The Lawman's Secret Son

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Kathy rolled her eyes. “No. Like Ralph used to be.”

The committee members filed in and Carrie started the meeting by going over the positions still needing to be filled. Midway through, Seth Montgomery slipped in and took a seat at the back of the room. Her throat went dry. He was dressed in full uniform. The white shirt with its military-style tabs and pockets contrasted sharply with his olive-toned skin and made his shoulders appear even broader. He was a handsome man, a man who carried himself with confidence and authority. A man with the power to uncover her deepest secret.

Thankfully, the meeting came to a close quickly, and she hoped Seth would leave with the others. Unfortunately, no one had stepped up to be her gofer. It was just as well. The extra work would keep her too busy to think about Seth or Jack.

“Carrie, guess what I found for you?”

She glanced up to see Kathy approaching the table, followed by a smiling Seth Montgomery. She tried to hide her discomfort behind a stiff smile and avoid eye contact. The uniform stirred old anxieties, but she couldn’t deny it also added a layer of masculinity to his already compelling appeal. No doubt, he’d dismissed her as a basket case, given the way she’d bolted from his truck the other day. It didn’t matter since she’d be keeping her distance from now on.

Kathy spread her arms. “Meet your new anniversary-picnic assistant.”

Seth flashed his white teeth and rested his hands on his duty belt. “Kathy told me you needed help, so I decided to step up.”

He couldn’t be serious. “You have a full-time job. You won’t have time to do all the small errands I’ll need help with.” Not to mention she was trying to avoid Seth, not work side by side with him.

“Are you turning me down?”

She searched for a polite response. “No. But you said yourself you’re starting your new job, and then there’s Jack to take care of. I need someone flexible who can act as a gofer. The way Ralph used to.”

“And that’s the beauty of my job, Carrie. After this next week, I’ll be on the midday shift. Noon to eight. That leaves all morning to run errands.” He held up a finger. “Plus, who better to be your gofer than a police officer? I’m on the road all day, I have access everywhere in town and it’ll give me plenty of opportunity to interact with the community. Part of my job is being visible around town and building goodwill between the department and the citizens. I already ran it by Captain Durrant and he’s on board.”

Carrie’s hopes faded. She really needed help to get all the details of the picnic together, but not with Seth. “And Jack? Who’s going to take care of him while you’re running my errands?”

“I enrolled him in the preschool here this morning. I tried to let you know, but you weren’t answering your phone.”

Backed into a corner, she frantically tried to think of other reasons to refuse his offer. He leaned forward and she caught a hint of his spicy aftershave and a whiff of leather. His nearness stole the starch from her knees, forcing her to grasp the table for support. She could not develop any attraction for her neighbor—a man with the ability to destroy her life.

“Carrie, I owe you big-time for helping out with Jack. This is my way of paying you back. It’ll work out. It’s a win-win for both of us. I’ll help you with the picnic, and maybe you could help by watching Jack from time to time. He misses you. He keeps looking for you.”

Now he was being unfair, using Jack to get to her. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but this position has always been Ralph’s job.”

Seth grinned and tugged on his earlobe. “Ralph is getting older and can barely find his way to church.”

She bristled. “He’s a dear man who has devoted himself to this church. I wouldn’t dream of breaking his heart.”

“What’s this about you replacing me?”

They turned around to see Ralph shuffling toward them, his shoulders bent forward, his dark eyes snapping from under the brim of his Mississippi Braves ball cap.

Carrie exhaled a heavy sigh. This is what she’d dreaded. “No, Ralph, you haven’t been replaced.”

The old man muttered a soft curse and tugged at his cap. “Better not. No one’s putting me out to pasture.”

Seth stepped toward him and extended his hand. “Hello, Mr. Ralph. Remember me? Seth Montgomery.”

Ralph ignored the hand, pointing a finger at him, instead. “You’re the rapscallion who threw all my hay out of the barn loft onto the floor so you and your hoodlum friends could jump into it.”

“Yes, sir. That was me.” He gestured toward his uniform. “But I’ve rejected those ways and embraced the law.”

Ralph harrumphed. “You the one trying to take my job?”

“No, sir. Never. But I’d like to be your apprentice, learn the ropes from the master, so to speak.”

Carrie watched the anger fade from the old man’s dark eyes and the shoulders straighten. “Fine by me, but you’d better stay on your toes. This ain’t a job for slackers.” Ralph wagged a finger at them as he walked away.

Carrie dared a look at Seth. “Thank you. That was very sweet. You preserved his pride.” Seth unleashed his smile in her direction and her insides wobbled.

“So, does that earn me the position? I promise I’ll keep him in the loop. I like the old guy.”

Carrie knew she’d regret it, but she really had no choice. Mavis was right. She had to stop worrying. Seth was only trying to help. “Fine. But I warn you, you’ll hear from me a lot between now and the picnic. Especially those last few weeks.”

Seth grinned and held out his hand. “Deal. And it’s even better that we live next door. We’re a good team, Carrie. We can work together on the picnic and help Jack.”

She took his hand. It was warm and strong and filled her with a sense of security. Seth would always make those he cared about feel secure. Being protective was in his nature. She’d seen that firsthand in the way he’d stepped up to take care of Jack. He would make a great father and a devoted husband, when the time came.

And he would choose a woman of strong character from a good family. Not someone like her. A thief with a criminal record.

Chapter Four (#u517610f7-f802-5ff4-95dd-2b9e9af92d40)

Seth scanned the area around the municipal complex as his temporary partner, Phil Hagen, pulled the cruiser out of the police-station lot and onto the highway. Traffic was heavy with residents heading to work. Farther up the road, yellow school buses lumbered into the sprawling attendance center of the Dover school system. He kept his gaze moving, looking for anything unusual or out of place. Major crimes in Dover were few. Most of their calls were for accidents, DUIs and domestic disputes. There hadn’t been a murder in town in years. Even so, Phil had assured him there was still enough criminal behavior to keep the Dover PD busy.

Today they were patrolling the southern section of the town, where a series of burglaries had recently been reported. Neighborhoods there ran the gamut from lower-income wooden homes and the only apartment complex in town to the newly constructed subdivisions of large homes that were mainly owned by people from Sawyer’s Bend looking for a quieter lifestyle.

“So what’s the opinion on these thefts?”

“The captain thinks it’s a bunch of bored teenagers breaking into homes, taking game consoles and tablets just for the thrill of it. It’s only the homes in the new subdivision that are being hit.”

“Sounds like they could use something to occupy their time. Maybe I can get Kent Blackburn, the youth pastor from the church, to look into it. He could get them to come to the group on Sunday nights or join a Bible study.”

Phil shook his head. “Yeah, right. Church is the answer to everything, isn’t it?”

“It should be. Teens are searching for their identity and they don’t always look in the right places. Kent has a real way with teenagers. They trust him.”

Phil merely shook his head and fell silent. Seth returned his focus to the things happening outside the car window, but his inner focus was on Jack and Carrie. He hadn’t talked to her since she’d agreed reluctantly to accept him as her assistant. He wasn’t sure if she was avoiding him or simply busy. He’d stopped by her office the last two days after he dropped Jack off at preschool, but it was always empty, and when he inquired he was told the same thing by everyone. “She’s around here somewhere.” If nothing else he’d learned that she was extremely committed to her job.

Jack, on the other hand, had seen Carrie every day. He spent the ride home each afternoon talking about school and how Carrie came and visited him at lunch or during recess. While he was glad she was looking in on the boy, he didn’t like the idea that she might be avoiding him. He had a plan to address the situation this evening. He only hoped it worked.

A car blew through the stop sign, and Phil hit the lights and pursued the blue sedan, which slowed and pulled over. A ticket was issued and they continued their patrol. The morning passed quickly with a response to a woman who had found a gun buried in the spot where she was putting a new flower bed, and the apprehension of a man trying to steal a car out near the county-line road.

Their lunch break was interrupted by a call to go to see a contractor in the old Victorian section of town who had reported stolen materials from the job site.

Seth sensed Phil glancing in his direction. “What?”

“So you going to tell me about this kid that popped up in your life or is there some reason you want to keep him a big secret?”

Seth glanced out the window and searched for the right words. He knew the man would want to know and he was surprised that it had taken this long for him to ask. Phil wasn’t shy about butting into other people’s business. The family had decided to simply explain that Jack had been with his mother and now he was with Seth. No other explanation would be given until the whole truth was known. “Jack has been with his mother, and now he’s come to stay with me.” It was the truth, but not the whole truth, and he didn’t like the feeling it left in his chest.

“So you have a kid, huh? That’s rich. Guess your love-’em-and-leave-’em past finally caught up with you, huh?”

Seth set his jaw. Phil had never been a close friend, merely one of the guys he’d hung around with growing up, and since being temporarily partnered with him for his first week on the job, he’d been reacquainted with the man’s lack of tact and understanding. “Jack’s mother and I were married.”

“Do tell? Rumor around town says you didn’t know you had a kid.”

His fingers curled into a fist on his thigh. This is what he’d feared—rumors and gossip that would embarrass his family and, especially, Jack. “Don’t believe everything you hear, Phil.”

A low chuckle filled the car. “No, that might tarnish the mighty Montgomery name, now, wouldn’t it? We can’t have that.”

“Just what do you have against my family? You’ve had a chip on your shoulder all your life.”

“Nothing. I just get sick of hearing how superior y’all are. Big house, big company, running everything in town. It’s a wonder none of your clan has run for mayor, then you could really take over.”

Seth let the dig slide. He was in no mood to spar with Phil. What he wanted was to talk to Carrie. He had questions about Jack, things that had happened in the last few days he needed to tell her about. Besides, Jack missed her. He kept going to the window, looking for her and Leo.

As soon as his shift was over he was going to pick up Jack, swing by Angelo’s and get a large pizza. Then he’d show up at her door. She wasn’t going to avoid him forever.

* * *

There were still a few minutes of daylight left in the sky when Carrie got home, a perfect opportunity to take her glass of sweet tea onto the front porch and enjoy the explosion of spring. The azaleas were in full bloom along the side of her house and in the park across the street. Pink, white, red, coral and purple flowers, all mixed together like an exquisite Monet painting. The confederate jasmine that climbed up the side of her porch and made a nice privacy screen was blooming and filling the air with its sweet, heady fragrance.

She’d had a very productive day at work, though none of it had revolved around the anniversary picnic. Her regular duties took a lot of time. The picnic was an extra project. She should have called Seth for help with a few things but hadn’t. She wanted to avoid that situation for as long as possible. It was a futile hope. Especially since she took time out of each day to check on Jack in the preschool in the morning and during after-school care in the afternoon. The little guy was always so glad to see her, and the toothy grin he gave her turned her insides to soft goo. His sweet hugs unleashed a nurturing part of her nature she was beginning to enjoy.

Each night she longed to talk to Seth to see how they were doing and ask how Jack was adjusting. She’d talked herself out of it each time, though, try as she might, she just couldn’t keep thoughts of the pair from invading her mind. She couldn’t decide which little-boy smile touched her more—Jack’s innocent, uninhibited grin or Seth’s slow one, which brought a knowing twinkle to the corner of his eyes.