“Yes! Of course...it’s just some days, I miss it. I miss the city and the career...and feeling as though I was more than just mom and wife, you know?”
Actually, she didn’t, so she just nodded. Like her career-minded parents in the early days of their marriage, she’d never really felt a longing to have a family. She wondered if, like them, she’d have that urge someday. She wasn’t sure she would, and at thirty-five, her time to make the decision was growing short. Right now, she wanted to focus on putting the part of her life she knew she wanted back on track.
Main Street was anything but its usual calm as they approached. She frowned as Victoria parked, taking up two spaces outside Lily Duke’s clothing store. Daisies and Dukes was partitioned off with yellow police tape, and both sheriff cars were parked on the street in front of the building. The large storefront window was shattered, and the holiday display was destroyed.
“What on earth?” Victoria asked as she shut off the truck.
The two women climbed out and headed for the entrance.
“Sorry, ladies, this is a crime scene. We’re not allowing anyone inside,” Jake said, blocking their entrance to the store. Hands at his hips, a serious scowl on his handsome features, he looked...different. A good different.
Fantastic, her attraction to authority figures was turning her insides to mush. This is Jake, not a hot police officer, she reminded herself.
Well, actually...
She glanced around him. Lily was inside, her head in her hands, sitting at the counter. Lindsay and Noah were there with her. “They’re inside.” She pointed to the group.
“Yeah, they were here before us,” he mumbled.
“Well, pretend we were, too,” she said. She grabbed Victoria’s arm and moved past him.
“Hi, guys,” Lily said, glancing up as they entered, ignoring Jake’s protests.
Sheriff Bishop waved as he assessed the damage in the window. “Good morning, ladies.”
“What happened?” Victoria asked.
“Looks like someone threw a brick or something through the window last night. When I arrived this morning, it looked like this.” Lily bit her lip and stared at the mess of her window display.
“If there’d been an alarm...” Jake said behind them.
“Shh,” Heather told him. Lily was upset enough. No point making her feel worse.
“Just saying,” Jake said, but he stopped his spiel.
“Was anything stolen?” Victoria asked.
“Not that we can tell,” Lindsay said. “Noah said even the back safe wasn’t tampered with.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” Heather glanced around the store. All of the display racks were neatly arranged, and nothing seemed out of place except the glass in the front of the store. Looked like a case of minor vandalism. Brookhollow had had a graffiti problem for a few months before Jake arrived and scared all the teens stupid. This appeared to be a similar issue.
But Lily shook her head. “Not really. That means this was probably a warning.” Her hands were shaking, and her voice was unsteady. She was terrified.
“Why would you think that? Were any other buildings hit?” Heather couldn’t imagine why anyone would warn Lily about anything. She was one of the sweetest, nicest women she’d ever met.
Lindsay pulled them aside. “She’s freaked-out because her ex-husband was released from jail in Newark yesterday,” she whispered, casting a quick glance toward their friend.
Well, that explained why Lily was so distraught. She’d fled her abusive ex almost two years ago. “That’s awful.”
Victoria’s eyes were wide. “There’s no way he could know where she is, though, right?”
Lindsay shrugged. “We hope not.”
Heather sighed, but then her gaze landed on Jake, and she narrowed her eyes. She marched over to him. “Did you do this?” she hissed.
“Are you insane? I’m a cop,” he said.
“Yeah. One with something to prove.”
“Excuse me?”
“You want us all to start taking security seriously...”
“Do you hear yourself?” he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
For the first time, she noticed he wore a bulletproof vest over his jacket. “Expecting a shoot-out?” She raised an eyebrow, but again the sight of him in uniform was...uncomfortably intriguing.
He opened his mouth to answer, but a woman’s voice in the doorway caught everyone’s attention.
“Hello...”
“I’m sorry, we’re closed this morning,” Lily said.
“Did you not see police tape outside?” Jake asked. “Seriously—everyone out!” he barked. Clearly he was at the end of his rope with everyone disregarding his authority.
Lindsay and Noah started to protest, but Lily nodded. “It’s okay, guys. I’m good. Listen to Sheriff Matthews.”
“Um...sorry, we didn’t mean to cross the tape, but my son has something to say,” the woman in the doorway said, nudging a boy in a hoodie and baseball cap into the store.
The kid looked to be about fourteen; his head was down and his shoulders were slumped forward. “I wanted to apologize. I broke your window last night,” he told Lily.
“You did?” Relief, not anger, was evident in her voice.
“Yeah. It was an accident. A couple of guys and I were having a snowball fight after we left the diner...”
“A snowball did this?” Sheriff Bishop asked from inside the window display, where he was sweeping broken glass into a dustpan.
“Okay, it was more like an ice-ball fight,” the kid said. Then, turning back to Lily, he added, “I’m really sorry. I’ll pay to replace your window.” He didn’t sound happy about the offer.
Lily moved forward and hugged the kid.
He looked both surprised and embarrassed as he struggled to break free.
Lily smiled as she released him. “That’s okay. Thank you for coming and telling me.”
“So, I don’t have to pay for the window?”
“No.”
“Yes, you do,” his mother interrupted sternly. “It will come out of your allowance.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The kid stuck his hands into the pocket of his sweatshirt.
“Sorry again, Lily. My husband will stop by later today with the money,” the woman said, leading her son out of the store.
“Okay, thank you,” Lily said, and a collective sigh of relief ran through the group. “Just a few reckless kids. I feel silly now for being so worried.”
Heather felt Jake’s breath against the back of her neck. “I’ll take that apology now.”
She scoffed. “No way. I’m still not convinced you didn’t have something to do with it,” she said, moving along the racks of clothing on the wall behind them. She picked up a charcoal suit jacket and pretended to study it, painfully aware of his shocked expression at her back.
“You’re kidding, right? The kid confessed.” He followed her. He took the charcoal jacket and handed her a light gray one instead. “Better.”
She hid her surprise at the gesture and continued her drilling. “Well, you did leave the bar early last night...so you have no alibi. And after what you said about Brookhollow not being as safe as everyone thinks it is...” She shrugged, tossing the jacket over her arm. It actually was the better choice.
“That wasn’t a threat, it was a caution.”
“Well, you need to be careful what you say. People don’t know you well—they could assume the worst. I mean, maybe if you actually interacted with people around here, let them get to know you a little bit...”
“Yeah, I’ll take that into consideration,” he said.
“You could start with the annual tree lighting tonight.” It wasn’t really her thing, either; it only served as a
reminder of the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center that she probably wasn’t going to attend again this year. But she’d promised Melody’s boys she’d be there.
Jake sighed. “I’m escorting the tree from the Monroe farm to the park this afternoon.” He sounded as thrilled about it as a root canal.
“That should be fun. You should act more excited.”
“If you think so, why don’t you ride along with me?” The words seemed to surprise him as much as her.
She glanced toward the counter. Lily, Victoria, Noah and Lindsay had all stopped talking and were watching the interaction between her and Jake. Heather’s cheeks reddened, and she shot them all a look suggesting they resume their own conversation. Which they ignored, waiting for her answer to Jake’s request.
So was he.
“Okay, fine. Sure...why not?” It wasn’t as if there was any real danger of falling for the guy. She had one foot out of town already. And if she could introduce him to some people, and they started seeing him at local events, they might have an easier time accepting him. She knew what it was like to be the new one in town—and the different one. Maybe she could help Jake get better settled before she hightailed it back to New York.
* * *
“WOW, THIS REALLY is boring,” Heather said, staring through the windshield of the sheriff squad car later that day.
Jacob leaned one elbow against the window and rested his head in his hand. They were inching along behind the trailer carrying the thirty-foot evergreen that would be decorated and lit that evening in the town square.
“Told ya,” he said. Not for the first time did he regret losing the rock-paper-scissors match to Sheriff Bishop to decide who would do this.
Heather tapped her candy-cane striped fingernails on the dash and then turned to him. “So, where are you from exactly?”
“Manhattan, born and raised.”
“Really? Like in the city, not in a suburb somewhere?”
“In the city.” He was so much a city boy, in fact, that he’d been born in the taxicab on the way to the hospital. His father was a workaholic, and living in a high-rise apartment in Manhattan made for an easier commute. His mother had stayed at home with him and his sister until her death when he was thirteen, and she’d always hated living in the city—especially when she’d had to deliver a baby in the back of a cab.
“Any siblings?”
“A sister.”
“And your parents?”
“Pass.”
“You don’t want to talk about your parents?”
“You know, I’m not a big backstory kind of guy.” His mother’s death and his father’s imprisonment were things he’d rather not discuss. Few people ever got close enough to hear those tales. “Why don’t you talk, since you are so good at it?” he said, glancing at her.
She hit his arm but shrugged. “Sure. Unlike you, I’ve got nothing to hide. What do you want to know? Ask away.”
“Tell me about this job you want so badly in New York,” he said, relieved she was more than willing to turn the attention on herself. He really didn’t want to lie to people here in Brookhollow, but giving too much of himself and his history away could be dangerous. The media attention on his father’s criminal case three years ago had been extensive. He didn’t expect the people in this small town to remember the events as vividly as he did, but he couldn’t let his guard down. Hiding out this close to the city in the high-profile job of sheriff was already a risk.
Heather kicked her feet free of her heeled leather boots and tucked her legs under her on the seat. “It’s an agent position with Highstone Acquisitions.”
Highstone Acquisitions. Why did that sound familiar? He vaguely recalled seeing an office building in downtown Manhattan with the letters H and A on the side; that was probably it. “Acquisitions? Like buying out companies?”
She nodded. “Usually small mom-and-pop shops in locations where the company’s corporate clients would like to open a competing store or hotel...” She paused. “I know, it’s not exactly a save-the-world kind of job, like yours, but the companies are well-compensated and in most circumstances, the owners are ready to retire or sell.” Sometimes the deals were tougher with resistant store owners, but she made peace with her chosen career by knowing that all acquisitions were done fairly and were usually appreciated by the communities eventually. And besides—her parents had started their own acquisitions company, and they had been good people.
“I’m not judging.” He caught her smile out of the corner of his eye. “That’s what you did before moving here?”
She pointed at him. “Let’s get one thing straight—I didn’t move here. I’m visiting.”
He chuckled. The woman didn’t want to belong to this town any more than he did. “My mistake. So, business acquisitions is your background?” he asked again.
She nodded. “Yes. My parents started their own acquisitions firm years ago, but they sold the company a few years before they died, hoping to start enjoying life and the money they’d put away over the years. Unfortunately, they’d waited a little too long. Anyway, I’d learned so much about the process from hearing them talk about different mergers and acquisitions over the years that, after graduating college with a business degree, I applied to the firm. It wasn’t their company anymore, but it felt like the right thing to do...somehow...” Her voice trailed.
“Well, what made you take a break from it? To visit Brookhollow?”
She sighed. “I was fired.”
“From a company your own parents started? Tough break.”
“It gets worse. The guy who fired me was my boyfriend of three years,” she finished.
“Wow, really tough break. Guess you learned your lesson about dating the boss, though, huh?” he teased.
She hit him again. “Hey! It had its perks...while it lasted,” she said with a laugh. “Anyway, there’s no fear of falling for the boss in this position—he’s like eighty years old or something.”
“Why Highstone?” he asked, still wondering why he knew the name.
“My brother-in-law works there. When I was with Clarke and Johnston, we sometimes competed for the same corporate accounts—made for some interesting family dinners.” She grinned. “Rob told me about the position and put in a good word for me.” She frowned then, worry flickering across her features, but he was too lost in his own thoughts to question it.
Rob. Highstone Acquisitions. This was all sounding too familiar. His eyes widened slightly. No way, her brother-in-law couldn’t be Rob Ashley, his attorney’s husband. That would mean his attorney, the woman in the city trying everything she could to speed up this court case, was Talks-a-lot’s sister? The world really was small—too small. He gripped the steering wheel tighter. “So, your brother-in-law is in acquisitions—what does your sister do?” he asked as casually as possible.
“Cameron’s a lawyer,” she said.
His heart pounded in his ears. Fantastic. Just great. His attorney was Heather’s sister. Take a breath. Cameron had no idea where he was. Even if Heather had mentioned to her sister that Brookhollow had a new deputy sheriff, there was no way she would assume it was him. And why on earth would Heather even mention it? No, everything was fine. “And Cameron’s your only sister?”
“Yeah. My parents started their family later in life. Really late in life. Mom was in her early forties and Dad was fifty when Cam was born, four years before me, and she finished raising me after our parents died a year apart eighteen years ago.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was challenging for sure. I was finishing high school, and Cam had just enrolled in law school. Money wasn’t a problem—our parents left us quite a nest egg and trust fund. The house in Brooklyn was paid off, but things weren’t the same without them. Cameron had to take on a lot more than she should ever
have had to.” She paused. “She never complained.”
“You two are close?”
“Really close. That’s just another reason I’m dying to get back to the city. Last year I spent the holidays here in Brookhollow with Victoria and Luke, and while it was wonderful, I missed the city.” Jacob sensed there was more she wasn’t saying, but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with his own life story, so he didn’t press her for more than she’d already shared.
“There is definitely something magical about New York at Christmastime,” he said, because it was a standard response. He didn’t actually enjoy the festivities in the city. His family had never taken the time to celebrate most things, as his father had worked long hours and traveled a lot, but his mother had insisted they all stop everything on Christmas day to be together. That had changed after her death, but once Kyle was born, he and his sister had put more emphasis on Christmas, especially after their father had gone to jail for embezzlement and Kyle’s father had left Amber to raise the boy alone. The three of them were all each other had. But then the past two years he hadn’t been able to be with them...
And once again, this year, he had no one and no reason to celebrate.
But next to him, Heather nodded. “For as long as I can remember, on Christmas Eve, our family would go skating at Rockefeller Center and then make a holiday wish on the tree.”
“What would you wish for?”
She shrugged. “Anything we wanted. The only rule was that it couldn’t be something materialistic.”
“Sounds nice.”
She nodded. “It was...and I’m looking forward to doing it again this year. I never realized how important traditions were. Last year, it felt like there was something missing, you know?”
He knew exactly what she was talking about. “Yeah, I do.”
She eyed him. “That sounded suspiciously like backstory.”
“It wasn’t. I was just trying to empathize to be polite,” he said as he pulled into the park behind the trailer and came to a stop. “Well, there you go. Longest eight-minute ride of your life,” he said, turning toward her. He kept the car running and his seat belt on.
Love, Lies & Mistletoe Page 6