The Deputy's Unexpected Family

by Patricia Johns

  Gabe drove past Blessings Bridal on his way to the police station that morning. Everything looked as quiet as he expected. Passing the shop was out of his way, considering that he was staying at Lily and Bryce Camden’s bed and breakfast. The department wouldn’t pay for the entire cost of the B and B, but they subsidized it, which helped. And it was a whole lot more comfortable than the dive of a hotel he was going to be staying at originally. The breakfast that his hostess had prepared for him—apricot oatmeal, yogurt and a bowl of fresh fruit—made his stay feel more like a vacation than the reprimand that it was supposed to be. But this morning’s meeting with Chief Morgan should take care of that.

  He parked in the lot next to the precinct and glanced at his watch. Gabe had been dreading this part—the discipline. It would come in the form of training, but everyone knew what this was. Granted, Gabe should have kept his mouth shut when his boss irritated him, but he didn’t think he’d been altogether wrong, either. Unfortunately, when it came to the chain of command, being right wasn’t everything.

  Gabe remembered Chance Morgan from the local force when he’d been a troubled teen in Comfort Creek. Chief Morgan had been a sergeant back then, and Gabe hadn’t known him personally, but he still cared what the man thought of him. Gabe headed through the front doors and nodded to the receptionist, Cheryl. She was on the phone, but put the receiver against her shoulder to shield the mouthpiece and pointed toward the bull pen.

  “The chief says to go straight to his office. He’s waiting for you,” she said with a smile.

  Easy enough for her to smile. She wasn’t the one facing binders full of sensitivity training. He’d heard horror stories of those questionnaires and required reading...all about how to “constructively approach disagreements and negotiate a win-win solution.” Yeah, he’d had a buddy who did some sensitivity training in Fort Collins—apparently, not quite as in-depth as he was about to experience out here in Comfort Creek. If they had to physically send him away for the experience, he could only imagine what was in store.

  He gave the receptionist a nod of thanks and headed around the bull pen toward the chief’s office. He could dread it all he wanted. There was no way out of Comfort Creek but through the program.

  “Come in,” Chief Morgan called when Gabe knocked, and he opened the door.

  Chief Morgan sat behind a desk. He looked to be about forty with sandy-blond hair that was just starting to gray. He appeared to be finishing some paperwork, and when Gabe came in, he flipped shut the folder and gave him a cordial nod.

  “Have a seat, officer.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Gabe shut the door behind him and eased into a chair.

  “So, why are you here?”

  Gabe sighed. “Insubordination, sir.”

  Chief Morgan nodded, pulled another file out of a pile and opened it. “You’re a good officer. You work hard, take extra shifts, volunteer delivering food for the elderly during the holidays...” He pulled his finger down a page and flipped to the next, then the next. “So what happened?”

  “I was out of line, sir,” Gabe said quickly. If he could speed this along, he would. There was no need to convince Gabe of the error of his ways. He’d accepted that he should have handled this differently if he wanted to avoid this lovely autumnal two-week stay in the dullest town in Colorado. The changing leaves were beautiful this time of year, but he’d trade them for some Fort Collins city streets in a heartbeat.

  “I want to know what actually happened,” the chief said, meeting his gaze evenly. “I want your version.”

  Gabe cleared his throat. “Well, sir, my supervising officer ordered me to make an arrest, and I chose to let the perp go.”

  “And why would you defy an order?”

  Why indeed? His supervising officer was a bully and had a personal vendetta against a twenty-year-old kid. The perp had bullied his supervisor’s son in high school, and while Gabe could appreciate the seriousness of bullying, his supervisor’s son wasn’t exactly innocent, either. He was a twit who figured he could get away with anything because his dad was a cop.

  “The perp was caught stealing baby clothes and diapers, sir,” Gabe said. “I talked to him, and he said that his girlfriend needed some extra help in providing for their baby daughter. The perp and the girlfriend are no longer in a relationship, but he was trying to contribute—misguided as it might have been.”

  “So you felt sorry for him,” the chief concluded.

  “I recognized a spark of self-respect in the guy,” Gabe replied. “And I didn’t want to snuff it out.”

  “But it says here that when your supervising officer reprimanded you, that you...had words.”

  Gabe smiled grimly. That was putting it mildly. “That’s the part I regret, sir. I should have kept my opinions about my supervising officer to myself.”

  “So what made you vent?”

  Gabe paused, wondering how much he should say. The chief was regarding him with a look of sincere curiosity on his face.

  “Between you and me, sir?” Gabe said. “The perp wasn’t a complete unknown to my supervisor. He had gone to high school with my supervisor’s son. The perp was a troublemaker from way back, but my supervisor’s son wasn’t exactly an innocent lamb, either. He’s been let off with a warning for numerous infractions over the years because of his father’s position. This one seemed...personal, I guess. And that wasn’t fair. My supervisor’s son is already off to college and he’ll have a bright future despite his youthful mistakes because he got special treatment. The perp? At least he was trying to provide for his child. And by the way, I paid for the merchandise and recommended a warehouse that was hiring.”

  “Do you think he’ll take you up on the sound advice?” Chief Morgan asked.

  Gabe shrugged. “No idea. I wanted him to have the chance.”

  Chief Morgan nodded and made a few notes on his pad. “You were a bit of an underdog here in Comfort Creek when you were a kid, too, weren’t you?”

  “A bit,” Gabe admitted.

  “And do you think your issues with authority stem from that?”

  Issues with authority... Okay, maybe he had a few. “No.”

  Chief Morgan laughed softly. “Tell me about your teenage years here in Comfort Creek.”

  “Not much to tell, sir.”

  Frankly, Gabe wasn’t interested in talking about his personal history. He wasn’t a problem to be fixed, and as the chief had pointed out, he had a pretty solid service record.

  “I knew your grandmother,” the chief added. “She was a good woman. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  His grandmother... She’d been the one to raise Gabe, and while he’d loved her, he’d hated her in equal measure. She’d been a bully, too, but she’d hidden it better. No one would believe that Imogen Banks, pillar of the church and knitter of baby booties, could have been a mean and spiteful woman in private. But she was, and her constant flow of cutting words had torn Gabe to shreds. Her passing didn’t leave the hole in his heart that most people assumed.

  “Thanks.” It was the expected response, and he always provided it.

  “So getting down to business, then,” the chief went on. “I’m going to let you choose between two options. The first option is book work. In the basement, we have all sorts of binders with step-by-step lessons about dealing with our feelings in constructive manners. Or, we could do this another way.”

  Was there really a way to avoid the humiliating book work? He leaned forward and immediately regretted it. He didn’t want to show weakness—an old habit that died hard.

  “Is there another way, sir?” he asked hesitantly.

  “Well...you could carry on doing patrol, keeping an eye on the bridal shop, and during the course of your stay here, you would record fifteen locations around town and your associations with them.”

  “My associations...” Gabe frowned.r />
  “Memories.” Chief Morgan leaned forward. “I want you to write down fifteen individual memories connected to fifteen individual locations in this community.”

  “That’s rather personal, sir,” Gabe replied.

  “It is.” The chief confirmed. “The thing is, Gabe, you’re one of ours. You were raised in Comfort Creek, and I know that you’re doing your very best to distance yourself from that fact. I have a feeling if you can make your peace with this town, and whatever it is that you hold against us, that your career will benefit.”

  “With all due respect, sir—” Gabe began, but the chief held up his hand and started reading from a page in front of him.

  “‘A bully. A twit. An overcompensating father making up for his pathetic son’s inadequacies. A coward hiding behind a badge’...and a few more turns of phrase that you probably don’t want to hear repeated.” The chief looked up.

  “Yeah...” Those had been his words, pretty much exactly.

  “Are you sure all of that was referring to your supervisor?” the chief asked.

  “I stand by them, sir,” Gabe replied with a sigh.

  The chief met his gaze for a moment and they regarded each other in silence. Then the chief shrugged. “Okay. So you prefer book work. I’m fine with that. I have your first binder set out downstairs.”

  Gabe scrubbed a hand through his mahogany curls. It was in his nature to balk at authority, and if the chief wanted him to take a different path, his first instinct was to put up a fight. But quite honestly, if he had to look down the barrel of two weeks in the precinct basement doing book work, or two weeks trying to track down Harper Kemp’s robbers, he’d vastly prefer the latter.

  “Sir, if it’s all the same, I’d rather take your second option.”

  “Oh?” Chief Morgan raised his eyebrows. “All right then.” He pulled out a small notebook and slid it across the desk. “In that case, this is for you.”

  Gabe picked it up and fanned the pages. It was empty.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “I’ll leave you assigned to the bridal shop. We’re all going to be keeping an eye on it, and the other local businesses if we’re being targeted. I want you in plainclothes. We don’t want to be too obvious.”

  “Will do.” Gabe rose to his feet and tucked the notebook into his pocket.

  “Welcome back,” Chief Morgan said with a smile. “Wish it could have been more voluntary on your part, but we’re glad to see you all the same.”

  “Thanks, sir.” Gabe headed for the door. It was going to be a long two weeks.

  Chapter Three

  Harper bent over a dustpan and swept up the last of the glittering glass particles. At least she hoped this was the last of it. Every time she swept, she seemed to come up with more glass. At the counter, Zoey was drawing a picture and chattering to herself. Heidi had already left a few minutes earlier, leaving Harper and Zoey alone in the store.

  The dress, newly pinned up and marked for Heidi’s desired alterations, hung in the back room. Harper couldn’t bring herself to touch it yet. The thought of shears slicing through the lace...it was almost physically painful. She’d talked Heidi down to knee length, which was something. Heidi had always liked being different—the girl with short hair when everyone else wore theirs long, a tattoo on her calf she liked to show off in summer, and very likely the reason she insisted upon a short dress for the wedding.

  Couldn’t Heidi, just once, blend in? Even if only for Chris!

  A navy blue SUV rumbled to a stop outside. Harper paused and looked closer. Gabe got out, but he wasn’t in uniform this time. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a gray T-shirt that tugged around his well-muscled biceps. Obviously, the police force kept him in shape, and she had to admit that Gabe had matured into a good-looking guy. A little less ruggedness would go a long way in making this more comfortable for her.

  Harper met him at the door so she could unlock the deadbolt.

  “Hi,” Gabe said as she opened the door. She stepped back and he came inside.

  “What happened to the uniform?” she asked.

  “I’m supposed to blend in.”

  He didn’t really succeed. Gabe was tall, muscled, and even in plainclothes, he looked like a brick wall. And maybe she liked that. If those thieves were going to return, she’d rather have Gabe as their distraction. Maybe they’d think twice and just move on.

  Harper felt a tug on her hand and she glanced down to see Zoey looking up at Gabe, wide-eyed. Harper glanced between them, noting the similarities in their faces—the chin, the slate gray eyes... Did Gabe see it?

  “This is Zoey,” Harper said.

  “Hi, Zoey.” Gabe gave her a nod. “I’m Officer Banks.”

  That was formal, but what did Harper really expect? As far as he knew, this was his ex’s daughter. Not his business.

  “I drew a picture,” Zoey said. She lifted it up for Gabe to see, and he took it from her fingers, regarded it for a moment.

  “Very nice.” He handed it back.

  “It’s for you,” Zoey said.

  “Oh—” Gabe’s expression softened and he took the picture back. It wasn’t much more than a few scribbles. She was only four, after all. But he folded the paper in quarters and then tucked it into his back pocket. He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Zoey. I appreciate that.”

  Zoey seemed to like that, because she danced back to the counter to draw another one. Gabe would likely leave this shop with a whole ream of paper filled with Zoey’s artwork, and right now he didn’t even know how precious that was.

  “You aren’t used to kids, are you?” Harper asked as she leaned the broom into a corner.

  “Not really,” Gabe admitted. “But I am used to dealing with criminals and general run-of-the-mill bad guys, which you’ll probably find more useful right about now.”

  Harper smiled ruefully.

  “But you seem to have risen to the challenge,” Gabe said.

  “She was my goddaughter,” Harper replied. “I’ve been in her life since birth.”

  “Seems like you’ve got it under control,” he said with a nod. “So how’ve you been...otherwise, I mean?”

  “I’m good.” She glanced around. “I manage the store now. Dad had a hard time stepping down. This place was his heart and soul, you know? Anyway, he had a small stroke and that meant he had to slow down and recover.”

  “And you have your chance to run the place.”

  “Yeah. I’ve been waiting for this.”

  Gabe strolled across the store, his gaze moving over the window, the racks of dresses... He reached out, looking like he might finger the fabric of a gown, but instead he pushed it back and knocked on the wall behind.

  “What are you looking for?” she asked.

  “Don’t know. Just looking.” He shot her a wry smile. “So your dad’s doing okay, though?”

  “Yes, he’s almost completely recovered, and he’s settling into retirement with Mom. My sister’s getting married.”

  “Yeah?” His gaze moved up to the ceiling, scanning from one side to the other. “Who’d she land?”

  “Chris Holmes, of the Holmes Homes legacy.”

  “Ah—so she’s marrying money.”

  “She’s marrying a very decent man.” Harper corrected him. “You’ll probably see him around.”

  “Hmm.” His gaze came back to Harper’s face and he raised his eyebrows. “So...you still dislike me as much as you used to?”

  “That’s—” She felt the heat hit her face. “That was a long time ago, Gabe. I just thought that Andrea was expecting too much from you.”

  “So it was never personal,” he said with an arched eyebrow. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  She sighed. “Maybe it was personal. If someone’s against your relationship, it’s hard not to be, right? So I’l
l take responsibility for that. I thought you would use my friend, and I didn’t hide my opinion.”

  “I didn’t use her.”

  “But you weren’t good for her.”

  “Yeah, well, we might agree there,” he said with a shrug. He turned away from her again and started scanning the store’s floorboards. He was being thorough if nothing else. She couldn’t help but follow his gaze, wondering what he was expecting to find.

  “How does it feel to be home for a little while?” she asked after a few beats of silence.

  “Awful.”

  She started to laugh, thinking he was joking, then she sobered. “What? Oh, you must mean with your grandmother’s passing—”

  Gabe walked away again, heading toward the counter. He peered into the back room, his head swiveling around to get a good look. When he remerged, his expression was different...gentler.

  “Now that she’s gone, I guess there’s no harm in telling the truth,” Gabe said. He turned his arm over and tapped a scar. “That was from her.”

  “What?” Harper looked closer—it was long and pale. He’d been cut deeply.

  “She came at me when I’d been caught with a cigarette. I fell into some rocks.”

  Harper’s mind reeled. “Wait... Came at you?”

  “She wasn’t the woman everyone thought she was,” he said bitterly. “And I was a constant disappointment.”

  “Gabe, I had no idea...” Harper ran a hand over her brow. “Did you tell anyone?”

  “Nope.” Gabe shrugged. “We all have baggage. Mine is a little harder to set down, I guess.”

  “So being back here in Comfort Creek...it’s not ideal,” she clarified.

  “You could say that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault.” He shot her a small smile. “It’s just life.”

  It wouldn’t be Zoey’s life; that was for sure. Zoey would be loved and supported. She’d be appreciated, and when she was disciplined, it would be with gentle firmness. No child should have to live like that. It wasn’t “just life.” Harper sighed.

  “Andrea told me that you didn’t want kids. Was your grandmother part of that?”