by Sarah Hegger
“That girl isn’t wearing a top.” Brinn cocked her head and glared at the Miss September poster. “Is she a ho?”
“Nope.” He didn’t know what to say to most people. Little girls with mouths on rails made him break out in a cold sweat. “Covers?”
The twins blinked at him.
“Pull them down.”
They leaped into action and he laid Poppy down. He moved to take her shoes off.
“What are you doing?” Brinn stepped in front of him.
“Taking her shoes off.”
“Why?”
“Do you sleep in your shoes?”
“No.”
“Figured as much.”
She stepped aside, but still gave him the stink eye, just in case he got any ideas about her mother’s feet. He’d leave getting her more comfortable to Ma.
Chapter 3
Ben parked outside Grover’s General Store. Give a woman half a chance and she sent you to the store. Ma had given him a list long enough to make his heart sink. A rummage through the car had revealed Poppy had run out of near about everything.
How much crap could kids really need?
He preferred using Grover’s to the bigger chain stores. The Grover family had been part of the community since the first wagons chased gold west. It might cost him a few more cents on the occasional item, but Grover’s always stocked his favorite brand of coffee, made sure they had the candy he favored, that sort of thing. If they didn’t, they’d order it for him. They did the same for everyone in town. Coming into Grover’s was more like a family visit.
“Hey, Chief Crowe.” Mia Grover peered over a magazine rack she was restocking.
When the hell did little Mia get big enough to see over that rack? Seemed like only yesterday he’d been taking her and three friends for a ride in the back of his cruiser around the Elementary school parking lot. “Hey, Mia.” The promise of a shortcut through his list made him stop. “Get some help?”
“Sure, Chief.” She went a little pink and pranced up to him. “What do you need?”
He shoved his mother’s list into her hand.
Mia scanned it, and frowned up at him. “Diapers? Are you married now, Chief?”
As if he could get married again without the entire town knowing. “Nah.”
Mia’s face cleared into a big, sunny smile. She wrinkled her freckled nose at him. “Is this for those children?”
“Huh?”
“The orphans.” Tears welled in Mia’s wide, brown eyes. “So young and abandoned on the side of the road.”
Ben mentally used every ugly word he knew. And he knew a lot.
She took a shaky breath. “You’re a real hero, Chief Crowe. I know you don’t catch murderers or drugs lords or anything like that, but someone who would take care of those poor children is an even bigger hero.”
“They’re not orphans.”
“She abandoned them.” Mia jammed her fists on her hips, crinkling his list in the process. “I know I don’t have children yet or anything, but I would never do that. What kind of woman does that?”
“Mia, honey.” Bart came up behind her and put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders. “I think Chief Crowe is in a hurry. Why don’t you help him find what he’s looking for?”
She scuttled off, snagging a shopping cart on her way.
“How ya doing, Ben?” Bart held out his hand.
Bart saved the Chief Crowe for when his daughter was around, but they’d been to school together and it was always Ben when they were alone. Bart might sag a bit more than when he played tackle to Ben’s quarterback senior year, but he raised great kids and ran a good store. He also made the best ribs around and didn’t skimp on them at the Founder’s Day town cookout.
“Good. You?”
Bart shook his head. “Hank Styles came in for his Saturday night pizza and poker game a bit earlier.” He sidled closer. “Crying shame what happened to those kids. From New York is how I heard it?”
“Philly.” Ben felt the slow ache in his ass that was the Twin Elks grapevine. Just once, it would be great if they got the facts even close to straight. “Philly. They’re from Philly.”
“Philly?” Bart whistled as if he’d told him the kids drove straight through the gates of hell with Satan riding shotgun. “Hank says the mother is—” Bart glanced around, “—a crack whore. Saw her tripping on the road and everything.”
Where did he even start? “She’s not a crack whore.”
At least, he’d bet all the money the county didn’t pay him she wasn’t. The car seats had been good quality, the kind that anchored at three points. The car, not new, but in good condition, current stench aside, and the kids were well dressed. Not pricey, citified stuff, but good quality and sensible.
“So why’d she abandon her kids?” Bart stuck his chin out, ready to argue a point he knew nothing about.
Mia passed them pushing her shopping cart, and gave him a cheery wave. “Nearly done, Chief. Just looking for the formula.”
“Does Ben Crowe have a baby?” A feminine voice floated from the chip aisle.
Another woman chimed in. “No. Did he get married again?”
The ache is his ass bloomed into a need to yell or kick something, or run naked down the road waving his dick at everyone and give them all something real to talk about.
Bart gave him an apologetic smile.
The chip aisle speculators weren’t done yet. “You don’t suppose he and Tara are getting back together, do you? I always thought that woman needed a child.”
A child was the last thing his ex-wife needed, or him for that matter, which was funny as hell because he’d gotten himself four this morning.
Mia appeared with a laden cart. “All done, Chief.”
“Is Tara Crowe having Ben’s baby.” A third voice joined the other two speculators and Ben was done.
He paid for the groceries, loaded them up and made his escape.
* * * *
Ma hung up the phone as he walked through the kitchen door. “What did you do?”
Nothing and he shrugged at Ma. No running naked, no dick waving and no fathering children. The last one of those made naked dick waving sound attractive.
The phone rang again. Ma glared at it, and went back to plating a sandwich. She put it in front of Ryan.
Ben dumped the grocery bags on the kitchen table. “Your list.”
The phone stopped, and then went again. Faster than a speeding bullet went the Twin Elk jungle drums.
Freshly scrubbed, Ryan watched him with big eyes. “Who’s our vic, Lieutenant?”
“Eh?” He couldn’t have heard that right.
“What we got?” Ryan chowed down on a pb&j sandwich.
“The phone has been ringing off the hook.” Ma collared a pants-less Sean and tucked him under her arm. She motioned Ben to hand her the diapers. “What did you say?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I told Bart she was from Philly. And that she wasn’t a drug addict.”
Ryan glanced between them. “Possible ten-fifty.”
Did this kid have police codes memorized?
“You said nothing.” Ma expertly diapered Sean and set him on his feet again. “That’s the problem. You never say anything and now I’m going to have to spend hours on the phone fixing this.”
Sean toddled for the door and Ben barely managed to get it closed in time. Kid sure moved fast on chubby little legs.
“He’s been cooped up in a car, poor mite.” Ma set Sean down at the table. “Hand me the sippy cup.”
He blinked at her.
“The cup! The one with the two handles and the spouty thingy on the top.” She clicked her fingers at him.
Brinn appeared at his side, Ciara at her six, and gave him a very adult eye roll. She rooted through the bags unti
l she found what he assumed was a sippy cup. She also handed Ma a carton of juice. “You need to water it down,” she said. “My mom says it’s bad for his teeth if you don’t put water in it.”
“Then I’ll put water in it.” Ma tugged her ponytail. “Now you girls sit down and Ben will make you a sandwich.”
Ben would? He didn’t know what kids ate. Ryan seemed happy with his pb&j so he went with that.
The girls tucked in. “You need to get us a glass of milk too,” Brinn said.
Ciara whispered in her ear.
“Please,” Brinn said.
Ma had the phone in one hand, pouring juice in the sippy cup with the other.
Neat invention. With the top screwed on kids wouldn’t spill. He looked at the glasses of milk in his hand, and up at the girls.
“We don’t need a sippy cup.” Brinn grinned at him through a mouthful of sandwich. The twins resembled their mother. Same dark eyes and dark hair. Did their mother have the same sassy, cute smile they did?
“Peg!” Ma beamed into the phone. “I need to get the prayer chain activated.”
God help them all. Raw fear slithered down his spine. The Twin Elks Prayer Chain could teach the CIA a thing or two.
“How’s your mom?” He asked Brinn because she seemed to be the twin who spoke.
“Sleeping.” Brinn drained her milk and looked at him expectantly. He should have added milk to his list at the store. Obediently he got the carton out of the fridge and refilled their glasses.
“Vic stable,” said Ryan.
“Does he always talk like that?” Again he asked Brinn.
She nodded as she chewed. “He watches too many cop shows on TV. Mom wanted to move him from his daycare but all the ones closer to her work were full, and she couldn’t afford the other ones.”
“How do these silly rumors get started, Peg?” Ma glared at him. “No, she’s sick. Well, the flu I’d say, but Doc Cooper’s on his way.” She nodded and made yes noises as Peg’s garbled voice drifted over. “Sure, he’s retired but he’s only two doors over, and she has four kids with her. I think the baby has it too.” More nodding and uh-huhing. “You do?” Ma put her hand over the mouthpiece. “Peg has a portable crib she can lend us, from when her grandson was last visiting.” She went back to her call.
“You drive all the way from Philly?” He felt kind of low getting information out of kids, but their mother was too ill. At least, that’s what he’d say if anyone asked.
Brinn nodded. “We’re going to California.”
She launched into some pop-type song about girls and California. Ciara joined in.
Thus ended his interrogation session. He considered Ryan.
Ryan watched him with wide eyes, jaw working on his sandwich.
Ben discarded the idea.
“If you’d make sure the true story gets around, Peg, I’d be so grateful,” Ma said. “That’s right, I’m making lasagna for our adult coloring night.”
Ben tuned out again. The girls’ singing scrambled his man-brain. Time to check on their mother.
* * * *
Ma had worked another one of her miracles here.
Poppy wore an old Cougars T-shirt from his school football days. Her breathing rasped into the silent room.
Paler than the white pillowcase behind her head, she did not look good.
He put his hand on her forehead, hot and clammy.
She stilled.
He took his hand away and her eyes opened. Her fevered gaze found him. “My children.”
“Are fine.” He put his hand back on her forehead, and stroked his thumb over the frown lines between her big, brown eyes. “Sleep.”
Perching on the window seat, he reviewed the information he had. No ring on her finger, but four kids probably meant single mother or divorced. Could also be a widow. If there was a man in the picture, he couldn’t see him allowing a sick woman to drive four kids across the country. At least not any sort of man he’d call friend.
They came from Philly, so she must have been traveling for a solid few days now. He didn’t imagine you made good time with kids in tow. He guessed money was tight, with what Brinn had dropped in the kitchen about affordable daycare.
Poppy, not the sort of name you heard everyday.
Ma scratched on the door. “Doc Cooper is here.”
“Okay.” He had a hundred things to do, not one of them sitting and watching Poppy Williams sleep, yet here he sat.
Bald, craggy, with a careworn face, Doc Cooper hadn’t changed a day in the years Ben had known him. He’d pretty much looked that old since Ben had gone to him as a kid. Retired now, his son had taken over from him a few years back. Far as Ben knew, nobody really knew how old Doc was, but they all agreed on his doctoring skills. If Doc said they needed a trip to the emergency room, that’s what they’d do.
“What you got for me, Ben?” He dropped his black doctor’s bag on the end of Poppy’s bed.
“Running a fever, seems a little delirious.”
“Whelp, that baby had himself a tidy hundred and three degree whopper going on.” He unclipped his bag and took out his stethoscope and thermometer. “You need to watch that. If we don’t get it down, we’re gonna have to take him to the pediatric unit at County General until we get it under control.”
Doc examined Poppy neatly and efficiently, pausing to hum and frown every now and again. Standing up, he stripped off his latex gloves. “Whelp! She’s sick all right. Running close to hundred and five so she might be drifting in and out. Lungs are clear though, which is the good news, but she’s way too thin and looks plain wore out. I don’t think that’s helping matters.”
Anger for Poppy lit a slow burn inside him. How did a woman get into this state? How come nobody was looking out for her, taking care of her, making her world a good place to be?
“The poor thing.” Ma smoothed the covers beneath Poppy’s chin.
“Gonna give my boy a bell and tell him what’s what.” Doc packed up his bag. “Pop over to the clinic, and they’ll have a script ready for you when you get there.”
Poppy muttered, eyes flying open. Her gaze found his and he nodded. “You’re okay.” Or she would be, because he intended to make it so.
Poppy closed her eyes.
“That’s the best thing for her, I reckon.” Doc hauled out an ancient brick of a phone. “Looks like a virus to me, but it’s a doozy, so watch her tonight and the baby, and give me a bell in the morning. Let me know how they’re getting on.”
“We’ll do that, Doc.” Ma sent Ben a look that meant he would be helping.
Damn straight he would be.
“Right.” Doc rocked on his heels. “That’s about all I can do. If she don’t show signs of recovering, we’ll take some bloods and poke around a bit further.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Ma ushered him from the room, hands fluttering. “Let me get you a slice of my coffee cake before you go?”
“Dot, I thought you would never ask.” Doc’s chuckle drifted down the passage.
Poppy muttered and quieted down again. Ben settled down to watch.
FIND OUT MORE HERE: http://sarahhegger.com/contemporary
Books by Sarah Hegger
Contemporary Romance
Passing Through Series
Drove All Night
Ticket To Ride
(Releases June 19th 2019)
Walk On By
(Releases July 10th, 2019)
Ghost Falls Series
Positively Pippa - Amazon
Becoming Bella - Amazon
Blatantly Blythe
(Releases March 6th, 2019)
Willow Park Romances
Nobody’s Angel - Amazon
Nobody’s Fool - Amazon
Nobody’s Princess - Amazon
Medieva
l Romance
Sir Arthur’s Legacy Series
Sweet Bea - Amazon
My Lady Faye - Amazon
Conquering William - Amazon
Roger’s Bride - Amazon
Releasing Henry - Amazon
Stand Alone
The Bride Gift - Amazon
Bad Wolfe On the Rise - Amazon