She signaled a left turn, checked over her shoulder for traffic, and swung onto Elm Street. A couple more blocks and she reached her destination. The sheriff’s office looked inviting with the sun warming its red brick façade. Laurel’s car still sat in its spot in the receptionist’s stall. Rebecca sighed, relieved she hadn’t missed her ride. She parked her bike, locked it up, and hurried inside.
Laurel glanced up and broke into a welcoming smile.
“You made it, I was starting to worry.” She stood to open the pass-through countertop and let Becky in, wrapping her in a rose-scented hug.
“Sorry, I’m late.” Becky met her friend’s curious gaze. “I’ll tell you all about it on the way there, but first I need to talk to that sexy new husband of yours.”
Laurel’s cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled with love. Becky was happy for her. And just think, if her mother hadn’t decided to take that long overdue holiday Laurel wouldn’t have moved here, taken the job, and been swept off her feet by Jack Garrett.
Sometimes fate worked in mysterious ways.
“Sure, c’mon, he’s in his office.” Laurel swiveled on four-inch heels—Becky had serious shoe envy—and led the way across the bull-pen. Rebecca smiled and nodded at the men she knew. Deputy Randolph, whose wife was a good friend of her mother’s. Sid Carmichael, a longtime veteran of the force. And lastly, Norm Walters.
“Rebecca.” Norm hurried to stand, his chair banging against the desk behind him with a loud clang. He cleared his throat and doffed his hat. “How’ve you been?”
This isn’t awkward or anything.
“I’m good, Norm, thanks. How are you doing?” As soon as the words were out, she winced. Nice job, Einstein.
She’d gone out with him a few times and had a lot of fun until he started to get serious and she had to call it quits with the ol’ ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line, which was just lame even if it was the truth. There had to be something wrong with a woman who had an attractive, nice guy interested and then shut him down just because of a lunch with her no-good ex-husband who she could not get out of her mind.
Norm swept a hand through his wavy dark hair, the muscles in his arms bulging under his uniform.
“Look, Rebecca…”
A door opened a few feet away and Jack stepped out, his face softening when he caught sight of Laurel.
Relieved, Becky laughed, cringing at the higher than normal tone, and smirked at her friend. “You’d think you guys were still newly-weds, when you’ve already been married what… three months?”
Laurel tapped Becky’s shoulder, her gaze fixed on her approaching spouse. “Two months and ten days, as you well know.”
That she did. Between Katy and Laurel, and now, Annie, she’d amassed a nice collection of bridesmaid’s gowns.
Jack gave Becky a passing glance then settled on his wife. He leaned down, gave Laurel a lingering kiss and whispered something naughty in her ear, going by the hot flush that stained her cheeks.
“Jack, we’re not alone,” she warned, even as she stepped into his open arms.
He shared an amused glance with Norm before eyeing Becky. “I noticed, my love. What can we do for you, Rebecca?”
Now that she had an audience, Becky wasn’t sure how to start.
“I had a problem at the school today.” She nervously plucked at the strap of her handbag. “There was this boy, maybe eight or nine years old. I ran into him at the bike rack. He was attempting to unlock an old bike.”
“You’re thinking he was trying to steal it?” Norm asked.
She shook her head and stuffed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “No, I don’t believe so. He knew the right combination, the lock was just giving him trouble.”
“Okay,” Jack said, “well, thanks for letting us know.” He looked at Norm who shrugged.
Becky sighed. Great, now they thought she was a nitwit. “There’s more. A man showed up and told the boy to get home but he wasn’t very nice about it. I’m worried. If Mitch Taylor hadn’t been there…”
Norm stiffened while Laurel shot her an I want the details grin.
Great. Mitch wasn’t even in the building and he was causing complications.
Chapter Three
Tommy cried all the way home. Not great hiccupping sobs like he’d done in the past when they’d first arrived at his uncle’s house and realized they were worse off now than when their parents died. No, these tears were silent. A steady stream that ran down his face and dripped unheeded off his chin. Tears of despair, of a childhood lost, of faded dreams.
Just for a moment today with that pretty schoolteacher he’d felt something close to peace. Her scent when she’d held him in her arms reminded him of his mom and he hadn’t wanted to let go. But then his uncle had shown up.
He reached the edge of town and looked for the overgrown drive. A broken down gray wooden fence and a lopsided Keep Out sign pointed the way to the old cabin hidden amongst tall spruce trees. The dirt lane was rutted so bad it tossed his bike from side to side but he refused to walk; his uncle had warned them there were snakes in the grass just waiting for little boys. Tommy wasn’t taking any chances.
He pulled up next to the sagging porch and slowly laid his bike on its side, listening for his brother. A soft humming led him to the corner of the building. Jasper sat in the dirt, his scrawny bare back bent over a little toy truck he was using to make roads with in the sand. Tommy sighed his relief, no new marks that he could see. He’d gotten here in time then.
“Hey, brother, whatcha doin’?” He let Jasper know he was there before moving forward.
Jasper jumped up, ready to flee, then realized who’d spoken and cracked a mile wide smile. “Tommy, Tommy you’re back.” He ran and wrapped his arms around his brother and Tommy frowned at how thin they were.
“Did you eat the food I hid for you?” he demanded.
Jasper shrugged, his chin digging a hole in Tommy’s chest. “I wasn’t very hungry,” he mumbled.
Tommy frowned and set him back so he could look him in the eye. “Jas, you gotta eat. We ain’t ever gonna get outta here if you ain’t strong enough to run.”
Jasper’s eyes lit with hope. “Can we go now? Can we, huh?”
Tommy cursed his big mouth. Why’d he go and say anything? “No. We can’t go until we have a plan.” Jasper’s lips wobbled and Tommy changed the subject. “Show me the roads you’ve been building.”
It worked, for now. Jasper trotted over and sprawled out on his belly, reaching for the little blue car he’d been playing with. “Wait ‘til you see this. I made a hill and my car flies,” he said, his voice filled with excitement.
Tommy followed more slowly, his mind on that nice teacher. Why couldn’t someone like her have taken them in? He missed his mom so bad and yet sometimes he got scared because he couldn’t quite picture her in his head anymore. The teacher reminded him of her though. She smelled good too and had a pretty dress. His mom always wore nice clothes; she said she liked to look pretty for her boys. Man, he missed her. She’d know what to do right now because he sure didn’t. The only thing he did know for certain was that he’d promised to take care of his brother and he darn sure was going to.
The rumble of a vehicle coming up the drive had both boys scrambling for cover. A ratty blue tarp hanging over a pile of scrap metal nearby did the job, though it was a tight fit. Their uncle had warned them often enough to keep outta sight of strangers.
“Who is it?” Jasper asked, his voice squeaky with a mix of fear and excitement.
“Shh, we’ll know soon enough,” Tommy whispered. “Just keep quiet, okay?”
The rattle as the engine shut down told him who it was even before the tinny door slammed shut and his uncle stomped around the corner looking like the axeman from Snow White.
“Where the hell are you hiding, you stupid little shits?” he roared. His heavy work boots kicked up tufts of dust as he circled the yard in search of them. He glanced at Jasper’s toy car, reached do
wn, picked it up, and sent it flying into the bushes.
Jasper whimpered but thankfully held silent, his body vibrating so hard the tarp rattled. Tommy jerked him away, pulling him up against his own shaking body. He was so scared he needed to pee.
“You come on out of there or your stupid ass brother is going to pay the price.” The edge of the tarp lifted and a hand reached in and latched onto Tommy’s arm in a death grip. Jasper’s eyes grew big as pie plates and welled up with tears. Tommy cried out in pain but shook his head viciously at his brother, warning him to keep quiet and stay still.
And then he was yanked out and thrown to the ground. Uncle Pete stood over him as he lay in the dirt, lips twisted in a snarl that sent shards of fear through Tommy’s gut.
“You better explain yourself, boy.” He nudged Tommy with his boot. “What did you think you were doing at the schoolhouse today?”
Tommy thought fast. There was no way he was going to tell this man the real reason. He had to come up with something to defuse the anger brewing in his uncle’s eyes. He reached into his pocket and reluctantly withdrew the gold chain he’d taken from the teacher lady’s purse.
“I was getting you some money, Uncle.” A beefy hand reached out and swiped the necklace from his hand. His uncle eyed him suspiciously for a moment before lifting the cross on the chain to the light.
“You aware this is stealing, boy?” He gave the chain a little shake and the cross glinted so bright it practically blinded Tommy.
“I did it just the way you showed me, sir.” Tommy lifted himself to his elbows. “She won’t know who it was.”
Uncle Pete frowned, his brows like bats wings over his eyes. “You better hope the hell not, kid. Your brother doesn’t like when you screw up.” He laughed, his belly jiggling under the dirty plaid shirt. He turned and strode toward the shack, hollering over his shoulder, “Git in here and make me some grub, I’m hungry after chasing you all over creation.”
Tommy waited a few minutes, knowing full well that it was his uncle’s routine to go into the house, grab a bottle of booze and flop down on the ugly green sofa for the night. He had time to make sure his brother was okay now.
He pulled back the tarp to let Jasper out, then went searching for the toy car, the last thing Jas had from their mom. A few moments later he found it under the edge of a blackberry bush. Careful to avoid the painful spikes, he managed to retrieve it with only a couple of minor scratches.
“Here you go, buddy, I found it.” He turned and offered it to Jasper but his attention was on the house. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him touch you again.” And when his brother looked at him with eyes that knew more than any five-year-old kid outta know about pain, Tommy’s gut tightened with a white-hot rage.
He fingered the wallet in his pocket he’d also stolen from the teacher. Soon. Soon he’d have enough to get them far away from here. And they weren’t never coming back.
Chapter Four
Rebecca sighed and turned to Jack, the noise of the busy station fading to the background. “Look, I know you think I’m wasting your time but there was something off about that guy, Jack.” She met Laurel’s sympathetic gaze and attempted a smile but it fell flat. “I’m worried about Tommy.”
Jack gave Laurel a peck on the lips before letting his arms drop away. “Okay, let’s get a statement and then we’ll take it from there, fair enough?”
Rebecca nodded, relieved.
He waved her toward his office. She squeezed Laurel’s hand and then slipped between the men, aware that Norm was less than pleased that Jack was going to handle this himself.
She took a place on the edge of a wooden chair and waited for the sheriff to close the door and join her across the man-sized desk. Jack’s chair creaked beneath his weight as he rolled it forward and reached for a neat stack of forms beside a geriatric computer.
“Shouldn’t you upgrade that thing one day?” Laurel had told her about his reluctance to join the twenty-first century but Becky hadn’t taken her seriously.
He patted the clunky top of the monitor affectionately. “Why fix it, if it ain’t broke?” He pulled a pink pen from his pocket, and grimaced when she smirked. “Laurel gave me this as a reminder of the first time we met.”
Oh, she’d heard. Laurel liked to share with almost anyone who’d listen how smitten she’d been the first time she laid eyes on the handsome sheriff—and how he’d almost stolen her favorite pen.
“What can you tell me about the kid?” He waited, pen poised over legal looking papers and Rebecca suddenly realized she might be jumping to conclusions and causing unnecessary difficulty for the boy.
“Well, he seemed kind of shy, at least to start with.” She reached into her bag, searching for the chain she always fingered when she was nervous or upset. It wasn’t in the side pocket where she normally kept it for safety. What the heck? Giving up on subtlety she ducked her head and began to paw through the bag and that’s when she noticed something else missing—her wallet.
“What’s wrong?” Jack tapped his pen on the desk and stared at her curiously.
Becky glanced up, met his narrowed gaze, and returned to combing through her purse. Please, be there. Please, please…
It wasn’t, and if she confessed the loss, Tommy would be in a lot of trouble. She didn’t have the heart to do that to a kid who already had two strikes against him. Faking a nonchalance she was far from feeling, Becky withdrew a lipstick and tried to touch up her lips without trembling noticeably. The wallet was bad, but at least those items could be replaced—the chain on the other hand…
Jack leaned back in his seat and frowned. “What’s this really about, Rebecca?”
She rotated the bottom of the tube until the lipstick disappeared, carefully capped the top and stowed it away before meeting Jack’s gaze.
“I’ve met men like that guy who bothered Tommy before. They aren’t nice men, Jack.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and fingered the scar on her neck. “They take pleasure in abusing those weaker than themselves.”
Jack contemplated the ceiling for a long moment, then sat up, and the sympathy lighting his dark brown eyes warmed her heart even as it embarrassed her.
“Okay, let’s say you’re right. We can start an investigation on him and see who he is and what he’s been up to. How’s that sound?”
Becky sighed her relief. “Thanks, Jack.”
Mitch couldn’t get his mind off his ex-wife. He needed to get moving and catch up to Kyle Fowler, who was at the school waiting to pick up a kid as a favor to his twin sister, Katy. She was planning a bachelorette party for the child’s mother, while Kyle and the new groom-to-be, Jared Martin, were in charge of the kidlets.
Kyle was only in town for a short visit so Mitch had to meet him when he could, even if that meant hanging out in an elementary school yard. And running into the one woman he wanted to avoid. Rebecca Sorenson Taylor. That’s still how he thought of her, though the ink hadn’t even dried on the separation papers before she’d changed her name back.
Normally it wasn’t a problem to stay out of her way, they didn’t exactly move in the same social orbit. He was steel-toed boots and beer at Duke’s Bar while she was pretty dresses and fancy meals at La Lune—the two didn’t match. He still wasn’t quite sure how they’d ended up hitched in the first place.
Okay, that was a lie.
He’d taken a trip to Vegas to try and forget about the fact that his career as a football star was in the toilet and his life was running a close second. He’d been working on getting drunk in a bar off the strip when she’d strolled into the lounge wearing a little black dress designed to drive a man crazy. Mitch knew who she was right away, he remembered her from school, so he’d waved her over and found out she was in town for a teacher’s convention and, bless his luck, had lost track of her group. They’d ended up spending the most amazing night of his life together. By the time he got up the next morning he’d been married and she’d been gone.
He’d wasted his last hours in the city trying to find her, then hopped an early flight home. A few days later the separation papers arrived and he’d known it was just a dream. Love didn’t happen at first sight. Lust, hell, yeah. But love… that was something poets wrote about, it wasn’t reality.
Since then they’d made a career out of avoiding each other, and in a town of only seven thousand people that wasn’t always easy. He’d run into her more than once when one or the other of them were out on a date with someone else. Talk about your soap opera moments. They should just file for divorce and end this insanity, but he couldn’t bring himself to make it final.
“You turning on the old Taylor charm again, bro?” Kyle joined him near the bike rack, a little boy with reddish hair and a freckled face lagging close behind.
Mitch forced a laugh and smiled down at the kid. “You must be Chris. I’ve been friends with your dad for a long time.”
Chris considered him from serious green eyes. “Are you from the navy too?”
Mitch shook his head and crouched to meet Chris’s gaze. “No. Your dad was pretty brave to do what he did, like Uncle Kyle here.” He glanced up to see if Kyle was listening. He was. “They both did their duty, but now it’s time they enjoy their lives. Your dad told me how excited he is to make you guys part of his family.”
Chris looked up at Kyle and then nodded his understanding. “Yes, sir, my mom’s real happy too.”
Mitch’s heart gave a painful tug. This could easily be his story, getting to know a son he had no knowledge of until years later. Kudos to Jared and Annie for solving their issues to give this little boy the family he deserved. He rose and shrugged off the envy he felt. At least Jared wasn’t alone anymore.
“How about some ice cream?” There weren’t very many problems that couldn’t be solved over a heaping dish of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate sauce and sprinkles.
Chris and Kyle both wore identical grins and after a resounding high-five they were off, Mitch in his welding truck, while Kyle drove a shiny black jeep. They pulled up at The Soda Shoppe and strolled to the front door behind a group of chattering teen girls whose laughter suited the warm and sunny weather.
Summer Lovin': A Wounded Hearts Novella Page 2
