Complicated

by Kristen Ashley

  “Ready to go?” he asked Andy.

  “Go,” he said then he started into his room but looked back. “Jacket,” he explained and he disappeared.

  Greta got close and Hix looked down to her.

  “Are you . . . I put you on the spot. Is this okay?” she asked.

  “Hell yeah,” he answered.

  That was when she aimed the full force of her smile at him.

  Hix fought back a blink.

  “Ready!” Andy declared, jumping out of his room.

  “Right, let’s go, man,” Hix invited, wanting to touch Greta, give her a kiss, but just giving her a look before he started down the hall, Andy walking beside him, Greta beside her brother.

  “Whoa! Way cooler than a cop car!” Andy declared when he saw the Ram.

  Hix bleeped the locks and Andy moved to the passenger side door.

  Greta got close and skimmed the back of her fingers against his.

  He looked down at her. “He’ll be okay with me.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  And more of that bourbon feel hit his gut.

  She smiled, looked to her brother, waved and yelled, “See you there!”

  “Yeah!” he yelled back from inside the truck.

  She moved to her Cherokee.

  Hix got behind the wheel.

  “You can’t do it, you know, ’cause this isn’t official or anything, but later, when we get there, can you turn on the lights?” Andy asked when he’d started up the truck.

  He looked to Greta’s brother. “Absolutely.”

  “Cool,” Andy whispered.

  Hix backed out and idled, making a point that Greta caught.

  So she pulled out in front of him and he and her brother followed her back to town, straight to the Harlequin.

  For a variety of reasons, Hix was in a far better mood when he returned to his department than he was when he’d left it.

  And it was so much better, Tawnee calling out to him as he walked down the aisle, “We can get a curtain, Sheriff, put it up, then I can give you the mother part of the mother-daughter experience all private-like,” didn’t shake it in the slightest.

  He’d barely looked at her when Donna said loudly, “Perhaps due to the uncanny resemblance, they gave Greta to the wrong woman at the hospital.”

  Hix grinned at his deputy.

  “You bein’ a man-woman and all, just because you couldn’t get any dick unless you paid for it doesn’t mean you should be ugly to a sister,” Tawnee sneered to Donna.

  Donna looked over her shoulder at Greta’s mother. “I’ll tell my husband that after I give him his nightly blowjob.”

  Hal let out a bark of laughter.

  Hix swallowed his.

  “Tell him, he wants to feel how good it is when it’s really done right, he should give me a call,” Tawnee returned.

  “Honey, if he ever gets the urge for aging skank, I’ll send him right your way, and he gets that disgusting urge, you can have him,” Donna fired back.

  Tawnee shot hate from her eyes but fortunately shut up.

  Hix went to his office to make a call he knew he was going to enjoy, not half as much as he enjoyed being let in over lunch on the sweet Greta had with her brother, but it would still feel good.

  Allowing Andy to turn on his lights outside the Harlequin might have been a good call.

  But Hix suspected he just loved his sister.

  So when Greta pulled Hix into the booth beside her, making a point that Andy’s damaged brain didn’t miss, it just made him grin at them a lot during lunch, it made Hix feel like he’d downed a double shot of the finest bourbon there was.

  “Yo, Hixon, how’s it hangin’, son?” Kavanagh Becker said as greeting when he picked up Hix’s call.

  “Courtesy call, Becker,” Hix replied. “We got your woman down here, arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace at her son’s home.”

  “Her what?”

  Oh yeah.

  As he suspected.

  Becker hadn’t mentioned Tawnee’s son in their previous conversations. Instead, he’d said that Greta was the only child Tawnee had. At the time, Hix didn’t know Greta had a brother so he didn’t cotton on to what Becker not knowing about Andy might mean.

  Now he had a feeling he knew what it meant.

  Yes.

  Definitely.

  He was going to enjoy this.

  “Her son. At his home. Sunnydown.”

  Silence from Becker.

  Hix didn’t extend that further courtesy.

  “She lost guardianship doin’ time for puttin’ him in a place like that after drivin’ him home drunk from a party. Greta looks after him. And she wasn’t feelin’ a lotta love for her mom so she took her off the visitor list. Tawnee felt her next move was causin’ a scene on the day she knew Greta came to spend time with him. This didn’t go well, not because Greta’s seein’ me and I intervened, but because Andy doesn’t really give much of a fuck his mother was arrested. But this is neither here nor there for you. These aren’t serious charges, we’ll just make a note of the arrest on her record and I’m happy to release her to you under her recognizance and her promise that she doesn’t do that shit again.”

  Becker still said nothing.

  “Did I lose you?” Hix asked.

  “We got a problem because of this?”

  “You mean a bigger one than the last one she caused?” Hix asked for clarity.

  “Yeah,” Becker bit out, not sounding happy.

  The light went out of his voice when Hix ordered, “Come get her ass and impress upon her I don’t want it in my department again. Be convincing, Becker. And for your efforts, I’ll share you know I don’t like what you do. You also know you bought me steppin’ over the deal you had with Blatt. But I figure you further know I got dick on you or I’d have been up in your shit after you made your last bad play. So that’s where we are. You trip up, I catch it, we’ll go from there. You stay smart, I won’t have any choice. In the meantime, you buy me not feelin’ the need to get really fucking nosy for a good while, you get that woman to refocus on something other than her daughter and son.”

  “Not sure how you got the idea she means that much to me,” Becker replied.

  “Then she has a problem and so do you because right now I’m feelin’ your connection more than you are, and everything she pulls, I’ll read as shit comin’ direct from you. And I can assume you’d understand it doesn’t make me happy to walk into my department and have her offer up a taste so I can compare mother and daughter.”

  “Jesus,” Becker muttered.

  “Those blowjobs probably don’t seem so awesome right about now, am I right?”

  “I’ll send a man to get her,” Becker stated on a sigh.

  “Obliged.”

  He gave it a beat before he said, “I didn’t know about her boy, Hixon. That shit’s fucked up.”

  Like him understanding the concept of a mother disabling her own son because she operated a vehicle inebriated made Hix think he was a better person.

  “You’re correct,” was all he said.

  “I’ll deal with her for you then I’m scrapin’ her off. Too much trouble,” Becker declared.

  “That’s not my business. Just take her off my hands, and for now, we’re good.”

  “My man is already on his way.”

  “Thrilled,” Hix muttered, said, “Good luck,” and he hung up.

  “Please, God,” Bets begged, walking in the second he put his phone down, “let me record five minutes of that woman and then let me shoot her. Judge Bereford won’t arraign me, he listens to five minutes of her crap. He might pin a medal on me.”

  “Becker’s sending a man to pick her up.”

  “Becker?” she asked.

  “Ms. Dare likes to be multi-faceted in the ways she’s a piece of work.”

  “Can I hide in here until he shows?” Bets asked.

  He smiled at her and joked, “Where’s badass Deputy Bets?�
�

  “Badass Deputy Bets is badass enough to admit she can’t spend another minute with the trash in our cell and she’s okay with that, that trash is so trashy.”

  “Then go on patrol, don’t bug me.”

  She grinned. “Good idea. I’ll take Donna with me. And Larry. And Hal.”

  “Bring me a coffee from Babycakes.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  He looked down to the file he’d never finished reading but back up to her when she called his name.

  Then he braced when he saw her face.

  “It was uncool,” she said hesitantly. “I was just bein’ stupid. You’re a good guy and there’s not a lot to choose from around here, but you were—”

  “It’s okay, Bets,” he said quietly. “Forgotten.”

  “Yeah?”

  He nodded.

  She shot him a relieved smile and disappeared.

  Five minutes later, he got up and walked to the door she’d left open when Tawnee screamed, “Where’s everyone going? Fuck you! I didn’t do dick! Let me out!”

  He shut it, shutting out her voice.

  He did it thinking that Donna’s suggestion had merit.

  They looked alike.

  But Hix had concerns when they handed Greta to her mother in the hospital, they’d given her to the wrong woman.

  “So, he likes you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Like, a lot.”

  “Good.”

  Hix and Greta were not on her porch that night.

  They were making out, stretched on her couch.

  As well as, apparently, talking about her brother.

  Hix didn’t want to talk about her brother.

  “What we got?” Hix asked to change the subject, sliding his mouth up the side of her neck.

  “What we got?” she asked back breathily, sliding her hands up either side of his spine.

  He made it to her mouth and looked in her eyes. “Hours.”

  She knew exactly what he was talking about.

  “Twenty-two.”

  He grinned against her lips.

  She frowned against his.

  “Shaw’s gonna be home soon,” she noted but did it with her arms closing around him.

  “Yeah,” he grunted, doing it rolling off her, to his side, and taking her to hers in front of him.

  She shoved her face in his throat and held on to him.

  He buried his face in her hair and held her back.

  “Thanks for today,” she whispered against his skin.

  “My job in two ways.”

  He felt her press close.

  It was a good response.

  And all she had to say.

  She tensed against him when she warned, “She’s just warming up.”

  “We’ll get through it.”

  “You’ve got kids.”

  “She sinks even lower, which it’s clear she’s capable of, I’ll talk to them and then we’ll all get through it.”

  She pulled her face out of his throat and he tipped his head down to look at her.

  “If that guy dumps her—”

  He’d told her about Becker.

  “Baby,” he gave her a squeeze, “we’ll get through it.”

  “Just . . . batten down the hatches.”

  He grinned. “Consider them battened.”

  She frowned at him. “It sucks you can be cute and hot and you won’t have sex with me.”

  “Twenty-two hours,” he reminded her.

  “My nose is not attached to my lady parts, Hixon.”

  He started laughing, gathering her closer. “It feel better?”

  “Yep.”

  “Every day?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then trust me.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  When she was done doing that, he ordered, “Now kiss me. I gotta go home to my son.”

  “Just to say, after I’m done with my clients, I’m helping you move on Saturday. I’ll be done at three.”

  “You can unpack boxes.”

  “My nose is also not attached to my arms or legs.”

  “You can unpack boxes,” he repeated.

  “Part of me thinks I should not find a protective man annoying, but I do,” she informed him.

  “Get over it.”

  “I also find a bossy man annoying,” she shared.

  “Get over that too.”

  “And a repetitive one.”

  “Greta?”

  “What?”

  “Kiss your man so he can get home to his son.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered, but still, she kissed him, wet and sweet.

  Then he pulled them both off the couch and walked her to her door, holding her hand.

  It was Hix who kissed her, wet and sweet, at the door.

  “Twenty-two hours,” he whispered when they were done.

  She shot him one of her blinding smiles. “Yeah.”

  He touched his lips to the tip of her nose, let her go and walked out.

  He heard the lock go before he was halfway across her porch.

  Twenty-two hours.

  An eternity.

  Something Worth Fighting For

  Greta

  “YOU’RE REALLY GOOD.”

  “I don’t suck.”

  “No. Really. You’re really good.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  I stood beside Hix just outside the gates of Raider Field, watching a just-showered-after-the-game Shaw lift a hand and smack Andy on the biceps.

  I’d just watch the Raiders lose (unfortunately).

  But I’d done it with my brother sitting on one side of me, Hix on the other, Mamie wedged in between me and Hix.

  This happening part of the game.

  The rest of it, she’d wedged herself between me and Andy and they got in a competition to chatter each other’s ears off, a competition that ran four ways with Maple and Snow.

  It was a little bit of a surprise that Mamie hung with her father (and Andy and me) when her mother, uncles, aunts and grandparents were sitting in those same bleachers not too far away.

  But we’d barely sat down before she was jumping down the seats to give her dad a hug, me a hug (which was sweet) and then shoot Andy a huge smile and cry, “Is this your brother, Greta?”

  That started it and it didn’t end. Lou had come with the girls and they sat on the bench behind us, so I got to chat with her and Andy got to hold court with Mamie and Maple (Snow took off with some of her friends).

  He’d loved every second of it.

  So had I.

  I just hoped he remembered it.

  For me, it was a night I’d never forget.

  “Your dad’s the sheriff,” Andy informed Shaw, and I tensed, not thinking Shaw would be strange about Andy telling him something he very well knew for reasons he probably couldn’t fathom, just understanding sometimes talking to Andy could be awkward until you got to know him and understood how he expressed things.

  I didn’t have to worry.

  Shaw just smiled big and said, “Yeah, bud.”

  “He arrested my mother,” Andy shared.

  Shaw’s smile faltered, he looked to his dad but looked back to Andy when he kept talking.

  “It was awesome.”

  “Right,” Shaw muttered, fully regaining his smile but Andy lost his attention when Wendy (Shaw’s girlfriend was one of my clients, I now saw) walked up.

  He lifted an arm her way and she slid under it so it was around her shoulders.

  “Hey, babe,” he said. “This is Andy, Greta’s brother. Andy, this is my girl, Wendy.”

  “Hey,” she said shyly to Andy.

  “Hey,” Andy greeted Wendy.

  I studied Shaw and his girl.

  Wendy was a good kid and I’d always thought she was pretty. Lots of ash-blonde hair she begged her mother to let me highlight (her mother hadn’t yet given in but I hoped she would soon because it would be fabulous). She was long, slender, but not tall, jus
t average height, so since Shaw was tall, she fit right into his side like she was meant to be there.

  Very nice.

  “Hey, Mr. Drake. Hey, Miss Greta,” she called to us.

  “Wendy,” Hix replied from where we were standing five feet away, with me in the same hold as Shaw had Wendy.

  “Hey, honey,” I called in return.

  “You gonna go get pizza?” Andy asked them and both Shaw and Wendy looked to him.

  Shaw shuffled his feet a bit before he answered, “Yeah, Andy, do you wanna . . . uh . . . come with us? We can, well . . . take you back home after.”

  It seemed Wendy snuggled closer to Shaw when he offered that.

  As for me, I did the same into his father but only so I wouldn’t melt into a pool of gratitude that Hix’s boy was such a good guy.

  “Aren’t you, um . . . goin’ on a date?” Andy asked in confusion.

  “Uh . . . yeah,” Shaw answered.

  “Then you don’t want me there.” Andy twisted at the waist and threw a hand Hix and my way. “Anyway, Ta-Ta and Hix gotta take me home so they can go on their date.”

  I loved my brother.

  But we so did.

  “Right,” Shaw replied through a grin.

  “We’ll go to pizza some other time when you aren’t on a date so Ta-Ta and Hix can have another date,” Andy told him.

  “Yeah, man, that’d be awesome,” Shaw said, still grinning.

  “Cool,” Andy muttered.

  “We should all probably get going,” I called. “Shaw’s undoubtedly hungry after that game and it’s getting late.”

  “Yeah,” Andy agreed, looking my way and then turning to Shaw and Wendy. “You did good tonight, sorry you didn’t win.” His attention turned to Wendy. “Cool to meet you.”

  “Cool to meet you too, Andy,” she said.

  “Thanks, bro,” Shaw said. “See you later.” But with that, he went on, “Uh . . . Sunday? That’s your, uh . . . day with Greta. So, um . . .” He glanced Hix and my way before he looked back to Andy. “Well, she’s with us on Sundays now so we get you too. Right?”

  I didn’t know the Drakes had claimed my Sundays.

  But since I liked the Sunday I’d had with the Drakes, and they wanted Andy too (or at least Shaw did, but I seriously doubted Hix would argue), that worked for me.

  Just as long as it worked for Andy.