by Jenn Sable
Chloe eyed Max thoughtfully, “Max, you really should’ve studied acting in college. I think you missed your calling,” she said coolly.
Max playfully laughed, then took a deep breath. “I didn’t want it to have to come to this, but I care about you, El and need you to understand who you’re dealing with. Troy slept with my cousin, April when she was engaged, led her on, and then dropped her harshly the day after. Now she’s moving back to Bloombury because her marriage fell apart.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Okay, Max, thanks for the info.”
“It’s true. I was just having lunch with her at the counter over there,” said Max and pointed to the woman who had been curiously eying me earlier. I started to feel something heavy grow in the pit of my stomach.
“They were texting last night,” said Max.
His lips curled up softly in a slimy grin when he heard me inhale sharply over the mention of Troy texting her last night. Max leaned closer to me and whispered, “Apparently, Witmer likes fucking women in desperate situations, likes to make them feel like they are the only one. Fucks them then makes them go along with his gag order,” said Max.
“Careful, Max. You don’t want to let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash,” said Chloe, who had clearly overheard Max. Chloe looked as though she’d reached her bullshit limit and was about to slap the shit-eating grin off Max’s face.
Max held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m here as a friend to El.”
Max is lying. He’s a total ass and talks shit in order to get what he wants. But I feel like something is off about that woman. She started looking over here when Chloe had said Tory’s name. Ugh. This is why I don’t bother to act on feelings for men, it’s too complicated and my career keeps me busy enough without needing something else diverting my attention.
“Max, thanks for stopping by, doing your Good Samaritan deed for the day. Now, if you don’t mind, we’d like to finish our lunch,” I said and wanted to turn and scratch his zombie eyes out.
Max drummed his fingers on the table. “Right-o. But don’t take my word for it, ask him yourself. But once you find out I’m telling the truth, then you might want to think twice about falling for Trooper Troy. The guy likes to put on a perfect show but he’s not who you think he is. I, on the other hand, might not be perfect or liked by everyone but I don’t try to hide anything, either. What you see is what you get,” said Max, smiling broadly.
He slid out of the booth but turned to lock eyes with me before he left. “And honestly, El, if you find yourself in need of a little fun sometimes, because you look like you could use some, you know my number. I’d love to take you out for drinks some night.”
His lips tightened slightly when I didn't respond, and he left out an unamused laugh and raked his eyes over my form. “Anyway, El, I didn't realize that you were desperate enough to go after someone who wants your big sister. Jesus, El, you'd never have to wonder if you were my second pick.” His lips pursed together, and he blew me an air kiss, turned, and strode toward the pretty blonde at the diner counter.
“What a fucking asshole,” breathed Chloe.
“Do you think it’s true?” I asked.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “What, that Troy is pining for Sammie? No. Absolutely not. I've seen Troy over at the Brocker Lodge a lot for poker and parties but never saw or felt anything between Sammie and Troy beyond friendship.”
“No, I mean, do you think he secretly sleeps around with a lot of women? He is a really private person. I never see him out on dates with any women, and yet he looks like the kind of guy who doesn’t go without sex for very long.”
Chloe took a sip of her soda. “I don’t know. Troy's a private person, but so am I, so are you. If you want to know, then ask. You have his personal cell number. Remember when he put it in your phone two hours ago along with his picture? If you want my advice, I would say don’t sit and ruminate over it, call him and ask him straight out. Don't let Boy Blueballs, Max, change your mind. He's had a hard-on for you since your freshman year in college and has his own agenda.”
I loved Chloe's no-nonsense approach, but Max had succeeded in planting a seed of doubt in my mind. “Like I said, earlier. I exaggerated what happened between us this morning. It was a silly moment where we both got carried away. Plus, Troy has every right to see anyone he wants to,” I said and suddenly felt deflated and ready to go home.
Troy acted like he was single and pretty much said he was, but it didn’t matter. I was angry with myself for getting swept away in a little fantasy that ended up making me act and sound like a fool. I never planned to expose my feelings for Troy, then end up making a total ass out of myself after he gave me a few minutes of attention.
Pathetic.
This brief flirtation was a total waste of time, and now I had to get back to reality. I had a company to co-run and meetings to confirm, and summer guests to prepare for and a teahouse to set up. I was exhausted, just thinking about all of it.
You don’t have time to friggin’ date someone anyway! Get back to the inn and start making some phone calls.
I dug my cell out of my purse to see what time it was and was shocked when I saw missed calls from Winnie. She’d been staying with some friends in St. Tropez while overseeing the remodeling of a few rooms in her summer house there. I didn’t expect to hear from Winnie until Sunday night when she flew back to the States to attend our marketing and sales meetings.
I dialed her number, and Nigel, her lawyer, answered the phone.
“Eloise, thank God you called,” said Nigel, his voice strained.
“Hi, Nigel, what’s wrong?” I asked, Chloe's eyes connected with mine, concern creased her brow.
Nigel cleared his throat. “Winnie had a heart attack. I booked you a flight to Paris first thing tomorrow morning. Start packing.”
Chapter - 4 Troy
“What happened to you?” asked Dolly, her plump lips form a comical O as I walked through the station with my uniform shirt hanging open, and a wide swath of shirt material hanging, making me look like someone had just aggressively tried to rip the state trooper patch off my chest.
“Everett Probst is going to be the death of me, if not him, then his mean ass German shepherd,” I grumbled, as I stalked toward the locker room so I could pull out a fresh shirt. My last one. Shit, I’m going to have to do laundry this weekend.
Dolly’s long, acrylic nails tapped across the door, and she slowly peaked her head across the threshold, her tight, blonde perm entered the locker room first, and I smiled. “Was Everett actually drunk and trying to fix the barn roof again, or was he trying to pull some lost animal out of a ravine?” asked Dolly, her artfully drawn-on eyebrows arched inquisitively.
I huffed out an exhausted laugh and glanced at the clock above the door. It was only a little past noon. Fuck. I was still hours away from my first weekend off in over a month, and I needed to blow off some steam. What I really wanted to do was go back to Evans Inn and kiss El like I should have that morning and show her that there’s a man inside this law enforcement uniform.
A state trooper is never truly off duty, but fuck if I wasn’t ready to slide into jeans and T-shirt and just be Troy for a while. Lately work was eating up my daylight and chewing the hell out of my night life. I was starting to feel restless and agitated and those two feelings didn’t jive with what was expected of me while on patrol. I craved a long Harley ride to Axe Hollow and a stop off at Sawyer’s Tattoo parlor. I’d follow it with a few beers in Mick's dive bar and a night spent losing myself in between the thighs of a beautiful woman. And if I had my way, that woman would be Eloise.
“Troy? Don’t leave me wondering. Roof or ravine?” asked Dolly; her question pulled me back to the present.
“Huh?”
“Where was that old goat? Everett up on a barn roof or down in a ravine?” repeated Dolly.
I scrubbed a hand over my face then rubbed the stubble on my jaw, noting that it had been a mist
ake to try to get away without shaving this morning. “Roof. I don’t know what he was doing to the barn roof, but he was forty feet in the air, flat on his stomach, holding on for dear life by the time I pulled up.”
Dolly slapped a hand over her mouth in horrified shock, but then muffled giggles erupted behind her cupped hand. Her eyes crease and her curls shook, a half-smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
“Oh, my Lord, that man is almost eighty! How in the world does he even keep getting up there?” asked Dolly, awestruck.
“He owns an impressive collection of ladders,” I growled, and a few more giggles escaped Dolly. Her ample bosom wiggled, and it made the sunflowers printed on her shirt look like they were dancing in the breeze.
Dolly was the best dispatcher a trooper could hope for, and I’d met her on my first day on the job at the tender age of twenty, a little over a decade ago. I trusted Dolly completely and she felt like family, more so than my actual family sometimes.
“I promise the next time I get a call about something happening on the Probst farm, I’ll put Jeremy on the call and if he needs backup, then I’ll call Bob!”
I shrugged into a fresh uniform shirt. “Doll, you might have to until my new uniform shirts arrive. This is the third shirt Everett’s ruined in as many weeks.” I was just awarded my Trooper First class designation so that meant a fresh box of uniform shirts with my new insignia were on the way. I wondered how long it would take before the firs T-shirt would get put through the wringer at the Probst Farm or what would happen to Everett when I transferred to the other side of the state. That man had begrudgingly earned his way into my heart, but he was also a big pain in the ass and was getting into increasingly more dangerous situations.
Her eyes swam with mirth. “How did Everett rip this one?”
“He stood up while on the roof to prove to me that he was fully capable of keeping his balance and then a stiff breeze brought him tumbling down like a tree. He flailed and before I could get a hold of his arms, he grabbed the front of my shirt. We almost took a slide down some hot, tin roof sheets and off the side of his damn barn. Jeremy was on the ground, ready to radio for an ambulance.”
“Oh my God. Everett’s getting more brazen as the days go by. Did you get a hold of his sons?” asked Dolly, tapping one of her bejeweled nails to her lips, deep in thought.
“Yeah, I called David first and couldn’t get an answer, so I ended up calling Rick. I’m about to drive into Bloombury and meet him for a cup of coffee at Dale’s Diner to discuss what we can do about the ladders and, eventually, the farm itself. Everett is a constant danger to himself and some decisions need to be made. So, his sons will just have to suck it up and step foot back onto their father’s farmland. Soon.”
Dolly’s lips formed a flat line and she slowly shook her head, “Such a sad situation. Everett knows that dairy farms are struggling state-wide and have been for years. It’s not surprising that his boys didn’t want to carry on a failing family business.”
I shrugged, “Everett doesn’t see the situation that way. He thinks his sons betrayed him. He planned on leaving everything to his first-born son. No one expected cancer would take that son so early. But, Everett’s excited now that he’s got an army boy on the way from the outskirts of Clear Creek to come help on the farm, once he’s honorably discharged from active duty. I don’t know how one hired hand will make a difference, but you’re right, it is sad.” I buttoned my new shirt and tucked it in at the waist and dipped my head under my hat.
Dolly smiled. “You look so nice in your uniform. Don’t break too many hearts in Bloombury, and don’t forget to pick up a local penny saver paper. Sometimes you can find a decent apartment ad there. Of course, nothing is available currently in Frost Forest, but you still might be able to find something in Bloombury away from the college students if you act quickly.”
“Thanks for the reminder, Doll. Yeah, I’m scheduled to look at a few places on Saturday. All in Bloombury, unfortunately.” I said.
Dolly gave me a sympathetic look. “Do you really need to move out of the cabin?”
I gave her a pointed look and she pursed her lips. I sighed and threw my torn shirt into the small drawstring bag at the bottom of my locker I use for laundry. “Dolly, you’ve been out to my family’s old cabin. The place has two small bedrooms, and there’s not enough room for my mom, my sister, and me, while those two decide if moving back to Frost Forest is the best course of action.”
Dolly put her hands on her hips. “Not that it’s any of my business,” she began.
“Oh boy, here we go,” I breathed and knew what was about to come.
“I think it’s wonderful that Judy and Meg, are home. Although I’m sad over the turn of events that made it so, I would like to crush Meg’s cheating ex-husband’s balls under my foot and not let up until they were flat or possibly detached,” she said and arched her foot and aggressively swiveled it from side to side, acting out what it would look like.
Although, I too, wouldn’t be able to walk away without committing a felony if I ever saw my sister’s rat-bastard, ex-husband, Greg again, but something about the way Dolly was grinding her foot into the floor made me think that Greg might prefer dealing with me over her.
“Me too, Doll. Greg’s a real piece of shit,” I said and felt the familiar rage boil in my gut at having thought about the man who cheated on my sister. I hated cheating, especially when it was done inside a marriage.
Greg was a professor at a small college in Wisconsin and had started having an affair with one of his students. Meg found out when she’d contracted an STD from Greg shortly after she’d gotten pregnant with what was to be their first child. Meg miscarried a few weeks later and spiraled into a depression that had my mom leaving her retirement home in Arizona to bring Meg home to Pennsylvania and had me worried about how best to help.
“How is Meg doing, anyhow?” asked Dolly, concerned wrinkles sprouted on her forehead.
“The first week, she cried. The second week, she raged. This morning when I woke up, she was crying while raging. I’ve dealt with a lot of situations, but one thing I don’t handle well is when a woman cries,” I admitted.
Dolly smiled. “That’s because you’re a protector who is used to handling situations through actions,” said Dolly.
I nodded. “Yup, Doll, that pretty much wraps it up. I was going to try to stick it out with my mom and sister in the cabin but there’s not enough space, and there’s a lot of emotions flying around that place. I was hoping to hear back from Captain Kelleher this afternoon about the Pike Patrol reassignment papers.
Dolly’s nostrils flared, and she crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Hush, I don’t even want to hear you talk about that, Troy Witmer,” she scolded.
“You’ll always be my girl,” I said and gave her my best charming half-smile that tended to make ladies blush and smile back at me.
“Don’t you dare pull a heart-stopping smile on me when you’re talking about reassignment! Not that it’s any of my business,” she said, and I laughed. “I don’t know why you’re entertaining a reassignment. You’re so loved and needed right here.”
I softened my eyes and tilted my head. “It’s not a done deal, Doll. Captain Kelleher would like to see me climb the ranks, just like my dad was about to before we lost him,” I said softly.
Dolly tilted her face up and eyed me closely. She was wearing the sunflower earrings I got her for her fiftieth birthday last year. “And what do you want?”
I smiled. It was a question that I’d given some healthy consideration since my first-class designation. I kept my answer vague. “I want to serve honestly, faithfully, and if need be, lay down my life as others have done before me, rather than swerve from the path of duty,” I said, echoing our troopers call of honor.
She threw her hands into the air, turned away, and stomped from the locker room while muttering something about my giving her gray hair. I closed my locker and strolled through the station and n
odded at Jeremy, a second-year trooper who I had mentored when he first got assigned to Troop C. Good kid, not a fan of Everett Probst, though, and a total chick magnet now that his frame had filled out a bit.
“Hey, Troy,” called out Jeremy.
“Hey,” I said and slowed my pace and glanced back at Jeremy.
“Want to grab a beer at Silver’s Pub next week?” Jeremy asked; he looked so hopeful that I almost laughed.
“If there’s a break in the action, definitely,” I said.
“Great, because there are two blondes I met there last week and they are packing some seriously bigー,” he stopped talking and cupped his hands out in front of his chest, indicating big breasts.
I smirked.
He leaned in my direction. “And they happen like men in uniform. Plus, they asked about you. By name. You're a fucking legend around these parts.”
Dolly’s head popped up from the front desk. “Language, Jeremy!” she snapped.
Jeremy’s eyes grew wide with feigned innocence. “What? I didn’t say anything. I was justー”
Dolly cut him off. “Save it. I’m onto your puppy-dog eyes. Troy doesn’t like blondes, anyway. Well, except for one,” she teased, and reached up to pat her tight, blonde curls.
Jeremy was momentarily taken aback and whipped his head back in my direction. “Huh? Are you serious?” he asked, incredulously.
Ignoring both of them, I glanced at the clock again and frowned. “I have to ride into Bloombury to meet with Rick Probst. I heard that Dale’s Diner is now selling Darling Donuts. Anyone want anything?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Dolly stood up from her desk chair and gave me a bright smile. “Of course, we do! You're a brave man going in there on a Friday at lunchtime. I bet the diner's busy. But, if you don't mind, I’ll take a Bavarian cream and an apple fritter. Pick up two glazed chocolate donuts for Bob. He’ll be coming in at seven today, and a treat will take the pinch out of working on a Friday night.”