by Erin Wright
Which officially made no sense whatsoever. He hadn’t touched alcohol since the night Shelly and Sierra had died. He couldn’t. Not after all it took away from him. It didn’t bother him when others drank around him – unless they were trying to get behind the wheel of a car, of course – but for him? Never.
It sure smelled like he had, though.
The sheriff came through the door separating the front office area from the jail cells and walked down the cell block, his boots loud on the concrete floor. Wyatt struggled to his feet. Whatever he’d done, he wanted to face the sheriff standing up like a man.
He expected the sheriff to bark at him through the bars but instead he pulled his keys from his belt and unlocked the cell. He opened the door wide and stood in it, leaning against the metal frame casually, crossing one foot over the other. But his shoulders and jaw…no matter how casual he was trying to appear, he wasn’t feeling it at all.
In fact, Wyatt would guess he was right on the edge of total breakdown. Or panic. Or something.
The sheriff cleared his throat. “I suppose I owe you an apology,” he said gruffly.
Wyatt stared at him. He felt like he’d fallen down the rabbit hole. He couldn’t have been more surprised if the sheriff had walked in and announced that he was actually a transvestite.
“Wh-what?” he finally got out.
“My momma woulda had my hide for that,” the sheriff continued, ignoring Wyatt’s stuttering. “She sure hated it when people said it like that. So let me try it again. Wyatt, I am apologizing for my behavior in the past. And, probably for what I’ll do in the future.”
“Wh-what?” he repeated. Not exactly his finest hour, but he was so far away from being able to make heads or tails of the situation, the sheriff might as well have started talking in Chinese. He would understand just as much.
“Last night, you had the misfortune of running into three of my old employees.”
Jack, Moe, and Larry. The memory was there, clear as day, as if he should’ve been able to remember it all along. They’d been outside when he’d gone out to get a breath of fresh air. How could he have forgotten that?
“My daughter dragged you back here last night and dropped you off with some choice words about you getting drunk. Officer Rios booked you, and as a matter of course, had you breathe into a breathalyzer. Do you remember any of this?”
Wyatt shook his head. For some reason, he couldn’t remember past meeting the three Stooges out on the back deck. Why was it a big blank?
“You blew a zero.”
“Zero?” Wyatt repeated. He really wished he could stop parroting every word the sheriff was saying, but he needed the world to start making sense. Any minute now…
“You hadn’t touched a drop. Which made Rios a might bit suspicious, considering you smelled like you’d taken a bath in alcohol and you were waving around on your feet like you’d just finished a chugging contest at a frat party. So we had you tested for the date rape drug.”
“I got raped?” Wyatt’s voice broke halfway through the question and he stared in horror at the sheriff.
“No, no, that’s just the name most people know it by. We had the doctor stop by – you have some broken teeth that’ll require some dental work, and some bruises to your ribs, oh and a cut over your eye, but your ass was untouched.
“No, you got framed. My three former employees, may they rot in hell, were picked up by Officer Morland after he dropped Abby off at home. They’d made their way down to O’Malley’s and had begun bragging about what they did to pretty much anyone within earshot. They crashed the party, dropped the drug in your drink, and then after they kicked the ever livin’ hell outta you, they poured some beers on ya. They figured you’d get arrested for fighting in public again, and this time, with the charges of drinking on top of it, well, that’d just about finish your time here in Sawyer.”
Wyatt sank back down to the cot and stared up at the sheriff. “Why? How?”
“They’re dumbasses, so it didn’t take much to break ‘em. I basically looked at them and told ‘em to start talking, and it all came out. You fired them when you bought my farm.”
The change in topic midway through his statement seemed to make sense to the sheriff, at least, and he paused, waiting for Wyatt to speak. Finally, Wyatt said slowly, “Yeah, I did. I knew they were troublemakers and I didn’t want them on the place. It’s the first thing I did when I bought it.” He couldn’t figure out what that had to do with anything and just stared at the sheriff, hoping he’d continue his story.
“Well, I guess they’ve been harboring a grudge ever since. They had a hard time finding a job because you wouldn’t give them a recommendation; I figure their reputation also proceeded them and no one with a half a brain would choose to bring them on, but they’re pinning it all on you. Jack lost his house; the bank repo’d it. I think one of the others had his wife divorce him because he wasn’t holding down a steady job.”
He heaved a huge sigh, running his hands through his salt-and-pepper hair. “Truth is, I should’ve fired ‘em myself. I was struggling from losing my wife, and then the rains weren’t coming and I knew I was going to lose my farm, and I just couldn’t get myself to care enough to fire ‘em. It was the last thing on my mind, although they were certainly not stellar employees for me. In your shoes, I would’ve done the same thing as you.”
“So…they’ve been hating me ever since because I fired them? And they tried to make me look bad at my brother’s party last night?” Wyatt felt about seven miles thick, but even through the fog, things were starting to come together.
“Yeah, that’s the long and short of it. I have them en route to Ada County. Being my former employees and all and the fact that we’re not really meant to be a long-term jail here, I’m sending ‘em over there.” He heaved a big sigh. “I should’ve done that with you. We’re not big enough to justify a jail being staffed full-time year-round. I just…didn’t want to send you elsewhere.”
Wyatt nodded slowly, trying to keep his head from bobbing off into Pain Land. He figured if the sheriff was going to spend this much time apologizing to him, Wyatt could give his own apology another shot.
“Speaking of,” he said gruffly, and then cleared his throat. He liked apologizing about as much as the sheriff did, he figured. Maybe even less. “When I bought your farm and went down to O’Malley’s to celebrate, I wasn’t talking about you when I said that I’ll show him how to run a farm. I was talking about my dad. He’d been letting Stetson do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, for years. We’d been knocking heads over the farm for a long time, and I finally had my chance to show him how a real farm was run. That comment had nothing to do with you.”
“I can see that,” the sheriff said, nodding his head slowly. “Thanks for letting me know.”
And just like that, the topic was dropped.
“So, am I free to go?” Wyatt asked.
“Yup. We’ll keep you updated on how the case goes with the numbnuts. Are you feeling well enough to drive home, or should I have one of our officers take you there?”
Wyatt stood and took a few exploratory steps forward to see how his head responded. “I think I’m all right to drive,” he said. “I’ll just take it slow.”
“Sure, sure,” the sheriff said, and they headed up to the front together.
Chapter 44
Abby
Abby pulled into her parking spot at the courthouse, staring out at the frozen, dead landscaping in front of her. Bushes that were nothing but a skeleton of branches, piles of brown, crusty snow littered with dead leaves.
All rather what her heart felt like, actually. Dead and brown and frozen.
Which felt awfully dramatic, but also damn true. Blinking twice, she realized that she was still in her car. She should get out, and you know, go to work or something. She heaved a sigh and clambered out of her car.
Today was going to be awful, no doubt about it. Her father was going to pull her into his office a
nd tell her that this was exactly what he knew was going to happen, and how dare she go to this party with Wyatt; didn’t she know what kind of a guy he was?
Something he so conveniently proved yet again.
She trudged towards the door of the jail. One foot, the other foot. She slipped inside quietly, the bell jingling overhead alerting everyone to her presence anyway. Dammit.
“Abby, in my office please!” her father barked, and then disappeared down the hallway.
That didn’t take long.
Well, it was probably best to just get it over with and move on with her life. She wondered if her father was going to fire her. She saw Officer Rios looking at her as she passed him at the desk, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She didn’t want to see the pity in his eyes as she was raked over the coals…or pitched out on her ear.
She closed the door behind her without even being asked. This was one conversation she didn’t want anyone to overhear. She stared sightlessly at the far wall, her eyes burning from the endless tears that had watered her pillow last night. Jasmine hadn’t left her side once, snuggling against her and occasionally licking the tears away as the clock ticked on. If Abby’d fallen asleep at some point, she couldn’t recall it.
“Abby, I am apologizing.”
Abby snapped her head to stare at her father in shock, and the world swam a little with the suddenness of the movement. Surely he hadn’t said what she thought he said. Maybe she’d gone from depressed to delusional. Her father never apologized for anything.
Ever.
“Don’t give me that look,” he said with a grim chuckle. “This is my second apology in as many hours, and I’m enjoying it about as much as you might expect.”
Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. There were no words left. Her father had apologized twice in one day? To whom? She felt a little faint.
“Wyatt was set up last night at his brother’s party. He was slipped a date rape drug and then those three yahoos who used to be my employees took their time beating him up and pouring beers all over him to make him look like he’d been drinking up a storm. Luckily for Wyatt, they were too stupid to think to make him drink anything, so he blew a zero last night when Rios was trying to book him. Then they were even more dumb as to go down to O’Malley’s and get so blitzed, they thought bragging about what they’d done to anyone within earshot was a damn good idea.
“After Morland dropped you off last night, Steve called from the bar and told him what those idiots were saying. He arrested them and brought them here. I questioned them and they broke after I heavily interrogated them by asking them, ‘What happened last night?’ Hardened criminals we have going on here.”
Abby felt the giggle start low within her and then begin to bubble up until it burst out. She laughed and laughed, leaning against the chair to support herself as her legs grew weak. Her father just watched her and smiled, giving her the time to work through the info he’d just dumped on her head.
“That makes so much more sense,” she finally got out. “I’d never seen Wyatt touch alcohol, so last night, to be so drunk…it confused me, but not enough to make me stop and ask why.
“Oh God, Dad…” She straightened up and looked at him with horror. “He has to hate me right now, for believing the worst of him, when he hadn’t done a damn thing to deserve it.”
“That brings me to part two of our little discussion,” her dad continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. She gulped. Now he was going to yell at her for attending the party last night with Wyatt. She knew the other shoe would drop. “You’ve got the rest of the day off. With pay. You and Wyatt need to go pull your heads out of your asses and talk to each other. I’m hereby ordering you off the courthouse property, with a strongly worded suggestion to go find Wyatt and talk to him.”
Now she really was sure she was delusional. “You want me to go work things out with Wyatt?” she asked, feeling about ten feet thick. Because that was surely not what he’d meant to say.
Surely.
“Wyatt and I had our chat this morning and cleared the air between us. I’m just saying that you need to go do that with him yourself. Now whether you end up doing…whatever, is up to you two.” His cheeks turned just a little pink and he looked distinctly uncomfortable. “You two are adults and can do as you like. I’m just telling you that you need to go talk to him.” He put just a smidge bit of emphasis on the word talk and Abby swallowed the giggles threatening to erupt out of her again.
She hadn’t been asking if she ought to go bang Wyatt, but obviously that’s what her father thought she’d meant, and now…well, the topic was just too weird by half. She was going to leave before her father felt compelled to have The Talk with her. Not that she could get pregnant, of course, but STDs…
She realized she was still just standing there in her father’s office. “Leaving!” she blurted out and did an about face to head to the door.
It was time to talk to Wyatt Miller, and, God willing, a whole lot more.
Chapter 45
Wyatt
He was lying on the couch with an ice pack over his eyes, trying not to let the world whirl around him too much, when he heard the crunch of tires on gravel. For a man who didn’t normally receive many visitors, he sure was getting a lot of them lately. He swung his feet over and sat up with a groan. It was probably Stetson or Declan, here to chew him out for leaving the party early. He’d meant to call and apologize to Stetson and relay what happened, but hadn’t honestly felt up to it.
Well, whether he felt up to it or not, it was happening now. He forced himself to his feet and shuffled over to the front door. At least he’d taken a shower when he got home, so he didn’t smell like he fell into a vat of beer anymore. He wasn’t sure if Stetson would let him talk long enough to explain that smell away.
He opened the door just as Abby was raising her hand to knock. They both froze, staring at each other.
“Abby?” he finally said. That couldn’t be right. He had to still be dreaming. He closed his eyes, counted to three, and opened them again. She was still standing there.
“Pinch me!” he said impulsively, holding out his arm.
She shot him a look that clearly questioned his sanity, but did so anyway.
“Ow!” he yelped, yanking his arm back.
He was awake all right.
He stood back and held the door open for her. “Come on in,” he said graciously, as if that whole exchange had not just happened. Perhaps if he ignored it, she would too. Sending him a sideways glance that told him she had not in fact contracted amnesia in the last 30 seconds, she walked past him and into the house.
Which was when he first noticed that she wasn’t wearing her uniform, or her Wranglers and a pearl-snap western shirt. She was wearing slacks that hugged her curves just right and a low-cut blue blouse that hugged and showed off her upper curves just right.
He struggled to keep his eyes on her face, her breasts acting like a magnet for his eyeballs. She looked damn amazing, with makeup and hair curled and…he breathed in deep…lemons. How was it that she always smelled like lemons?
“We need to talk,” she finally said into the silence. “Believe it or not, my father ordered me over here.”
“Your dad is playing matchmaker?” Wyatt asked incredulously.
“Believe me, I think it was just as shocking to me.” She sent him a grin. “We veered dangerously close to the birds and the bees territory today.” She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “Never mind that. I’m here to apologize to you about last night. I should’ve realized that something was going on because you were just acting so out of character, but then again, you’d been in a massive fight and your face was banged up, so that part kinda felt pretty in character.” She let out a short laugh. “I should’ve known that something was going on, though.”
She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye, growing completely serious. “I’m sorry for believing the worst in you. I’m sorry
for thinking that you hadn’t changed.”
He walked over to her and scooped her hands up into his. “Abby, you had every reason to think what you did. Hell, this past summer, I got into a fistfight with Stetson over him almost losing the Miller Family Farm. I rearranged a guy’s face and he ended up in the hospital. I’m not saying that both of them didn’t deserve exactly what happened,” he gave her a sorry-not-sorry grin, “but I am saying that I’m not exactly known for having Mother Theresa qualities. You can call me many things, but peacemaker ain’t one of them.”
He raised her hands to his mouth and kissed them. “I’ve spent years punching my way through every situation. I consider a conversation with Stetson that doesn’t end in a fistfight to be a win. Being around you and Adam and the kids and the counselor…it’s showing me that punching people isn’t always necessary. I will admit, though, that if I see those three scumbags again, I may or may not be tempted to break my vow of peace.”
Her eyes, watching his every movement with kindness and passion, lit up with laughter at that comment. “I’d be tempted to hold ‘em down for you,” she admitted. “If there was ever a group of people deserving a beat down by you, it’s those three. I’m just glad they’re as dumb as they are mean. If they’d forced you to drink a couple of shots of whisky or something, and if they’d managed to keep their mouths shut instead of getting wasted down at O’Malley’s and bragging to anyone who’d stop long enough to listen, I doubt we would’ve ever figured it out.”
“Truth be told, the old Wyatt deserved to have that believed about him. I’ve done a lot of shitty things in my life. I’m not about to pretend that I don’t deserve to have people question my motives and my actions. But you’re showing me a better way, and…I like it. I like not having a ball of anger knotting up my stomach all the time. Strange but true.” They laughed quietly together at that, and then it struck him. “Hey, I missed it – am I getting a niece or a nephew?”
