Always the Hero

by Anna J. Stewart

  “There wasn’t a contract because Jason was donating his time to the cause. You do know what this does to the event’s budget, don’t you?”

  “It’s all being handled.”

  “Does that mean you won’t be using Calliope’s produce?” Lori didn’t have to ask; she already knew the answer and her anger grew at all the extra work her friend had gone to in order to provide enough food for the dinner.

  “I’ll know more after Wednesday, but I wanted to give you a heads-up. You’ll spread the word, won’t you?”

  Lori bit her tongue, afraid that if she opened her mouth she might inadvertently bite BethAnn on the...

  “Your order’s ready, BethAnn.” Paige stepped up behind the older woman and swung a handled paper bag in front of her.

  “Oh, thanks, Paige. Mmmmm.” BethAnn lifted the bag to her face and took a deep breath. “Cinnamon buns and waffles.” She aimed a pointed, familiar sympathetic look at Lori’s anemic plate. “Enjoy the rest of your breakfast.”

  “I swear I keep waiting for her to say ‘and your little dog, too,’” Paige muttered after BethAnn was gone. “Boy, Holly was not kidding about her, was she?”

  “Did she seriously just fire Jason via surrogate?” Matt turned disbelieving eyes on Lori.

  “Yes, she did.” Lori’s chest tightened at the thought of having to tell Jason he’d been passed over because BethAnn was irritated with her. “So much for town unity.”

  “You think Gil knows what she’s trying to pull?” Paige asked.

  “He won’t hear it from me.” Lori gathered up her belongings. “BethAnn’s counting on me ratting her out and I won’t give her the satisfaction. She thrives on conflict and she’d like nothing more than to cry on Gil’s shoulder about how mean and uncooperative we all are.” How mean and uncooperative Lori was. Deceptive ploys for selfish results. Geez Louise, it was like she’d been teleported back to high school.

  “What are you going to do about it?” Paige asked.

  “About BethAnn?” Lori blinked at Paige. “Nothing.” She’d been down this road before; not with BethAnn, but with people like her who were all about show-woman-ship but lousy on follow-through. At some point BethAnn would throw up a white flag and risk the success of the entire event because she’d been too vindictive to put the town first.

  As much as Lori loved the idea of BethAnn falling publicly on her face, this festival was too important. To everyone and to the town. “Matt, I know we had plans to check out the houses—”

  “Go talk to Jason,” Matt said. “We can’t get started on anything until we get that budget in place anyway. I’ll head to the station and see what we’re dealing with there. Text me when you want to meet.” He scooted out of the booth.

  Lori arched a semiteasing brow in his direction. “You’ll answer this time?” She flicked a smile at him. A truce maybe? Given they now had a common foe in BethAnn Bottomley, it seemed prudent to add Matt to her army of supporters.

  “Cute.”

  Lori’s heart fluttered as the smile that stretched his full lips reached his eyes. She watched him push himself out of the booth and reach down to adjust something with his leg and head to the register.

  “So.” Paige held up a hand as she darted over to the next table to fill coffee cups before returning to finish their conversation. “You and Matt are back on track?”

  “Matt and I are friends.” Lori might need to consider getting that tattooed across her forehead at this point. “There is no track.”

  “Oh. Really?” Paige didn’t look convinced as she glanced over her shoulder in time to notice Matt look back at Lori. “Friends is a good place to start. Kind of a boring place to end up, though.”

  Lori stomped on the seedling of hope taking root in her chest. “Not everything is as simple as it sounds.” That she was echoing Matt’s earlier sentiments scored high on Lori’s irony meter. She could, of course, tell Paige the truth about what had gone wrong with her and Matt, but the last thing she wanted was for her brother to find out Matt was still married. “And while I know you’re still basking in the afterglow of your wedding, not all of us are destined for your happily-ever-after.”

  “Why not?” Paige set the coffeepot down on her table with a clunk as she stepped closer to block Lori’s leaving.

  “Because we aren’t all—” Lori didn’t know how to finish that sentence other than to indicate Paige’s form with her hand.

  “What’s this?” Paige’s green eyes sharpened like glass as she mimicked Lori’s gesture. “Female? Breathing? Human?”

  “You know what I mean.” Lori turned in the booth, gripped the edge of the table and waited for Paige to shift out of the way. Which she didn’t.

  “I know what I think you mean, to which I will say it’s a load of nonsense. You and Matt are nuts about each other. Anyone who sees the two of you together can see it, feel it. For cripes’ sake we don’t need the griddle on in the kitchen. I can just slap a couple of burgers on the table between you and they’ll be done in a hot minute.”

  “Please.” Lori didn’t know if she liked the idea that all over the diner she’d been transmitting feelings she was trying to get rid of.

  “Fear isn’t a good look on you, Lori.” Paige reached around Lori to stack their empty plates. “I wasted a lot of time stuck in my own way. I let fear control me. I let fear control my child and because I did, I almost missed out on a really great man, not to mention an amazing life.”

  “I’m not you,” Lori whispered, and for the second time that morning, felt disapproval radiating off people she considered friends.

  “Of course you’re not me. You’re also not Holly or Abby or, thank goodness, BethAnn ‘The Steamroller’ Bottomley. You’re Lori and guess what? You’re a pretty amazing person who deserves everything the rest of us do, including love.” She scooped up the silverware and dirty napkins. “Everyone seems to realize that except you. That reminds me, you are coming to the barbecue next weekend, right? Starts around two. And no excuses because they won’t fly.”

  “Hey, Paige, I’m ready to order,” one of the customers called out.

  She waved in acknowledgment, balanced the plates on sturdy, practiced arms and started to leave, then turned back around. “Fair warning—you even think about not showing up, I’ll sic Charlie and Simon on you and make you their new project.” She pointed to her daughter, who was sitting in her usual seat at the counter, skimming through her e-reader.

  “You wouldn’t.” Lori swallowed hard. The idea of being the target of Simon’s and Charlie’s legendary adolescent scheming was enough to chill her blood.

  “Oh, you try me. And in the meantime, if you need help taking BethAnn down a peg or two—”

  “Or twenty?”

  The tension and frustration on Paige’s pretty faced eased. “Or twenty. Be sure to let me know. There’s little I love more than helping my friends.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “HEY, LUKE, you have a sec?” Matt rapped his knuckles on the doorway before he poked his head into the sheriff’s office. When Luke Saxon didn’t answer, and instead, sat staring blankly out the window from behind his desk, Matt knocked again. “Boss?”

  “Hmmm?” Luke shifted in his chair and looked at Matt as if he couldn’t remember who he was. “Yeah, sorry.” He cleared his throat, pushed himself up in his chair and tugged at the uniform collar. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, first, I’m assuming I can pass Cash back to you now?”

  “Woof.”

  The retriever didn’t wait for an invitation and padded over to Luke’s chair, pushed his head under Luke’s hand for a quick pat, then retreated to his plush bed in the corner with a contented sigh.

  “Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks for watching him.” Luke tapped restless fingers on his desk. “Anything else?”

  Matt glanced into the office wher
e Fletch and Ozzy had their heads together in front of one of the computer screens. He stepped inside and closed the door. “What’s going on?”

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked.

  “I mean Holly’s acting weird and now you are, too. Is everything okay with you two? Simon okay?”

  “We’re fine. Simon’s great. He practically took over for the tour guide at the aquarium. Now he’s got it in his head he wants to be an oceanographer. Or a marine biologist. Heaven help me, I see SCUBA lessons in our future.”

  Matt wondered if Luke was aware of the goofy grin that appeared on his face whenever he spoke of his recently adopted stepson. “Sounds like Simon.” The geeky little kid, just shy of ten now, had been blessed with a quadruple dose of brainpower compared to the rest of them. At least it sounded as if Simon had moved past his desire to be a superhero and toward something more practical. “So if everything’s okay...”

  “Everything’s great,” Luke said quickly. A little too quickly. “I’m not supposed to talk about it. Yet.”

  “Uh-huh.” Matt took a seat on the other side of the desk and stretched out his leg. The action reminded him of a day not so long ago when he’d come to the station to claim his stolen firearm; a trip that had resulted in him becoming a deputy. “At the risk of getting in touch with my feminine side, spill.”

  “Holly’s pregnant.”

  Matt watched as the shock that spread over Luke’s face transformed into a combination of panic, fear and eye-twinkling excitement. “That’s great. Congratulations. Right?”

  “Yeah.” Luke leaned his elbows on his desk and scrubbed his hands over his face. “It’s great. It’s amazing and...terrifying. I mean, I love being Simon’s dad. Next to marrying Holly, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but a baby.” He threw Matt such an expression of helplessness that Matt couldn’t not laugh. “I don’t know anything about babies.”

  “You’ll learn.” Matt chuckled as he got control of himself. Was there anything that could terrify a full-grown man more than the idea of becoming a father? “I bet Holly knows enough for both of you. She’s been through this before, remember?”

  “Uh-huh.” Luke nodded, took a deep breath. “Yeah, I need to remember that. It’s just.” He looked at Matt. “This is different, you know? This is unknown. With Simon, he was already grown. I didn’t have any say in how he’d turn out.”

  “Well, there’s the first thing you’re wrong about,” Matt countered. “You’ve had a huge impact on him. You gave him that added stability only a father can. The stability you and I would have done anything for at his age.” The same stability he was determined to give Kyle. As Matt said the words, as he watched the light shift on Luke’s face, he realized what this was about. “We’ve had this conversation before, Luke. You’re not him.”

  “You mean my father? I know that.”

  “Do you?” Matt challenged. “Because I’m seeing the same panic I saw when you thought about adopting Simon. There’s not this invisible switch that’s going to get flipped. You’re nothing like him. You never have been.” The fact he was sitting in the sheriff’s chair should have been proof enough.

  “Speaking with authority, are you?”

  Matt shrugged. “My father knocked a different lesson into me.” One Matt couldn’t shake no matter how hard he tried or how successful he was. “And yes, I’ve caught myself falling into his patterns, but I pulled myself out.” Because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have a life worth living. “DNA doesn’t determine what kind of man, what kind of fathers we’ll be. Only our actions do. I’ve been witness to enough family expansions to know that when they put that little baby boy—or girl—into your arms, you’ll finally be able to set your personal history aside. It’ll be all about them.”

  “A girl.”

  There it was again, that quirky grin, and in that moment, Matt had no doubt his friend was going to be just fine. “I take it I need to keep my mouth shut about this,” he teased. “I can’t go run out and buy you a box of pacifiers or diapers yet?”

  “We’re going to tell everyone at the barbecue next weekend. You’re going to be there, right?”

  “Even if I hadn’t already hit up Calliope for a gift for Paige, I’d make it a point to attend.”

  “Hang on,” Luke said when Matt got to his feet. “You came in here for something.”

  “Oh, right. I think I might have become the unofficial deputy representative of our beautification project last night.”

  “Okay,” Luke said. “Is this bad news?”

  “Only for me,” Matt admitted. “This was your and Fletcher’s idea. I was just the mouthpiece last night. And I might have brought Lori Bradley on board to help cochair.”

  “Ah. Lori. I get it.”

  “Get what?” As if he had to ask.

  “Not to worry, Fletch and I are happy to back you up on whatever you need. Feel free to take the lead from here on. We trust you.”

  “You do?” Matt wasn’t so sure this was a good thing. Part of him was hoping for a little pushback even as the rest of him wished it was only him and Lori working together.

  “I’m all for my deputies finding stability in their personal lives. Fletch has been taken care of. Now you, then all I’ll have to worry about is Ozzy.”

  “I’m not taken care of,” Matt argued. And given how his breakfast with Lori had gone, he wasn’t sure he ever would be. “She insists we’re just friends.”

  “Huh. The definition of friends must have changed in recent days. You want to use this opportunity to improve the town to win over Lori, go for it. We’ll be happy to assist.”

  “I don’t need your and Fletcher’s assistance.” He just needed to get his feet out of his mouth and prove to Lori once and for all that the future he wanted didn’t have anything to do with his soon-to-be ex-wife and everything to do with her. “Not yet anyway. But I did want to give you a heads-up in case I need to take some time off. Not only because of this project, but there’s also Kyle.”

  “What’s going on there?”

  “I’m supposed to meet with Kyle’s caseworker and the judge in the next couple of weeks. There’s been some discussion about him getting an early release.”

  “From what you’ve told me, Kyle’s turned things around. But it’s not going to be easy, taking in a fifteen-year-old with his history.”

  “A history the two of us are all too familiar with.” Rex Winters, Kyle’s father, could have given both of their fathers a run for their money. “You think I can pull it off? This parental thing?” It was, after all, Luke’s idea in the first place that he take on the role of parent.

  “As a friend recently told me—” Luke sat back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head “—only our actions determine the kind of fathers we’ll make. And honestly? I don’t think Kyle could find a better person more suited to be his guardian. You’re an honorable man, Matt. Real honor isn’t something that can be beaten out of you. No matter how hard the punch.”

  * * *

  IT WASN’T OFTEN Lori purposely postponed doing a job that needed doing. She knew those invitations should go out tomorrow morning and there wasn’t any doubt she’d get them done. But every time she approached the stack on her dining room table, it was as if a tornado siren blared in her head and sent her racing for safety. It wasn’t the promise of paper cuts or sore fingers stopping her; only the idea that she’d let herself get bullied into doing work she’d have been happy to tend to if she’d only been asked instead of ordered. Respect.

  Was that really so difficult?

  Which was why, as the sun was setting on the weekend, she’d changed into her grubby gardening clothes and threw herself into all the cleanup tasks in the greenhouse she’d been putting off for weeks.

  Hair twisted high on her head, a stained tank top over her worn sports bra, the too-baggy-in-the-knees and
a-little-too-tight-around-the-waist jeans constant evidence of her horticultural dedication, she tumbled into the familiar peace that being among her garden and plants brought her. Evenings like this, she could lose herself for hours, puttering and planting, trimming and organizing as she inhaled the soft mingling fragrances of herbs, flowers and mossy, thin-vined trees.

  Which was why she didn’t hear the doorbell ring. But she did hear the echo of a knock on her side gate before Matt’s voice broke through the silence.

  “Lori!”

  “What the—” She snapped to attention, her filthy hands freezing in the potting soil. She pulled free and stepped outside. It was dark and she shivered in the chilled air. The solar lights she’d scattered about the yard guided him to her, and as he approached, still wearing his uniform, his arms filled with an oversize paper bag, she saw him smile as he took in the scene. “What are you doing here?”

  “At some point you’re going to get tired of asking me that. As if that’s any way to greet a guest.” He set the bag on her back porch and walked right past her, eyes twinkling with curiosity. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for an invitation to see this?” He jerked his chin toward the cedar-and-glass structure her grandfather had built the summer she and Fletch had come to live with him. “You weren’t kidding. It’s amazing. Makes Calliope’s look like a shack. You want to show me around?”

  “Why?” She flexed her hands, following behind him like a buzzing bee. “Matt, it isn’t a great time—”

  “Would it ever be a good time?” That he asked the question so casually had her snapping her mouth shut. “If the rest of your weekend went like mine, you needed some decompression time. Do you know this town is in the middle of a runaway dog epidemic? Seven, I repeat seven, canine companions made a run for it in the last twenty-four hours and I swear they planned it together.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “I think they’ve started a gang. The Barkyard Boys.” He grinned. “Ask me how long it took me to come up with that.”