The House on Main Street

by Shirlee McCoy

  As always, Ida and the rest of the town council had planned the park’s Christmas decorations. Wreathes and bows were tied to every streetlight, and every pine and spruce tree was covered with Christmas lights. Above the park, on a small knoll that overlooked the town, Apple Valley Community Church gleamed in the sunlight, its whitewashed walls and tall steeple as much a piece of town history as Daniel and Miriam Riley were.

  Cade stepped outside, his gaze drawn to the church for just a moment before he headed up Main Street.

  “Sheriff!” someone called as he turned onto First.

  Zim.

  Shit!

  “Hey, Zim.” He turned and faced the older man, his best fake smile plastered to his face. “Did Emma tell you that I’d be stopping by at four?”

  “She told me squat. That’s why I came out here.” Zim propped knobby fists on his scrawny waist. “I have rights, you know. Just like them Rileys.”

  “The Rileys are dead,” Cade pointed out.

  “That doesn’t mean they’re not responsible for the mess they left. Someone needs to get it cleaned up!”

  “It’s not a bad thing to have some compassion, Zim.” Cade started walking again, hoping the old man would get the hint and give up the argument.

  He didn’t.

  “What about compassion for me having to live next to that mess all these years? What about that?” he cried, his hair vibrating with the force of his irritation.

  “You know, Zim, some people think you’re not all that concerned about the mess. Some people think that you’re just hoping to force the family out so you can buy up the property.” Some people being Cade. He kept that little piece of information to himself.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zim protested, but his ruddy cheeks were even ruddier than usual.

  “You used to be a Realtor, Zim. You can’t tell me that you’re not interested in fixing that place up and selling it for a profit.”

  “I’m not going to deny it, but you can’t deny that I’ve been patient. I didn’t push as hard as I could have before Dave and Emily . . .” Zim’s scowl deepened.

  “Were killed by a drunk driver?” Cade offered. “You’re a saint, Zim. Come on. I’m hungry, and if we’re going to be talking about this for the next few hours, I’d like to have something in my stomach while I do it.”

  “Where are you planning to eat, Sheriff? Because I’m not made of money,” Zim griped as he panted along behind Cade.

  If Cade wanted to give the old guy a heart attack, all he had to do was walk a little faster. He slowed down, because no matter how annoying Zim was, Cade didn’t want to be responsible for killing him. “I’m heading to the diner.”

  “You know you can make twenty sandwiches for what it costs to buy one there?”

  “Zim, I’m just about out of patience, so how about you keep your opinion about my lunch choice to yourself?” Cade shot Zim a hard look.

  “I’m just saying that a smart man keeps a close eye on his budget.” Zim didn’t seem at all fazed by Cade’s warning. “Take me, for example . . .”

  Cade decided not to.

  As a matter of fact, he opted out of the lecture, Zim’s words just a backdrop to other town center noises. Cars passing, people calling out to one another, Christmas music drifting from a toy store at the corner. Cade would have to stop in there on his day off, grab a few gifts for his nieces and nephews.

  A small figure rounded the corner, bypassing the toy store and moving across the street toward the park. Shoulders hunched, hood up, dark blue coat flapping open, it could have been anyone, but Cade knew the shuffling steps, the strange, almost disjointed movements of the arms. Alex Riley. The kid should be in school, not wandering around town.

  “Hold that thought, Zim,” he said, interrupting the other man’s diatribe. “I need to take care of something.”

  “You need to take care of my complaint. I’m not going to wait another ten years,” Zim sputtered as Cade sprinted across the street.

  “Alex!” he called out.

  The boy hesitated, then just kept walking, definitely heading for the park or somewhere beyond it.

  Cade put a hand on Alex’s shoulder as he caught up to him. “Hey, buddy. Where are you heading?”

  Alex shrugged.

  “Do your aunts know that you’re not in school?” He tried again and was rewarded with a quick head shake. “What about your teacher? Did you tell her you were leaving?”

  “It’s recess,” Alex said simply, his voice still rusty and rough, his gaze on the ground as he walked along the sidewalk.

  “That doesn’t mean you get to leave the school. You’re a smart kid. I’m sure you know that.”

  “Yes.”

  “Your teacher is going to be worried when she realizes you’re missing.”

  “I’m not missing,” Alex pointed out, his hands patting his sides in a quick, frantic motion. “I’m here.”

  Cade couldn’t argue with that, but he couldn’t let a ten-year-old wander around town unsupervised, either. “But you’re not where you’re supposed to be. That’s a problem.”

  “I think that I need to be here.”

  “Why?”

  Alex didn’t answer. Cade had gotten more out of him than he’d expected to, but they were approaching the entrance to the park, and Cade couldn’t let him go in. At just over seventy acres, the park stretched out from the town center to the cemetery at the old church. Aside from the pond and flower garden, there were thick copses of trees and deep ravines. Not a place he’d have wanted his ten-year-old son to be wandering alone.

  “Alex.” He snagged the back of the kid’s coat and pulled him to a stop. “I’m going to have to take you home or back to school. You choose.”

  Alex stared up at him, his eyes wide, his hair a lighter shade of red than his aunt’s, his eyes the same sky blue as his mother’s had been.

  “Home,” he said and turned back the way they’d come.

  Cade made a quick call to the elementary school and then called This-N-That. No one answered. Not a surprise. Tessa and Gertrude were probably too busy arguing to answer the phone.

  “Hold on, Alex.” Cade snagged the back of Alex’s jacket again, and the little boy stopped, glancing over his shoulder. This time he looked irritated. Obviously, he had some of Tessa’s impatience. “Have you ever ridden in a police car before?”

  “I am not a criminal,” Alex replied.

  Cade couldn’t quite help laughing, but Alex didn’t seem amused.

  “I’m not.”

  “I’m not either, but I ride in a police car all the time.”

  “Because you’re the sheriff, and it’s your job.”

  “It’s also my job to make sure kids are where they’re supposed to be. So, how about I give you a ride back to your place?” He steered Alex toward the police station and down the alley that led to the parking area.

  Sure, he needed to get the boy home, but he couldn’t deny a little zing of excitement, a little heat racing through his blood at the thought of seeing Tessa again. He buckled Alex into the backseat of the cruiser, offering a quick smile as he closed the door.

  He could have put on the sirens and lights, given Alex something to talk about at school the next day, but he didn’t think Alex was the kind to talk about anything to anyone, so he just pulled out of the parking lot and drove toward This-N-That, the sirens off, the car silent, the boy who might have been Cade’s sitting stiff and tense in the backseat.

  Chapter Six

  Cream-colored siding with dark blue shutters and trim. That was the goal. First, though, Tess had to get rid of several layers of peeling grayish-brown paint. She stepped back, eyeing the progress that she’d made on the lower level of the house. Not bad for four hours of work, but she had more to do and, if the dozen messages Zimmerman Beck had left on the store’s answering machine were any indication, a limited amount of time to do it.

  One thing at a time.

  That was about
all Tess could do.

  “Looking good,” Gertrude said as she lugged a trash bag from the house to one of the seven trash cans Tess had bought at the local Walmart. “You going to stop for lunch anytime soon?”

  “Not until I get the second story finished.” Tess dragged an old ladder from the side yard and propped it up against the house. For now, she and Gertrude seemed to have a truce. That suited her just fine.

  “It’ll be midnight by that time.”

  “I just have to scrape off the stuff that is peeling. It shouldn’t take long.” Not more than another four or five hours. She tried not to think about it as she climbed up the ladder. The sun was out. For now. It was at least forty degrees. She couldn’t complain, and she couldn’t waste energy thinking about how much she still had to do.

  The key was to make as much progress as possible so that Zimmerman Beck would get off her back and her answering machine.

  The acrid scent of cigarette smoke drifted from below.

  Obviously, Gertrude wasn’t as concerned about hurrying to clean up the house as Tessa was.

  “You promised to finish the kitchen today,” she reminded her, doing her best to keep accusation from her voice. Truces were nice. Especially after days of fighting.

  “I may be a prisoner, but I’m entitled to a smoke break and lunch.”

  “No one said—”

  “Dear God in Heaven! The boy’s come home in a police car!” Gertrude shrieked so loudly, Tessa nearly lost her balance.

  The ladder wobbled but held steady.

  Thank God.

  “What are you talking about?” She turned her head, saw the cruiser pulling into the driveway. Not just any cruiser, either. The sheriff’s car.

  She squinted against the afternoon sun, hoping Gertrude was wrong and that Alex wasn’t actually in Cade’s car.

  He was. She could see him clearly, his coppery head bent close to the window, his fingers tapping frantically on the glass.

  “Shit!” she muttered, glad her nephew was still in the car and couldn’t hear. He was supposed to be in school, for crying out loud. How in the world had he ended up being picked up by the police?

  She climbed down the ladder as quickly as she could without breaking her neck, her heart tripping all over itself with fear and something else. A tiny little bit of anticipation. She was woman enough to admit it, but not quite woman enough to meet Cade’s eyes when he got out of the car.

  “What’s going on, Cade?” Gertrude said before anyone else had a chance to. “You taking my nephew into custody until we get this mess cleaned up? Because I can tell you right now—”

  “No need for dramatics, Gertrude,” Cade said, cutting her off. He opened the back door of the cruiser, smiling gently at Alex, and Tessa’s heart burned hot in her chest.

  Why did he have to be good with kids?

  Why couldn’t he be just another pretty face? Shallow and vain and completely superfluous?

  “You’re home, buddy,” he said.

  Alex nodded, and Tessa’s heart sank as she looked into her nephew’s face. He was sliding away, back into the comfort of his own mind, and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop it.

  “You’re supposed to be at school.” She touched Alex’s soft hair, but he just shuffled past.

  “He said it was recess,” Cade explained.

  “You can’t just leave school because it’s recess. You know that.” Gertrude pulled Alex to a stop, holding on to him when he tried to shrug away.

  “Alex.” Tess crouched so that they were eye to eye, touching his chin to force him to meet her gaze. “You know what you did was wrong. What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking about finding her,” he responded in his matter-of-fact way. No emotion. No hint of sorrow or grief.

  Tess hugged him, not letting go even though his body was rigid and tense. “She’s gone. She died. You know what that means, right?”

  “She can’t die.”

  “Everyone dies, Alex. When they do—”

  “She can’t,” Alex cut in, slipping from her embrace and shuffling away. He moved like an old man, his steps brittle and unsure as he walked up the porch stairs.

  “Son—” Gertrude started, but Alex disappeared inside without a backward glance.

  Silence fell, thick as morning fog.

  None of them seemed to know what to say, but Tessa felt the absurd urge to speak anyway. He was her responsibility, right? That meant she had to solve the problem, fix things. Make sure he stayed safe.

  “I’d better go talk to him,” she finally managed.

  “What are you going to say, huh? You don’t even know him, and you barely knew Emily,” Gertrude said bitterly. “Stay out here and scrape the damn house. I’ll take care of Alex.”

  “Ouch,” Cade murmured as Gertrude slammed the front door.

  Ouch was right.

  But that was Gertrude and always had been. Mercurial and temperamental. Just a little resentful of the fact that she’d been left to raise her much younger sister’s girls. “She’s upset about Alex. It’s just a lot easier to be angry with me.”

  “That’s not an excuse.” Cade frowned.

  “It’s a reason, and I guess after everything we’ve all been through, I need to give her a little leeway.”

  “She doesn’t give you any. But”—he smiled, and Tessa’s heart did a stupid little happy dance—“I admire your charitable spirit.”

  “You wouldn’t be saying that if you could spend about three minutes in my head.” She laughed, lighter than she’d been a minute ago. Happier, because being with Cade had always made her feel that way.

  “Then I guess it’s good that I can’t.” He propped his hip against the car, his arms folded across his chest. “What are you going to do about Alex, Tess? He was heading to the park when I found him. That’s not a good place for a kid to be wandering around alone.”

  “I wish I knew.” She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced at the house. “He’s not a typical kid, and I just can’t figure out how to reach him. Not that I’d know how to reach a kid who was typical.”

  “You’ve always handled whatever life sent your way. You’ll handle this.”

  “You have a lot of confidence in me, Cade. I wish I did.” The lump was back in her throat, and she looked away because she didn’t want Cade to see how close she was to crying.

  “Come here,” he said, sighing, and the next thing she knew, she was in his arms, her nose buried in cold leather. Years ago, she and Cade had shared secrets and dreams. She’d told him everything, and he’d done the same. Standing there with him felt like going back in time, and she was ready to spill her guts, tell him just how unsure she was, how afraid she was of failing her nephew.

  “You’re going to be great, Red,” he murmured against her hair. “I promise.”

  If only his promise could make it so, but promises were about as useful as sand in a desert.

  And standing in his arms could only make her want things that weren’t meant to be.

  She stepped away, her hands shaking a little as she brushed paint chips from her jeans.

  “Thanks.” She looked at the house, all the work that still needed to be done, and felt so tired, she thought she could sleep for a month. “I’d better get back to work. The house won’t scrape itself.”

  “What’s the hurry?” He grabbed her hand, pulling her to the swing. “You look like you could use a break.”

  “I don’t nee—”

  He sat, yanking her down beside him. “Shut up, Tess, and just sit for a minute. You’re going to wear yourself ragged trying to get this house done, and then where will Alex be?”

  “Apparently inside with Gertrude,” she muttered, trying hard not to notice how firmly their thighs were pressed together, the heat of his hip against her, or—and this was the most difficult of all to ignore—how good he smelled. Leather and outdoors and something indefinable and completely masculine.

  “I talked to Zi
m today,” he said, his words like a splash of ice water in her face.

  Here she was, mooning over Cade when her whole life was going to hell in a handbasket.

  She would have jumped off the swing if she hadn’t been firmly wedged in place by Cade’s hard body. “That doesn’t surprise me. Unfortunately, I’m cleaning up as quickly as I can, but it’s still going to take time.”

  “You’re not going to scrape all the paint yourself, are you?”

  “I don’t really have a choice. Gertrude is too old and ornery to help, and Alex is too young. That leaves me.”

  “You could hire a crew and have it done in a day or two.”

  “That would be a great idea if there was money to do it.” She had a nice little nest egg saved, but she needed to keep that for emergencies. Besides, getting her hands dirty and keeping herself busy was the best way to keep from focusing on what she’d lost.

  And what she’d gained.

  “Emily and Dave didn’t have life insurance?” Cade’s dark brows pulled together. He wasn’t the kind of guy who’d have a family and not have life insurance. He’d have had everything in place to provide for his son.

  Obviously, he couldn’t understand how a person could die and leave the care of his child to chance.

  Tess couldn’t either.

  “Look around.” She waved toward the house. “Does this place look like it was being cared for by people who planned for the future?”

  “I don’t think either of them ever thought about much more than the moment.”

  “They were good people, though.” She jumped to their defense. It was fine for her to think they’d sucked, but not for anyone to say it.

  Double standards, and she couldn’t have cared less.

  “I didn’t say they weren’t. But being nice doesn’t always cut it when it comes to life.” Cade’s hand dropped to her thigh, the heat of his palm searing through her jeans and wiping out just about every thought she had in her head.

  She wanted to tell him to move his hand so she could think again, but since coming back to Apple Valley, thinking had become highly overrated. She’d spent way too many hours thinking about all the things she should have said to Emily. Thinking about all the times she could have come for a visit and hadn’t. Thinking about the job she was going to have to quit.