Love Hime or Leave Him

by Sara Daniel

  She looked down at her dirty hands. “Yeah, I took them off because I needed a better grip.”

  “First rule, put them back on. Toby chewed me out the time I forgot to give Veronica a pair. He’ll never forgive me if I let your hands end up the same way.”

  “Oh, I remember Veronica’s cuts and blisters,” Becca said, walking several steps to a pair of gloves lying next to a water bottle. “But I sincerely doubt Toby would care or even notice one way or another.”

  “You underestimate him,” Connor said.

  “Excuse me?” She swung toward him, the water bottle halfway to her lips.

  “Toby. I know he could improve the short-sighted teen mentality, but he has a big heart underneath.”

  “Maybe I’ll see the evidence if I don’t completely screw up his life trying to navigate the end of the teen years,” Becca said with a sigh.

  “You’re doing a great job.” Matt smiled. “The family that sticks together can fix anything.”

  “Our family didn’t stick together,” Becca replied, not returning his smile.

  “Then you have us instead. The Kortville family is always here to support each other. You can’t argue with that.”

  Connor thought she might. She hadn’t had anyone in her corner when Dennis had spread rumors about her, when he’d dumped her and the entire school had ganged up against her.

  “I wouldn’t dream of arguing,” she said instead, smiling gently at Matt. “Let’s get started, Kortville family. I want a clean, flat empty area where I can spread out yoga mats and set up a couple folding chairs. Then I’ll be all set for a great class tomorrow.”

  Matt surveyed the room once and then went straight to work.

  Becca met Connor’s gaze for the first time since they’d broken off the kiss. She quirked a semi-regretful smile. “Guess my work break is over.”

  “Guess so,” he agreed, no matter how much he wanted to continue where they’d left off. “Work hard, and I’ll give you another one.”

  Her gaze lit up, and this time her smile sparkled with genuine pleasure. “Promise?”

  “Definitely.” He just couldn’t promise he’d stop with a kiss.

  …

  Becca spent the rest of the week alternatively obsessing about Connor’s kiss and Jake’s empty building. The enormous space enticed her almost as much as Connor’s mouth. Thursday morning’s class went off without a hitch in the new site, and by Friday morning she already had a couple more clients and was imagining what the place would look like with locker rooms and a designated cardio and weight area. She needed to get a grip on reality. She wasn’t running a full-scale fitness center, just using the space to hold her classes.

  Besides, Kortville was too small of a town to support the enterprise she imagined. Six people who needed more space in her living room did not create a compelling reason to sink thousands of dollars into exercise equipment and remodeling costs. Even if she wanted to jump in without a business plan to recoup her investment, she couldn’t imagine the bank or any citizen being foolish enough to lend her the money.

  And she was leaving in a couple months. She wouldn’t be able to walk away from a fledgling, debt-laden business. She would be tied here, as surely as her promise to her mother had tied her here with Toby. She’d worked her whole life to earn her freedom to follow her dreams. How could she now entertain a dream that would imprison her?

  She closed the grocery store after work, then drove straight to the fitness center to meet her brother and figure out if Jake’s rowing machine could be salvaged. The building was dark and empty as she arrived, and she frowned. If Toby had come straight from school, he should have been a couple hours ahead of her.

  She flipped on the light, then stopped and stared. The rowing machine, completely assembled, sat in the middle of the floor. She walked slowly over, sliding her hand along one metal brace. Then she sat in the seat and curled her fingers around the handles, flexing twice to test the tension. She adjusted, then pulled the handles toward her.

  Holy cow! It worked. All the pieces had obviously been well greased before they were put together. The machine made a darn good piece of exercise equipment. She had to remind herself it belonged to Jake and wasn’t technically hers. Not only that, but Toby must have been the one to put it together. Neither she nor Jake had been able to figure it out.

  She dialed her phone, and to her amazement Toby actually picked up.

  “Do you like it?” He sounded as eager as a kid at Christmas.

  “Like it? I love it. Toby, you’re amazing. How did you know what to do?”

  “Nothing to it. It runs on a simple chain mechanism.”

  Whatever that was. “Oh my gosh, I think I’m going to row all night.”

  “Knock yourself out.”

  Not literally, she hoped. “Listen Toby, I really, really appreciate this, but we’d planned to spend the evening together. Where are you?”

  “I know, but something came up and I couldn’t say no, so I kind of double-booked myself.”

  She frowned. Connor had asked her to keep an eye on him, and she’d agreed.

  “I promise I’m not doing anything crazy or blowing you off to hang out in the park.”

  “Then what are you doing?”

  He hesitated. “I want to surprise you. Will you trust me?”

  Could she trust him? With the recent vandalism, she wasn’t sure. But he’d asked her to. For once, the conversation held no hint of belligerence, and he’d gone out of his way to fix up the rowing machine for her. Above all, she loved her brother and had faith in him. “Yes, I trust you. Have a good night.”

  Saturday morning, Becca’s arms ached as she unlocked the front door to the grocery store. She’d stayed an hour longer on the rowing machine than she should have, but she’d enjoyed the opportunity to work her arm muscles so much she hadn’t wanted to stop. Well, she’d pay for it today every time she had to heft a case of beer or a bag of dog food into a shopping cart.

  She stepped into the building, looking forward to the close of her shift when she could show Jake how to use the machine. Distracted by the fitness dreams, she took a moment to register the store remained dark. She waved her hand in front of the motion sensor, but nothing happened.

  Weird. Surely, all the lights wouldn’t have burned out at once. She hadn’t experienced any power problems at home, and the lights had been on in the Laundromat when she drove by. She groped her way to the back of the building, waving at the sensors there, then flipping the manual switch. Nothing lit up.

  Well, at least she didn’t have to worry about a boring morning routine today. She fumbled around in the dingy maintenance closet until she located a flashlight, then went to the circuit breaker. The circuits were flipped off. Not just the power to the lights but the power to the refrigerators and freezers too.

  Oh boy. Losing power to the refrigeration units was a huge deal for a grocery store that had to follow strict regulations for keeping food cold. If a storm had knocked out the power, a backup generator would have kicked in.

  She picked up the phone and dialed Simon, explaining the situation. “Why is everything off? Can I turn it back on?”

  “Yes, turn it on. My God, if the power’s been out for more than two hours we’ll have to throw all the refrigerated food out. How did this happen?”

  “I have no idea. I’d hoped you could tell me.”

  “You closed last night, didn’t you?”

  She tried not to react to the accusation in his voice. She’d done nothing wrong. “Everything was on when I left. It was a normal closing.”

  After he hung up, she checked the temperature in the refrigerators. Sixty degrees. The power had been out for a while. Before she finished checking all the freezers, Simon arrived at the store, followed by Connor and Larry.

  Her heart sped up at the sight of Connor. She had no idea if memories of their kisses had replaced his nightmares, but she’d dreamed about them every night since. Between fantasies of him and the
fitness center, her travel dreams had started to be shoved to the backburner.

  “Do we need to call Matt to check for an electrical issue?” she asked.

  “I called the police because I suspect sabotage,” Simon said.

  “Sabotage?” she repeated, looking at Connor for an explanation.

  “Just walk us through everything you did last night before you left and then when you got here this morning.” His even tone and cool gaze belied any personal connection they might have.

  She gaped as understanding dawned. Sabotage equated to vandalism. “Last night I cashed out, shut down the register and turned off all the lights that aren’t on a sensor, like always.”

  “Turned off the lights at the circuit breaker?” Connor asked.

  “No, on the switch. I never look at the circuit breaker unless something doesn’t work. This morning when the sensors didn’t activate, I went back to check and discovered everything had been flipped.”

  “Did you lock the back door last night?” Simon asked.

  “Yes. In fact, it’s still probably locked. I came in the front door and didn’t get to unlocking it yet.”

  “And where were you from the time you got off work last night until you returned just now?” Larry asked her as Simon walked toward the door.

  Becca swung toward Larry and then back to Connor. She’d assumed she’d been answering routine questions as the first person on the scene and the last person known to be at the store last night, but they considered her a suspect, not a witness. “You think I did this?”

  “Larry asked a standard question,” Connor said.

  A standard question she needed to answer with a lawyer beside her. After everything he’d confided, she’d thought Connor had regained his faith in her. But this felt like high school all over again, where he took someone else’s lies and insinuations as fact and turned his back on her.

  “The back door’s unlocked,” Simon said, rejoining them. “Someone tried to lock it, but the key has to be turned at exactly the same time the door is shut or it sticks and doesn’t lock,” he explained to the officers. Then he glared at her. “Either you were in a hurry not to get caught or your lousy, trouble-making brother took your key, came in here, flipped the circuit and ruined hundreds of dollars of groceries.”

  “There’s no way Toby did it,” Becca said confidently. He had no reason to take her keys and destroy anything.

  “Do you know this because you were with him all evening and night?” Connor asked.

  “No.” But she’d trusted Toby last night when she’d spoken to him on the phone and she wouldn’t start second-guessing now. “I wasn’t, but I know Toby, and I know he would never do this.”

  “Really? I have it on good authority he was the mastermind behind the bike rack and the library vandalism,” Simon said.

  Who was his authority? Nick? A partner in crime? “He didn’t do this,” Becca insisted. “He gave me his word and I trust him.” She held Connor’s gaze, willing him to recognize her stance of unconditional trust as the one thing he’d never been able to give her. Now was his chance to prove he’d changed and would stand up for her.

  “I’m not taking the word of a lying, cheating kid,” Simon scoffed.

  “Speaking of a lying cheating kid, your nephew still owes the store fifteen dollars.” For years she’d been the store’s star employee. Now she felt as welcome as gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe.

  “Don’t you go smearing his name just to cover your own butt,” Simon ordered.

  “Enough.” Connor stepped between them. “I’m in charge of this investigation. Right now I’m gathering facts. Once that stage is complete, then we can start pointing fingers.”

  Becca’s entire body ached, and it had nothing to do with overextending herself on the rowing machine. She already felt like that finger was pointed at her. Sure, Connor wasn’t the one pointing, but she needed him to play a different role than in high school. He couldn’t stand by and not defend her. She needed him to believe in her this time.

  “I don’t have to wait,” Simon said. “Whether you or your brother did this, you’re ultimately responsible, Becca.”

  “All I did was come into work and discover the problem.”

  “You and I and my parents are the only ones with a key. Why would we trash our own store?” Simon asked pointedly.

  “Why would I?”

  Larry wrote something in his notebook, while Connor continued to watch them impassively. Did their kisses mean nothing? Did she mean nothing? If she hadn’t been with him where he could see the truth with his own eyes, did he assume she was guilty? What good was “innocent until proven guilty” when people made up their minds regardless of the truth?

  “You’re fired. Give me your apron.”

  She took it off, dropping it on the floor and deliberately stepping on it as she walked out. Let Larry add that detail to his notes, as well. At least, Connor didn’t cuff her or try to detain her.

  She drove home, registering Toby’s car wasn’t in the drive. She frowned. It hadn’t been there when she left either. Maybe he’d spent the night at Otto’s house. Hopefully, he wasn’t at Nick’s. The further he stayed from an ugly confrontation with Simon the better.

  She called him, but his phone went straight to voice mail, so she left a message and then drove to the fitness center. A good workout was the only answer she had for the fear, frustration and anger building inside her.

  But she couldn’t make her workout brutal enough to forget she still had no one willing to stand up for her. Leaving town wouldn’t solve the problem. It would only isolate her more.

  …

  Connor could have used one of Kevin’s morbid jokes to keep him from puking right about now. Larry’s continuously shaking head as he reviewed his notes didn’t help him regain his equilibrium, especially when the older man said, “All the evidence points to Toby. We have to bring the kid in for questioning.”

  “We’re missing something. We don’t have all the facts.” Toby’s face after their talk in the convenience store had branded itself in Connor’s head. If the boy had any involvement in the library and bike rack incidents, he’d regretted it enough not to do it again. But then Jake had been hit, and now this.

  “The facts we do have are sufficient to warrant questioning,” Larry said.

  “We have just as many facts to warrant questioning Simon,” Connor argued. “And Becca trusts Toby.”

  Larry shot him a sharp look. “If you have trouble being impartial because of your relationship with his sister, I’ll bring him in.”

  “Becca and I don’t have a relationship.” Not since he’d turned his back on her in high school. When she’d needed him most. If he let history repeat itself, he’d never have a chance with her. Even when the facts pointed to Toby, she hadn’t faltered. If he wanted a chance with her, he needed to be the same rock of unwavering trust and support.

  “I don’t need thirty years of investigative experience to piece together the evidence. Everyone who’s been in the diner during the cocoa contest knows you’re together.”

  She hadn’t left him out to dry when he’d turned Rambo over a stack of broken dishes. She’d stuck with him and talked him down from the ledge. When she’d placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him while they sat on the bench, he’d felt like they had a real relationship. He’d known he could turn to her no matter how bad things got and she would support him and help him through it.

  But his first priority wasn’t their relationship. He’d lived through the past two years without her speaking to him. His heart would survive, if they returned to that existence. He’d sworn to protect the town, not Becca. “The investigation takes priority. I’ll bring whoever did it to justice.”

  He hoped like hell the truth led him far away from Becca and her brother. He left the grocery store to begin uncovering it. Within five minutes he spotted Toby’s car in front of Rochelle and Otto’s house. He rang the doorbell and waited. A moment later Otto
answered.

  Connor took in the surprise and thinly disguised fear in the boy’s eyes at the sight of the police uniform. “Hi Otto. Is Toby here?”

  “Toby? Uh, no.”

  If he was covering for his friend, he’d already made a mistake. “Are you sure? His car’s parked on the street.”

  “Oh, um, he’s probably at Mrs. Parker’s house. He’s been over there a lot lately.”

  The truth would be simple enough to confirm. “Okay. What about last night? Were you guys hanging out?”

  “Nah, he had some other stuff to do.” Otto shifted his feet.

  Other stuff to do—like vandalize a grocery store or distance himself from his friends in case they decided to vandalize a grocery store? “What about Nick? Did he come over?”

  “We hung out until midnight.”

  He filed the timetable away to examine later. “Did you go anywhere?”

  “Nah, just stayed here. Why all the questions, Officer? Am I in trouble?”

  “I don’t know. Did you do anything to get you in trouble?”

  “No.” Otto didn’t quite meet his gaze. “I didn’t do anything last night.” This time he lifted his head and spoke with conviction.

  So, maybe not the grocery store, but unsolved crimes were racking up all over town. Connor decided to keep the conversation going. “You have plans for after graduation?”

  “I’m going to trade school at the community college. I’m going to be a mechanic.” He stopped shifting and stood a little straighter.

  “Good. I’m glad you have a plan. Where are you going to live when you go to school?”

  “Probably at home. Mom thinks it’s a good idea. I can save money until I make enough to afford an apartment.”

  “Your mom’s a smart lady. Thanks for your time.” Rochelle hadn’t had an easy experience raising Otto as a single parent, but she’d done a good job. Connor ambled down the driveway, continuing across the street to pay Mrs. Parker a visit.

  Toby opened the door.

  Connor kept his expression stern despite his surprise and relief to discover Otto had been telling the truth.