by Jean Oram
What was she going to do in town without him? He couldn’t leave her here. She was supposed to be the one going.
“Sorry about Russell,” Benny said quietly, looking uncomfortable.
“The book isn’t true,” Amber replied automatically. “It’s not about me.”
The older man smiled, relaxing. “Oh, good. Well, have a nice day, Amber. Enjoy that sunshine.”
Right. She’d do that while she went and gave Scott a piece of her mind for keeping his secret from her. The man was supposed to be on her side. He was supposed to be different.
* * *
“Scott?” Amber tapped his shoulder and he popped out of the bush, fumbling his radar gun.
“Amber, never sneak up on an on-duty officer. I’m armed and trained to kill.”
“Right. So? When were you going to tell me you’re leaving?”
His spine straightened as he turned the speed gun in the direction of an oncoming car, looking uncharacteristically guilty. Amber placed her hand in front of its sensor.
“Amber, quit interfering with police procedure.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you keep it a secret?” Her voice held a tremor, betraying how upset she was. “I even asked if you had any secrets and you lied.”
“I didn’t lie. I told you everyone has secrets. The fact that I had applied out was mine.”
“I trusted you. I thought we were friends. Friends who didn’t keep secrets from each other.” Amber turned, storming away.
A few quick steps and Scott had caught up, snagging her arm, stopping her. “I haven’t even had an interview yet. You didn’t tell me you were dating that jerk Russell until you were moving in with him. Here. In Blueberry Springs.”
Amber ripped herself from his grasp. “That was different.”
“How?” he demanded, his eyes glinting with something she didn’t quite understand.
“I knew you wouldn’t approve,” she whispered, trying to blink away the stinging in her eyes. She’d known Scott wouldn’t like Russell and still she’d dated Russell, moved in with him and allowed him the opportunity to betray her. And then she’d expected Scott to pick up the pieces like always.
“I’m not perfect, okay? And I’m never going to find a man you approve of.”
“How could a woman like you ever convince yourself that it was a smart thing to hook up with a man like Russell?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Scott woke up next to incredible women who fell at his feet. He had no idea what Amber’s options were like.
“You knew I wouldn’t approve. You said you knew it wasn’t love and yet you wasted your time with a man like him. You could have missed being with someone worthy of your love. Someone who would treat you right.” Scott’s voice grew more gentle. “Someone who loves you back. Someone you can trust.”
There was heat and love in his eyes when Amber finally looked up. Her heart raced as she laid a trembling hand against his cheek, noting that he didn’t lean into her touch despite his words. The almost-kiss they’d almost shared on Valentine’s Day had changed him. Changed both of them. If Russell hadn’t shown up in time, would she have ruined her lifelong friendship with Scott by kissing him? Or would things have been okay? Or, dare she imagine it, even more than okay?
She was kidding herself. She wasn’t in love with her best friend and his crush was just that—a crush. Scott dated mayors, not women who had been humiliated on national television. Her best friend, despite all their history and their closeness, was out of her league, and she was delusional if she thought he was hinting that he should be her boyfriend because he could love her better than anyone else.
And if he really did want her, he wouldn’t be leaving. Her. The town. Their friendship.
“Why are you doing this?” Amber whispered, still holding his cheek, seeking understanding.
“Amber,” he said, breaking away, heading back to his post, his expression closed and dark, “it’s just a job application.”
“For a job that would take you away from Blueberry Springs.” Away from me.
“As a good friend of mine is always telling me,” he said over his shoulder, “there is more to life than Blueberry Springs.”
“Yeah?” Her voice shook. “Well, that life sucks.” She stomped to her golf cart, glancing over her shoulder to see if Scott was following her. He wasn’t. Because if he’d loved her he would have swept her into a dip and kissed her senseless. And he didn’t love her, so he hadn’t.
Instead, he called from his spot by the bush, “If it’s not so great, then why are you trying to go back to it?”
Unable to think of a good reply, she simply sped away in her cart, wishing the thing could at least peel rubber to give her a better exit.
* * *
Amber woke up with her face stuck to the keyboard. Scott was leaving. He was leaving Blueberry Springs. Leaving her.
She tried to rub out the key imprints pressed into her cheek as she checked the time. She felt hollow. If Scott wasn’t here, then what was the point?
Pushing aside her feelings of dejection, she figured she needed to get moving. It was early enough that she could still grab a breakfast sandwich at Mandy’s and possibly avoid most of the town’s gossips, plus get her baking to the seniors’ fund-raising bake sale on time.
As she got ready to drive into town thoughts of her father kept whirling through her mind. If she knew who he was, maybe she would understand herself better. Maybe she’d figure out why she didn’t date nice guys like Scott, but went for men like Russell, who were an express pass to unhappiness and betrayal.
But to find her dad, she’d have to keep secrets, and she didn’t want more of them in her life. She hadn’t known about Russell’s secrets, and they’d turned her upside down. What other secrets were out there ready to trip her up?
Taking the golf cart, Amber rolled down the mountain and into town. Blueberry Springs was idyllic at this time of day and she waved to Beth Reiter, who was bouncing her toddler son in her arms while pacing her front porch.
Amber continued on to Main Street, slowing to watch Scott help Elsie from the nursing home up onto the curb in front of the hair salon, his badge shining in the early sunshine.
The town would miss him. Amber would miss him. He glanced up at her, giving her a nod as she passed. She quickly looked away, hoping he’d think she hadn’t seen him, and that he wouldn’t notice the unexplained tears brimming in her eyes.
Toward the end of Main there was hubbub in front of Benny’s restaurant. Distracted by what was going on, she nearly ran over a man who’d hurried into the street, stopping right in front of her. He had a large camera slung over his shoulder and aimed its lens so it was facing her dead-on. She froze, unsure what to do about the unexpected blockade. A reporter joined the cameraman, coming a few steps closer, microphone extended as though ready to ward off a hungry lion.
“Amber Thompson, what do you have to say about being the main character in Russell Peaks’s runaway bestseller, Ember Unfolded?”
“I am not the main character.” Amber steered around the reporter, jerking to a stop as the town’s police truck came to a halt in the oncoming lane, blocking her exit. Scott jumped out, hurrying to her side. She was half relieved to see him and half ticked off.
“Move along please, you’re blocking traffic.” Scott began shooing the reporter and cameraman off the road, while muttering to Amber, “I told you to stay home today.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I sent you a text.”
Amber patted her pockets. Her phone wasn’t with her. “Yeah, well, you’re leaving, so you don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
“Like you ever listened in the first place,” he grumbled.
“It’s Sir Studly!” the reporter whispered loudly to the cameraman, pointing at Scott. The woman unconsciously smoothed her hair and straightened her spine, her eyes sparkling with delight.
Scott had become a stud, yes. However, she h
ad really, really been hoping people wouldn’t pick up on the fact that Russell had called him Sir Studly, the heroine’s love interest in Ember Unfolded.
This was going to make a perfectly crappy day that much better, wasn’t it?
The reporter gave her a gleeful, excited look and Amber sighed. Scott was wonderful, but the two of them weren’t in love. They were friends, as some things were much too important to ruin with complications such as hot, steamy sex.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mary Alice do a U-turn in the middle of the street to claim a parking spot on the opposite side. She climbed out and started heading their way, the sun streaking through the trees along the street giving her a dappled look.
“Mary Alice,” Scott called to her. “I saw you pull that illegal move, and now you’re jaywalking.”
The woman rolled her eyes and kept walking, knowing those minor violations weren’t enforced in Blueberry Springs and that Scott was just busting her chops so she wouldn’t come see what the commotion was about.
“He’s in a mood, Mary Alice,” Amber called. “I think he has a quota to meet for his new job. You know, the one he’s leaving us all for?”
“Would you quit it already?” Scott muttered.
“Officer Malone, how do you feel about being portrayed as the love interest in Russell Peaks’s new book?” The reporter had come closer and had her microphone in Scott’s face.
“It isn’t him,” Amber said, trying to usher the reporter and cameraman away from her friend. “There’s really nothing to see here.”
“Love interest?” Scott perked up, glancing at Amber for clues.
He was feeling playful now. Great. So he was feeling guilty for leaving, and was going to put on his Mr. Fun act so she’d end up laughing and thus forgive him.
Not on his life. Not this time.
“You didn’t read the book?” Mary Alice was laughing. “Oh, honey! How did you miss this? You need to read it right quick. You’re in it, just like Amber.”
Amber shook her head and waved her hands, trying to convince the woman to cool it. “It’s not him. It’s not me. It’s a work of fiction.”
Grinning, Scott slung an arm around Amber’s shoulders and gave her forehead a quick, chaste kiss. It made her flesh tingle, made her body want to turn in and ask for more, while trying to make sure his next kiss landed on her lips.
“Love interest, huh? What did you tell that jerk of a novelist about me, anyway?”
Amber made a feeble sound, noting that the reporter was excitedly talking into her microphone about a real life love story full of rivals and happily ever afters.
Amber pushed Scott away from her, ignoring the rush of sparks that sped up her arms where they touched. “He’s just goofing around. Russell’s book portrays nobody real. The disclaimer at the beginning even said so. It’s a work of fiction. End of story.”
“Aw. You don’t find me sexy?” Scott did a little hip shimmy that made Amber blush.
“Enough,” she muttered, smacking him in the chest. Him being sexy had nothing to do with this and he was going to blow things up rather than help them die down. “This isn’t like the Blueberry Springs Greatest Couple competition. They’ll get the wrong impression.”
“They won as couple of the year, but were disqualified for not being a real couple,” Mary Alice interjected for the benefit of the reporter. “On Valentine’s Day.”
“We were goofing around!” Amber insisted. “He was just trying to make me feel better.”
“About Russell not being there,” Mary Alice added. “He wasn’t a very good boyfriend.”
The reporter had placed her microphone in Amber’s face again. “Is the rumor true that you destroyed author Russell Peaks’s mobile writing office after you discovered he had left you for his editor?”
“I think we’re done here,” Scott said, suddenly dropping his playful demeanor and pushing the camera so it was aimed at the ground.
He led Amber away with a hand at the base of her spine as Mary Alice chanted, “Nothing to see here, move along. Nothing to see here. At least not any longer.”
Liz had joined the small crowd that had gathered, and was trying to help, muttering things about Amber to the reporter that Amber wasn’t so sure would be helpful.
“It is said you are looking for your long-lost father, Amber,” called the reporter a few moments later.
Amber jerked to a stop, heart thundering in her chest. Her mother would never forgive her if her secrets got tied up in the Russell problem.
“Is there anything you’d like to say to him?” the reporter added softly, her hand over the microphone as Amber glanced back. “You could ask for information on air. Maybe we could help.”
Liz gave her a hopeful look and Amber tried to stay calm. The woman meant well. It really wouldn’t be worth going to jail over murdering her.
As Amber tried to think of a reply that would convince the reporter to drop the story, Scott whispered in her ear, his warm breath sending shivers down her spine, “Don’t do it. I’ll help you search from now until the end of time, just please don’t do this.”
Amber turned to the reporter, Scott’s grip on her elbow tightening. “This is a private matter that has already been resolved. Thank you.”
It was a partial lie, but she figured it was okay, seeing as, technically, on one level it had been resolved. Her mother wasn’t going to tell her and Amber was still looking—without media assistance. Issue resolved.
As Amber climbed into her golf cart, Mary Alice whispered, “I guess you don’t want to hear the old rumor about why your mother went away to hairdressing school?”
Amber processed the comment as she started the cart. It was a well-known fact that her mom had gone, but had never become a stylist―an odd little bump in her history that Amber had thought nothing of. Her mother had simply changed her mind after finding she didn’t have an aptitude for styling hair. But the way Mary Alice was throwing out the hint, Amber knew there was more to the story.
Another family secret.
Chapter Three
Amber waited outside Benny’s for her mother to be done her shift. She nursed a cup of take-out decaf coffee, going over her plan once again. Could she really woo her mom into revealing the hairdressing secret—assuming there was one? Amber wasn’t certain, but she thought it was likely unrelated to her father, seeing as there were several years separating her mother going to hairdressing school and Amber being conceived.
Then again, with her mother? Who knew what the truth was. And if there even was a secret, it could be anything. An elopement. A baby. She could have accidentally burned someone’s hair off and been sued. It could be anything. Or nothing at all.
And it was driving Amber crazy.
She sighed and continued to pace. It was late, after ten, by the time her mother came out, looking fatigued but happy.
“Amber! What are you doing here?”
“Just thought I’d walk you home.”
Her mom gave her a suspicious look. “Why?”
“I was in town.”
“And?”
“There were reporters here today and I wanted to make sure they weren’t harassing you.” A partial truth. That was the thing with secrets―they had an insidious nature and begot lies and more secrets. They were evil little things that should be staked through the heart.
“Did they bother you?” her mother asked quickly, moving closer.
“Scott chased them off.”
“He’s a good man.”
Amber smiled, feeling warm down to her toes at the mention of her best friend. “He’s going to make some lucky woman incredibly happy.”
But he was leaving. Sadness washed over Amber and she caught her mother giving her a sidelong glance.
“What?”
“He’s leaving.” Amber let out a gusty sigh, having come to terms with the fact that it was pretty darn hypocritical of her to berate him for leaving when she had already done the same to him, and w
as planning on doing so again once she could get her life back in order.
“I heard. Sorry. But you’re leaving again soon, too, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but.” It felt different somehow. Scott wasn’t supposed to leave. He was supposed to be a Blueberry Springs lifer.
Her mother gave her a half hug. “Shall we?” She gestured down the street, where pools of light from the streetlamps reminded Amber of hopscotch patterns she’d drawn on the sidewalk as a child.
“Did the reporters hassle you?” she asked again, wanting to ensure her own mess wasn’t making her mom’s life difficult.
“No, but they called for an interview the other day. Don’t worry, I told them I wasn’t interested in making a spectacle of my only daughter.”
Walking arm in arm with her, Amber tipped her head to rest against her mother’s.
She would never stop loving her no matter what, but there were so many secrets it felt as though they were keeping her from understanding her life, her world. Why would Gloria hide something this big? If Amber ever found out the truth, would she regret it? Would it cause her to think less of her mother? Or would it bring them closer, forging a bond nothing could ever break?
“I’m thinking of changing jobs,” Amber said suddenly.
“Why? I thought you liked the freedom?”
“I do, but it’s the same-old, same-old. I don’t know. Maybe I just need more side projects or something to help with this antsy feeling. I like being able to do things like help Leif with his recipe forums, but I’m having trouble staying motivated with the usual stuff.”
“Maybe you just need a boyfriend,” Gloria suggested slyly.
Amber let out a burst of laughter. “Because the last one worked out so well for me?”
“Russell doesn’t count. You need a nice man who will treat you right. Maybe one from town?”
“And be stuck here forever? No, thanks.”
“What’s wrong with staying here?”
“Nothing. I just…” The town was home and always had been. But it felt as though there were fewer options to live a life that was more than the same old routine.