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Interrupting whatever little showdown she’d been caught in the middle of might be the first thing that had worked for him that morning. He hoped it wasn’t the last. She’d never thank him. She never had been the grateful sort, not even when he’d done his best to make sure she was safe. For a split second, he’d wanted to try that all over again, but the woman had more sharp edges than shattered glass.
“But it’s folding clothes, Dad. And she said she’d help me with my room.” Parker sneezed and Brett could almost hear the nurse’s phone call telling him his son needed to come home. Right now, no fever meant no sick day.
“What happened the last time she made that offer?” he asked as he pulled his wallet out. With one raised eyebrow, he asked Christina his total. She took a ten from him and turned to the cash register.
“She tricked me.” Parker’s sad voice made Brett smile. Having a daughter with an impressive criminal mind was scary. He’d only managed to stop her from shaving off her hair because Parker had asked him where his clippers were that morning. He’d had to learn to follow the trail to anticipate however Riley would act up next, and it often started with his trusting son.
Since her mother had gone off the deep end again, Riley needed careful attention. How to help her eluded him, but keeping her safe wouldn’t.
“Right. Don’t let her trick you again. This morning she almost got you, so watch her, P.” Brett took his change and shoved it in his pocket. “Now, be good. Pay attention. Call me when you get home this afternoon.”
“I will, Dad.” Parker heaved a huge sigh. “Girls are tricky.”
“Don’t you ever forget it, son.” With his wife’s best friend watching his every move, he couldn’t argue with that. “I love you, Parker.”
“Love you—” The call ended before he finished the rest of the sentence. That was Parker’s usual goodbye, so it was more reassuring than worrying.
When he ended the call, he considered calling Riley to explain again how much he disliked her attempts at tricking her brother. Then he remembered her annoyed stare when he’d steered her out of the bathroom and away from the statement she wanted to make with her hair.
Dinnertime would be soon enough to tackle that.
And since he was headed to Nashville for a weeklong training session, it might be dinner next week.
Looking forward to a class on managing a law enforcement department like it was a trip to Hawaii was a sign of how out of control his house had gotten. There would be no grape juice, no sullen teenage stares, and if he wanted to watch something other than the cartoon channel, he could. The business class hotel he’d booked on the outskirts of Nashville sounded more and more like heaven.
“Long day,” Christina drawled as she pushed the cups toward him.
“Yeah. And it’s just started.” He shook his head as she slid the sugar packets over. Then he ripped both open and dumped them in the coffee. He wadded up the paper and Christina slipped the lid on.
“How are Parker and Riley?” she asked as she tipped her chin up. She expected him to tell her to go jump in Otter Lake and he wanted to. Anything he said to her would go right back to Leanne. He didn’t have the energy for a confrontation.
“They’re okay.” Brett snatched up the bag and pointed at the empty table in the corner. “He going to be a problem?”
Christina twirled her pen as she considered his question. Even in the fluorescent lights of the campground’s dumpy restaurant, she was a heartbreaker. For a split second after he’d married her best friend, he’d tried to act the big brother and protect her. At seventeen, she’d run circles around him immediately and basically made him wish he’d never been born. More than a decade later, he could see the hardness in her eyes and wished he’d done a better job.
“I had it under control.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Woody had my back.” Out of the corner of his eye, Brett saw the old guy straighten on his stool.
Pretending to have everything under control was his move, so he respected it.
The glint in her eye was a warning, and it was always there. She’d never wanted his help, and she wouldn’t take him up on it if he offered to handle her problem customer for her.
If he wasn’t careful, his daughter would have the same calculating expression.
“You’ve got my number if he comes back,” Brett said as he dug around in his pocket for a dollar bill. He was ticked off at Leanne, and Christina was guilty by association, but he couldn’t walk out without leaving a tip or at least making the offer.
“I won’t call it.” She pointed at Woody Butler, frequent camp fly at the Otter Lake Campground. “I’ve got Woody.”
Since the last time Woody might have been able to throw a punch was forty years ago, Brett was almost certain he’d be a hindrance if it came to a real fight.
Now he was fifteen minutes late for that meeting with his boss, and he shouldn’t be wasting his time trying to tell her to do the right thing anyway.
He held up the bag and headed for the door.
“Hey, Brett,” Christina called.
He could pretend he didn’t hear her, like his mother had when he’d yelled at her to get out of bed before he left that morning. Diane Hendrix had come for a visit three years ago to help him out, and every day since, her patience grew shorter. Their yelling match over the imposition of him disappearing for a week and leaving everything on her shoulders had been the cherry on top of his Dumpster sundae.
But he was in uniform, so he did the right thing. “Yeah?”
“You’re probably wondering how Leanne is. Your wife.” Christina crossed her arms over her chest. “The wife you cut out of her kids’ lives.”
“Ex-wife. For good reasons, which most of the people in this room are very aware of,” Brett muttered as he glanced around the restaurant. The crowd had thinned, but he could see a few regulars. Anybody who knocked around Otter Lake or Sweetwater had heard their story already. Cheating, drugs and the epic court battle made for juicy gossip. His reputation would never recover, but he wanted better for Riley and Parker.
“She misses her kids.” Christina stepped closer.
“She should have thought of that a long time ago.” Brett bit back the rest of the answer that bubbled up.
“She wasn’t drinking at the Branch, Brett.” Christina glanced over her shoulder and he could see the frustration on her face when she turned back. She didn’t want this to play out in public, either. “You told her not to talk to me, but we’re best friends. She came to keep me company. That’s it. Cutting her out like this, have you thought what it might mean? What it means to Parker and Riley to lose their mother, or to Leanne to lose the most important things in her life, the kids who keep her grounded?”
Christina clenched her hands together in the apron tied around her waist. Instead of impassive control, her expression was a mix of begging and warning. He understood her message, too, but there was nothing he could do about it. He’d made his decision about what to do about Leanne the day the judge gave him sole custody. While she was in Sweetwater, he’d invited her over to visit the kids but only when he was around. What had been exciting and passionate when they were kids had become unstable and a problem when they’d become parents. He’d wanted his children to know their mother, but she’d left them behind.
Now that she’d gone? She was out of all of their lives for good.
That meant everything was on his plate. No matter how much the load weighed him down, he had to keep everything balanced.
Leanne had thrown away her chance to prove she was ready for more responsibility. He refused to admit any guilt, but his whole world was fraying around the edges.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Chris.” The old nickname slipped out and he watched her shoulders slump. “You know my priority.” He backed out of the door and watched her turn away. He was going to escape the town’s scrutiny; Christina would have to face it, this time alone.
She’d made her choice. He understood her loyalty, but that loyalty had made it easy enough for Leanne to make bad decisions. He was doing the right thing.
Once he was back in the car, he called the latest in a string of women he’d dated in an attempt to find another wife. If he didn’t have permanent help and soon with the kids, he’d have to give up his job.
He’d had a strict list of requirements for the women he dated, since the only thing he never wanted to have happen again was to be lied to and abandoned. This teacher from Knoxville was prettier than he preferred, but she was quiet and sweet and so boring that he couldn’t imagine her being the subject of the kind of wild stories that circulated about Leanne or Christina.
She also hadn’t grown up in Sweetwater. At this point, that was her strongest selling point. Living with people who’d witnessed his biggest failure from the front row was hard enough. He didn’t want his children facing that memory at home every day.
He was planning to leave a message, but Lila answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, I figured you’d be teaching,” Brett said as he maneuvered the curvy road that led to the ranger station and the overlook.
“Free period,” Lila said before clearing her throat. “But I’m glad you called.”
“Well, I wanted to remind you that I’ll be in Nashville this week.” Brett studied the parking lots as he passed. Low occupancy currently, but the numbers would grow later in the day. “When I get back, I’d like you to come out and meet my kids.” He’d decided their conversations had gone well enough that it was time to move to the next step. After four false starts, he had a good feeling about Lila. He’d show his mother he was making progress, so that he could talk her into staying until school was out for the year. That was going to be stretching his persuasive abilities, but he didn’t think Lila would want to marry in the middle of the school year.
“About that.” Lila cleared her throat delicately. “I don’t think that’s a good plan.”
Brett pulled into his parking spot and turned off the engine. “Why not? I’d love to do it sooner, but—”
“I’m seeing someone else, Brett. You and me, the two of us together don’t work. We have no spark.” Lila sighed. “I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. What I don’t understand is why you seem to think it’s still a good thing.”
Brett thumped his head on the steering wheel and closed his eyes. Hysterical laughter was going to be the next step, but he’d fight it as long as he could.
“Are you still there?” she asked softly.
“Yep. No spark, huh?” He’d never tried to stir up a spark. He and Leanne had been nothing but sparks, down to fiery explosions. He didn’t want that anymore.
He wanted someone nurturing for his kids, someone who wouldn’t flake when a better offer came along or desert him when Riley pulled whatever stunt she was planning next.
And he wanted peace.
What was he going to do?
“Okay, well...” Brett picked up the bribe, the critical bag of pie from the diner. “Glad I made the call.”
“You’re a great guy. I know you’ll find the woman you deserve,” Lila said before she ended the call.
When he had a minute, he’d come up with a new plan. Right now, he had to go and make sure his boss didn’t fire him.
As he strode past the front desk, Macy Gentry, the woman who kept the ranger station operational while treating guests like VIPs, whistled. “He’s called twice looking for you.”
No doubt. Ash Kingfisher had a million different balls in the air as the supervisor for this ranger station. He didn’t need to be kept waiting.
Brett tapped on the boss’s door, and then entered, waving the white bag as a flag of surrender. “I brought pie.”
Ash grunted, and then pointed at the ratty seat across from him. “Thought cops were supposed to be about doughnuts.” They had this conversation at least once a week. Brett had started out as a cop in Knoxville. As a kid, he’d wanted nothing more than to get out of Sweetwater and the shadow of the nature reserve. As soon as Leanne had told him about their second baby on the way, he’d decided Sweetwater might be the only place that could save them.
In Knoxville, Leanne could get into too much trouble. In Sweetwater, any trouble she found would eventually make its way back to him. Unfortunately, that made it harder to love her.
“Doughnuts, pie, mainly pastries in general. We try not to discriminate.” Brett slid the second cup of coffee over and watched Ash tug the lid off and drink deep. He must have already had a full Monday, too.
“You all set for this management class?” Ash asked as he shuffled papers across his desk.
Brett grumbled. That was the best answer he could come up with. He’d been a ranger at the Smoky Valley Nature Reserve for more than five years. This promotion to senior law enforcement officer was nice, but it came with headaches he hadn’t anticipated. This step was required, though, so he’d get through it.
“Doesn’t matter. I’ve postponed the training as long as I can. Go, or...else.” Ash held out both hands. “Can’t change the rules for you, right?”
Brett understood that. Arguing about his personal situation or explaining how well he was already performing would accomplish nothing. “No, sir.”
“Before you go, I wanted to talk to you about this opportunity the chief ranger sent our way.” Ash pulled out a file folder. “State’s looking to set up regional law enforcement task forces focused on terrorist activities. I’m not sure how the nature reserve can be involved. I suspect the chief ranger is not certain, either. However, we both think you’re the best man for the job.” Ash leaned back in his chair and claimed one of the containers of pie.
Brett could understand their thinking. There was a good chance he’d worked with the other agencies involved in East Tennessee. After the day he’d had, all he wanted to do was put his head on the desk and rest. “I’d be happy to, sir. Whatever I can do for the reserve. You know that.”
Ash sighed as he took a bite of the pie. “Well, I figured you’d say that, so I already put your name in. It means monthly meetings in Knoxville.”
Brett finished off his coffee and wished for more. The pie was sweet, but only coffee would give him the kick he needed to go any further with this day.
“You look like a man who’s running on fumes, Hendrix.” Ash took another bite of pie. “Anything I need to know about?”
If Ash hadn’t already heard about his woes through the grapevine, Brett wouldn’t be the man to tell him.
“Nope, I’m going to stop by the office, make sure the patrols are set. Macy has all my contact info and I’ll have my cell.” Brett picked up his hat and stood.
“Keep me posted and thank you for your service.” Ash waved his empty container. “I learned that from a weeklong training session at the Tennessee Law Enforcement Officers Academy. See what an effective manager I became?”
“They do good work,” Brett said with a reluctant smile.
“Yes, they do. Make sure you get some sleep. I can’t have you napping in your car. Watch the speed limit on your way back down, and the stop signs here on the reserve mean full stops, not hesitations. Got it?”
Brett opened his mouth, but there was no answer to that, so he nodded.
“I see everything.” Ash dumped the plastic container into a garbage can.
“Recycle,” Macy yelled from her desk. Firmly.
“Eyes in the back of her head,” Ash muttered before cursing and fishing out the container.
“If that’s all you needed...” Brett stood next to the door, his hand on the knob as he plotted his next steps. He had to be in Nashville by three. He’d be cutting it close.
“Dismissed.” Ash nodded, and then added, “Hey, Hendrix, I know things right now are rough. If it gets to be too much, tell me.”
Brett agreed, and then stepped out. There was no way he’d ask his boss for help. That would be a sure path to the sidelines. He loved his job. He didn’t want to sit out any of the action.
Not even a task force that amounted to lunches filled with gossip all in the name of cooperation.
After he had a chance to check in with the rangers on patrol and to double-check the schedule that he’d double-checked every day for the past two weeks, he slid back into his car and hit the road.
With every mile, the certainty that something would go wrong grew. He hated being away from his kids. In a last-ditch effort to calm his nerves, he phoned his mother.
“Did you call to apologize?” she said without any other hello.
“No, I called to thank you.” No good would come of explaining how much more he needed her to do than she was already doing.
Her huff was the answer he’d expected. “And to warn you Riley’s up to something. It involves her hair. She’s either planning to cut it off or make me think that’s what she’s doing while she does something else.” Brett tightened his hands on the steering wheel and wished her acting out would stop there. If it made her feel better, he’d hand her the clippers himself.
But nothing seemed to make her feel better. Her mother had left town. Riley was angry.
She deserved to be angry.
“Well, as long as she’s not trying to hurt anybody else, I guess that’s good enough.” His mother never had been great at encouragement. Now the only thought that stuck in his brain was that Riley might go past teenage drama to something worse.
“Try to go easy on her. I’ll call tonight to make sure the day went okay.” Brett wondered if he should tell his mother Lila had bailed, too, or let the whole situation ride until he was home.
“Sounds fine,” she said, “but I wanted to let you know I signed up for a singles cruise in December. Don’t know how this thing with the new lady is going, but you could set up a visit around then. Lots of happy family time. Holidays. Cheer in the air, all that.”
His mother had been desperate to get back to the life of the single retiree almost from the first week she’d arrived to help. He wasn’t sure he blamed her because there wasn’t much for her in Sweetwater, but the extra drop of bad news was more than he could take.
“All right. We’ll figure it out. Talk to you tonight, Mom.” He ended the call before she could squawk that her name was Diane and he should learn to use it.
