ve got some investigators on retainer. Give me what you can about Owen and I’ll put them on the trail. I don’t care how good he is, these guys are better.”
“Won’t you stay for dinner?” Lauren asked then changed her mind and stated. “You’ll stay for dinner.” She surprised me when she leaned over and kissed my cheek. “It wasn’t easy coming here and sharing this, but the fact that you’re willing to fight for Sidney, even us, I already liked you, but after today I adore you.” She hurried away, I suspected because she was about to cry. She called from the door, “I still have some Corona.” Her head turned, her eyes bright, but there was a smile curving her lips. “I’ll bring one…in the bottle.”
And why I felt the tightness in my chest, I didn’t know but it wasn’t a bad feeling.
“Okay, son. Tell me what you know.”
That tightness intensified hearing Jasper call me son and then I told him everything I knew about my dad.
I had just been to see Spike; he greeted me at the door with a wagging tail. His stitches had been removed and there was some tenderness but his recovery had been remarkable. Ichabod and Jeshaiah were so overcome seeing their baby back to his old ways that they tried to give me stuff from their house. I politely turned down the butter churn and the old telephone that didn’t work. They had an obscene amount of milk glass, not something I would have pictured those two hording, but I turned that down too. When Ichabod pressed the gold necklace into my palm with the enameled magnolia charm, he wasn’t taking no again for an answer so I accepted.
I was on my way back to the clinic before my appointment at McNealy Farm, following up on Lily who since her bout of colic a few months back hadn’t had a reoccurrence. Abel had called earlier. He was coming up this weekend, asked if I would come with him to check out the possible locations for Pipes. I was thrilled he asked. There was something else he wanted to discuss, but preferred doing so in person. He left it wide open and though my thoughts jumped to a few topics that I would love to discuss, I wasn’t so sure that was the kind of conversation he wanted to have.
“Sidney Stephens.”
Sammie Chase stepped from the doorway of the bakery. Annoying and creepy, but there was something else about him that stirred fear. This guy was not right.
“Keith isn’t here to save you this time.”
Despite the fact that this guy was seriously unhinged, he grated. “From what? You? I don’t need Keith to do that.”
Like a child throwing a temper, his face turned red and blotchy. “You should be careful about how you talk to me.”
“Or?”
I didn’t know what he intended to say, his hands curling into fists was not a good sign, but someone else approached interrupting our disturbing conversation.
“Is everything okay here?” Mr. Milburn and Cooper.
“Yes. Sammie was just leaving.”
His glare should have left me bleeding before he stormed away.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but he’s not right.”
“No, he’s not. You’re shaking, are you sure you’re okay?”
I was shaking because that encounter rattled me.
“Has he done that before?”
“Once.”
“Maybe you should report him to the sheriff. I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”
That earned my full attention. “Do you think he’d hurt me?”
“I don’t know.”
And since I couldn’t answer that question either, it couldn’t hurt to have the sheriff made aware. “I have an appointment at McNealy’s farm in an hour. “I’ll go see the sheriff now.”
“I’ll come with you.”
The sheriff’s office was like a throwback to the days of cowboys and Indians. In fact, I was almost disappointed not to see the tin star pinned to their shirts. Four wooden desks arranged two by two took up most of the space. A few folding chairs acted as the waiting room and an old scarred table, tucked up against one wall, held the coffeemaker that looked nearly as old as the rest of the place. Sheriff Dawson Lenin was middle-aged with thinning gray hair and a belly that stuck out a bit from his belt. Stress lines creased the area between his eyes and around his mouth, but I understood having a murderer on the loose in town.
He came from the back of the station where I imagined his office was located. “Reginald. I think I might take you up on that fishing trip. My doctor says I need to unwind because the stress is going to kill me.”
“Anytime, Dawson.”
Sharp brown eyes shifted to me. “And you’re Sidney Stephens. How are you finding Sheridan?”
“It’s a beautiful town.”
“Yeah, it’s seen better days though. Please sit.”
“Are you making any headway?” Mr. Milburn asked as we settled at one of the desks.
“No. Most think he’s gone, left right after poor Belinda, but my gut is telling me something different.” He rubbed the back of his neck, frustration clear in that motion. “I know this is personal for you. Maggie had tried so hard to help Belinda, to get her to change her ways. I promise you, Reginald, I will find out what happened to her.”
How sad for Mr. Milburn, not just the tragedy of Belinda but also the daily reminder of her link to his wife. Turning my thoughts to what else the sheriff had shared I asked, “So you think he’s local too?”
“Yeah, I do even though I can’t think of anyone in this town capable of such atrocities. Anyway, you wanted to see me?”
This man had enough to deal with; he didn’t need me dumping on him too. Though I thought he was wrong in that Sammie Chase was definitely capable of the horrors Belinda had suffered. “I realize you’ve a lot on your plate, but this sort of falls into that. I was there the day they found Belinda.”
“I’m aware.”
“Sammie Chase was also there, snapping pictures of the body for his blog. I reported him to one of the cops. He didn’t like that. Since, he’s approached me twice in a threatening manner, in fact he did so just now.”
“Cooper and I were taking our walk, but Sammie’s body language was enough to have me stepping in.”
“Sammie Chase has his issues, but he’s harmless.” Before I could object, the sheriff held up his hand to stop me. “I understand, I do. I’ve seen Sammie in action, but I’ve known the kid all of his life. He’s harmles
s. He pushes until someone pushes back. I’ll push back. He won’t bother you again.”
Outside the sheriff’s office, Mr. Milburn voiced my thoughts. “I was surprised to hear Dawson defending Sammie, but the man reads people better than anyone I know. If he says Sammie’s harmless, I’m inclined to believe him.”
“I just hope him pushing back doesn’t anger Sammie more since he’s doing all of this because I got his phone taken away. Having the sheriff showing up on his front step is a far greater offense.”
“It can’t hurt to be careful, but if Sheriff Lenin’s looking into it, you can be sure he’ll handle it. There’s a reason he’s held the position for the past twenty-five years.”
“I imagine you worked with him when you were practicing.”
“All the time, which is why I know how good he is at his job.”
“Well then I will take comfort in that and allow the sheriff to handle Sammie.”
“Good idea. I’d suggest we do lunch, but you have an appointment now.”
“I do, but I’d like a rain check.”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks for the rescue.”
“I’m a sucker for a damsel.”
Returning home after visiting Lily, I was surprised to see Rylee already home. “What are you doing here?”
“I closed up early. We haven’t had a chance to talk since you returned from New Jersey, so I got wine and pizza and we’re sitting out back and catching up.”
Sometimes we get lost in the day to day, but reminders to appreciate the people around you were always good. “I love you, Rylee.”
“I know you do. And Cain, he wants some of this pizza.”
“A slice won’t hurt him.”
“That’s a pretty necklace. Where did you get that? Abel?”
Absently I touched the enameled magnolia. “No, Ichabod gave it to me as a thank you for Spike. They’re hoarders, this was the last of a long list of offerings. He wouldn’t let me say no.”
“Those two crack me up.”
We settled outside even with the weather turning colder.
“So spill, I know Jasper is doing well, thank God, but what happened with Abel? That had to be strange for all of you.”
