by Elena Aitken
“Evan?”
“Why do I feel like there’s an echo in here?”
Christy straightened in her seat and shook her head slightly. “Start at the beginning. Morgan? Community service? Evan?”
Right then, Mark returned with another round of drinks, and Cam wanted to hug him when he set it down in front of her and said, “Judge Stewart assigned Morgan to some community service last night and Evan is the officer in charge of the case.”
Both the women looked up at him with open mouths, but he directed his explanation to Cam. “Ben told me.” He shrugged. “Evan was in earlier apparently and filled him in.”
Perfect. It was already starting. There was no privacy in a small town. It was one of the little details about Timber Creek that Cam had not missed at all.
Christy looked to Cam for confirmation. She nodded and took a long drink of her wine. She was going to need it.
Evan didn’t know what to expect when he knocked on the door of the little apartment over Junky’s shop. Would Cam be home? Or just the girl? He’d heard Cam was working her first shift earlier that day at the End of the Road and he’d made himself stay away. No doubt if he’d shown up without a legitimate reason, Tommy would make a scene and Cam would get embarrassed, or worse…mad.
He had no doubt he’d have reason enough to visit her at work sooner rather than later. He just hoped it wouldn’t have anything to do with her.
But maybe Cam was home from work by now. Maybe she was there waiting for him to pick up her daughter for her punishment. The night before, he’d given Morgan the choice of starting right away, or waiting a few days. To his surprise, she hadn’t put it off the way he would have expected a teenager to do.
Not that he knew much about teenagers. But when he was her age, he would have done everything he could to put off till tomorrow what he could have done that day.
Finally, he brought himself to knock on the little door. Morgan answered almost immediately.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to knock.” She greeted him with all the attitude he expected.
He raised his eyebrows but didn’t respond. Instead, he tried to casually look past her into the little apartment.
“If you’re looking for my mom, she isn’t here.”
“I wasn’t.”
It was her turn to give him a look. “Whatever.” She reached behind her, grabbed a tote bag and pulled the door shut. “I guess we might as well get this over with. Unless you need to talk to my mom. Or get her to sign something or something.”
“No,” Evan said. “She doesn’t need to sign anything. We can get going. I don’t want to bother her at work.”
They started walking down the steel stairs. “She’s not working. At least not anymore.”
“No?” He tried to sound casual, but this girl was clearly a lot more observant than he’d given her credit for, and he didn’t want to give anything away. Not that there was anything to hide. Not really. He was definitely curious about Cam. And why shouldn’t he be? Once upon a time, they’d told each other everything. It was only natural to be interested in her life now.
“She called after her shift,” Morgan continued as he held the door of the cruiser open for her. This time, he let her sit in the front. “She’s with Christy.”
Evan got in the car next to her and grabbed a notebook. “Are you ready to do this?”
“You’re sure you don’t want to know more about my mom?”
He swallowed and shook his head. “No. Today is about you,” he said. “Today and every day until you work off this community service. Seems you’ve gotten us both a new after-school hobby.”
Morgan shrugged, but he noticed her face color a little.
“So,” he began again. “I think I have a bit of a plan to get us through this as painlessly as possible while at the same time, teaching you a little something. We’ll do two hours a day, three days a week.”
“What?” Morgan sat upright in her seat. “But that’ll take forever. That’ll take like three months!”
“Just over two, actually. But yes, it’s not going to be finished right away.” Evan flicked his pen back and forth. “You should be thankful you only got fifty hours.” He gave her a look that he hoped made his point. “Let’s get going.” He put the car in gear and started driving to the park in the center of town. “We’re going to start nice and easy with a little garbage pick-up in the park.”
“Garbage?”
He shot her a look again. Apparently it was going to take a little bit for her to get the message that she was being punished for her actions.
An hour into the garbage pick-up, and Evan was pretty sure Judge Stewart had been punishing him just as much as he’d been punishing Morgan. Only he couldn’t figure out what he’d done to deserve the privilege of supervising a moody teenager with a garbage bag.
He could think of better ways to spend a Tuesday afternoon, like getting ready for his usual trivia night at the Log and Jam, or laying on the couch with a beer and Netflix.
Okay, maybe Judge Stewart wasn’t punishing him so much as giving him a wake-up call about his boring life.
But it wasn’t boring. Not really. It was…stable. Consistent. Easy. Evan always knew what to expect. There were no surprises and no drama.
He hadn’t dated anyone in over a year, not seriously anyway. At least nothing he considered serious. Stephanie might disagree.
At the thought of his on-again/off-again/not really a girlfriend/more like a booty call friend, Evan felt a wash of guilt. He hadn’t called her in days. Four, to be precise. Not since he performed a routine traffic stop on a very non-routine driver.
Cam.
No one had ever been able to compare to Cam. Not before and not since. Stephanie was a nice girl, but there was never going to be anything more than a few hook-ups and the occasional night at the pub.
With a sigh, Evan pushed up from the picnic table where he’d been lounging and stretched. He scanned the areas for Morgan, who up until a moment ago had been directly in his line of sight.
He turned, and still didn’t see her immediately. Finally he spotted her with a group of teenagers over by the swing sets.
For a moment, Evan debated interrupting her. After all, she was new to town; it was probably a good thing that she was getting to know some kids. But his duty got the best of him, and with a shake of his head, Evan went to break it up and get Morgan back to work.
“Officer Anderson! Hi.” A boy he vaguely recognized as Tansy Butterfield’s son shoved his hands in his pocket and straightened when he saw him coming. He didn’t know Tansy well. She’d been five years ahead of him in school, and she’d married a guy from another town who Evan didn’t really know. But the little he did know about them seemed good.
He could have laughed at himself for the way he was silently assessing Morgan’s friend choices. As if it mattered to him at all.
But it did.
Even if it was only because they were stuck with each other for the next little while.
Right. That’s why it mattered.
Evan pushed the annoying voice in his head away. “Hello.”
“Trent, sir.” The kid thrust out his hand, eager to please. “Trent Butterfield.”
“Nice to meet you, Trent.” He took the kid’s hand and ignored the snickers from the boy’s friend, who would no doubt give him a hard time later. “I see you’ve met Morgan.”
“I was just—”
“It’s okay,” Evan said before she could make an excuse. “You’re allowed to have a little break. But just a little one.”
He saw the relief on her face and was pleased with himself.
“We won’t bother her for long, sir. I just noticed her at school the other day and when I saw her today I thought I should…” Trent’s friends snickered again and he jabbed one of them in the ribs with his elbow. “I just wanted to say hi.” The kid looked directly at Morgan, who flushed a deep scarlet and looked at her feet. Evan did his best not to
laugh.
Instead, he shook his head. “Why don’t you get her number, Trent, and then you can text her later. When she’s not busy,” he added pointedly.
He left them alone then and went back to the picnic table, where he watched them from a safe distance.
Fifteen. Morgan was fifteen. He’d seen her birthdate on the forms Cam had filled out at the police station. About the age when he’d fallen head over heels, completely hopelessly in love with Cam.
Her daughter looked so much like she had at that age. Only…angrier. As if she were holding onto something. Cam had never been an angry teenager. Instead, she’d been filled with a longing and ambition. A dreamer, always thinking about what was next. She’d been a girl full of hope and innocence. Morgan didn’t have that about her. Instead, she seemed to be weighed down by something.
What had happened to the girl to make her so sad?
Something about her drew him to her. He wanted to protect her and heal whatever hurts she had.
It was ludicrous, really. He didn’t know her. And even though he’d known her mother a lifetime ago, it didn’t mean he had any right to her.
Or did he?
He couldn’t deny that ever since Ben pointed out the timing, a little piece of Evan had wondered whether maybe Ben was right…Morgan was fifteen. Was there a chance she was his?
Of course there was a chance. But surely Cam would have told him. She would have…
Evan dropped his head into his hands briefly and scrubbed at his hair. What would an eighteen-year-old Cam have done?
The truth hit him like a brick.
He had no idea.
Chapter Six
Despite a few more mishaps waitressing, including the original spill on Darrell followed by a dropped tray of clean glasses on her next shift and a few mixed-up orders over the following few days, Cam eventually settled into her new job and after the first few weeks of shifts, even started to get to know some of the regulars and what they liked to drink.
She still couldn’t believe that a nudie bar on the edge of town had regulars, but she was in no position to judge other people or their choices, so she didn’t.
When she was a teenager, Cam had a part-time job at the grocery store as a cashier, and then later, when she moved to the coast, she answered phones at a local car dealership. But that was short-lived before Ryan insisted she quit and take care of herself. But unlike so many of her friends, Cam had never held a waitressing job. And even though she probably wouldn’t admit it, at least not to any of her friends, she kind of liked it. Especially if she could ignore what kind of bar it was that she was working in and those poor girls who stood on the stage and took off their clothes with little to no enthusiasm, day after day, for the same four faces who came in for their afternoon beer and wings.
“You’re getting the hang of things, Cam.” Tommy appeared out of nowhere and leaned against the bar as she cashed out and counted back her float. Distracted from her counting, she sighed but didn’t let him see her annoyance. He was her boss after all, even if he did make the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“It’s coming.” She smiled. “Thank you for being so patient with me, Tommy.” He really had been patient with her. If it had been anyone else, there was no doubt she would have been fired after her first shift.
Cam tried not to think about what Mark had said earlier that week about things between Tommy and Evan.
“Of course.” Tommy grinned and slid closer to her. “You’re doing great. In fact, a few of the guys have commented on your improvement. You seem to really have an attention to detail. Are you getting settled into town again?”
She knew exactly where this line of questioning was going. It was the same every day when she was finishing her shift. The talk went from the bar to personal, and way too quickly. Not that any speed would have been okay for Cam.
Just as she did every day, she smiled sweetly, and shook her head. “You know I don’t like to mix business with personal, Tommy.”
“Waitressing is hardly business, Cam.” He reached out to touch her arm, but she quickly sidestepped it. She was starting to get really good at avoiding Tommy but his advances were just getting more aggressive. She’d have to come up with something else.
“It’s business to me, Tommy.” Thankfully she finished her cash out and signed off on the clipboard Tommy kept by the till. “Besides, I should get going. I have a teenage daughter at home, remember?”
Cam hoped the idea of a teenager would be enough to be off-putting, but in fact it probably had the exact opposite effect. Either way, the fact was she did have a teenage daughter who was her priority.
As was keeping her job.
“And…” Cam grabbed her purse from under the bar and slipped to the other side of the stools. “I really do need to get going. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Cam made her escape before Tommy could stop her again. The truth was, she really did need to get going, but not to get home to Morgan. Just as she’d hoped, her daughter had made some new friends and because she seemed to be keeping up with her homework and keeping her dates with Evan for community service, Cam had agreed to let her go for a coffee after class. The fact that teenagers went for coffee these days instead of milkshakes still made her head shake, but she was just happy that Morgan seemed to be settling in. She’d even smiled a little bit at the dinner table the night before. It wasn’t much, but when it came to her moody and troubled daughter, Cam would take what she could get.
But she did have plans. Christy had called the night before and more or less guilted her into stopping by after her shift.
The friends still hadn’t had a real talk since Cam had come to town. Not a drink a bottle of wine–talk all night–spill all the details type of talk. And Cam knew she was overdue for it. Way overdue.
Besides, it was just a quick stop before dinner. And Christy was one of her best friends. Maybe it would be a good thing. No. It would be a good thing. To get out, and not have to sit home for a few hours and worry about money and the divorce and her daughter and…everything.
But when she pulled into Christy’s driveway and saw a truck she didn’t recognize, she immediately began to rethink the idea. Maybe going home to worry about her life on her own was a better idea after all.
The truck is probably Mark’s.
After all, she had no idea what type of vehicles Christy and Mark drove; there was no reason for her to feel anything but indifferent to seeing a car in the driveway.
But Cam also knew to trust her gut. And her gut was telling her to drive away and go home.
Unfortunately for her, she didn’t listen and moments later when Christy answered the door and ushered her inside only to see a familiar face at the kitchen table, Cam was kicking herself.
She really did have to start listening to her instincts a little more.
Before she stepped into the kitchen, Cam grabbed her friend’s shoulder and pulled her backward. “What is Evan doing here?” She hissed in her friend’s ear. “I thought we were having coffee.”
“We are.” Christy looked so innocent, Cam almost believed it hadn’t been planned. Almost. But the look on her friend’s face gave her away. “With a few other people. But it’s no big deal,” she continued quickly. “I totally forgot I promised to host the anniversary committee meeting and with the celebrations so close, I didn’t think you’d mind. Not really. Besides, you know almost everyone who’ll be here.”
That wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Cam glanced over her shoulder into the kitchen.
“Come on.” Christy grabbed her hand. “You can’t leave now. It’ll look… Well, it’ll look like you’re trying to avoid Evan.”
I am trying to avoid Evan. Cam wanted to scream.
Instead she sighed, swallowed hard and made a mental note to make her best friend pay. In a very big way.
“I don’t know how much help I’ll be to this meeting,” Cam muttered. “I’ll probably just be in the way.”
“Oh no.” Christy’s voice brightened considerably the moment she recognized her victory. “Quite the opposite, I think. We still need a few more jobs filled and won’t it be a great way for you to get involved again?”
Cam was pretty sure she wasn’t interested in socializing in any way, but it wasn’t the time to say anything as they entered Christy’s cozy kitchen and she introduced Cam to Becky, a young woman she’d never met.
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Evan said when she took the empty seat next to him at the table. The only empty seat, she noticed.
“I was ambushed.” She fiddled with a napkin for a moment. “Shouldn’t you be protecting the town from—”
“Distracted drivers and juvenile offenders?” His green eyes twinkled and despite herself, Cam almost laughed. Almost. It was too easy to get sucked into Evan’s easy way and the memories of how things used to be.
It was also very dangerous.
“Right.” She looked straight ahead. “That. Shouldn’t you be working?”
“They do give me some time off, you know?” His tone was light, and Cam felt bad for pushing him off. She turned back to face him. “Besides,” he continued. “The anniversary celebrations are important and I like to help out in my town when I can.”
My town.
“That, and Christy twisted my arm hard to get me to help.”
Cam almost shook her head. The Evan she’d known hadn’t even been interested in volunteering for the car wash to raise money for their graduation celebrations, let alone an entire anniversary party for the high school. In fact, the Evan she’d known had been more interested in pretty much anything else.
“You’re full of surprises, Evan Anderson,” she said before she could stop herself.
“And how’s that?” His lips twitched up into a grin, no doubt because he knew exactly what she was talking about.
She gave him a look and was saved from answering by the arrival of another committee member and Christy joining them with a tray full of coffee and fresh baked goods.