Playboy Ever After

by Chance Carter

  Regarding Lawrence, Ben had agreed not to press any charges. Lawrence was over the moon when Ben stopped in at the liquor store to tell him personally that he would remain a free man.

  Ben now had a very expensive bottle of Scottish whiskey stored in the trunk of his car. As much as he protested that a gift wasn't necessary and that he was just doing his job, Lawrence refused to let him leave the shop without it.

  Jenny parked her car in the lot. The station seemed less intimidating as the automatic doors swished open ahead of her. The desk clerk was deep in discussion with Ben on the far side of the lobby, so she hung back until their talk appeared to be finished.

  When it was time to go through to see Joey, Ben motioned for her to follow him up the hall.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, a smile unfurling on his lips. “We could leave him in there another day or two. Make him sweat.”

  “Very funny.”

  Jenny waited nervously as Ben unlocked the holding cell door and led the way inside.

  Joey stood up from his bunk at the sight of his visitors. He’d been expecting his transfer that day and was already on alert. He looked concerned when he saw Ben walking alongside her. It was clear to Jenny that her brother recognized his superior.

  “Police Commissioner Gatrall.”

  Joey extended his hand through the bars.

  “I didn't expect to see you here. No one told me you were coming, he said as Ben shook his hand warmly”

  “I didn't expect to be in Ombrea today, Officer Dale, but your sister was rather insistent I come take a look at your case.”

  Jenny couldn't help but smile at his reaction when Joey glanced her way in surprise.

  “Well, thank you, sir. It means a lot to me that you would even consider coming by.”

  “You’re getting evicted, Dale.” Ben raised an eyebrow, “unless you’d prefer to stay.”

  “No, sir,” Joey shook his head quickly, “not a bit.”

  He waited with anticipation as Ben found the key on the chain and unlocked the sliding, metal door of his cell. Joey almost tripped in his rush to be free. He shook Ben's hand quickly again before he brought Jenny in for a long, strong hug.

  “I can’t believe you did it.” he cried into her hair. “You got me out, Jen!”

  “We don't like to keep innocent men in jail any longer than we have to,” Ben told him firmly. “The public frowns upon it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few more interviews to conduct. Officer Dale,” he said, offering his hand to the younger officer one last time, “on behalf of the Ombrea Police Department, I apologize for the way you've been treated. You are now free to go.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Joey was ecstatic.

  “Thank you so much for all you've done for me.”

  “Thank your sister and Roy Peters. They were the ones who didn’t give up on you. You’ve got a good family there, son.”

  “Yes, I do, sir,” Joey said proudly. “I really do.”

  * * *

  Roy didn’t think he had any friends in town. That was until he got shot.

  His hospital nightstand was littered with gifts and well wishes sent to him from various folks around town. Most of them he barely knew, let alone had a friendship with. Still, everyone wanted to wish him a speedy recovery.

  Even Isabelle had jumped on the bandwagon. He kept his vase of colorful wildflowers from the Dale property right beside his bed so he could see them all the time.

  The last time he had seen Jenny was after he had come out of surgery.

  After passing out on the sand, there was little he actually remembered about the incident. He must have lost a lot of blood.

  Jenny and Isabelle had been allowed to come in while he regained consciousness from the anesthesia. Their faces were as blurry as they were when he was still lying out there at the cabin, but it was comforting to know they had stayed with him.

  Jenny told him that when Chief Cartright had gone to deliver the shot that would most likely have killed him, the dog had rushed up and knocked the chief back. Chief Cartright had fumbled, but remained standing, choosing to point his weapon at the child instead. That was when Ben had stepped in and delivered the shot that left Chief Cartright dead in the sand.

  Roy was glad it was all finally over. He hadn't expected it to end this way. He had thought that the police commissioner would arrest Chief Cartright and he would stand trial for his crimes. Joey would be free, and Isabelle would finally be reunited with her father. Jenny would stay with him at his cabin, and they would all live happily ever after. It seemed a pretty good ending in his eyes.

  Chapter 33

  As much as she wanted to, Jenny couldn't visit Roy for another hour due to hospital regulations.

  Tired of his sister impatiently pacing the cabin, Joey had pulled her outside to the beach. Together, they had moved the chairs from the deck down onto the sand so they could enjoy the warm weather while it was still available. Before long summer would come to a close and fall would quickly set in its place.

  Jenny couldn't imagine how beautiful the cabin must look in fall colors. She couldn't wait to see it, but that was what she needed to talk to Roy about.

  She watched as Joey flopped easily into his chair. He looked a thousand times better than he had done when he had been in that dingy jail cell. He was cleaner and now, thankfully, well fed for a change. He had taken an old pair of clippers from Roy's bathroom to his hair and trimmed it so it was shorter than normal. The look suited him more than his longer hair ever had.

  Jenny's mind couldn't help but slip back to the events of yesterday morning. It had been a horrible event that thankfully had come to a close rather quickly. Chief Cartright would no longer be causing any more damage in this town. Yet, there were some aspects of it that she found she couldn't quite wrap her head around.

  “I keep thinking, why didn't he just wait until the commissioner wanted to speak to him? He could have tried to sway him to his case,” Jenny asked. “He could have called us liars, or at least prepared some kind of defense. Instead, he just made himself look even guiltier by coming after us.”

  “He wasn't in his right mind. You've got to remember that,” Joey reminded her softly. “He was a smart criminal, but he was still a man somewhere deep underneath. He knew you were onto him when Roy discovered that badge at the house. He must have been monitoring the holding cell feed and determined you knew it was him for sure. That was why he acted. You were going to ruin him, and he wanted to ruin you first.”

  “But it doesn't make much sense,” Jenny protested.

  “Jen, he was a twisted individual. Can't you just be relieved that he got what was coming to him all along?” Joey closed his eyes as he leaned back into the deck chair. “He's finally been stopped.”

  Jenny nodded her head. She watched as the summer breeze played across her younger brother's short hair. He didn't look like she remembered, but he hadn’t in the jail cell either. The boy she remembered had been scrawny and awkward. His shoulders had always been focused in as if he expected a fight around every corner.

  The young man sat before her now was relaxed and calm. His face had aged, she noticed. There were lines around his eyes and a small scar on his cheek that she couldn't remember him ever receiving when they had been kids.

  She felt a small churning of guilt at the very idea that she didn't really know him anymore. Over the course of the past seven years, she hadn't wanted anything to do with him. He had respected that and stayed away. The next few years, they had led completely individual lives with neither of them making the other aware of even one aspect of it.

  It had been Chloe who sat in the middle of the siblings. She had complained about Joey on the odd occasion, and always ready to knock her brother for his actions, Jenny had been more than happy to listen to her vent. When it came to anything serious or important with regard to Joey, she realized that Chloe hadn't said a word.

  She hadn't told her, for example,
about the time Joey had received a service medal for quick thinking at a car accident up on the highway. Jenny had seen the plaque mounted on the wall of the hallway in the Dale house.

  Chloe hadn't told her about the time Joey had helped sew Isabelle's lion costume together for her kindergarten play. Jenny had just found a photo of Joey asleep at the sewing machine tucked away in the spare room, Isabelle trying on the lion's awkwardly shaped head while he slept.

  Joey's life had been a complete mystery to her. She knew what she had been expecting, more doom and gloom, but in reality, it had been a lot different. Joey had grown into a fine, young man and one she was proud to call her brother.

  “Do you miss her?”

  She didn't know how she had found the courage to ask, but she realized the question had been at the back of her mind for some time. Joey and Chloe had never had the perfect marriage. In fact, they had really only married to give Isabelle two stable parents. Yet throughout all the struggles, they had never truly let each other go. Chloe had cheated, with Chief Cartright of all people, but she hadn't entirely left Joey, either.

  Joey opened one eye as he looked across at her.

  “Did you really just ask me that?”

  “I know. It was wrong of me.”

  “Damn intrusive, too, I might add.”

  “Horribly intrusive.”

  He smiled gently. “It's alright, Jen. I do miss her. How could I not? She was the love of my life.” He sat forward and rested his elbows on his legs to look at her better. “Do you?”

  “Miss Chloe?” She watched as he nodded. “Of course, she was my best friend.”

  “I guess that is something we finally have in common then.”

  He was beaming as he sat back in his deck chair again. It seemed as if Joey Dale was taking his freedom rather well.

  “There’s another thing we have in common,” Jenny reminded him. She stretched out her feet until she could poke him with her big toe. He nudged her away good-naturedly.

  “What's that, parents?”

  “We both happen to love that little girl over there.”

  She looked over. Isabelle was perched on the water's edge, her blue eyes intently peering down in the water as she looked for any flat and shiny pebbles she could use for skipping. The dog, never too far away from her side if he could help it, was sat close beside her. He just watched her, waiting for the moment he could chase the pebble out into the water and try to snap it up.

  “That is true.” He followed her gaze to the pair. “That dog isn't returnable, is it?”

  “Where are you going to return him to? The woods? He was a stray.”

  “So what you’re saying is my daughter is basically a tamer of wild animals, like the kid out of the Jungle Book?”

  “Yes,” Jenny nudged him with her toe again, “except she's the West Virginia version.”

  * * *

  Roy couldn't sleep.

  He kept a close eye on the hospital clock on the wall, watching as the minutes ticked away. Hospital rules at the small, Ombrea hospital dictated only two hours a day be allotted for visitors. Roy was absolutely fine with that as long as those two hours hurried up and actually got here

  He knew Jenny would come for visiting hours. In fact, he couldn't wait for her to get here and see him. She always seemed to find a way to make him feel better, and with the way his shoulder was throbbing, he needed a little of her charm.

  “Hey, stranger,” she muttered softly as she finally appeared through the hospital room door. Her easy smile made him feel much better already. “How are you feeling today?”

  He winced as he tried to sit up a little higher. “I feel like I maybe got shot yesterday.”

  She chuckled at his joke. “That’s how bad it feels, is it? Sounds like you’re just being a little overly-dramatic there, Peters.”

  He smiled as he patted the space on the sheets beside him. The chair at his bedside just wouldn't do. He needed her as close as possible. He was grateful when she climbed in on his good side. He awkwardly used his good arm to reach across her shoulders and held her tight. It wasn't the best way to embrace her but anything else would just have to wait until he healed.

  They lay there in comfortable silence for a time. He tried not to think about how the minutes were ticking away on their visiting time. If he had his way, she could stay here with him while he recovered and there would be no time limit to consider.

  “Isabelle really did a fine job picking all those wildflowers,” Jenny murmured at his side. She reached out a hand and gently touched a petal with her fingertip. “They're beautiful.”

  “They’re my favorite gift. They do a grand job at brightening up this little space,” He responded. He took a moment as he watched her face.

  Roy couldn't believe how beautiful Jenny truly was. He had to admit, when he had first seen her he had thought so, too, but her attitude toward Joey had quickly dashed any thoughts he’d had in that regard.

  Since he had gotten to know her better and began working with her to free Joey, his opinions about her beauty had definitely returned. Except now, he knew the woman that lay beneath, and that made her even more appealing to him than he had first anticipated.

  “I don't remember receiving a gift from you,” he teased gently. He liked how her lips curved into a smile when she looked back at him.

  “I had a special one in mind for you.”

  “Yeah?” he smirked. “What happened to it? Did it get lost in the post?”

  He was concerned when her smile faded.

  “What's up? Did I say the wrong thing?”

  “You made a bad joke, but it's not the worst one I've ever heard you make.”

  Her smile still hadn't brightened very much. He lifted his good arm so she had no choice but to roll over against him. Her face was mere inches from his. As much as he wanted to kiss her right then, he resisted for the time being until he could get to the bottom of this problem.

  “What's going on, Jen?”

  “Nothing.”

  “It's not nothing. I know you too well by now to believe that. You've got something on your mind.”

  He heard her sigh heavily. She curled in even closer to him if that were even possible. Her breath tickled his stubbled cheek.

  “I wanted to ask you something. That was what my gift to you was going to be.” She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. He figured she was trying to come up with the right words. “Except it seems cheesy and rather dumb to be asking, now that I’m actually here.”

  “Then, in that case, you really do have to ask.”

  “Fine,” she drew out the word and he laughed.

  “If you don't tell me, I can't force it out of you. You’ll just have to take pity on an injured man, and just tell me what this question is.”

  “Fine,” she repeated. She took a big, deep breath and closed her eyes. A moment passed before she got her wits about her and looked back into his face. “Would you ever considering living with me?”

  “No,” he told her in response.

  Her face fell. “But I guess that means that it's about time I got round to asking you something.”

  She stared up at him again.

  “Okay,” she said in a small voice.

  “I won't come live with you, especially not in that big, bright, hell-hole of a city you call home. But I need to ask you one thing. Would you come and live with me at the cabin?” he asked.

  “Yes!” Jenny looked overjoyed by his question and he was glad for it.

  His doubts had told him now that the case was over, she might have wanted to run back to the Big City and back to her fashion career. He had given it some thought while he had been waiting for her arrival, but he had been unwilling to give up his whole life for the bright lights of the city. He knew he could never grow to be comfortable in a place like that, even it did mean he might have to give up Jenny.

  “So that's it then?” He asked before he planted a soft kiss on her lips. “We’re actually going to do
this?”

  “Yes.” She squirmed against him happily. “We’re going to live happily ever after. I'm sure of it.”

  He smiled into her hair as Jenny shifted her position so that she could rest her head against his chest.

  “This just feels so right,” he heard her murmur.

  “You're telling me. I never thought anything like this would ever happen.” He raised his bad arm, wincing when the feeling of discomfort seemed to shoot right down to his hand. He used that hand to smooth her hair back from her face.

  It just felt so right to have her there beside him. He never wanted to let her go again.

  Chapter 34

  A couple of days later, Ben Gatrall called to tell Jenny he would be returning to Ombrea again that afternoon.

  She had been pleasantly surprised, considering how little time had passed since he had returned home. She offered him the use of one of the cabin's guest rooms, which he had gratefully accepted. She didn't think Joey would mind if Isabelle roomed in with him for just one night, especially when it was the police commissioner who was coming to stay.

  Before he ended the phone call, Ben told her he would be holding a press conference at the bandstand in the Town Center, to ensure that the business surrounding Chloe Dale's death was put to rest once and for all. Jenny didn’t know what to say.

  Joey's release had signified the end of the case, as far as she was concerned, but she could understand that the public needed to know the truth as well.

  That afternoon, she drove Joey, Roy, and Isabelle into town for the press conference. They met Commissioner Gatrall just as he was about to head onto the stage. He shook each of their hands and directed them to a row of chairs marked reserved at the front of the bandstand.

  The press conference had not been underway long when the police commissioner asked for Joey Dale to join him front and center. Jenny encouraged her nervous younger brother to take the stage, clapping along with the rest of the crowd as he headed up the bandstand steps and met the Commissioner on stage.

  “Now having been cleared of all charges, I would like to present you with your badge and gun,” Ben said as he reached to a table beside him for the items. “You can report for active duty as soon as you are ready. I want to apologize for the actions of the Ombrea Police Department. You did not deserve the treatment you had to endure. I hope that the reactivation of your service helps to bridge the gap between you and the force.” Ben extended his hand to Joey one last time. “Officer Dale, the town of Ombrea needs good men like you.”