Winds of Change: A Sweet, Inspirational, Small Town, Romantic Suspense Series (Heart Lake Book 1)

by Jo Grafford

  “Aw, shucks!” His arms came around her in a gentle hug. “Guess I’m not very good at this comfort-the-wife stuff.”

  She gave a muffled laugh against his shirt. “Uh, so we’re not exactly married yet.”

  He gave her one last squeeze and let her go as the elevator doors rolled open. “You will be. Soon. Josh is already making noises about me serving as his best man.”

  Wiping the dampness from the corners of her eyes, she gave him a wobbly smile. They proceeded to spend the next two hours pacing the waiting area outside the operating room.

  When the surgeon finally made his appearance, Hope’s knees went weak. She scanned his unemotional features.

  “Well?” Deck demanded, striding in the man’s direction from the other side of the room.

  “Are you Josh Hawling’s next of kin?” the doctor inquired briskly. He was still wrapped from head-to-toe in white.

  Hope tried to take heart in the fact that he wasn’t spattered with red or other fluids.

  “He doesn’t have any kin.” Deck stabbed a finger at his badge. “I’m his business partner at Lonestar Security.” He waved at Hope. “She’s his fiancée.”

  “Alright, then.” The surgeon treated them to a fatherly smile. “I’m happy to report that Josh did very well in surgery. Not that I expected anything less from a bull riding champ. He’s one tough cookie.” He sobered. “We had to do a little digging for the bullet, which was lodged pretty solidly in his scapula. I’ll stop short of calling it shattered, because I’ve definitely seen worse. I did, however, have to insert a pin to hold the pieces of the bone together, so it’ll heal properly.” He shook his head and sighed. “I’ve never met a bull rider who’s a fan of wearing a sling, but here’s where the two of you come in. Make sure Josh keeps his on for the next few weeks.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Tears of relief coursed down Hope’s cheeks. “When can we see him?”

  The doctor spread his hands. “Well, it’s past visiting hours, but I still have him in post-op, so technically it’s my call.”

  “Go.” Deck leaned in to give Hope’s shoulders a quick squeeze. “You’re the one he’s gonna want to see when he wakes up.”

  “Are you sure?” She frowned, wondering where he was headed.

  “Yeah. I’ve got an errand to run. I’ll be back within the hour. Need you to wait here for me, alright?”

  She nodded, understanding he didn’t want her to leave the building without his protection. It hardly mattered. She wasn’t planning on leaving without Josh, anyway. She followed the surgeon through the double silver doors to the post operative recovery area. He led her to one of the patient bays and drew back the curtain.

  “Josh!” she breathed, rushing forward.

  A nurse was bent over him, taking his vitals and half hiding him from view. She gave Hope a bright, welcoming smile. “Are you Mr. Hawling’s wife?”

  “Soon to be,” Hope quavered. She paused beside his bed and reached for his hand. “Is it alright if I—?”

  “Sure. Go ahead,” the nurse returned cheerfully. “He’s still pretty groggy from the anesthesia, but he’s in there.”

  “Oh, Josh!” Hope whispered, gently lacing her fingers through his. The moment the nurse stepped away, she bent to plant a tender kiss on his lips.

  To her surprise, his mouth moved beneath hers. Just a little, but it was enough to reassure her that he was aware she was present.

  “Sweetheart,” she murmured, hating how dry his lips were. She reached for the tube of lip balm she nearly always kept in her pocket. Applying it to her finger, she gently rubbed it on his upper lip, then his lower one.

  “Please tell me…that’s not lip gloss.” Despite the fact that his eyes remained closed, Josh’s slurred voice was infused with humor.

  “No,” she assured softly. “That was regular old lip balm. This is lip gloss.” She captured his mouth in another fiercely tender kiss.

  This time, he squeezed her hand to hold her there longer. “Hey, you,” he muttered against her mouth.

  “Hey.” She drew back to perch gingerly on the edge of his bed. “You had me pretty scared for a while there.”

  His head moved restlessly against his pillow. “It’ll take more…than a stray bullet…to put this ol’ cowboy down.”

  “I know.” She trailed a finger across his chest. “Just rest, alright? We’ll figure things out in the morning.” She knew as soon as the anesthesia wore off, he’d try to hit the ground running again.

  “Whatever you say…boss.” He weakly drew her hand to his mouth to kiss her fingers. Then his grip grew lax. He was asleep.

  She remained in the waiting room the rest of the night, though Deck returned and begged to take her home.

  “No way!” she protested. “I’m not leaving him. I can sleep tomorrow.”

  With an unintelligible grumble, Deck slouched down in the seat next to hers, tipped his head back, and closed his eyes.

  She awoke a few hours later with her mouth full of cotton, aches in places she didn’t know could ache, and her head on his shoulder. With a groan, she sat up and stretched out the kinks. Or tried to. “Ow!” A muscle spasmed, making her clutch her lower back.

  “You snore like a pro, Dr. Remington.” Deck rubbed a hand tiredly over his buzz cut and sat up.

  She gave him a dirty look. “Sorry. I don’t normally—”

  “Eh, then again, maybe it was my own snores shaking the rafters.” He gave a wicked chuckle. “I’ve been told I can saw logs like there’s no tomorrow.” He pointed at the top of her head. “Hope your hair’s not wet. I’ve also been known to drool.”

  “Ick! Gross!” She frantically patted the top of her head for any telltale sign of dampness and found none. It suddenly dawned on her that he was teasing. “You’re awful!” she snapped.

  “My awfulness is one of my finer qualities. I assure you it’s downhill from there.”

  She briefly closed her eyes. “Actually, you’re kind of growing on me,” she confessed.

  “Like fungus?”

  She chuckled and opened her eyes. “How about I just settle for saying thanks? For bringing me here and sticking it out with me. For everything.”

  “Yeah, well, your bull rider happens to be pretty important to me, too.”

  Her bull rider turned out to be a horrible patient, however. He stomped around his empty living room after Deck drove him home.

  “How in the heck am I supposed to do my job with this blasted thing on?” he snarled, waving at the hated sling.

  “Hey,” Hope soothed, stepping in his path and cupping his sides. “You drove into an ambush and lived to talk about it. Right now, that’s enough for me.” She ever so gently drew his head down for a kiss. “There. All better now?”

  He returned her kiss, but went straight back to grousing. “The sheriff and his team are moving as slow as molasses on the case, and—”

  Hope cut off his tirade with another kiss.

  This time, his response was fiercely tender and more eager. “For crying out loud, Hope,” he growled against her lips. “We were supposed to get married.”

  “We will.” She kissed him again. “You’re not getting out of it that easily.”

  “But this stupid sling…”

  “Is necessary.” She brushed her lips against his.

  Deck cleared his throat loudly from somewhere nearby. “So, ah…since you two aren’t showing any signs of coming up for air anytime soon…”

  Oh, sheesh! Hope stepped back, blushing. “I’m sorry. I was just doing my part to calm our patient.”

  Josh hooked his arm around her. “Nobody has a gun to your head, making you stay and spectate, Kingston.”

  “Josh!” Hope sputtered with laughter.

  Deck backed towards the door with his hands raised. “No, you’re right. He’s your problem, lady, not mine. I’ll just…” He reached for the doorknob.

  “How about you head home to pack a bag?” Hope instructed calmly. “I’ll stay wi
th him until you get back. No matter what Director Grumpy says, he’s going to need someone to help out here for a few days. And since we’re not married yet, that makes him as much your concern as mine.”

  Deck raised his brows at Josh. “Do you seriously let her boss you around like this outside of business hours?”

  Josh’s hard mouth twitched. “Pretty much.”

  It was another few hours before Hope was finally able to head home, shower, and fall into bed. She hated the necessity of missing church, but it couldn’t be helped. When she awoke, she jotted a reminder on her calendar to put in a call to the pastor the next day. She hoped to get on his schedule, sooner rather than later, to preside over their wedding ceremony. Sling or no sling, she had no interest in spending any more time apart from Josh than she had to. Ten years was long enough.

  Monday morning rolled around earlier than any of them would’ve liked. Hope begged Josh to take a day off, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

  He stalked into her office, as crabby as ever, before the first tardy bell rang. “I should’ve been here an hour ago, but Deck kept dragging his heels. I’m about ready to scalp him.”

  Hope glanced up from her computer, thrilled to see Josh back in a suit. He was in black trousers and a white button-up shirt. He even had on a tie. His blazer, however, was only on one arm. It was tossed around the other side of him, partially covering his sling.

  “Wow!” Glancing around him to ensure they were alone, she murmured. “Only you could make a shoulder sling look so hot.”

  “Et tu, Brute?” He gave a snarl of exasperation and moved to her desk.

  “I love you, Josh,” she said softly.

  His expression softened. “I love you, too, babe. Sorry for being such a rear-end this morning. It’s just that I hate running late—”

  “I have some good news and some bad news,” she interrupted with a chuckle. “Which do you want to hear first?”

  At his grimace, she plunged onward. “Okay. Good news it is. I just got off the phone with the minister from the church on the lake. He told me to pass on his congratulations and tell you he’d be happy to make room for us on his schedule. You and I just need to discuss wedding dates and pick one.”

  He expelled his breath. “Sure wasn’t planning on having a sling in our wedding pictures, babe.” But some of his old spirit seemed to be trying to break through the melancholy.

  She rose from her chair and walked around her desk. “I’ve waited a long time for this, Josh. I’d just as soon not let one ridiculous bullet bring our plans to a screeching halt. We can always hire a photographer for a photoshoot after the fact. Just saying.” She knew he needed to hear her unequivocal acceptance of him, scars and all.

  His dark gaze burned into hers. “I swear if you come one step closer, babe, every rule in the employee handbook about PDA is gonna fly straight out the window.”

  She held up a finger, smiling. “Maybe my bad news will put you back in a professional state of mind.” She wedged herself between him and her desk.

  “I seriously doubt it, Dr. Remington,” he returned huskily, “but feel free to take your best shot.”

  “The sheriff wants to bring in his K9 team this morning instead of waiting until tomorrow. Think you can handle a last-minute schedule change, Director Hawling?” To her, he looked a little pale around the edges.

  The best thing about the schedule change, however, was that the sheriff’s department would be doing most of the work. All Josh would have to do is provide oversight.

  “My Monday might be salvaged, after all,” he retorted, grinning. “Guess I better give Deck’s chain a rattle about this.” He paused on his trek to the doorway and glanced over his shoulder. “Hey, what was the bad news?”

  “Daisy is still missing.”

  He nodded bleakly.

  The sheriff and his K9 crew visited the school and found no trace of drugs in the hallways, common areas, or the random lockers that were searched.

  Josh left work early to go home and rest, grumbling about the good report the sheriff had issued their high school. “I want to believe it,” he muttered to Hope. “I do, but my gut is telling me if we make these searches a regular event, something will eventually turn up.”

  By something, he meant drugs. Nodding, Hope tried to convince herself it was just his pain and bad mood talking. However, she, too, feared it was more than that.

  By the time the end of the school day rolled around, the sheriff gave them another update on the search for Josh’s shooter. “Coach Kirk didn’t show up for work today. He and his ex-wife are both missing.”

  Over the next few weeks, the number of parent complaints about the new mascot dwindled. The fact that their football team won their season opening game probably helped assuage the complaints; so did the fact that the Heroes continued their winning streak. So far, they held a 3:0 record. It wasn’t bad for a combined team of north and south side players that nobody initially thought would be able to work together.

  Meanwhile, Hope flooded Heart Lake High with a whole slew of positive changes and new programs. Working closely with the teacher coordinators of the Heart Lake High Honor Society, their school began to offer free peer tutoring sessions. Not only did participating students get to earn credit for volunteer hours, those who needed tutoring were able to get it at a price they could afford.

  Hope also instituted a reward system for grades and attendance. Students who kept their grades up and their absentees to a minimum had the opportunity to earn half a Friday off once per month, along with having their names entered into drawings for the school’s newly designed spirit gear. As a result, absentees spiked down, test scores slowly started to rise, and Hero t-shirts and hoodies started popping up all over campus.

  September rolled into November before the sheriff’s office received their first break in the shooting case. The red bracelet Daisy Peterson had been wearing the night she disappeared was discovered on the side of a deserted dirt road on the edge of town.

  Josh popped into Hope’s office on a Monday morning to discuss the finding.

  “And?” His frown told her there was more to the story.

  “They found a thin tube of heroine woven into it,” he finished grimly.

  She folded her arms, dragging in a heavy breath. “We may have a real problem on our hands.” She closed her eyes, recalling the growing number of bracelets appearing on the wrists of her high schoolers in recent weeks. There were literally dozens in circulation by now. It made no sense for that many students to be involved in drugs. It just didn’t.

  Silence stretched between them for several moments.

  “We’re going to get through this, Hope.” But Josh’s voice sounded as bleak as she felt. “The sheriff is asking us to collect as many of the bracelets as we can during homeroom this morning. One of his deputies is on his way with the specimen bags. He’d also like to do another unscheduled run through the hallways with his K9 team.”

  “Alright. Let’s get it done.” She didn’t reopen her eyes until his footfalls faded. Knowing Josh and Deck were more than capable of coordinating the sheriff’s impromptu visit, she returned to her desk to finish opening the growing stack of mail that Laura kept piling higher.

  Hope had been meaning to get to it, but other things kept taking priority. However, she finally had a few minutes to kill. With a sigh, she reached for the first envelope. The address on it gave her pause. It was from her former boss back in Anchorage, someone she’d really enjoyed working for. Suddenly anxious for news about the district she’d left behind, she ripped open the envelope and scanned the contents of the letter inside.

  She grew still at what she read. Due to extenuating circumstances, they had an unexpected opening for a head principal at one of their smaller high schools — one they needed to fill immediately. The superintendent went on to write that they wanted her to consider filling it in an interim capacity, with the potential to move back into a tenured position once she met certain criteria, i.e.
the requirement for more years of experience.

  The tardy bell rang, jarring Hope from her thoughts. She hastily dropped the letter on her desk and moved across her office in search of Josh. The sheriff’s K9 team would arrive at any moment, and she wanted to ensure everything was in order for them to be able to do what they were coming to do.

  Josh wasn’t in his office.

  Laura shot her a worried smile from the receptionist’s desk. She helped a student sign in late and wrote out an excuse note for them to take to class. The moment the office door closed behind the departing teenager, she demanded, “What’s up with all the police cars out front?”

  Hope gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “They’re just going to do another one of their routine checks.”

  “Routing checks for what?” Laura squeaked. “Pardon me for pointing it out, ma’am; but for as long as I’ve worked here, we’ve never had scent dogs on campus. Not once.”

  Until I came on board, you mean. “Don’t worry. It’s just a precaution.” Hope wished she felt as confident as she sounded.

  A buzzing sounded.

  Laura glanced at her security monitor. “That’s the sheriff, ma’am.”

  Hope nodded. “I’ll go let him in. I’d appreciate it if you’d page Director Hawling and let him know the sheriff has arrived.”

  “You betcha.” Laura reached for her phone.

  As Hope headed to the front entrance, she silently sent up a prayer. Please, Lord. Protect my school and every student in it from whatever foothold Satan is trying to gain on our campus.

  The staff had made it clear to every student, by way of the student handbook which had been unpacked in detail during the homeroom hour all throughout the first week of school, that Heart Lake High had a zero tolerance policy for drugs of any sort. Even legally prescribed medications had to be deposited with the school nurse and consumed in her presence; and that was only after all proper prescriptions and parent notes had been presented.

  Sheriff Gil Remington was waiting for her, unsmiling, at the front door. He stepped inside and glanced around them. “We have three dogs with us today, so we can split up, divide, and conquer.”