The little boy’s face lit up. “Awesome. Thanks, Heather. Hey, do you think you could ask him if I can do a ride-along with him?”
“Grandpa has offered to take you in the squad car a million times.” David put his game away as the food arrived.
“I know...” Josh glanced at Heather. “But can you?”
She shook her head, reaching for the ketchup and handing it to the boy, who covered everything he ate in it. “I don’t know why everyone assumes we’re friends. I don’t know him any better than anyone else.”
Melody raised an eyebrow. “Really? You two seemed to know one another quite well at the tree-lighting ceremony yesterday.”
Heather sighed. Agreeing to ride along with Jake had been a mistake. Opening up to him and catching the briefest glimpse into his life had been a mistake, too. Everyone around town was bound to get the wrong idea about them. “That was nothing...” She glanced across the street through the window and saw him leave the bakery, a muffin in his mouth as he opened the door to the squad car.
He looked her way and smiled when he caught her stare.
No smile should ever have that effect on someone, she thought, feeling her cheeks flush as she averted her eyes quickly.
Across from her, Brad and Melody exchanged looks.
Melody smirked. “Nothing. Right.”
* * *
“JAKE, THIS IS Cody Kelly. He’ll be graduating from the academy in January,” Sheriff Bishop said as he entered the station later that day, a tall young man in tow.
Mrs. Kelly’s nephew. Jacob had known Cody was arriving today, as his landlady had talked of little else the past week. Luckily, he’d dodged the dinner invite for that evening, but it looked as if he couldn’t avoid meeting the man. He stood and extended a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too.”
Huh, didn’t sound like it.
Sheriff Bishop cleared his throat. “Cody’s going to be shadowing you for a few weeks while he’s here on break over the holidays.”
He what? Jacob had not signed on for that. What if Emilio called? Sneaking away to Newark would be a lot harder with the kid around. Jacob looked at the older man. “Why?”
“Well, he needs the field experience...”
Field experience? In Brookhollow? “Are you planning to work here?” A Brookhollow cop and a big city cop’s “field training” would be different.
“I was,” he said curtly.
Oh. Right. Jacob had essentially taken the position from the new academy graduate, but in August, Cody had still been in school...and Jacob had been hoping to get out of town sooner. The young man could have the job as soon as Jacob could vacate the position.
Of course, he couldn’t tell him that.
He cleared his throat. “Well, there’s not exactly much action around here...” The last thing he wanted or needed was to have a partner tagging along with him everywhere he went. “Wouldn’t he be better riding along with you?” he asked Sheriff Bishop.
“I requested that already,” Cody said, his expression hardening.
“Jake, can we talk for a second? Excuse us for a minute, Cody,” Sheriff Bishop said, nodding toward the locker room.
Cody obliged, and the sheriff lowered his voice.
“Listen, I know you’re not thrilled about this, but Cody was sort of promised a position here after he graduated. Then you arrived...”
“Hey, I’m not fighting him for this job. It’s his as soon as—”
The front door opened, and an obviously pregnant young woman, wearing an oversize winter coat that looked as if it came from her husband’s closet, entered the station. Slightly out of breath, she smiled. “Hi, Sheriff Bishop. Cody left without his lunch,” she said, holding up a metal lunch tin.
“Hi, Alison. He’s just in the locker room. There’s no one else in there. Go on in,” Sheriff Bishop said.
“Thanks.” She shot Jacob a less than pleasant look as she passed.
When she was out of earshot, he said, “I took the position from a guy who’s expecting his first child?” This just kept getting better.
“First?” Sheriff Bishop laughed. “Try third.”
Jacob blinked. The couple looked to be in their early twenties. He ran a hand through his hair. “Can we afford to pay him while he shadows me?” He said the words through gritted teeth.
“Not a full salary, but we can help him out in the meantime, while we wait...”
That eased his conscience a little. Still, he suspected working with the guy would be a whole lot easier if he was able to reassure him that this was only temporary. “While we wait,” he muttered, reaching for his jacket on the back of his chair.
* * *
THE SILENCE IN the vehicle was deafening as Jacob and Cody drove the side streets in search of danger.
“Can we turn on the radio or something?” Cody asked.
“I’d love to, man, but it’s busted.” The old patrol car was from the late eighties, and it was miracle the thing still ran. The manual steering and windows had actually caused Jacob’s forearms to ache the first few days he’d driven it that summer.
“Why haven’t you taken it into Bailey’s Place to see if she can fix it?”
Because he hadn’t expected to be driving it long enough to care. But now that the kid mentioned it, it might not be a bad idea. “Well, we can do it now.” He turned onto Main Street, and five minutes later, he pulled into the garage parking lot.
Cody was out of the car and in the shop before Jacob could cut the engine and remove his seat belt. At least this awkward working situation was not ideal for either of them. He climbed out and went inside.
“Broken radio? Sure, I can take a look. It could be just a loose connection or something,” Bailey was saying. “Hi, Sheriff Matthews.”
“Hey, Bailey.” Reaching for the coffeepot, he poured the dark substance into a cup and grimaced. “Like it strong?”
She laughed. “A necessity of late nights and early mornings. Cody, you’ll remember all about that next month, won’t you?”
The young man’s face lit up at the mention of the new addition to his family. That was the first time Jacob had seen him smile. “You never quite remember just how sleep deprived you were with the previous kids until you’re in the throes of it again, but I don’t mind a bit.”
“Is Alison on maternity leave yet?”
His face clouded again. “No, not yet...doesn’t look like she’ll get much time off,” he said guiltily, which made Jacob feel ten times worse. “The long shifts on her feet at the grocery store aren’t good for her, though...”
The young mother was obviously working to supplement the income her husband hadn’t been able to bring in while attending the academy. And now his guaranteed position wasn’t so guaranteed anymore.
“Well, I hope you guys are still planning to come for Christmas Eve brunch at our place...we have a few surprises for all the kids,” Bailey said.
“Yeah, I hope so...” He sounded noncommittal. “Anyway, how long should we leave the car?”
“Just give me a few hours. Come back around noon?”
“Sounds good,” Cody said.
Bailey glanced at Jacob, and he just nodded. He didn’t expect an emergency in the next few hours...or years...
Outside, Jacob turned to Cody. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“We walk. Don’t tell me you’ve never had to patrol on foot?”
“Okay, we walk,” he said.
And they did. In painful silence.
Jacob cleared his throat. “Look, man, I’m sorry about the job. I didn’t...” He stopped. Didn’t what? How was he supposed to apologize and lie to this kid at the same time? “I’m sorry.”
Cody shrugged. “Brookhollow is home for us, but I can’t stick aroun
d much longer. Alison wants to be near her parents during this pregnancy, but once the baby is born, we may have to move. I haven’t told her yet, but I’m considering a position in Boston.”
Great. This kid was going to uproot his family and move to a city they didn’t want to live in, putting his life on the line every day when he left his home with three children and a wife to consider...and for what? “When would they want you in Boston?”
“In the new year—January 15, right after my graduation ceremony.”
That gave him about a month to vacate the position, so Cody could take over. He hated that there was no guarantee he would be out of here by then, but being in this position of authority, close to where the drugs were coming in was important. This kid had no idea how dangerous this job could be or the important reasons Jacob needed to be in Brookhollow. “Don’t decide anything too quickly, okay?”
“I’m not sure I have a choice. We’ve already had to rent out our home, and we’re living with Alison’s parents.” His tone was cold.
“That not working out so well?”
“I take it you’ve never had to live with in-laws.”
“Never been married.”
“Do you have kids?”
“Nah.” He didn’t say that in their line of work, he didn’t see where having a family could be anything more than a liability. Not exactly the input a father of three would appreciate.
“But you’re here to start settling down?”
That was his story at least, but the lie wouldn’t roll off his tongue, so he nodded.
“So, what’s it like being a cop in the city?” He looked uneasy; obviously his decision about whether to take the BPD job was weighing on him.
“Different than being a small-town cop, for sure. Every day in the city is different, challenging. It’s about being prepared, seeing the potential danger in a situation where other people might not notice anything and never taking chances with your own safety.”
“You ever have to shoot someone, other than Carl Phillips the other night?”
He’d lost track of how many people he’d shot. He nodded. “Never killed anyone, though.” And he was glad Carl Phillips hadn’t been his first.
Cody’s eyes widened as if that possibility hadn’t even occurred to him. The kid had grown up in a small town, and not even the academy had shaken his roots enough for him to be fully prepared for the life of a big-city cop.
“All I’m saying is, think long and hard about this decision. This life is not suited for—” His words were cut off as Cody hauled them both onto a snowbank just as a truck slid on a patch of black ice and spiraled into the opposite lane, coming within inches of them before it stopped, and Victoria Dawson jumped out in a panic.
“Oh, my God, Sheriff Matthews, Cody—I’m so sorry, that ice came out of nowhere!” she said, helping them to their feet.
Jacob turned to Cody. “There’s nothing wrong with your instincts, I’ll give you that.”
* * *
“I’M NEVER GOING to be able to drink all of these,” Jake said, sitting on his usual bar stool across from Heather that evening. “You have to stop letting people buy me drinks.”
She shot him look. “Yeah, ’cause I’m crazy like that. Are you kidding me? This is the most money the bar has brought in on a Monday night in, I’d say, forever. I’m not turning away money.”
“Well, start helping me drink some,” he said, pushing a tequila shot her way.
She barely drank, but seeing the occasion called for a celebratory toast to the hero of the hour, she tossed it back. “That’s all I’m having.”
“Well, if I’m not going to be paying for drinks tonight, can I have my ID back?” he asked.
She removed it from the pile and glanced at it before handing it to him. His birthday was December 7—Friday night. Huh. Interesting. She wondered if anyone else in town knew about it. She doubted it was something Jake had announced. Hiding a grin, she grabbed that day’s Brookhollow View. “Have you seen this yet?”
He groaned, pushing it away. “Yes.”
“Don’t like the spotlight?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to say it—I was doing my job, that’s all.” He took a sip of the drink in front of him, then frowned. “Hey, how far-reaching is this paper, anyway?”
“Just local. I think there’s an online version, though,” she said.
His expression clouded.
“What’s wrong? I’m sure this isn’t the first time your picture’s appeared in a paper for heroic deeds,” she teased, but his mood didn’t lighten.
“I’d just rather keep things private, low-key.”
“Like the reason you moved here?” She still wasn’t buying that as his motivation. The man had been bored out of his mind before, issuing warnings and handing out parking tickets, and now he seemed intent on making sure no one started freaking out about crime in Brookhollow. When there actually had been a crime. Odd guy.
He took the paper from her. “Stuff like this shouldn’t be headline news. It just convinces the crazies of the world to commit more crimes. Attention is attention, whether it’s good or bad.”
She scanned the article. Huh, it did focus heavily on Carl Phillips and his previous convictions. There was hardly any mention of Lily at all, except to say she was recovering in the Brookhollow medical clinic. The write-up on Jake was short, too, saying simply that he’d chased the fleeing perpetrator by foot and hit him with an icicle—which wasn’t exactly accurate. “I didn’t really notice before, but you’re right. This piece really does focus mostly on the bad guy.”
“Hey, man, can I buy you a drink?” Luke Dawson asked, approaching the bar. Seeing the row of glasses in front of Jake, he added, “Another one? It’s the least I can do, seeing as how my wife almost hit you with the truck today.” He shook his head.
“Seriously, worst driver ever,” Heather muttered.
“If you really want to do me a solid, you can take some of these away for you and your buddies,” Jake said, sliding several beers across the bar toward Luke.
“Why don’t you join us? We’re still looking for bowlers for the holiday tournament next week.”
“Ah...”
“Yeah, why don’t you go bowl? Get off that stool for a change?” Heather teased him when he hesitated.
“What if I like this stool?” he surprised her by saying, his eyes dancing with hers.
Were they flirting again? It certainly felt like flirting. And flirting was not good. It felt good, but it was definitely not good. She was determined not to fall for anyone here, especially now that she was leaving. Yet she was still meeting his gaze, and the look in his eyes was definitely flirty.
Oh, no.
“What’s happening here?” Luke finally broke the silence with a wide smile, glancing back and forth between them.
Good question.
She quickly turned away, busying herself with the dishwasher. It was empty. Great.
Jake had shifted on his stool and was looking anywhere but at her.
Luke was still studying them. “Are you two...?”
“No!” they both said at the same time.
“You know, I think I’ll go bowl,” Jake said, climbing down from the stool quickly and grabbing several drinks from the bar.
“Good idea,” Heather said, releasing a deep breath as the two men walked away.
What was that? she wondered, watching him join the other guys at their lane. Had she imagined the spark of electricity that had coursed between them?
He shot a quick glance back at her, catching her stare, and the same look of intensity and interest shone in his eyes, even from a distance.
Nope, hadn’t imagined it.
* * *
WHAT ON EARTH were all of these women
doing here? Jacob hesitated before getting out of the car. Through the still-frosty windshield, he spotted Lily among the group...and several other women he recognized from around town. His gut told him to put the car in Reverse and come back later, but he suspected they’d still be there, and he really needed to get more work done on the float. With the events of the past few days, he hadn’t stopped by the farmhouse, and he was way behind everyone else. Not that he really cared, but at least it was something to do besides sitting in the station or driving around town all day with Cody in awkward, strained silence.
Luckily, without much else to do, Cody had offered to help build the float. And now it appeared that he might have several other volunteers.
“Why are all those women staring at us?” Cody asked.
“I think we’re about to find out,” he said, reluctantly opening the door and climbing out. Their boots crunched against the snow as they approached the farmhouse. Besides Lily, there was Long Legs Dawson, Bubbly Betsy, Smiles-a-lot Thompson and several other women he’d yet to have reason to create nicknames for. “Good morning, ladies,” he said, to be on the safe side. No way would he get each of their names correct.
“Hi, Sheriff Matthews,” they chorused, ignoring Cody, who mumbled an awkward hello. The overly friendly, singsong tone of the greeting and the eyelash-batting battle among the women told him everything he feared was true. They’d gone from disliking him and writing him off as an arrogant jerk to hero-worshipping in less than forty-eight hours. Amazing.
“What are you all doing here?” he asked, entering the barn behind Cody.
All six women followed.
“We heard you were entering a float in the parade and that you didn’t have a crew to help you, so we thought we’d volunteer,” Lily said.
He glanced at her bandaged hand and her bruised eye. The swelling on her lip had gone down, and she looked much better than the last time he’d seen her. “Should you be doing much? How are you feeling?” It had only been two days. She should probably be taking it easy. Recovering from something like that took time.
If possible, the other women appeared even more enamored by his concern...enamored and a little jealous. What was going on? He was a cop. He’d protected the innocent and done his job. Sure, his work had gotten him a pretty girl’s attention in the past, but six? Never. He knew he should be flattered, but it was hard to get a big ego over attention that had nothing to do with him personally. It was all about the badge. And the attention only made him more concerned about his cover being blown. He wasn’t that far away from the city, and he was basically hiding in plain sight; staying as low-key as possible was the only way he could prevent his problems from following him to Brookhollow. Every day, he prayed he’d get the call from Emilio, so this could all be over before things got complicated or dangerous.
Love, Lies & Mistletoe Page 9
