Stanley: Dalton’s Kiss Book 2 (Dalton's Kiss)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “No, sir. I got me a house phone and one of them answering machines. Nary a time did I get any messages from them. I just wanted to see my wife.” It broke Lizzy’s heart the way he kept telling them that. “I ain’t got nobody to take me to the store either. If them police officers hadn’t come along when they did, I was gonna be reduced to eating my grass clippings out back.”

  Davy explained that he was indeed without even the basics and had no way to go and get them. He and his fellow officers had not only supplied him with food, but their wives were coming by to make sure he had at least a hot meal daily, as well as going to the nursing home to see his wife.

  “Mr. Rogers, do you have enough help now? I mean, you’re not going to be driving over to the nursing home anymore, are you?” Mr. Rogers told him he was happy as a camper, as he was seeing his wife more than ever now. And he had himself company at night. “That’s wonderful news, sir. Wonderful. If you can promise me that you’ll only depend on those pretty ladies to get you what you need, I’m going to dismiss this charge of driving without a license.”

  “Yes, sir, I promise.” Mr. Rogers started crying. He leaned his head on the microphone and sobbed like his heart was too full to contain. “I thank you, sir, for this. I didn’t know how I was to see Milly if you put me in prison. I was surely worried about that.”

  Still crying, he found his seat, thanking the two women that were with him today. Apparently, they were the wives of some of the police officers and had come to support their new friend. Lizzy made a note to see how many other people were breaking the law in order to see their loved ones.

  When it was the Aims boys’ turn, she stood up from her seat as well. The judge, the honorable Winston, asked her if she was Mrs. Remy, and if she’d been the one that had called his office.

  “I am, sir. I’d very much like to speak to you about Bret and Jefferson.” He asked her to wait one moment while he refreshed himself with their file. After a few minutes, he looked at her and smiled. “These men, they have been dealt a dirty hand, and only wanted what was best for their families. Since that day, I’ve been able to find out that Bret has lost his job because a woman he worked with said he’d made an advance toward her. Turns out, she was lying to get him fired because he’d been hired over her boyfriend. Jefferson has two small children, Your Honor, and one on the way. They have no insurance, nor do they have any transportation if they were to find jobs.”

  “According to this, you’ve talked to all the people in the bank, and they’ve decided they’re not upset with what happened that day. The bank manager is giving you a vote of confidence in being able to reform them. That’s a lot of faith in you. Do you think you’ll be able to do that?” Bret raised his hand, and the judge looked at him. “You have something to add to this, young man?”

  “I do, sir. When we was in there robbing the bank, Mrs. Remy here told me that she’d make sure our families were taken care of if we trusted her enough to put our guns down. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. Not putting down my gun, but giving up a chance to put a little bit of food on the table for the first time in weeks. Also, a gallon of milk in the icebox. Times are hard for everybody, sir, worse yet for ex-cons.” Bret looked at her as he continued. “Not only did she not back out of her promise, but she made sure my family is in a better home. They don’t have to play out in the yard where rats as big as them and snakes chase them no more. Even my brother has a better home for his own family. Sir, if this woman said she’d be able to make it work for us, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure I follow her to the ends of the earth. There ain’t none better than Mr. and Mrs. Remy.”

  Lizzy wanted to hug Bret. He’d been the hardest to convince that she would do her damndest to get him into this new program she was working on. When the judge asked her what she was planning for the two men, she was happy to tell him.

  “This will be something for others like Mr. Rogers to benefit from. We have a decked-out bus that is a moving pantry. Anyone that needs it will be able to shop from the bus. Bret will be able to drive the bus for us, and Jefferson is going to work back at the stationary pantry to help load shelves, as well as clean up after the meals we’ll be serving once we get it up and running.” She asked to come forward and handed him the signed contract from each of the men on how they were going to repay the county for what they’d done. “Their wives are working too, but with an income. Fifty percent of what Bret and Jefferson are making will be paid to the county on whatever fine you give them. I will take full responsibility for their actions while they’re working to make them better citizens in this town.”

  He asked her about other prisoners, and she was able to tell him how they now had employed ten other ex-cons, all working out well. Even Davy came forward and said that he’d been by the place a few times, and everyone was working. He also said that Mr. Dalton, a decorated police officer, and his wife, Kelly Dalton, an FBI agent, were a part of the program.

  “Sounds to me like you have more back up than I do when I’m out and about.” The courtroom laughed, and so did the judge. He looked at Bret and Jefferson. “Do you understand what gift you’re getting here today? How this woman and her family are going to give you something that no one else would have even thought about?”

  “Yes, sir. We think about that every day.” Jefferson looked at his little family, then back at Winston. “Your Honor, I’ll get to see my kids play without being terrified that they’re going to be hurt by some wild bullet. I no longer worry if I’m going to find them frozen in their beds on account of the heat not being enough to fight with the wind blowing through the broken windows. They’re safe, and that’s all a person can ask for when they love theirs like me and my brother do.”

  “All right. I’m going to grant you this, Mrs. Remy. But I’ll be watching you too. You make this work, and you surely could slow down the number of people I see in here every day. I’d like that myself.” She thanked him. “Don’t you be screwing this up. I know you won’t, but if you need help with anything, don’t you dare be afraid of asking for it. You got some good people behind you; you would be better off asking for help before you get in over your head.”

  “I’m well aware of how much I need all these people, sir. You included.”

  Winston nodded and banged his gavel on the desk. Once he said the next case should be brought up, she was engulfed in hugs by Belinda and Wilma, the wives of Bret and Jefferson.

  “Does this mean Jefferson will be coming home?” Lizzy told her it did. “Oh my goodness, we’re going to have to get on home and cook some dinner. You’ll come, won’t you? To have him home again is going to be wonderful. Just to know he’s close. And the house? Why, he’s going to love it as much as I do. Yes, I have to get home and get to cooking dinner. Come on, Wilma. We have a feast to cook.”

  She was out the door and into her car before Lizzy could tell her they’d be there for dinner. When Remy hugged her, telling her how proud of her he was, she felt good too. It was going to work, damn it. All of it was going to be working toward helping a great many people.

  On the way home, they stopped and picked up some roses for the wives. It was going to be a couple of days before they began work, and she was so happy with the outcome. Lizzy knew they’d stay on track too.

  One of the things she knew the men weren’t going to be able to have was alcohol, as well as firearms, which they both promised her they’d never have in the house. It was going to be hard this first couple of weeks when they started working. However, she had all the confidence in the world that it was going to work.

  Chapter 10

  CJ stretched out on the lawn chair and looked up at the sky. It would be snowing before morning, and she, for one, was looking forward to the cold that would end things for a while—bugs and the like. Smiling, she stood up and felt the snap of the cold touch her skin. The way the breeze blew through her hair, making it
feel colder when it touched her skin again. Once she made her way into the house, she gathered up the things to make some brewed tea. She’d not had any in so long her mouth was watering for a little sip.

  “I heard you come in. Have you had enough sunshine today?” Circe Jane Montgomery told her sister, Pfeiffer, that she’d never have enough sunshine. “The rest of us in the world are scrambling for something warmer, and you’re outside without a coat. Or shoes, for that matter.”

  “I love the cold.” That was an understatement. CJ couldn’t think of a word that would say how much she loved the cold. “I was thinking of having a nice cup of apple tea. Would you like a cup?”

  “I would love one. Also, I baked apple scones yesterday.” She told her sister that was more than likely the reason she’d been craving it. “Could be. Before I forget to tell you yet again, there is a schedule opening at the store in the morning for you if you’d like to pick it up.”

  “I would love to pick it up.” She would love to go to work tomorrow. That would leave her the rest of the day to do her other job. The one that paid their bills and made sure they had money in the bank. Working was one of the many ways she helped her big sister. “Are you and the girls going to be working on cookies tomorrow? I know they are planning the entire day around being with you.”

  “They’ve told me. I don’t know how much energy I’ll have for it, but I’m going to spend the day with them.” Pfeiffer wasn’t just her big sister, but she was her much older one. There was almost twenty years difference in their ages. Pfeiffer’s daughters, Sally and Rachel, were about the same age as CJ. “I saw that you picked up the ingredients for snickerdoodles. Don’t you like any other cookie than that?”

  “I can eat other cookies, but I don’t like them as much as I do those. Sally makes them just right, just enough cinnamon to sugar all over them.” Both her nieces could cook and bake like their mom. CJ was lucky if she could brew a pot of tea without forgetting about the water until it was all gone. Twice that had happened to her. “When is Rachel coming home?”

  “Tonight sometime. She said she was going to drive straight through. I begged her not to, but she’s as stubborn as you are.” That, she was sure, her sister didn’t think of as a compliment. “Then we’re all going to get up early and go out for breakfast.”

  CJ would join them in their baking if she was off, but she didn’t enjoy herself. She did love them all, but they were mother and daughters, and having her there made them have to divide their time with her too. She wanted them to spend time with their mother. CJ would if she still had hers around.

  Sipping her tea with her sister, they talked about the cookies they were going to bake. The three of them could have several hundred dozen cookies baked in two days and not eat a single one of them. CJ would be sick after eating a lot of cookie dough and then trying any cookie that came out of the oven. Her weakness was sweets. But her biggest was snickerdoodles.

  At six, they both sat in the living room to watch the news. Dinner was over, they’d cleaned up the kitchen, and now this was the time they settled into the couch. CJ didn’t much care for sitting idle, so she would work on her laptop to get a fresh start for the morning.

  The house belonged to her sister now, so she set the rules for the television. Before that, their mother had owned it. Mom had left the house to the two of them. When things got to the point where Pfeiffer needed to take a loan out for college for Sally, Pfeiffer bought her out so she could use the house as collateral. CJ never bothered having it transferred back into her name. It wasn’t something she was worried about.

  When the news was over, they watched a couple of game shows. It was a nightly thing they both had been doing before their mom passed away. It was also their time to talk about what was going on around town, which Pfeiffer knew the most about.

  “Did I tell you that Mr. Rogers got off with no fine and no jail time?” CJ loved that old man and would have taken him to see his wife had she known. “There is a new program getting started to help people out that don’t have much in the way of food or transportation. I hope it works out. There are a lot of people out there that need help most of the time.”

  They had too before she got a good job. Like when a big bill came due at the same time as the taxes. It didn’t happen as much as it used to, not with them simply not using the credit cards to pay for things. Borrowing from a credit card company to pay the electric bill or whatever was coming due had nearly made them lose their home.

  They were doing all right now. Sally had graduated from college to be a teacher at the same time CJ had. Rachel was in her last year. As soon as Rachel graduated, she’d get a good job as a nurse and be able to pave her own life.

  “I heard from the bank again today.” CJ asked her what he had wanted. “Other than for me to go out with him, he wanted to know if we wanted to refinance this house. I have no idea why we’d want to refinance a house that we own. I told him no again and no to the dating thing too. I’m not ready for that.”

  “Not that I think you should date Daniel Benson, but you really should be dating again.” Pfeiffer just looked at her. “Okay, we both should be dating, but it’s been almost ten years. Aren’t you ready to get your body waxed up for some sex starved man?”

  “He would have to be sex starved to want to sleep with me.” CJ told her sister they didn’t usually do much sleeping when they were sex starved. “Very funny. When are you going to date again? I think it’s been longer than I have since you went out on a— Oh, CJ, I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s all right.” She looked away so her sister wouldn’t see the hurt. “It’s been a while, I know that. But he hurt me, and I’m afraid. It took me four years to learn it wasn’t my fault, even though he blamed me, and to say that he hurt me. I think it was money well spent.”

  They didn’t speak for a few minutes, and she was all right with that. She and her sister could go days without really talking about anything serious, and it never really bothered either of them. Sometimes the quiet was better than emptying out one’s brains, as her grannie said.

  “I was just thinking of Grannie myself.” Pfeiffer was like that. She could latch onto whatever a person was thinking without a second thought. “When was the last time you saw her? I’ve not been in about a week. She doesn’t like me as much as she does you anyway.”

  “She loves you. And the girls. I went to see her just this morning on my way back from my run. Grannie still asks me why I run if there isn’t anyone chasing me. But we had a nice talk. And she and I had breakfast together.” Pfeiffer asked her if that was her second or third breakfast this morning. “I do believe it was only my second this time. Anyway, she was telling me about this blanket I should make. I don’t know where she comes up with this idea that I can quilt, but she always has a rough draft of a pattern when she thinks of one.”

  “You look so much like Mom, maybe that’s it. Mom loved to quilt. She wasn’t as good as Grannie, but we stay warm all winter with her quilting. Well, most of us do. Do you have any more than a sheet on your bed in the winter months?” CJ told her she had one quilt on her bed. “Small wonder. I remember Dad being like you are, overheated all the time. However, I don’t think I ever saw him walking around in the snow without shoes on. It’s a miracle you have any feeling in your feet at all.”

  “I have lots of feelings in my feet, thank you very much.” They both laughed, and CJ asked her why she’d brought up Grannie. “I was just thinking about how she would always have some saying about something you were doing. Like emptying your brains out.”

  “Yes, she did at that. I remember thinking she was nuts when I was a kid. She’d say something like that and then just walk away like I was supposed to be able to decipher whatever the heck she was talking about. My least favorite one was, ‘Bachelor’s wives and maid’s children are well taught.’ That is a contradiction all the way around.”

  “Of course
, it is. I know the meaning. Do you want me to explain it to you?” Pfeiffer looked at her oddly, and CJ smiled. “I promise you I know what it means. It means that a childless man and a childless woman have no knowledge about maintaining a good idea about things they don’t have. You see? They have these opinions about child-rearing that are wrong because they have nothing to base it on.”

  “Okay, that does make it sound right. What other tidbits of information do you have about her sayings? Let me think of one.”

  While her sister thought about what Grannie used to say, CJ read over the email that had just entered her box. It was from her boss. As her emails were coded, she put in the password to open it up.

  “Something wrong?”

  “I’m not sure. I have this email about the last job I did. He’s saying he didn’t get it. However, not only does it have the work order number on it that I assigned, but the attachment is attached to the reply he sent.” Pfeiffer asked her if that made better sense in her head. “Yes. What I mean is, I attached the job to an email that he just replied to me on. On it is the attached job. It’s been opened too. The email and the attachment.”

  “How do you know he opened them?” She said her email told her that. “You can fix it so you know if someone opens your email? I’d like to have that on mine. I have people telling me all the time they didn’t get their bill.”

  “I’ll fix it for you in the morning. Not only will it tell you if someone opened it, but also which computer it was opened on. Like you’d know it was me that opened it because of the IP address that’s there.” She looked at her sister’s expression. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? How can you live here with me and not have a clue what I’m going on about most of the time?”

  “Because you’re brilliant, and I’m just a homebody that loves you to pieces?” CJ hugged her as she dug into the popcorn bowl. “As for Grannie, I’m not sure I will ever figure her out. She’s a great deal like you in all ways. I think I remember her being warm all the time too. Must have skipped me. Thankfully.” CJ laughed.