“That’s where you had the fire last Christmas, right?” Jo asked.
“It is. The town council’s supposed to vote on approving new construction to happen next year. Maybe,” he hedged.
“You guys take on a project at a time, then,” Jo said.
They veered off to the right and started the trek up the hill. Soon they found themselves on the other side of a thick patch of redwoods that offered privacy and shade.
“We don’t like to stretch our funds into too many areas at one time. At least that’s the city council’s argument. Turns out it was a good decision considering what happened with the sanctuary site. We wouldn’t have had the funds to jump right back into it if we’d had other projects going, too. That would have pushed its completion well into next year.”
She pulled open the police station’s door before he could. When he followed her in, his gaze went immediately to the spot where, for more than eight years, his desk had been perched in front of the window. The clip-clip of four paws alerted him to Cacius, Sheriff Luke Saxon’s devoted golden retriever. The dog abandoned his department mascot duties to greet them with a gentle woof.
“Hey there, boy.” Ozzy bent down to snuggle the dog and ruffle his thick coat. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How’re you doing?”
Cacius let out a solitary bark, tail wagging as he licked Ozzy’s face, then turned his attention to additional affection.
“Jo, Cacius. Cacius, this is Jo.”
Woof.
“Hello there.” Jo held out her hand to let him get a good sniff. Cacius left Ozzy and planted his fuzzy butt on the floor beside Jo and leaned his head up into her stroking hand. “You’re a sweet guy, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Ozzy said. “The town’s full of them.”
“Don’t spill all our secrets at once, Oz.” Deputy Matt Knight popped up from around the corner and opened the pass-through portion of the scarred wooden counter. “What brings you by?”
“You did, actually.” Ozzy waited for Jo to move through to the offices. “We’re looking for Kyle. Heard he was filling in around here while he recoups. Jo, this is Matt Knight.”
“Kyle’s father.” Jo held out her hand. “Jo Bertoletti. I’m the new—”
“Supervisor up at the sanctuary site,” Matt finished for her. But rather than smile at the information, he looked slightly resigned. “Kyle’s been waiting for this.”
“Waiting for what?” Jo asked.
Matt sighed. “Let me get him for you.” Matt ducked into Luke’s office and they could hear muffled voices.
“He has a limp,” Jo murmured. “Was he injured on the job?”
“Lost his leg in Afghanistan,” Ozzy explained. “I’m surprised you noticed. It’s a lot better than it used to be.”
“I make my living watching and managing people who do a physically demanding job. I notice things like that.” Jo kept her voice low. “Sometimes men don’t own up when they’re hurting.”
“I’ll plead the fifth.”
When Matt reemerged, it was with Luke Saxon, and bringing up the rear was Kyle on crutches.
“Ms. Bertoletti. Sheriff Saxon.” The taller man offered his hand. “Luke. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hi, Luke. It’s Jo, please.” Jo returned the greeting without the expected googly eyes Ozzy had often witnessed whenever the good-looking lawman was around. These days if you were searching for the definition of a devoted family man, Luke would be exhibit A.
Ozzy had rarely gone a day when he’d not been impressed with his former boss. The sheriff was, as far as Ozzy was concerned, as good a man as they made. When Luke had taken over the sheriff’s job a few years back, Ozzy hadn’t been convinced it was a good fit. He also hadn’t appreciated Gil hiring someone from outside Butterfly Harbor. Well. Partially outside. Luke had grown up in Butterfly Harbor. But it had been his reason for leaving and then coming back that had caused a pretty big stir.
Luke’s predecessor, who also happened to be Luke’s now father-in-law, hadn’t placed much faith in Ozzy to do more than maintain the office equipment and man the phones. In hindsight, he’d had good reason to think that. Luke’s mentorship and guidance were a big reason why Ozzy had taken the chance to improve as a cop and then achieve his dream of becoming a firefighter. Luke still gave him a hard time for abandoning them at the sheriff’s department, but the sheriff had also, on multiple occasions, told Ozzy how proud he was of him.
“How much longer are you on the crutches for, kid?” Ozzy asked and earned a crooked smile from Kyle. Funny how that nickname meant different things to different people. Hearing Harvey use it on Gil didn’t have nearly the same affectionate reaction as it did when aimed at Kyle.
That said, it wasn’t so long ago that Ozzy had been called by the same moniker, and he’d been more than happy to pass it along. Especially to a young man who, until Matt Knight had adopted him, had been one of Butterfly Harbor’s worst juvenile troublemakers.
“Doctor thinks I can switch the cast out for a brace next week,” Kyle said. “And then I’ll start physical therapy.”
“That’s a maybe for next week,” Matt corrected his son. “His head’s healed okay, but the rest of him is taking some extra time.”
“Stop, Dad.” Kyle spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “She’s my boss. For now, at least.”
Jo didn’t miss a beat. “Kyle, I was wondering if you and I could speak privately for a few minutes?”
“Sure thing.” Kyle shrugged, but the look he sent his father betrayed his nerves. “How about we go outside?”
“Perfect. Lead the way.” Jo stepped back so he could pass, then hurried around him to open the door for him. “Be back in a bit.”
* * *
“THANKS FOR NOT doing this in there.” Kyle walked beside Jo toward the stone table and benches situated among a thick grove of redwoods next to the station.
“No problem.” She knew the young man was just shy of his nineteenth birthday and appeared to be caught in that post-growth-spurt, pre-fit young male build. She wondered if it was her growing maternal instincts that had her thinking he needed a haircut, but she’d bet the too-long bangs and brown hair nearly to his shoulders earned him his fair share of swooning sighs.
“My dad worries I’m going to take bad news the wrong way.” His grin struck her as sheepish. “I haven’t always had the best coping mechanisms.”
“Oh?” Jo feigned innocence. She’d read his file and the fact that it had made note of his difficult childhood right here in Butterfly Harbor told her a lot of people hadn’t forgotten. Nor would they try to sweep something under the carpet. She also knew he had a juvenile record, but she wasn’t interested in who he had been, only in who he was now. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve done a lot of great things around here. You were working for Kendall MacBride for a while, too, right? The woman who refurbished the Liberty Lighthouse?”
“Yeah. She worked construction in the army so she knows a lot about a lot of stuff. Until the accident I was able to do both jobs.” To say the young man looked miserable about his situation was an understatement.
“Kendall anxious to have you back?”
“I haven’t asked her.” That sheepish grin returned. “I’m a little worried about the answer. Kind of like with you now.”
Jo sat across from him, giving herself a solid view both of the young man and the captivating ocean that lay just beyond.
Pulling her attention back to what was important, she watched Kyle arrange himself into some sort of comfortable position. He winced, no doubt still in pain from the severe fracture and the metal rod they’d had to put in his leg.
“I thought it best this conversation be had one-on-one.” She set her bag down, attempted to cross her legs, then realized that wasn’t going to be happening and instead rested her arms on the table. “Kyle—”
“That’s not what this is about.” And here she’d attributed his distanced, almost sullen mood to being in pain. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding or if I’ve misled you. I have no intention of letting you go. Quite the contrary, I’m in need of your help.”
“My help?” Kyle’s brow furrowed. “With what?”
“Your boss, Jed Bishop. I take it you liked working for him?”
“Jed’s great.” Kyle’s head bobbed and Jo could see him start to relax. “I’ve learned a lot from him, too. He’s the one who encouraged me to start working toward my contractor’s license.”
“I bet you’ve had lots of time to study these past few weeks.” She needed to find a way to get to her idea and hopefully him being receptive to it. She might have a knack for reading people, but she also had a tendency to be a bit of a bulldozer when it came to marking things off her list. People, she reminded herself, needed more care and patience than inanimate objects. “You going to stick with it?”
“Yeah. And it keeps my mind off other stuff. Leo, he’s my brother, he helps me sometimes, but he’s only seven. Quizzes me and stuff.” The affection that slid across Kyle’s cute young face tweaked at Jo’s heart. “He’s a fun kid.”
“Word is Jed isn’t sold on coming back,” Jo said. “I think he might be dealing with some things as a result of the accident. He feels responsible, you know? Maybe a little scared it could happen again.”
Kyle nodded.
“How do you feel about coming back?” she asked.
“All right, I guess. Now, anyway.”
“You didn’t always?”
“No. No, I was ready to quit. But the day I got released from the hospital, my dad drove me up to the site. I told him I didn’t want to go, but he said it was the only way to move beyond it. He was in Afghanistan with Kendall,” Kyle added. “They were both hurt. Kendall got burned real bad and my dad lost his leg. He said he couldn’t go back and face the accident head-on, but that he wished he had. That’s why he made me do it. Made me face what had happened to me head-on, make it a part of me that I could live with. Every week we’d take a drive up there, I’d walk around or just sit in the car until the fear went away.”
“And has it gone away?” Jo pressed.
“Mostly.” Kyle frowned. “I still get nightmares sometimes. Not about the accident, but about being trapped in the dark. Not as often, though. I was lucky.”
Very lucky, from what Jo had read. Kyle had the worst injuries of the bunch, but he’d gotten them trying to save his fellow construction workers. And that, to her, was the true testament of who he was. And why she wanted him back on the job if he felt safe about it.
“Nightmares are perfectly normal. I remember being on a work site with my grandfather when there was a collapse. I think I was about ten? It was like watching an erector set just fold in on itself and the people caught in it.” She took a deep breath, grateful for the pristine ocean air. “I can still hear them crying out, and sometimes I get pulled right back to that day and it’s been...” She did the mental math. “Wow. That’s twenty-five years ago now. But if you’re facing it head-on, if you want to get back to work—”
“I do. I have to.” Kyle frowned. “I never thought I’d find something I’m good at. Something I like doing.”
“Find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Jo recited one of the affirmations her grandfather had imparted.
“My mom says that.” Kyle smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “My new mom. Lori. She and Matt adopted me a couple of years ago.”
“Family is what you make of it.” Boy, she was just full of platitudes today, wasn’t she? “So, about Jed. I know you can’t work with the crew yet. Both of us know that won’t happen for a while.”
“My doctor says maybe six months if I’m lucky.”
“If I can convince Jed to come back, how would you feel about being our administrative assistant? It would be office work, but you could shadow him on the site once you’re more mobile, see how things really operate, get a feel for the business end of construction. I’m betting that if Jed knows he’d be helping you reacclimate and move forward, he’d be more likely to return.” She was taking a chance on both these men, but with what was at stake, for herself and the project, and for them, it was worth the gamble. “What do you think?”
Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Great. We’re officially starting on Wednesday, but I’ve got the crew on call to be in at six Monday morning. We’ll talk over the details then.”
“Thanks, Ms. Bert—”
“Boss when we’re on the job. Otherwise it’s Jo.” She reached her hand across the table. “I look forward to working with you, Kyle.”
They slowly made their way back to the office, Kyle with a bit more enthusiasm in his voice. The conversation inside the station stopped the second they opened the door.
“Everything okay?” Matt came around the counter, the concern on his face tugging at a piece of Jo’s heart she forgot she had. Her father had been gone long before he may have looked at her that way: protective, proud and hopeful.
“Everything’s fine,” Jo said. “Kyle’s agreed to come back to the crew. He’s going to be our administrative assistant, which will give him the time he needs for any doctors’ appointments or physical therapy.” At Kyle’s wide eyes, she shrugged. “It won’t be a problem. Your main task is to get better. We need you at a hundred percent. And don’t worry,” she assured Matt when she saw the concern shadowing his gaze, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t overdo it.”
Kyle was immediately swept into a circle of male revelry and as the guys, joined by a barking, excited Cacius, slapped backs and congratulated their younger charge, Jo wandered away, giving them their privacy.
Odd, she thought as she admired the almost homey atmosphere of the sheriff’s office. The dark walls should have made the space feel closed in, but the color, along with the polished wood counter, took away a lot of the stodgy feel she’d expected. Photographs and commendations were neatly framed and arranged so they were seen almost the moment you walked in. A smile curving her lips, she moved closer, scanned the images of what was clearly a timeline of Butterfly Harbor law enforcement. Some of the faces she didn’t recognize, at least not from the older photographs. But there was one in particular that caught her attention.
The group of men was standing right where she stood now, in front of the wall of memories. She recognized Luke Saxon, of course, along with his canine companion. Next to him was Matt Knight and two other deputies, one who would have given a Hollywood action star a run for his money, and another who... She peered closer, narrowed her gaze.
The man’s frame was completely unfamiliar, but those eyes...oh, she was all too familiar with those dark green eyes.
She glanced over her shoulder, caught Ozzy in midlaugh at something Kyle had said, then looked back at the picture.
She touched her fingers to her mouth, trying to reconcile the significantly heavier man who was clearly Ozzy Lakeman with the man she’d met only a few days before.
But there was no mistake. They were one and the same.
The transformation was amazing, and for a moment, she wondered what was behind it, but it wasn’t any of her business, nor did it matter to her task at hand. She had no doubt the Ozzy in the pictures was, at heart, no different than the man she knew.
CHAPTER FIVE
“THAT WAS REALLY nice what you did. For Kyle,” Ozzy said when they were back outside and headed to the diner to pick up lunch. Walking with her, being with her, felt so...natural. As if it was where he was meant to be. He wasn’t, however, under any illusions that Jo felt the same. He’d seen her look at the pictures in the sheriff’s station. The fact she hadn’t asked him about them said either she hadn’t made the conne
ction or she didn’t care. Personally, he was hoping it was the former.
Experience suggested otherwise.
“I didn’t do it for Kyle. I did it for me. He’s a good employee.” How the sunlight caught her hair made it seem to glow like gold. “A good crew member. I can’t have too many of them if I’m going to meet my deadlines. But moving Kyle to administrative assistant is only half the plan.”
“And what plan is that?”
She arched a brow and looked him straight in the eye. “I’m sure you’ll understand I’d like to keep a few secrets to myself.”
The bubble of hope that she hadn’t connected him to the image in those photographs burst. But there was something else along with the teasing glint in her eye that had his gaze shifting across her pink cheeks and full lips.
He couldn’t help it. He had the strangest urge to kiss that smile from her lips. The very idea was so bold, so utterly contrary to Ozzy that he found himself both grateful and nervous at the prospect. And oddly determined.
With all the dates he’d been on, all the women he’d met in the last year, women who offered everything he should want, rarely had the impulse to kiss one of them ever hit him with the force it did now.
Friends, he reminded himself. She’d made it clear she was interested in being friends. There was a reason for that, one he could only hope she’d share down the line. Her immediately shutting him down when he’d asked about her baby’s father told him she’d been burned and that the wound was still raw. Now was not the time to push. So, friends it would be. Friends was a good place to start. Beginning now.
“Secrets, huh?” Ozzy said, his usual expression of good will back in place. “I won’t promise not to try to wheedle it out of you over lunch. You and the kidlet must be starving.”
“Beyond. Leah told me you used to be a deputy.” She seemed to notice he wanted her to set the pace downhill to Monarch Lane. “Seems like a good place to work. What made you change to being a firefighter?”
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