Heart of Valor

by Adriana Peck

  “Paul! You’re here early today,” I holler out as I finish scrubbing down the counter. Paul takes his usual seat in front of me, and I put a freshly poured cup of coffee right in front of him as usual.

  “Got some clients coming in from out of town today,” Paul says. “Looks like we got families coming in with half broken-down cars. More business for me,” he grins.

  I chuckle, getting back to my cleaning. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. My tips are going to go up. Hopefully.”

  “They better be tipping you well, or else the world is truly coming to an end,” Paul says, raising his mug to me before taking a sip.

  I laugh, getting back to my cleaning as I wipe down the table next to the restrooms.

  “And hey, can I tell you something? When it’s just the two of us?” Paul says.

  “Well, Don’s in the back. But what’s up?” I say, not looking up from my work as I sanitize table after table.

  “Don’t believe everything you hear,” Paul says. “Those rumors came flying at me this morning on my way here. People are talking. But I know you’re a good girl, Nancy, I’d never believe that nonsense they’re trying to peddle around town.”

  I stop dead in my tracks, looking up from my sanitizer rag as I stare at Paul absolutely dumbfounded.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask.

  The door to the café swings open, the bell chimes as Nora Knoxley walks in, ready for a full day’s worth of bossing me around. She looks proud of something, and her smug grin and giant overstuffed windbreaker tell me the chill outside isn’t going to be the only coldness I feel today.

  Paul shrugs, looking back at his coffee. “Nevermind,” he mutters. “Forget I said anything.”

  Nora walks past Paul, drops her purse behind the counter as she shakes off her windbreaker. “Morning, Nancy,” she croons to me. She glances back over at the lone customer. “Paul.”

  I give Nora a polite nod, getting back to my work.

  But I can’t quite shake off what Paul said. ‘Don’t believe everything you hear.’ Maybe they’re talking about me. Jake. I don’t know what people are saying, but I know if that word gets back to Jake, I’ve ruined things for sure. Rumors kill any budding relationship, no matter how good things look from the outside.

  I do my best to focus on my work, keeping myself as busy as I can while customers start pouring in. Paul takes an extra-long early lunch, sticking around until well after noon as more and more tourists and regulars flock to Nora’s Café.

  Darius Blighter, my ex-fiancee, even stops by for a cup of coffee. He seats himself in a booth near the window, and I approach him cheerily.

  “Long time, no see, Darry,” I grin. “What brings you in?”

  He returns the smile. “Thought I’d come get a cup of coffee on the way to work, that’s all.”

  “That gym of yours still up and running?” I ask, impressed.

  Darius nods. “Only one in town. Can’t get shut down by the competition if there isn’t any, right?”

  I shrug. “Guess not. Coffee?”

  “Blacker than the night.”

  I give him a friendly smile. “Coming right up.”

  I’m back with Darius’s coffee a moment later, and he motions for me to stick around while he takes the first sip.

  “Everything alright, Darry?”

  He nods, setting the mug down on the table. “Coffee’s great as always. Wanted to ask you something, though. Clear something up for me.” His tone is inquisitive, his face neutral. We ended our engagement on good terms, there’s no bad blood between us. Since we broke up, Darius’s been out with more girls than I have guys.

  “Clear what up?”

  “I heard talk around town this morning. A little bird told me you and Jake Reeves left the fundraiser together. Made out in his truck. And they saw him parked at your place last night. Something happening there?” Darius grins, cocking an eyebrow. I don’t think he’s jealous, but I know these rumors can’t be good.

  “That’s none of your business,” I reply plainly. “But it’s not true. I’m not with Jake.”

  “That so?”

  I nod. “We’re just friends. We just talked. We didn’t make out in his truck that night.” Technically true, if you want to split hairs. All we really did was kiss. I’m still surprised that Darry found out, and I’m wondering if he’s upset by the rumors circulating around.

  “Well, his truck’s in the parking lot outside,” Darius shrugs. “What’s up with that?”

  I stare out the window, dumbfounded. I scan the parking lot’s rows of cars and sure enough, there’s Jake’s rusted red pickup at the end of the row.

  “I…I didn’t know that was here,” I reply, dumbfounded.

  “He give you a ride here?” Darius asks. “Not that I care. Just curious, that’s all.”

  I can feel myself getting defensive. “No, Jake didn’t give me a ride here. I took my own car, you can see it—” I start to point out my car, but I stop dead in my tracks. Darius peers outside and starts to laugh when he sees it, too.

  “…parked right next to Jake’s truck,” I finish, trailing off.

  Darius looks back at me, grinning.

  I sigh, defeated.

  “We’re not seeing each other, okay, Darius? I don’t know what it’ll take for you to believe me.”

  My ex-fiancee nods. “Sure,” he says, looking back at his coffee. “Whatever you say, Nancy.”

  As I leave Darius to go check on the other customers, I can hear him snickering quietly from behind me as if I couldn’t hear.

  Just when I thought today couldn’t get any worse.

  ◆◆◆

  A little while later, after most of the lunch rush has quieted down and left, Darius waves me over as he finishes his slice of cherry pie. I’m still a little hurt from our conversation earlier, but I know Darius didn’t mean any harm by implying Jake and I are together. To him, it’s probably just harmless fun. But to me, it’s my reputation here at home, and I know being seen with Jake is going to mess things up for me. If everyone thinks he’s bad news, then it doesn’t really matter what I think, does it?

  I head over to Darius’s booth, and I can see he’s watching a video on his phone. He’s wearing reading glasses, peering down at his screen as he absentmindedly pushes the finished pie plate toward me.

  “Everything good for you, Darry?” I ask.

  He nods, still staring at his phone.

  “Something on?” I ask, trying to get through to him.

  “You seen this, Nancy?” Darius looks up at me, a look of concern washed across his face.

  I shake my head. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

  “It’s all over social media. Come here, I’ll start the video over.”

  Darius leans over to me, rewinds the video he’s watching on his phone as I lean over his shoulder.

  It’s a blurry hand-held camera video, taken in a familiar produce section somewhere.

  “That the grocery on the other side of Main?” I ask.

  Darius nods, pressing play.

  It’s two guys fighting, a bulky figure in a grey hoodie wailing on this big guy in a suit.

  I feel a pit forming in my stomach.

  I’d know that grey hoodie anywhere. It’s been stuck in my mind ever since its owner came into the café just a few nights ago.

  The hooded figure delivers a nasty punch to the suited guy’s face, knocking him out cold as he slinks to the floor in a heap.

  Jake turns around, faces the camera as he pushes past the crowd on his way out of the grocery store.

  I honestly can’t believe my eyes.

  Thirteen

  Nancy

  I seriously can’t believe what I just saw. Jake, captured on video, fighting in the grocery store’s produce section. Absolutely wailing on that guy in the suit.

  I back away from Darius, who puts his phone back in his pocket.

  “Nancy, I’m…so sorry,” Darius says, traili
ng off. I can tell his eagerness to spread a rumor’s been deflated after seeing my tapered reaction.

  My jaw is hanging in air, my mouth agape like an idiot. I can’t believe what I just saw. But I know it was real.

  “You sure that’s him?” I ask Darry. He nods.

  “Saw his face,” he replies. And I know I did, too.

  “When was that video uploaded?” I ask.

  “Not ten minutes ago,” Darius says, checking his phone to be sure.

  I look outside, scanning the street. I know we’re close to the grocery store, and I could probably run there in five minutes flat. It wouldn’t even be worth starting my car to get there.

  I turn around, scanning the café behind me. Paul’s still sitting at the counter, sipping his coffee as he scans a leftover copy of yesterday’s paper. Nora’s nowhere to be seen, Don’s probably outside on a smoke break. A few scattered customers sit in booths and at tables, and I know everyone here’s been accounted for.

  I look back outside, and I know what I need to do.

  Without another word, I take off running, bolting out of Nora’s Café as I throw the door open and start sprinting as fast as I can to Main Street.

  ◆◆◆

  I reach the local grocer in five minutes flat, just like I’d thought. Twin Orchards is small enough to run across town in twenty minutes if you’re fast enough.

  The grocery store’s usually half-empty parking lot is now packed to the brim, every cop car in town parked here with their sirens flashing. I can see a crowd gathering around on the sidewalk, nearby business owners and their customers all peering outside to figure out just what the hell’s going on.

  And that’s why I’m here, too.

  I see a massive figure in uniform stepping outside; I see Chief of Police Hill escorting a grey figure out of the grocery store with their hands behind their back, head down.

  Jake.

  I start to rush across the street, trying to make it to Jake and the Chief before they’re gone for good.

  I push through the small crowd on the sidewalk, trying to get past the horde of people wanting to get a better look at the crime scene. I see a few scattered officers and sheriff’s deputies trying to hold everyone back, but they can’t keep me from breaking through the front line.

  But I’m not fast enough.

  I watch in horrific silence as Chief Hill pushes Jake into the back of a squad car. As Chief Hill walks around to the front of the car, he spares me a half-sympathetic, half-curious look.

  I want to shout after him, tell him that there must be some sort of mistake here, but it’s no use. I can’t open my mouth. I can’t find the strength to speak.

  Chief Hill gets into the squad car and pulls away from the grocer with Jake in tow.

  I look around me, watch as some of the deputies and officers back away from the dissipating crowd that’s now leaving the sidewalk, disinterested after the apparent perpetrator’s been carried away in handcuffs.

  But I can’t just go back to work. Not after seeing Jake get yanked away like that.

  I need to figure out what happened here.

  I take a deep breath, heading inside the grocery store to see for myself.

  ◆◆◆

  The produce section has a small crowd gathered around a few figures, and I have to push through the mass of people just like I did outside. I can see an officer taking someone’s statement, it’s the man in the suit from the video. The guy Jake was wailing on. I can see he’s bruised. Bloody. His nose looks broken, and I can see a massive gash across his forehead. His pea coat is still strewn about, tossed aside during the fight.

  I gasp when I see him, and his eyebrows cock when he sees me. I recognize that man. One of my asshole customers from the charity auction. One of the guys who sneered in my face, bossed me around for a fifty-cent soda and bag of chips.

  “That’s her, officer,” he says, pointing me out to the man in uniform taking his statement. The young officer turns to face me, shoots me a similar sympathetic look that Chief Hill spared me outside.

  “What’d I do?” I ask, pushing my way past the crowd still gathered around us.

  “You know what you did, you stupid bitch,” the man in the suit says. “So did that dumbass in the hoodie. He couldn’t see a skank if she jumped up and bit him.”

  Okay.

  Now I think I know why Jake beat the shit out of that guy.

  Defending what was left of my honor after the charity fundraiser.

  I don’t need to stick around here, I don’t think anything I can say will change the outcome here.

  Without another word, I turn around and leave the grocery store, starting the short hike back to my work.

  ◆◆◆

  When I finally reach Nora’s Café again I can see two figures seated on the front steps, laughing to themselves as they chit-chat back and forth. As I get closer, I can see it’s Darius and Nora.

  “Hey,” I say meekly as I approach them. They’re sitting right in front of the door, and when I peer past them I can see that most of the customers have gone for the day. The café’s all but empty, and I look back at Nora and Darius who give me a nod of approval.

  “Jake aright?” Darius asks.

  I shrug. “He got taken away in handcuffs. So I guess not.”

  “Anyone get hurt?” Nora asks.

  I shrug again. “That guy Jake was fighting was an asshole. I don’t really care if Jake messed him up or not.”

  Nora looks impressed. “Look at nice old Nancy over here,” she says to Darius, raising her eyebrows comically.

  “So, what’d he do?” Darius asks.

  “I think the guy in the suit said something to Jake that he shouldn’t have, and Jake got heated. Attacked him. At least, that’s my guess.”

  Nora and Darius share a look before collectively chuckling.

  “So, you two are definitely a thing, then,” Darius says playfully, looking back at Nora with a grin.

  “Are not.”

  “Sure,” Darius pauses for a moment. “Whatever you say.”

  I can feel my cheeks redden, but I stand my ground. “Look, I don’t go for guys who get in fights. That’s the truth.”

  “Yeah? Says who?” Darius chortles, and he and Nora start laughing again.

  I’m sick of this, and I want this conversation to be over.

  “Look, Nora, I’m sorry I ran out. That was childish of me.”

  Nora just waves her hand, dismissing my words as she smiles. “Don’t worry about it, Nancy. Gave us a scare that you were sick of the job. I’m just glad you came back.”

  I nod. “Can I go back in, then?”

  Nora gestures to the door behind her, and we head back into the café as Darry stays outside, enjoying the cool of the fall afternoon by himself.

  Fourteen

  Jake

  That was fucking stupid of me to do.

  As I sit in the lonely and musky jail cell, I can’t help but feel like I might’ve made a mistake somewhere along the line today.

  The day started out pretty ordinary. Breakfast with Chance who wouldn’t shut up about his girl he met at the auction. I took my truck to Nora’s, parking next to Nancy. I was gonna see her after getting her something from the grocery. A donut, maybe some soda, a snack to tide her over until her shift got out in the afternoon.

  But then that fuckstick had to go and open his mouth.

  His words cling to me like a parasite, eating away at my brain.

  “Hey, I know you,” I hear him laugh. “You’re, ah, you’re that convict, your brother’s the doctor right?”

  I can feel the white-hot anger bubbling inside me, but I keep my cool. Overhead, the tinny elevator-music plays as the other shoppers inspect fruits and vegetables, filling their carts with food for the week ahead. Clerks watch as customers bag their own groceries, cars pull in and out from the lot just outside.

  “No, sorry. You must have me mistaken for someone else.”

  I try to walk past t
he man, move along, but the jackass in the suit keeps me from leaving.

  “Yeah, I know you. You’re that Reeves kid. Everyone saw you making out with that slut from the diner—”

  He doesn’t have any time to finish his thought.

  My fist comes up suddenly, instinctively, rising to meet the asshole’s jaw.

  And I won’t lie, it feels pretty good.

  It still feels good, even sitting in the fucking jail cell of all places. What happened to frontier justice? One punch that can solve a problem shouldn’t get you tossed in the clink, but here I am.

  I was bound to end back up here, if I’m being honest.

  Every day felt like a charade, like I was putting on an act.

  But now everybody knows the truth about me. Maybe I know something now, too.

  That I’m a fuck-up.

  That I don’t deserve whatever shred of happiness I’d been feeling these past few days.

  That I’m just going to wreck everything good that comes my way.

  I’m sure Nancy’s heard about my escapades in the produce section by now. I’m sure she’s horrified, swearing off talking to me ever again. And I wouldn’t blame her for that. She won’t care I was defending her honor, she won’t care who I beat up for her. All she’ll see is the black mark on my record, the cuffs shackled around my wrists.

  I’m a mess.

  And I deserve everything that’s come my way.

  I hear a door slamming somewhere around me, and I look up as I hear footsteps approaching my cell.

  Chief of Police Hill stands with his hands on his oversized hips, years of insolence and laziness finally catching up to the old officer. I want to laugh when I see him, but then I remember that he’s the one holding the key to my release.

  Might as well play the role he wants me to play.

  Helpless inmate.

  “And how are we doing in here, Mr. Jake?” he asks me in a condescending tone.

  I shrug, looking up as I face the Chief. “Room service is a bit lacking,” I reply.

  Chief Hill bursts out into laughter, and I honestly can’t tell if he’s being genuine or not.