A sudden sense of peace and calm washed over me, and I stood there at the kiosk, impacted by the feeling of this simple town’s grace. It confirmed that my presence here was only the beginning of a string of positive changes that I believed that was yet to come.
It was only a couple of months ago when I told the influential people in my life that I planned on leaving the Los Angeles Police Department and transfer to Danville County in Kentucky. Everyone was bewildered by my decision especially my best friend, Shannon. I remembered all too well how she was quick to worry about me:
“Are you sure about this?” Shannon asked, uneasy at the thought that I was set to leave in a matter of hours and no longer would be able to hang out with her every day like we did since we were seven.
“Yes, I’ve never been surer about anything in my entire life.” I smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping it brought an ease to her worries. With her help, I was able to box up most of my belongings.
“How can that possibly be, Jules? You didn’t even fly over there and see firsthand what the town and the people were like.”
“Normally I would, but I didn’t need to this time. I spent countless hours on the phone and on video chat with the Sherriff, and I’ve spent weeks researching everything. Trust me, Shannon, I’ll be okay.”
“I don’t know. It was one thing when you told everyone that you were applying to the police academy and then you chose to work in Los Angeles, one of the most dangerous places to be a police officer and now this. I’m starting to think that maybe I never knew you at all.”
“C’mon Shannon, don’t overreact to any of this. I’m still me, no matter what. What do you have against Danville anyway?” I asked suspiciously.
“It’s in Kentucky!” Shannon exclaimed.
“So?” I shrugged. I didn’t know what Shannon was so worked up about. She wasn’t the only one worried about me, everyone was. Moving across the country to an unknown town to take a job as a deputy was never something I could say was a life goal, but when things got chaotic for me, I knew it was the right thing to do. I desperately needed to get out.
“Until you showed me, I didn’t even know where the hell it was, and that’s saying something.”
“I think that says more about your knowledge of Geography than it does about the town. Look, Shannon, I will be okay. If I managed to survive as a cop in Los Angeles the past couple of years, I would be entirely okay in a small town like Danville. Here, can you help me load this into the Jeep.” I said as Shannon and I shoved the heavy box into the back seat.
With her help, I was able to pack up and load most of the basic necessities that I would need until I officially was settled, “What’s to do there, anyway?”
“What do you mean? You can practically do the same things there that we can do here. They have shops, churches, city events, museums, parks…”
“Do they have clubs?”
“I don’t know. That wasn’t a research priority. Are you thinking of coming to visit?” I laughed with raised eyebrows.
“I don’t know. Depends on how things go after you get settled. Jules, I still can’t believe you decided to just pick up and leave.” Shannon frowned.
“I know I decided things so quickly, and I know it seems so unrealistic and absurd, but I needed to do this. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve felt restless for a long time, and when I made the decision to transfer to Danville, it felt like this was the choice that I needed to make. I don’t feel restless anymore.”
“…could be your radiator or coolant leak.” The tap on my shoulder pulled me away from the thoughts of my last conversation with Shannon.
“Oh, I’m sorry I was daydre-” I looked up and was instantly greeted by an intense pair of dark eyes. A gentleman in a mechanic’s shirt from Hayes Auto Body stood in front of me, awaiting a response. “I, uh…yeah, I suspect that’s it.”
“Just need to fill out paperwork.” He murmured. After a brief and awkward silence, he walked away suddenly towards the repair shop.
“Yes, thank you.” I quickly followed him from behind, past the trio of repair bays with other vehicles currently being worked on next to an adjacent office. It was a cramped space filled with cabinets and a stack of files on a wooden desk. Without saying a word, the gentleman handed me a clipboard with the standard forms to be filled out.
“Need your keys.” he stated tersely.
“Oh, yes. Of course, sorry.” I dug into my purse and held out the keys for him. “Here you go.”
The quiet man did not take the keys right away. He stood there, those dark eyes penetrating mine and his straight face said nothing of what he was thinking. It made me uncomfortable, being stared at like that, so I just stood there fidgeting. He eventually took the keys and pointed at the chairs pushed against the wall opposite the wooden desk.
“You can sit there.” he said as he walked out.
Okay, that was strange. Not sure what was wrong with the guy and the cognitive psychology training I received on the force didn’t help me figure it out either. All I know is I was grateful my Jeep was going to be fixed soon.
“Will have to order the parts.” the mechanic came back a long time later as I finished filling out the forms. He didn’t look me in the eye at first.
“How long will it take to get delivered? A few hours?”
“Couple of days at most.”
“What? A couple of days? I can’t go without a car, I’ve got my belongings with me.”
“I can take you home.”
“I don’t have a home. I have a hotel room that I still need to check into, but then tomorrow I have to meet with someone to sign the rental agreement for the house I’m renting.”
“I can take you.”
“That’s not necessary, I’ll just call for a cab.” I pulled out my cell phone, but he quickly grabbed my hand to stop me from web searching a local taxi company. His calloused touch was gentle, and his close presence affected me more than it should have, and I didn’t know how to act or behave. I must have looked like a stuttering fool, and I was surprised by my reaction to his closeness.
Most of the time I was a focused individual and hardly let circumstances or people deter me from any task at hand, an added benefit of the policy academy, but this man whoever he was seemed to not need to do much to distract me.
Okay, get a grip.
It looked like he was assessing what he had to do next. Sweat glistened off his left temple and slowly cascaded down his sharp jaw line while his brows furrowed as his eyes focused on the fact that his hand was still on mine. Sensing the tension, he looked up from what he was doing and quickly pulled his hand away.
He made no attempts at looking away which only intensified my self-consciousness. “Okay…um…thank you for offering to give me a lift.”
He took the clipboard from my grip, “I’ll put them in my garage.”
“You don’t need to do that. I think they’ll just be fine if you leave it in my Jeep if that’s okay.”
“Can’t. Liability.”
“Oh, alright I guess if it isn’t too much of a bother.”
“It’s not.”
“Okay great.” I smiled as he and I walked outside to load my belongings into an old truck I presumed was his. I tried to help him but he refused to let me help, so I stood there watching him. Though there was not much, the boxes were heavy as he grunted each time he lifted them, muscles flexing as he did so.
It had been a long time since I had any thoughts about a man other than Michael. Shannon thought my mid-life crisis as she put it, was my way of dealing with losing him:
“Don’t you think it might have had something to do with your break up with Michael?” Shannon suggested while we finished packing up my belongings before I left town.
My break up with Michael took a toll on me because we had been together for years and were high school sweethearts. Ever since he proposed, I started getting restless, and I always imagined spending the rest of my life wit
h him, but the minute he got down on one knee and said those infamous four words, it felt different. It didn’t feel like how I always imagined it to be. It felt odd.
I enlisted in the police academy shortly after that, and it bothered Michael, but when I graduated and was given the opportunity to work for one of the Los Angeles precincts, he was upset. After a year I was reassigned to one of the most dangerous areas in Los Angeles, Michael was livid. He couldn’t take it anymore and suggested I take a job with his father’s law firm so I’d quit, I refused. Michael had given me an ultimatum, and unfortunately, it did not work on me, so he made the decision to move out.
“It had nothing to do with Michael.”
“Are you sure about that?” She asked.
“Yes, I’m saddened about losing Michael, but I am not going to give up on doing what I love for anyone. He knew that I wanted to join the police academy, it was his fault that he assumed that it was some passing fancy but this move has nothing to do with him. This is about me needing something more.”
“And you don’t think you can find more here?”
“No. The second I took that offer in Danville, it was like a big weight off my shoulders. I knew instantly it was what I needed. If I never make this journey now, I’ll always wonder what if. Besides if I stayed here, I’d never get over Michael. His influence is everywhere – we have the same friends, hobbies and we even go to the same coffee shop around the same times. He will always be there as long as I stay here. I need time away, and it isn’t as if I’ll be gone forever, this is just for now. You more than anyone including my parents know how much I need this.” I explained.
If people can’t understand that this is something that I need to be able to move forward in life, then that’s their problem.
“I am going to miss you so much, Jules.” Shannon sighed and pulled me into a long, tight hug. “I’m going to let you finish packing up before I start to cry. Have been doing a lot of that lately.” Shannon sniffed.
“Oh, Shannon. Come here.” I cooed as I pulled Shannon into another long hug. “I will miss you tons.”
“No, I’m okay.” Shannon pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. “Call me when you get there. No, call me every day. Twice a day!”
Shannon was normally a confident and assertive woman but standing there with tears forming in her wide eyes, red nose, flushed cheeks, and her sun kissed golden brown hair pulled into a ponytail; she looked vulnerable. A sight she didn’t allow most people to see, other than her boyfriend, Anton.
“I promise to call you every evening, Shannon.” I chuckled and waved as Shannon got into her cute, red convertible. “Bye.”
“Bye! I’ll miss you!” Shannon frowned and then shut the car door reluctantly.
“I’ll miss you too!”
I already said my goodbyes to my entire family that whole week, and I even had to say goodbye to members of my extended family. Most lived within the same state but I was the different one, I was on another side of the country in a town most hadn’t heard of.
The city of Danville known as the “City of Firsts” had a population of 16,000, a small town by my standards. It was referred to as the City of Firsts due to its rich history of obtaining the first courthouse, post office, and other important “first” milestones within its general territory.
It was a long drive for me to make alone but I wasn’t afraid. There were very few things in life that I was scared of, and if I happened to come across any of them, I kept my Colt M1911 in my glove compartment.
It was a standard issue magazine fed semi-automatic handgun, and it was a very lightweight gun to carry. I had it ever since I started working for the department and I took it with me wherever I went when I was off duty.
The Chief wasn’t too thrilled when I turned in a request to transfer and thought it was something he or the other officers had done. The Chief had always told me that I showed a lot of promise and was working towards being one of the best despite being on the force for only two years. He said I had the raw talent of keen observation, situation control and deciphering crime scenes.
In the notes section of my request form, I had written that I wanted to be transferred to a small town, preferably on the east coast. Confused by the specific and odd request, the Chief called me into his office to better understand where my choices were coming from.
“They weren’t coming from anywhere,” I had told him. I couldn’t really explain it to him or anyone where the feelings originated from exactly, all I knew was that I strongly felt the urge to just go and start fresh and I had to do it soon.
Everyone in the department, especially the Chief, was worried that I had become clinically depressed, and I assured everyone that I was far from such, but once I had gotten to Danville, I believed things would make more sense then.
I thought a lot on this trip, I couldn’t help it. I thought about Michael, leaving my family, my current state of mind and occasionally the thought of whether or not I was making a wrong decision. Every time any doubts popped up, I did everything I could to stop it.
Despite any doubts, I knew I was making the best decision at the time, there was a strong urge to get away from the chaos I felt inside, and the only thing I knew that would get rid of it was to start over.
In the end, I either started the beginning of the rest of my life, or I started another life experience and could always make the decision to come back home. The Chief assured me as long as he was in charge, I was always welcome back.
It was nice to hear, but I couldn’t imagine doing it if I could help it. There was nothing bad about Los Angeles, the Chief, working for the police department or anything of the sort but I couldn’t imagine all of it, together. I often tried to get others to understand what I meant by that, but they never did. They weren’t meant to, it wasn’t their lives. It wouldn’t ever make sense to them, and I had to realize that I had to do everything I could to not get to the point where I regretted my decision.
Southern Rider
Scars Book One
Coming Late May 2017
Twelve Miles
Serendipity Series: Book One
A Billionaire, Office Romance
By Robin Edwards
© Copyright 2016-2017 by Robin Edwards
and Second Chances Press
All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Chapter One
JAMIE
I STARTED COMING to the beach in Sutton Hill regularly when I wanted to think and obtain some peace of mind. It was cold on this particular morning, but I still came anyway. There was something about the calmness of it all – the cool breeze, the sky just after the sun rose, the sand between my toes and the sound of waves crashing. It was being surrounded by the simplicity that brought me here almost daily. Each time, I would get up around dawn and sit on the same stiff, concrete bench behind Tower 19.
Whenever I came, the runners were already huddled around the start of the jogging path in the midst of their morning stretches. I couldn’t help but get distracted by the way they prepared themselves before their run as it always prevented me from getting what I came for – I just wanted to be by myself.
Picking up the heavy gym bag that sat next to me, I let out a deep sigh. I had the day off, but I wanted to spend most of the evening filling out online job applications until my eyes burned from the constant scanning of computerized pixels across the screen. My mixed martial arts class wasn’t until the evening, but I needed a break to ease the dullness my life had become.
It was the one thing I had going in my life that always worked like a charm whenever I was feeling agitated and today w
as no exception. I needed some self-guided training. I never went to the martial arts dojo during the day due to my work schedule, but whenever I had a day off during the week as rare as it was, I usually went there. Never mind the hope that I might see Sam again.
He was the right combination of dark and refined sexiness mixed with All-American bravado. The funny part was, he didn’t exactly know who I was. The first time I met Sam, we literally ran into each other at a party celebrating a martial arts tournament in our dojo several months ago. It probably was a fleeting occurrence to him, but it was a memory that I couldn’t forget.
I promised myself that if I ever got the chance to run into him again, I’d make use of the opportunity and introduce myself, that is if I didn’t make an ass out of myself again. The last time I saw him, I spilled my concoction of pineapple juice and rum all over his white dress shirt and then stuttered an ill-fated apology before I ran into the bathroom to hide. I stayed in there until my embarrassment died down and fortunately, he was nowhere to be seen. I’ve felt sorry about it ever since.
Whenever someone found out that I was involved in martial arts of any kind, they were always shocked. They made never ending comments such as, ‘A woman as reserved as you, Jamie, is never seen participating in such a violent sport.' If they weren’t shocked by my love of the sport, they were busy stereotyping me as a bad ass and would often laugh and tell me that they were scared that I’d kick their ass.
The opposite was true, of course. It was the only sport I attempted where I didn’t end up tripping or hitting myself with the ball. I was actually good at it, and it was more than just competitive fighting that everyone labeled it to be. For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be a martial artist like all of the greats on television or in the movies, but it wasn’t until I was old enough was I able to enroll in my first martial arts class that I was hooked.
Break Away Page 14
