Her Hometown Detective
Page 21
“Does this mean I’m arrested?”
Tully nodded again. “As a sworn officer of the law, I have no choice but to take you to the police station, but as your friend, I think I can tell you it’ll be okay.”
“I won’t press charges!” CeCe sputtered. “And I’ll come to the station with you, Betty. Dolores will too. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Miss Jenkins managed a sorrowful smile. CeCe might be a hard old bird, he thought, but her protective instinct was a quality Miss Jenkins could use right about now.
As he escorted Miss Jenkins to his truck and settled her into the front seat, her friends assuring her that they would be right behind her, Tully knew Miss Jenkins would be fine in the end. He doubted anyone, like CeCe said, would press charges against Miss Jenkins, aside from maybe the Callahan brothers, and even the damage she’d done at their store hadn’t been terrible.
He wanted to offer Miss Jenkins a few words of comfort on the ride to the station, but the relief she felt was obvious as she babbled like a brook. Amid her chatting, his mind wandered like a man lost in the desert. At times like this, he usually felt pleased to have wrapped up a case, marking another tally on the mental scorecard he kept of his professional successes. Instead, he struggled not to succumb to a melancholy that had washed over him. There was only one person he really wanted to see, one person he really wanted to tell about the case: Faith.
Unfortunately, he thought, he hadn’t left himself in a position where he could casually drop by her store to talk. He’d hurt her, deeply, and he felt at a loss as to how to fix that.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CAROLINE RESTED ON the corner of Faith’s bed and watched her.
“I don’t understand why you need to leave,” she said as Faith clicked away on her laptop.
“Can you picture a scenario where people aren’t whispering about me as soon as I walk past them?”
“Who cares what they say? You have Trig and me and Dad—that is, when he finds his way back to us. We love you, and in time, the rest of the people in town will start to love you too.”
“I’m glad that you’re happy here and have friends,” Faith said. “But your experience hasn’t been my experience.”
“Yet.”
Faith pretended not to hear Caroline. Instead she clicked away on the laptop. She needed to figure out where to go next.
“I’d rather get out of here before I lose too much of my investment.”
“You’re not going to get the shop window replaced?”
“Based on the terms of my lease, I have to get it fixed, but then I’m outta here.”
“Where will you go?”
“Wherever I can find a job.”
“But your shop...your dream...”
Faith touched the heart charm dangling around her neck. At the thought of losing her shop, the delicate gold necklace grew as heavy as a lead weight.
“I’ll start over somewhere else, I suppose.”
“You suppose?” Caroline’s words offered a challenge.
“I did it once, and I can do it again.” She tried to deliver the sentiment with conviction, but she wasn’t so sure she’d have the will to start again. Or...if she wanted to start again anywhere other than Roseley.
She couldn’t deny that the thought of moving back to Roseley had charmed her a long time ago, but maybe she should try finding happiness somewhere else. If she could forget the one person she’d never stopped loving...
“You’ve changed a lot over the last ten years and a lot of those changes have been good,” Caroline said. “But running away like this—”
“I’m not running away. I’ve been subjecting myself to rejection and ridicule ever since I got here, and I don’t want to do it anymore.”
“You’re leaving on an air of self-preservation? Is that what you’re calling it?”
“I gave it a shot, Caroline. I swung and I struck out. I’ve wanted to be a different person ever since my dad... No...” She covered her face with her hands before ripping them away with a pressure that had been building all week. “I always wanted to be a different person, even before what happened with my dad. I’ve never felt good enough to get the things other people had, but coming back here showed me how I was fooling myself. My fate was determined for me a long time ago—”
“You are a different person, a better person. It wasn’t easy getting here but you got here. You’re standing on your own two feet and looking your detractors in the face. At least that’s what it seemed like to me.”
Faith frowned. She didn’t want to let other people get to her but they did. They still did, and she didn’t know if she’d ever get past that. Wasn’t it better to go somewhere else, where no one knew her history?
Caroline stared. “I don’t think you’ll be able to live with yourself if you leave.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you want this so badly. You belong, Faith.” Faith’s cell phone rang. Caroline reached for it and glanced at the caller ID. “He’s calling you again. What does he want?”
Faith reached for the phone. Kyle’s calls had become more persistent over the last day, as if he could sense that her emotions had bottomed out.
“Caroline, do you mind giving me a minute?” But her cousin was already out the door. She answered the phone. “What do you want, Kyle?”
“Whoa. Hey, sweetheart. Is everything okay?” He was abnormally careful, concerned even.
“Just peachy.”
“It sounds like things aren’t going so well.”
“I’ve been better.”
“I’ll bet I can cheer you up.”
“Try me.”
He chuckled. “Do you remember that weekend we went up to Traverse City for the National Cherry Festival?”
Faith paced her bedroom, recalling the weekend they’d shared. It had felt like a daydream, the two of them role-playing a happy couple, young and in love. It had been there that Kyle had tucked a baby pink cherry blossom sprig in her hair. Then he had proposed. Well, he’d sort of proposed. He’d proposed the idea of moving in together and had casually dropped the idea of getting married the way a person casually said they were in the mood for Italian for dinner.
“What about it?”
“It’s this weekend.”
“So?”
“So, I was thinking—” Faith bit her lip; Kyle was always thinking big ideas when he was in the mood for convincing her of something that was in his best interest “—we could drive up there for old times’ sake. You, me and a few days to cut loose.”
Faith sank to the corner of her bed.
“Why would I want to do something like that?”
“You’ve been working so hard, and I’ll bet you could use a break. And more importantly than that—” he paused, letting the silence grow in anticipation “—we belong together, sweetheart. I know I messed up and it was completely smart of you to leave and teach me a lesson—”
“I wasn’t teaching you a lesson. I divorced you. You cheated on me.”
“I was a cad.”
“Obviously.”
“I was a terrible husband.” Faith nodded in agreement as if he could see her through the phone. “I didn’t know how to be a good husband even though I wanted to be. I want to be one now. I made the biggest mistake of my life losing you, Faith. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I want you back, baby.” The soft timbre of his voice was getting to her.
“But it’s too late.”
She wanted to tell him that life had never been better since she’d left him, but she couldn’t. Instead, she pressed the phone to her ear and waited for him to say more sweet things because she desperately needed to hear them.
“Nah, it’s the second chance we need. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t... I’m
not sure...”
“Come home to me, baby. This place isn’t right without you.”
She thought of her little house with Kyle. Every move she’d made after they’d married had been her attempt to make the house a home and their life together a good one. She’d given her all. Her all. Maybe she could give her all again. If he was ready to change and she was ready to forgive, maybe they could make things work.
“I suppose I could use the garage for a while...”
“What do you mean?” Kyle said.
“You know, get my business off the ground there before I transition to a shop.”
“Heart Motorcycles? Are you still wanting to do that?”
Faith stood. “Uh, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because you need to get a job. I’m proud of you for taking a chance on that motorcycle shop—”
“Are you? Are you proud? It wasn’t two days ago you were laughing at me for it.”
“I was still sore over you leaving. That’s all. I’ve been torn up over losing you and I lashed out a little.”
“How torn up are you?” she demanded. He hadn’t said anything about staying faithful to her.
“I made mistakes, Faith. Haven’t you ever made mistakes you wish you could take back? You always said that everyone deserves a clean slate, right?”
“Our problem wasn’t that I wouldn’t give you a clean slate, Kyle. Our problem was that you never promised to change. You made me think your affairs were my fault.”
“Baby,” he said, his voice downshifting. “You’re so right. I had the perfect woman, and I let you slip through my fingers. What can I do to get you to forgive me? What can I do to get you to come home? We can make a fresh start together, if you’ll only let me love you again.”
All Faith had ever wanted was a fresh start, but a fresh start here. She’d been chasing relationships that would only let her down, and Kyle was her prime example. She didn’t want to hear all the right words. She didn’t want empty promises...because she’d had gotten plenty of those in the past.
“That’s a really nice offer,” she said, covering the heart charm dangling around her neck.
“I want to give you the world, baby,” he crooned into the phone. “We could take a second honeymoon in Traverse City and remember all the good times we had. I never should have let you go, Faith. Come back home.”
Faith thought of Tully. She knew she would never be good enough to have a man like Tully in her life, but for a magical week or so, he’d respected her and erased the wounds in her soul like no man ever had.
She might not be worthy of John McTully, but she was worthy of a lot more than she ever used to think. Kyle was right. They needed a clean slate, but it was a clean slate apart from each other. She deserved to follow her dream and run full steam at the life she had always wanted. Only now did she wholeheartedly believe she deserved it.
“Kyle, I’m going to tell you this next part slowly, so I want you to listen carefully.”
“You got it, baby.”
She drew a deep breath. “Don’t...ever...call...me...again.”
“What? Faith, talk to me.”
She didn’t care to argue with him or explain why she never wanted to speak to him again. It wasn’t her job to convince him of anything. In fact, she’d change her cell phone number in the morning. Her time was better spent focusing on what she did want rather than on listing what she didn’t.
With one finger press, she ended the call and dropped the phone on her bed. She stood silently for several minutes, drawing her heart charm along the chain and back again. She had purchased the necklace not too long ago, hoping it would be a reminder of everything she wanted. At the time she’d bought it, she had wanted to believe that life could be different if she could take a chance to start over and make it different.
When she bought the necklace, she wore it out of the store, and it hadn’t left her neck since. It was the reminder she needed to keep going, to follow her heart.
It was Caroline who broke her trance.
“What did Kyle want? Please tell me you’re not entertaining any thoughts of going back to him.”
“I’m not.”
“That’s a relief.”
“I want more, Caroline.”
“You deserve more, cousin.”
“Yes, I think I do.”
“Honey, didn’t you already know that?”
“I don’t know,” Faith said. “I know it now.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to repair my store window...”
“You said that already.”
“And then,” she said, smiling, “I’m going to repaint it.”
* * *
TULLY PARKED HIS truck on the street near Heart Motorcycles. He’d spent the evening thinking about Faith and their time spent together. He’d considered calling her after he’d finished at the station with Miss Jenkins, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it. He didn’t want her to assume that the only reason he could talk to her now was because she had been cleared as a suspect. But after a couple of days, he had found himself in his truck and driving to her shop before he could convince himself otherwise.
Faith stood on the sidewalk, supervising as a glass company replaced the giant picture window at the front of her store. She glanced at him for only a moment before turning her attention back to the task at hand. He shuffled up the sidewalk and came to a stop beside her.
“I was worried you wouldn’t be able to get anyone out here until next week.”
“Don’t go worrying about me,” she said, her voice sharp. He let her comment hang a few beats, recalculating what to say next. She wasn’t in the mood to make things easy on him.
“I gather you’ve learned by now...”
“Miss Jenkins? Yeah, the news has been spreading like wildfire.”
“I’m sure it has. It’ll be hard on her.”
“It’ll be hard on you too.” She peered up at him, her expression softening. “A few people have told me know how much she means to you. I imagine that after what happened with your own mother...” Her words trailed off as if sensing that the mere mention of it could cut him. “Anyway, when I learned about Miss Jenkins, my first thought was of you. Did you have to arrest her?”
“It was informal. She wasn’t going to put up a fight. She’s an old woman who got scared and made a series of bad mistakes.”
“Was she remorseful?”
“Of course.” He was used to the people he cared about disappointing him, but he’d never expected such things from Miss Jenkins. “The whole thing wasn’t pretty. The fallout in town, I imagine, will be worse.”
“I really am sorry you had to be the one to do it, John.”
“I avoided The Copper Kettle this morning. I’m not ready to weigh in on what happened, though I know everyone is going to want me to.”
“Funny how I haven’t seen anyone since the news broke yesterday. CeCe used to scurry by here as persistent and annoying as a mosquito buzzing in my ear and now—” She waved her arms on either side of her. “The street in front of my store has gone silent. No apology for Ray Talbert’s daughter, not that I was going to hold my breath for one.”
“Faith,” he began. “I—”
“There’s one perk I can cherish, huh? You’ve finally started calling me Faith. You had to wait until you knew I was innocent to say it but—”
“I never thought you were guilty.”
“No?” She locked onto him now, gray eyes brewing. He’d been drawn to her that day at the gas station just as he was drawn to her now. He wanted to lean in, move closer, connect a hand to her cheek and his mouth to hers.
She, however, was not in the mood for connection. She was hell-bent on putting him in his place.
He decided he would help her.
“I’m not doing anything,” she insisted. “I never was, John. I only wanted to—” She whispered as if recalling a sad memory. “All I’ve ever wanted was to...”
“What?” he said but she shook her head and shifted away from him.
“It doesn’t matter now. You work alone, right? Your message has been received loud and clear.”
“I never wanted to hurt you, Faith. I wanted us to be friends and be able to—”
“What? Flirt and dance around our feelings for years to come because you can’t commit to anything other than your job?”
Now it was his turn to shift on his feet. Was that what he did want? To entertain his feelings for her but at a distance, returning to some version of their past week that didn’t involve her getting too close?
She grasped the heart charm hanging around her neck and heaved a deep breath.
“You might not be the best boyfriend or the best son, but you could be, you know. You limit yourself from being those things because you don’t want to care too much. You think that if you do, if you let yourself really care and really connect, you’ll get hurt again. And guess what. You might. That’s the risk, but I believe it’s a risk worth taking.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and drew a breath. “Your dad is squatting on The Void in some broken shack that I wouldn’t let Duke sleep in, but you just let him. Like giving it your all, doing everything in your power to get him home, might backfire on you somehow.”
“He’s a grown man. He can decide for himself.”
“He’s your dad. He deserves for you to take the risk. And I deserve for someone to take a risk on me too. I deserve better than men who only offer me less. I’d even convinced myself that that was fine for me, for who I was, but not anymore.” Her fingers toyed with the charm. He sensed her drawing strength from it like the charge on a battery. Her necklace and store meant a lot to her. He knew it was something deep and everlasting.