by Brenda Novak
“I can’t help it if I’m smarter than everyone else.”
Alexa came hurrying in. “Okay, my cookies are in the car and I told Royce we’d drop them by.”
Sophia gathered up the stack of cards. Two hundred thousand dollars wasn’t nearly enough to be able to return everyone’s money, so she’d been forced to limit her payments to investors who lived in Whiskey Creek. Even then, she’d had to lay down some rules. Those who hadn’t taken anything from the house received twenty percent of what they’d lost. That meant Kyle would get $20,000, Noah would get $10,000, and ten other investors would each get $5,000. Those who’d come to the house and removed furniture and other goods would get five or ten percent, depending on the value of what they took—Reverend Flores, Eric Groscost, and eight others. Chief Stacy wouldn’t get a dime.
At first, Sophia hadn’t wanted to give anything to his girlfriend, either. She was afraid he’d benefit. But then she realized it wasn’t fair to hold Pam Swank responsible for her partner’s actions—that was exactly what had happened to her with Skip. So Pam was getting $15,000, which was half the remaining balance. The DeBussis would get the other half. That hadn’t been an easy decision, either, but they were Alexa’s grandparents.
“We’re not driving over to Jackson to deliver Pam Swank’s, are we?” Ted asked when he saw her name on the top card.
“No, I’ll mail that one.” She knew they might run out of time and would mail quite a few others, as well. Skip had had a lot of investors, even here in Whiskey Creek. But she wanted to hand-deliver as many as possible. It would be worth the effort to see the shock and excitement on the recipients’ faces. She was pretty sure she’d never feel more like Santa Claus.
Which reminded her...
“Don’t forget that Santa hat you wanted to wear,” she told Alexa, who ran to retrieve it from the kitchen.
“Shall we start with Noah?” she asked, thumbing through the cards while they waited.
Ted nodded. “That’ll be fun,” he said, and he was right. Noah and Adelaide were so surprised and grateful. Everyone else was, too. By the end of the night, Sophia knew that no Christmas would ever be as memorable as this one.
* * *
It was noon on Christmas Day, and the next few minutes were going to be awkward. Ted wasn’t looking forward to seeing Eve. Not after having such an incredible Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Sophia and Alexa. Sophia had given him a digital scrapbook she’d created on the computer containing all the old photographs she’d saved from when they’d dated as teenagers; he’d given her the promise ring she’d returned when she married Skip. Their gifts hadn’t been expensive, but they’d been thoughtful and sentimental. He hadn’t wanted to give her so much that she couldn’t feel proud of her own gifts and, although he’d gotten her a few other things, he felt he’d managed that. They’d both spent most of their money on Alexa, who’d had a wonderful Christmas.
Ted hated to ruin an otherwise perfect day. But taking a homemade pie to Eve was so important to Sophia that he couldn’t say no. Besides, she was right. Now was the time to reach out to Eve, before she could build up too much resentment. He’d tried to wait a respectable amount of time after breaking up with her to start a relationship with Sophia, but...the laws of attraction had been working against him.
Eve took a while to answer the door. When she did, and saw them standing on her stoop, he could tell that she wasn’t too pleased, despite their peace offering. Her eyes shifted from Sophia to him and back again. Fortunately, Alexa wasn’t with them. They’d dropped her off at the DeBussis so she could spend a few hours with her grandparents.
“I’m afraid you caught me at a bad time,” she said. “I was about to head over to my parents’.”
Sophia spoke before he could. “We won’t hold you up. We just...we wanted to bring you this. And mostly we wanted to say that...of all the people we know, you’re one of our favorites. We both feel that way.”
Eve smiled politely and took the pie. “Thank you. I hope you have a merry Christmas.”
She started to go in and shut the door, but Sophia wasn’t satisfied. “Eve?”
Eve turned, eyebrows raised. “Yes?”
“We don’t want to lose your friendship. It’s a lot to ask that you forgive and forget, but...we—I—admire you so much.”
Ted sensed that Eve wanted to say something trite just to get rid of them but the naked emotion in Sophia’s voice, the absolute honesty, wouldn’t allow it. She hesitated, glanced at him again, and then tears filled her eyes.
“Can’t I be mad for a few weeks at least?” she asked with a watery laugh.
“As long as it doesn’t last any longer than that,” Sophia said. “Because I’m sorry if you’ve been hurt or disappointed or embarrassed. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t dragged me out of bed that night you came home with Alexa. You—your support at that critical moment—saved my life. So, believe me, if I could’ve stopped loving Ted, I would have. I tried. But I’ve been trying for fourteen years and it never works.”
“What happened was my fault,” Ted said. “Not hers. When you and I were together, she was so careful to stay out of the way. I’m the only one you should be mad at.” He offered her a sheepish grin. “But I’m sorry, too.”
Eve put the pie on a side table so she could wipe her cheeks. “We’ll get past it,” she promised, and this time her smile seemed genuine. “I know you two are meant to be together. There’s no need to feel bad about that.”
Sophia pulled her into an embrace. “I’m happy you feel that way. I would love for you to be a bigger part of my life.”
“I’d like that, too,” she said.
Ted hugged her next. “I’m sorry,” he whispered again and felt her squeeze him a little harder in return.
* * *
Sophia was tired but happy when they left Eve’s. She wanted an afternoon nap with Ted before they were supposed to pick up Alexa and go to Ted’s mother’s. Although Principal Dixon had been unusually pleasant when she called to invite them to dinner—she had invited Sophia and Alexa personally—Sophia was still a little nervous about spending the evening with her. It’d been hard enough to handle the chill when she and Ted dropped Alexa off at Skip’s parents’ house. They wanted to make it clear, despite the $15,000, that they didn’t approve of how quickly she was moving on.
Sophia didn’t care what they thought. But she did care about winning over Ted’s mother. For his sake, that was important.
“Damn it,” Ted suddenly muttered.
Surprised that he could be upset at anything today, Sophia twisted around to see what he was looking at in the rearview mirror. Chief Stacy was behind them in his cruiser—and he had his lights on.
“Were you speeding?” she asked nervously.
“Nope.”
“Then what do you think he wants?”
“To give us a hard time. What else?”
The police chief approached the car wearing his uniform and carrying his pad, as if he planned to write them a ticket.
Ted was busy with his phone until Stacy got close, but then he rolled down his window. “I do something wrong, Chief?”
Stacy didn’t answer. He leaned down and looked in at her. “Guess you came across some money after all, eh?”
She kept her hands clasped in her lap. She wasn’t nearly as frightened of him when Ted was with her, but she didn’t want to force Ted to come to her rescue, either. “I did.”
He hooked his thumbs in his belt. “I’m hearing about everybody getting a payment. It’s the talk of the town. ‘Isn’t that Sophia DeBussi wonderful?’” He gave her a hard stare. “So where’s my money?”
“Your girlfriend will be receiving $15,000 very shortly. That should make you happy.”
“Hardly. We’re not seeing each other anymore,” he said. “So you’d better just split that payment in two.”
Ted jumped in. “Sorry, Chief. That’s not going to happen. You got your money’s w
orth when you walked away with her jewelry. And if you push this, half this town will be up in arms against you. I think it’s fair to say that Sophia’s popularity has returned. Now...is there a reason you stopped me?”
When he straightened, Sophia could no longer see his face, but she could hear the taunt in his voice. “The fact remains that she’s going to want to play fair with me.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll make her life pretty damn miserable if she doesn’t. And she knows I can do that.”
Ted shook his head. “Come on, Chief. This is Christmas. You don’t really want to start trouble today.”
“It’s my job to look out for public safety no matter what day it is, Mr. Dixon. And I do believe you were driving way too fast as you sailed through town.”
“Bullshit. You know I wasn’t speeding.”
“Who’s to say otherwise?” he said. “Driver’s license and registration, please.”
Ted didn’t bother reaching for the glove box. “Are you sure you’re committed to this? Because if you write me a ticket, I’m just going to take it over to Mayor Rackham and file another complaint.”
Chief Stacy spat on the road. “I heard you’d been down to city hall.”
“It’s true. Levi, Dylan and Aaron have been there, too. We’re not making a secret of it. We’re tired of seeing you abuse your power. And I don’t mind telling you that Mayor Rackham isn’t too pleased, either. The complaints are stacking up. Apparently, your ex-wife knows quite a bit about how you operate and has shared that information. She claims you’ve been harassing her since the divorce. So...you might want to consider yourself lucky that you’ve gotten away with your behavior so far and get back in your cruiser. Otherwise, you could lose your job.”
Sophia felt the desire to dig at her cuticles but curled her fingernails into her palms instead. She hadn’t realized Ted had taken action against Stacy, even though he’d once said he was going to.
Stacy sneered as if he wasn’t scared at all. “Don’t get carried away. You’re not half as tough as you pretend to be. There’s nothing you can do to me.”
“I won’t have to do anything. You’ve made enough enemies over the years to sink yourself.”
Suddenly, Stacy’s tone changed. “Let me tell you something, you little smartass prick. You go after my job, and you’ll never know peace in this town again.”
“That sounds like a threat to me, Chief,” Ted said.
“That’s a promise.” Shoving his ticket book in his pocket, he strode back to his car.
“He’s crazy,” Sophia murmured. “Let’s get out of here.”
But Ted wasn’t ready to go. He waved at Chief Stacy as if their exchange had been pleasant. “Thank you, sir. Merry Christmas!”
Obviously unhappy that he hadn’t made more of an impact, Stacy pulled his cruiser up alongside the Lexus and glared in at them before punching the gas pedal and spraying gravel against Ted’s door.
“He scares me,” Sophia said.
Ted stared after him. “Don’t worry. He won’t be around much longer.”
“How do you know?”
He held up his cell phone to show her that he’d recorded the whole encounter, then immediately sent the file to Mayor Rackham, Dylan, Aaron and Levi.
* * *
It was another two months before the city took action but by March, Whiskey Creek had a new chief of police.
Ted took Sophia out to celebrate when he heard the news—and that was when he proposed.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from HOME TO WHISKEY CREEK by Brenda Novak.
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Brenda Novak
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