Another Solution (Crowley County Series Book 4)

by T. E. Killian

  Karen laughed. “Oh Jason she’s such a delightful person. I really would like to spend more time with her after meeting her last Sunday.”

  He laughed with her and said, “Last Sunday in church was strange even for her. She usually drives herself in and sits in a corner with some other ladies her age. But not last Sunday. She had me go out and get her so she could meet you.”

  When Karen only gave him a perplexed look, he tried to explain better. “You see, she doesn’t talk much anywhere but especially in public. I usually only wave at her in church.”

  “Oh my. Does that mean that she was different just for me last Sunday?”

  “I’m afraid so. I don’t remember the last time she was like that on a Sunday.”

  Jason thought to himself that Karen spending time with Granny sure would be a test of how far he and Karen might be able to go in their relationship. He knew he could never marry a woman that his granny didn’t approve of.

  * * *

  Karen was enjoying herself. But what had she expected. She’d already acknowledged, at least to herself, that she really liked Jason. But the way he talked about his grandmother not only made her want to spend more time with the dear lady, but it also showed her a side of him she hadn’t seen before. It was clear that he dearly loved his grandmother.

  She wished she had someone in her family like that. All she had left were her mother and her sister. And they certainly weren’t like that. Therefore, she didn’t really have anyone to turn to the way Jason did to his grandmother.

  But, as she stopped to think about it, she did have someone now. Daisy! And maybe even Sue Ann and Jo.

  She wasn’t ready when Jason smiled at her and said, “Okay, your turn now. I know you’re thirty and that you’re a physical therapist but that’s about all I know.”

  She sighed and began. “Well, I grew up in Springfield and even went to college there. As I said before, my dad died when I was ten.”

  She looked down and was surprised to feel tears forming.

  “He was my best friend. After he died, it seemed like I could never get close with my mom or my older sister.”

  She shook her head and clasped her hands on the table. “I guess they’re too much alike and I’m totally different from them.”

  He reached out and patted her hand but quickly withdrew his hand when she looked up at him. “I’m sorry Karen. It doesn’t sound like you had that great a time growing up.”

  She pulled a tissue from her purse and patted the tears from her eyes. “I guess it could have been worse. It’s just that when I was dumped on my wedding day, I didn’t really get any sympathy from either one of them.”

  She was surprised when Jason slammed his fist on the table and said, “I still can’t believe any guy could be that callous . . . or stupid to dump you like that. You deserve so much better than that Karen.”

  She had looked up at him somewhat startled when he hit the table but then she smiled at him and said, “Thank you Jason. That was another really nice thing for you to say.”

  “I meant it.”

  She smiled again and nodded at him.

  “I’m so thankful for Daisy. She’s been there for me every time I’ve needed her for the last year.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed how well you two get along. It’s kind of like that with Mike and me. We’ve become good friends too.”

  He grinned and said, “That makes it real nice doesn’t it?”

  He lost her somewhere there. “I’m sorry.”

  His grin broadened. “The fact that my best friend is married to your best friend. Doesn’t that make it nice? Like the double date we went on with them last weekend.”

  Then she understood what he meant and blushed slightly even though she tried not to.

  He must have sensed that he’d embarrassed her so he said, “Are you about ready to leave here?”

  She nodded and they rose to leave.

  After the movie, Karen wasn’t really ready to go home yet and was glad when Jason suggested a drive around the small lake that was east of town.

  On the drive around the lake, neither of them said anything until they were almost halfway around. Then Jason said, “I want to be with you every evening, Karen.”

  She had been expecting something like that and was ready for it. “Yes, Jason, I would like that very much too.”

  “I don’t mean we have to go out every night. We can trade off on having supper at each other’s houses.”

  He grinned at her and said, “I can order a mean pizza.”

  She laughed at that and had a funny feeling invade her system. “Yes, Jason, I would like that too.”

  “We have all week to decide what we do on our next real date, all right?”

  Before she could answer, his cell phone rang. He pulled it off his belt and looked at the caller ID then pulled off the road.

  “I’d better answer this, it’s dispatch.”

  She listened while he talked and heard enough to know that their evening was over. Well, she did need to rest anyway.

  When he disconnected, he turned to her and said, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to run because someone just robbed the 7-Eleven and I’m on call because the sergeant on this shift is sick tonight.”

  “Oh that’s right, you’re a sergeant now. And I forgot to congratulate you.”

  “That’s okay. I’m sorry this had to happen. But that’s one of the little inconveniences of being a cop. You can never pick when things are going to happen. You just have to go with the flow.”

  She smiled at him then as he pulled back on the road and headed toward her townhouse. “That’s okay, I understand.”

  And she did. Boy did she ever. Larry’s job had always been there between them. She was suddenly having second thoughts about this thing that she seemed to be starting with Jason. But he did seem to be different than Larry though. Shouldn’t she give him the benefit of the doubt . . . at least for a little while?

  When Jason dropped her off at her townhouse, Karen went straight to her bedroom and began to get ready for bed. She was extremely tired now and just wanted to crawl into bed and get some much needed sleep.

  She had just finished brushing her teeth when her cell phone rang.

  She didn’t recognize the number but she recognized the voice on the other end immediately. Since she’d been thinking about him, Larry’s voice sounded the same to her as if it hadn’t been almost four years.

  “Hey Babe, I sure have missed you. Why’d you have to go and move away from town the way you did?”

  He didn’t wait for her to answer and she was sure he knew the answer to his question anyway.

  “Well, that’s okay. I found you now and we need to get together. I’ll pick you up at about ten tomorrow morning and we can go for a drive then have lunch somewhere?”

  Karen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. All she could say was “What?”

  Larry repeated his last sentence as if that had been what she meant. She knew she had to say something right now to stop him or he’d just continue to roll right over her the way he always had.

  “Listen to me Larry! I do not want to have anything to do with you . . . ever! Do you hear me? You threw me away once and you won’t get another chance.”

  With that, she disconnected the phone. When it rang again almost immediately, she turned it off.

  She could barely manage to crawl into bed and pull the covers up to her chin before the tears and the shakes began.

  She wasn’t sure when the tears and shakes stopped or even when she fell into a restless sleep. She just knew that she didn’t sleep well that night.

  Chapter Six

  Sunday morning, Karen was almost afraid to leave her house even to go to church. All night she had kept her phone turned off. She did turn it on a few times just to make sure she hadn’t missed any important calls. Otherwise, she had erased five or six messages from Larry.

  She knew she didn’t look her best when she walked through the doors at ch
urch, but she had finally decided that she needed to be in church today although she had skipped Sunday School.

  She realized that she felt safe there. After all, not only would Jason be there but so would the sheriff and his chief deputy, Hal Lewis. And she thought that there were several other deputies who attended there as well.

  Not only all that but Mike and Daisy would be there too and Mike was a former DEA agent. So just to be sure, she decided to sit near them so she could feel safe.

  She was pleasantly surprised to see Jason sitting next to Mike who had Daisy and Lucy on his other side.

  Jason was one seat in from the outside aisle so she decided to be bold for once and walked right up to where he was sitting and gestured toward the empty seat next to him. “Is this seat taken?”

  She had to smile at the look of shock on Jason’s face. He jumped up and said, “Oh. Sure. I mean no. Yes, you can sit there. No one’s sitting there.”

  Poor Jason. She felt sorry for him for how awkward he sometimes became around her. But it was kind of sweet too. She decided right then to do everything she could to make him feel more comfortable around her, starting right now.

  She sat down and waited for him to sit back down next to her. As soon as he did, she reached out and took his right hand in her left one. When she looked up at him, he had the biggest silly grin on his face. That made her feel good about her decision, very good.

  When the service was over, Daisy stepped over the two men quickly to get to Karen and said, “We’re going to Thelma’s again would you and Jason like to join us?”

  Karen was so tired and was about to use that as an excuse not to go when she saw the look on Jason’s face. She could see that he really wanted her to say yes, so she did. After all, she had decided sometime during her restless night that instead of backing away from him as she had almost decided to do, she wanted to see much more of him now that they had started dating.

  As soon as they were all seated at a table at the restaurant, Karen smiled to herself since she had Jason on one side of her giving her a silly grin and Daisy’s five-year-old daughter Lucy on her other side jabbering away to her about something that had happened in her Sunday School class that morning.

  They all held hands around the table as Mike asked the Lord’s blessing on their food. It sure felt good being in a group like this when they were all strong Christians. She certainly didn’t have that at work. She was about the only one in her department.

  Daisy turned to her and tried to talk over her daughter’s head. “It’s so good to see you and Jason together after all this time.”

  Karen didn’t know how to respond to that statement. Even though she didn’t turn around, she knew that Jason had heard and she could feel his eyes on her. She tried her best not to blush but wasn’t very successful. Thankfully, she had a dark complexion so that it didn’t show too much.

  Daisy must have realized that she’d said too much since she turned to Mike for help and he said, “Jason how was your little fishing trip?”

  Karen marveled again at the communication between Daisy and Mike. This was the second time she’d seem them do that. And she thought it was just so sweet.

  She turned back toward Jason quick enough to see the look he was giving her before he turned toward Mike to answer his question. That look scared her at first. But then when she thought about it, it made her feel special for someone like Jason to look at her with such undisguised admiration. Or was it love? Oh my!

  Jason was talking now and she tried to pay attention to what he was saying.

  “Of course, I had to stop by Granny’s place before I went home. She always expects it. And believe me I pay for it in many different ways if I don’t.”

  They all laughed at that then Jason’s face grew serious. “None of you have lived here very long.”

  He looked around the table. “I guess you’ve been here about the longest Daisy. And you’ve only been her about four years, right?”

  She nodded and said, “Yes, and they’ve been four glorious years too.” When she finished, she was looking at her husband.

  “Well, I doubt if any of you know much about my past then.” He turned to Karen. “I was going to tell you the rest of this last night before I had to leave for that robbery.”

  She just smiled back at him. She didn’t know what else to do.

  “My grandparents raised me after my mother died when I was two.” He sighed. “I guess the best way to say this is that my mother got pregnant toward the end of her senior year of high school. My grandparents told me that she and her boyfriend were going to get married when all of a sudden he ran off.”

  Karen’s breath left her in a soft whoosh and she couldn’t look at anyone else at the table. She knew they were all looking at her too.

  Daisy leaped from her chair and came to kneel between Lucy and Karen. She wrapped an arm around Karen’s shoulders and just held her.

  Jason didn’t realize what was going on at first but when he did, he said, “I’m so sorry Karen but you do need to know this about me.”

  Karen didn’t even realize she was crying until Daisy handed her a tissue. She tried to wipe her face while keeping her head tilted down toward her lap.

  When she thought she had finally composed herself, she turned to Jason and said, “I’m okay now. Go on. I’m sure there’s more to your story.”

  Karen had a stray thought then. She had planned to tell them all about Larry calling her but now she couldn’t interrupt the mood of what Jason was sharing with them.

  So she just listened as he resumed his story.

  * * *

  Jason looked down at Karen sitting next to him. She still had tears in her eyes and he felt like an idiot for telling this story to her. But then when he thought about it, he knew he would have had to tell her sometime. He sighed. It might as well be now.

  He looked at Mike, his best friend, then Mike’s wife Daisy and her little girl Lucy. Finally, he looked at Karen and said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” She tried to smile at him. “I have to be able to face my past just as you have to face yours.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, but my past just came back and bit me.”

  At the puzzled looks all three adults gave him, he explained. “Well, my grandparents said that they heard that my father . . .” He grunted. “If you can call him that. He supposedly went to prison for selling drugs and never came back to Crowleyville. His parents moved to California. So my grandparents never heard from him again.”

  He tried to laugh but it came out somewhat less than that. “Until Friday night that is.” At the startled looks from the others, he chuckled and said, “Yeah, he called my Granny and said he wanted to see me. Can you believe that? After thirty-three years he thinks he can just walk into my life like nothing ever happened.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Karen suddenly go pale again. He turned to her and grabbed her hands. “What is it Karen?”

  Daisy handed Karen her water glass and she took a big swallow before saying, “My ex-fiancé called me last night after I got home.”

  All of a sudden, Jason forgot all about his own problems and focused on Karen, willing her to tell them more.

  Karen looked down at her hands, which she was clenching in her lap. “He said he’d pick me up this morning and take me for a drive then lunch.”

  She shook her head from side to side and then had to pull her long hair back over both shoulders. “He didn’t ask, he just told me. I told him I never wanted to see him again and hung up on him.”

  She frowned. “I guess that wasn’t very Christian like behavior was it?”

  Daisy made a strange sound and said, “That wasn’t half as bad as what I would have said to him if it’d been me.”

  Karen tried to smile at Daisy’s outburst. “After that, I sat in bed thinking back to the year that I went out with him. And you know that was the way it always was with him. He never asked. He always told me what to do and sometimes even ho
w to do it. And I just took it because he was a cop and I figured all cops were like that.”

  She stopped and looked first at Mike then Jason. “But then I got to know the two of you and I realized that all cops aren’t like that at all.”

  Daisy looked at Jason then and said, “Could she get an order of protection against him?”

  Jason groaned. “I’m afraid the judge wouldn’t give her one unless the guy does more than just one phone call.” He frowned. “And if you think about it, it doesn’t sound like the guy made any kind of a threat.”

  Mike took his wife’s hand and said, “He’s right Honey. As far as the judge would be concerned, the guy may never contact her again.”

  Karen shook her head again. “You don’t know him. He kept calling all night and he’s called this morning too. I’ve had my phone turned off but every time I turned it back on to check my messages, he had left lots of them.”

  Jason jumped at that. “Do you still have any of those messages?”

  She slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about that. I was just so upset that all I wanted to do was erase them as quickly as I could.”

  “But if he leaves any more messages, keep them.” He thought about how that sounded like he was telling her what to do so he quickly added. “Please. We might be able to prove some kind of threat or at least harassment with them.”

  Mike spoke up then, “Yeah, but remember he’s a cop and he knows exactly how much he can say before it becomes a threat or even harassment.”

  Jason knew Mike was right but he wasn’t too happy about the prospect of Karen continuing to get these calls without them being able to do anything about them.

  Just then, Jason’s cell phone rang and he grabbed it quickly thinking it might be dispatch. It was his granny.

  “Jason. Where are you?”

  “Hi Granny. I’m at Thelma’s just finishing dinner.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment and he found himself wishing he could see her face to better know what she was about to say.