Surely he didn’t want to. He worked long hours, and she imagined him to be the kind of man who went home to his dogs and his kitchen, happy to have a couple of hours to himself before falling asleep.
How about Friday night?
Her heart fell right to the bottom of her feet.
Friday night was date night. So he must not have a girlfriend. But what about Jess? She couldn’t just leave her son home alone at night. Completely out of her league as to what to do, Janey fired off a text to Gretchen to find out what she should do.
It seemed to take forever for her friend to answer, but when she did, Gretchen had said Call him. You’ll know then.
“Call him?” Janey’s voice sounded like she’d inhaled helium.
Taking a deep breath, she navigated back to Adam’s text chain and pressed the phone icon at the top of the screen.
Chapter Four
Adam stared at his phone as it rang once, then twice. Then reason took over and he swiped on the call from Janey. “Hey,” he said, his voice gruffer than he meant it to be. He cleared his throat, wishing he’d thought further ahead than a greeting. The texting had been going well. He could ask her out easily that way. But talking to her? His heart danced in his chest like it was trying to tango it’s way out. And his brain seemed to have decided a vacation was in order.
“Hey,” she said. “So I thought it might be easier to just call.”
“All right.” How that was easier, he wasn’t sure. He reminded himself he was nearly forty years old and could certainly talk to a woman.
“So when you say Friday night, you mean like a date? And do you want me to bring Jess, or should I get someone to stay with him?” The words poured out of her in a rush, and he couldn’t tell from the tone of her voice if a date with him was desirable or disgusting.
“Jess can come.” He pressed his eyes closed, wishing he hadn’t said that. He liked Jess a lot. Just looking at him was like looking at Matt. Was Adam selfish to want some time alone with Janey? Without a reminder of her late husband and his best friend?
“Or we can just go. It’s up to you.” He didn’t want to make things hard for her. He’d spent the last twelve years since Matt’s death trying to make everything in her life easier.
Is that why you’ve never acted on your decades-old feelings? The thought had just enough time to flood his mind before she said, “Oh, Jess hates the food at the lodge. He loves the lake and the forest, but I can’t get him to eat there.”
“So just me and you.” Adam’s hopes pinged around the living room like he’d just won the lottery.
“On Friday night.” The way she drew out the words made them seem like a question.
Adam took a deep breath and decided to lay a card or two on the table. “You can call it a date if you want,” he said. “Or not. I’ll follow your lead on that.”
Several long beats of silence filled his ears. Then her musical voice said, “I’ll let you know on Friday night.”
He chuckled, not really caring what label she put on the meal. The fact was, he had a scheduled activity with a woman—not just any woman, his mind screamed—on Friday night. No more frozen pizzas because he was too tired to cook by the end of the week. No more sitting on the couch while whatever sport happened to be in season played on the television.
They said good-bye, and Adam relaxed into the couch, a smile on his face that he couldn’t wipe away.
The next day found him directing traffic while the public works department repaired a stop light near the junior high. He wore the neon green vest and waved his arms like he was bringing in military airplanes, not making sure men and women could get to work and the grocery store.
With such a mundane chore, he was free to think through some things. As if he hadn’t spent most of the night doing that as well. He’d promised Matt he’d look after Janey and Jess if anything happened to him.
Adam could remember the conversation as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. Matt and Janey were three days away from saying “I do” and Matt and Adam had gone to Seattle with a few other friends. Not really a bachelor party, as Matt liked to have a good time, but not with women and alcohol.
They’d gone bowling and seen three science fiction action movies and headed out on a friend’s sailboat.
Before anyone else had arrived, Matt and Adam had gone to dinner, and Matt had made Adam promise to take care of Janey and any family he might have if he should pass away.
Adam felt the same confusion now, waving a blue minivan through the intersection, as he had then.
“What makes you think something’s going to happen?” he’d asked.
“I don’t think that.” Matt had eaten an entire order of fried cheese by himself. The man loved junk food, and Adam made the fried cheese sticks every year on the anniversary of his friend’s death.
“Then where is this coming from?”
“You know Janey,” Matt said. “I just want to make sure someone’s there, taking care of things if something happens to me.”
So Adam had promised. The other men had shown up soon after that, and the weekend had continued as normal.
But when Matt died only a year later, Adam couldn't help wondering if Matt really had known something. Felt something. A premonition, perhaps. It didn’t matter. Adam had promised him he’d take care of Janey, and he had.
Every time he asked if she needed something, she said no. So he’d stopped asking in the first six months. After that, he simply took a meal, a package of diapers, or a gift card to the superstore over to her house and left it on the front porch.
As Jess grew, the offerings Adam had left changed too. A scooter on the boy’s fifth birthday. A baseball bat and mitt and ball on his eighth. He thought he’d done a decent job acting surprised whenever Jess or Janey told him about the gifts left by their “anonymous angel,” as Janey had been calling him for a decade.
His chest tightened. If he was going to have a real relationship with her, he’d have to tell her he was the angel. Tell her about the promise he’d made to Matt. Tell her about his crush on her in high school—and beyond.
Are you ready to do that?
He wasn’t sure, but he knew one thing: He was ready to do something different. He preached to his men about not passing judgment on those they came in contact with. That everyone had bad days and everyone made stupid decisions sometimes. That there was always the chance to fix things, do better the next day, try something new.
His phone buzzed in his front pocket, and he finished motioning a stream of cars through the intersection before checking it.
Trent, one of his officers, had said, Sarah wants to know what you want for lunch from the Anchor.
His stomach growled, and he wondered how much longer the public works guys needed to get this stoplight working.
“The whole ham,” he dictated into his phone while waving one arm to get a red sedan to keep moving. “With those vinegar chips.” He could put in an extra ten minutes on the beach tomorrow morning. The dogs never minded, and Adam sure did love a bag of vinegar chips.
He didn’t really care if he gained weight or not. It was public perception that mattered. And the people of Hawthorne Harbor wanted a Chief of Police that was big, brawny, and bold. Adam was determined to be the man the citizens wanted him to be; he would not let them down if there ever came a time when he needed to use his physicality to keep someone safe.
“Twenty more minutes,” one of the public works men yelled from his position next to the utility truck.
Adam nodded to show he’d heard, deciding all this arm-waving counted as the additional exercise he needed to eat vinegar chips.
* * *
“Come on, guys,” he said the following morning. Friday morning. Which meant Friday night was only a few short hours away. He cleared the smile from his face. “Trent wants you with the crew today.” The dogs jumped into the cruiser, filling the entire back seat.
Gypsy, the golden retriever, tried to stick he
r nose through the metal mesh while Fable, the husky, sat on the seat and stared at Adam with his keen, blue eyes.
Trent had secured the funding to start a K9 unit in Hawthorne Harbor, and he sometimes wanted the four German Shepherds he was training to have other dogs in the pack. Gypsy loved the added social time with the canines. Fable...not so much. He whined as Adam navigated toward the police station and parked around the block so he could take the dogs into the fenced yard.
Gypsy paced at the gate while Adam tugged on Fable’s leash. “You’ll like it,” he told the husky. “Just don’t be so standoffish.” But it was in the husky’s nature to stare down other dogs and then snap if one got too close.
Adam had explained all this to Trent, but he still wanted Fable to come socialize with the other dogs. It was definitely more for them than Fable, though Adam thought it was good for his husky to realize he wasn’t the only dog on the planet. Maybe the most handsome, but definitely not the only canine worth having around.
Unlatching the gate, Adam waited while Gypsy streaked inside, her tail wagging her whole body. He took Fable in too and unlatched the leash. “Go on.” The husky started forward, almost like he wanted to see the other dogs. Adam lifted his hand to wave to Trent, who returned the gesture. The gate slammed closed, and Fable jumped and barked.
Gypsy ran in circles around the four German shepherds, who all sat. Two of them had their tongues hanging out, and the other two had tails going bang bang bang! against the ground.
Trent made a noise and the shepherds released from their poised position. Gypsy barked and all but one of the shepherds herded around her. The other one—the largest—came over to Fable and started sniffing him. A low growl started in Fable’s throat, and Adam snapped his fingers.
Trent came over, and Adam said, “Maybe you can train him up.”
“Huskies are a little finicky.” Trent shook Adam’s hand. “But look at the shepherds. They all sat there and waited. And they like other dogs.”
Adam had not been trained in training dogs as part of his education. They didn’t have a huge drug problem in Hawthorne Harbor, or other reasons to have a fully trained police dog. “So show me something they can do.”
Trent looked at him, an eagerness in his face Adam appreciated. “Wilson’s the best one,” he said.
“Which one’s that?”
“He’s the pack leader.” Trent pointed. “The one who went straight to Fable.” The German shepherd still hovered near Fable, his happy face inviting Fable to just relax and start to play.
“So I’ll put on the suit.” Trent walked away before Adam could inquire further about the suit and what that might mean. Trent returned wearing a canvas-colored suit that made him look three times as big as usual.
He whistled through his teeth and all four dogs came over to him, their desire to work obvious in their sharp eyes. “Wilson,” he said. He lifted his arm until it was level with his shoulder and continued with a sharp command in another language Adam didn’t understand, and the dog ran and leapt at Trent. The dog’s teeth landed right in the middle of Trent’s forearm, causing the man to stumble backward.
He stayed upright, but the other dogs started to bark. He said something else and Wilson released, falling back into line with the other dogs. Another one inched forward, a whine in the back of his throat.
“Wow,” Adam said. “That was amazing.”
“They can find things too,” Trent said. “We’re still working on all of it.”
“What language are you using?”
“Danish.” He shook his arm, though there was no way the dog’s teeth could’ve penetrated it. “Hey, what are you doin’ tonight? A few of us are going down to the beach for a little barbeque before it gets too cold.”
Sounded like just something Adam would do. At least his friends didn’t seem too worried about his position as Chief of Police—the reason he’d finally gotten from Anita about why she’d broken up with him.
“The relationship was too public,” she’d said. Adam mentally scoffed just thinking about it. Yes, he was a public figure. Sat on the City Council. Everyone knew his face. And she didn’t want to be held to the same standard.
Adam didn’t quite believe her. There was something else about him she didn’t like, and she was using his job as an excuse.
“Adam?” Trent asked. “Tonight?”
“Oh, right.” He shook his head. “I can’t. I have a...a date.” He wasn’t sure how Janey was quantifying their dinner tonight, but in Adam’s mind, it was a date.
“Oh, yeah?” Trent grinned at him. “Who are you goin’ out with?”
Adam balked, his voice suddenly mute.
“I see how it is.” Trent shook his head. “You don’t have to say.”
“It’s just a little early,” Adam said. Especially because he wasn’t even sure how Janey was classifying their dinner that evening. He realized now he shouldn’t have said anything. He should’ve just said he couldn’t make it to the beach and left it alone.
The door slammed, and Adam looked up to find himself alone in the yard with six dogs, one of which was a husky whose growl indicated he really didn’t want to be there.
Chapter Five
Janey could barely focus at work. Luckily, she wasn’t working with any groups today—those usually happened on the weekends, when the lodge was fully booked. She worked in her office on the main floor of the lodge, tucked behind the reception desk.
Music filtered into the room from the speakers set into the ceiling, and the whole place smelled like pine trees. But she couldn’t focus on the report she was supposed to be reading about the reintroduction of the char that had once been native to the lake just a few hundred yards from the lodge.
“Heya.”
Janey yelped and spun from her desk to find Maya standing in the doorway. “Oh.” She pressed her palm against her heartbeat. “You scared me.”
Maya giggled and bounced into the office. She sat down in the chair opposite of Janey, her black, curly hair still springing once she’d settled. “You’re still reading that memo about the char?”
Janey slapped her hand over it. “Yes. No. I’m....” She didn’t know how to finish, and she exhaled with a small laugh. “Distracted today.” She’d wanted to text Gretchen until she figured everything out, but Gretchen was way too close to Adam for Janey’s comfort. She’d asked her friend not to say anything to Drew, but the man was Gretchen’s fiancé. Neither of them should be caught inside Janey’s insanity, so she’d been on her own.
And she’d obsessed all day yesterday about texting Adam. Should she? Was that too eager? But if she didn’t, was that being rude? Was it conveying some silent message to him that she wasn’t excited about their dinner that evening?
It wasn’t even dinner. More of a soup tasting.
“Why so distracted?” Maya asked, reaching for the package of gum on Janey’s desk. “Can I?”
“Sure, yeah.” Janey looked at Maya, oscillating between spilling everything and keeping her mouth shut. She’d worked with Maya for about six years, and the two were good friends. “Can I ask you something?”
Maya leaned forward and nodded, her mouth full of gum.
“So if you were coming up to the lodge with a man tonight, would you consider that a date?”
Maya blinked and glanced over her shoulder to the open doorway. “Depends on who the man is.”
That was what Janey had thought too. When she’d come to the lodge with Matt, it was a date. She didn’t have anyone else to reference, and part of Janey liked that and part of her surely didn’t.
“So who is it?” Maya asked.
“Adam Herrin.” Janey’s heart skipped a beat just thinking about the man.
Maya sucked in a breath and her eyes rounded. She started nodding, her curls bouncing with the movement. “If a woman goes to dinner with Adam Herrin, it’s a date.”
“I’ve known him my whole life. Like, my entire life.”
“So what?” Ma
ya cocked her head like she really didn’t understand.
“He’s my friend.”
“So how did the dinner come about?”
Janey told Maya about it, and then said, “And I can’t decide if this is a date or not.”
“So the real question is, do you want this to be a date?”
Before Janey could answer, Maya’s phone rang and she squealed as she saw who was calling. “It’s Aaron. I’ll catch you later.” She answered as she left Janey to decide if she wanted her soup tasting with Adam to be a date.
She hadn’t decided when it was time to go home. Nor when she took Jess out to the Loveland’s where he’d spend the night with Joel and Donna, Adam’s parents. If that wasn’t ironic, Janey wasn’t sure was.
His mother worked in the kitchen when they arrived, and she turned as Jess entered. “There he is.” She beamed at him. “I hope you’re ready for this.” She gestured to the recipe book sitting on the counter.
“What are you guys making today?” Janey asked, hoping to keep the conversation away from her and why she needed a babysitter. When she’d called Donna yesterday morning, all she’d said was she needed someone to watch Jess tonight, and Donna had offered for Jess to sleep over.
Janey had taken it, because she had no idea how long her...outing with Adam would last, and this way, she didn’t have to explain anything to Jess.
“Pumpkin pancakes,” Donna said, beaming at Jess. “Did you know your son loves anything with pumpkin in it?”
Janey tousled Jess’s head as he grinned. “Yeah, he gets that from his dad.” She sucked in a breath, wishing not every single thing about her life reminded her of her husband.
“We need three eggs from the coops.” Donna smiled at Jess, and he practically ran from the back door. She chuckled after him and asked, “So where are you going tonight?”
“Oh, uh, just up to the lodge,” Janey said, swallowing past the hitch in her voice.
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