Games of the Heart

by Kristen Ashley

I stared up at him, nose tingling and warned, “You’re gonna make me cry again.”

  He grinned, gave me another arm squeeze and dropped his head to touch his mouth to mine.

  When he lifted it, he ordered, “Don’t. We got sandwiches to eat. Then we gotta get, dressed, get to the DQ, get cake, get home and you gotta deliver on your promise to kiss me all over. We don’t have time for you start bawling again. We got important shit to do.”

  He was right.

  So I told him that.

  His grin became a smile and his arms left me as he issued another order, “I’ll get plates, you get me a Dr. Pepper.”

  “Done,” I agreed, turning to the fridge. “But I don’t need a plate. We can eat at the counter.”

  “Pure Dusty,” he muttered.

  “What?” I asked into the opened fridge.

  “Nothin’, sweetheart,” he kept muttering.

  I let it go because whatever he was muttering he was doing it with a smile in his voice. I got him a Dr. Pepper, me a diet one of the same and met him at the counter. Mike got a bag of Chili Cheese Fritos and ripped it open.

  I popped my soda and grabbed my sandwich. After a bite it became clear Mike made top-notch sandwiches. Heavy on the condiments but not so much horseradish my eyes watered. Two slices of cheese, one on each piece of bread. And a massive mound of shaved roast beef. I could barely get my mouth around it and it would be better grilled with that cheese melted but it was awesome all the same.

  “Thanks, Angel.”

  This came soft and, chewing, my eyes went to see his as soft as his voice on me.

  “What?” I whispered through roast beef, rye and swiss.

  “You took on my shit and made me feel better about Reesee,” he explained then repeated, “Thanks.”

  I swallowed. “Anytime, babe.”

  His hand came up, tagged me around the neck, pulling me in and up and he gave me a horseradish, roast beef kiss.

  It was nice.

  We ate. We got dressed. We went to the DQ and got the biggest ice cream cake they had. We came back. We got naked. I kissed Mike mostly all over then Mike took over and kissed me at my best spots. Then he gave me another orgasm, I returned the favor, we showered, dressed and were in the kitchen cooking dinner when Rees got home.

  She was happy to see me.

  She was happier when her Dad told her she could call Fin and ask him over for dinner.

  Even though Fin was there and Mike had not lied, he could lay waste to DQ cake and Fin was his partner in that particular crime, Rees and I managed to save a piece for No.

  But barely.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gifted

  Mike reached to Darrin’s will that was sitting at the side of his desk.

  He had half an hour before he had to meet Audrey at Mimi’s. He’d also received a call from Tanner five minutes ago asking where he was then informing him that Tanner’s wife, Rocky would be swinging by because she needed to chat.

  He didn’t know what that was about but he did know that Tanner’s wife, Merry’s sister Raquel Merrick Layne was a bit of a nut so it could be about anything. A teacher at the school, a cop’s daughter and sister, an ex-cop/current private investigator’s wife, Rocky Layne tended to stick her nose in shit.

  It turned out to be good she did. Though he could say that removed since she wasn’t in his bed. She’d stuck her nose in the situation The ‘Burg had with a dirty cop in the Department and an adolescent sex ring recruiting through the local church. Mike couldn’t say she assisted much in that situation but her getting into that business lit some fires under a few asses in order to keep her safe. This meant shit happened faster than it would have, something that ended up saving three young girls from a lifetime of pain.

  As he waited for Rocky and his eyes skimmed the will, his thoughts moved over the last two days.

  Mike had had his Sunday with his woman and his Sunday night with his woman, his kids, his girl’s new boyfriend and a DQ ice cream cake. Aside from Audrey’s visit, it was a fucking good day. His best in a while.

  Before that, wasteland for nearly eighteen years.

  So it was safe to say Sunday being a fucking good day was something Mike Haines savored.

  Mike was settling into Fin being around. He was doing this because he liked the way Fin was with his girl. And the way Fin was, gentle, watchful, intent, Mike sensed was not for Mike’s benefit. Perhaps this game was how Fin got his hands in a number of high school girls’ pants and Mike could see that play working and working well. But as much as he wanted to guard his girl against that kind of game, his gut told him there was something genuine about it.

  What Mike knew well was that Fin was a Holliday. Darrin played the field and got himself some but the minute he locked on Rhonda that shit died. Completely. Darrin had found Rhonda after he graduated from high school but Mike now saw the same coming from Fin.

  This was a new concern. His daughter was fifteen. She didn’t need some kid fixing on her. And although he didn’t want years of dealing with a revolving door of boyfriends who could be losers or assholes, he had to admit he wasn’t entirely comfortable with Reesee fixing on Fin either.

  But even so, Mike couldn’t say some part of him didn’t like it.

  Monday night went as expected. Dusty’s Dad, Dean Holliday was beyond pissed at Debbie and regardless of the veil of grief that still hung at the Holliday farm, he didn’t mind showing it.

  This was because his anger was mixed with alarm. Dean Holliday knew his firstborn daughter and undoubtedly knew she could be both stubborn and resentful. Not a good combination. Dean had also found time to share with Dusty and Mike that he’d called Debbie repeatedly since being let in on the situation and she was not backing down.

  Further, Dean knew Bernie McGrath and Mike providing the information McGrath was involved did not help Mr. Holliday’s mood. Taking Mike aside, Dean had shared that Darrin had informed him that McGrath had made five approaches since his Dad left the state.

  This didn’t surprise Mike. The development on the opposite side of the farm to Mike’s was one of McGrath’s. It was pricey and extensive. It was also relatively new, having gone in five years before. With the housing estates in the area surrounding the Holliday farm, a shopping area would thrive. Grocery store, video store, pizza place, shit like that would do lucrative business just from the local residents who would no longer have to drive ten, fifteen minutes into town and fight traffic in The ‘Burg during times of congestion. Also the Holliday farm was bigger than any shopping center needed for a build so there was plenty of leftover space to put in another development that would mean more customers for the center.

  McGrath would be all over that. Mike knew it and Dean knew it too.

  Before they had their private chat, both Mike and Dean gave Fin, Kirb and Rhonda their warnings. At this time in their lives, neither man wanted to alarm them but the point had to be made.

  Twenty-four hours later, Mike still wondered if what they said penetrated Rhonda. Even though he knew Dusty had been working with her, she seemed even more withdrawn. Fin and Kirby listened, Kirby taking his cues from his brother. With the intense look in Fin’s eyes, Mike knew Fin had fully absorbed this information, didn’t like it much but intended to be on guard not only for himself but for his family. Fin also eyed his mother on several occasions, his mouth tight, his impatience not hidden.

  Another reason Mike knew Fin wanted more from his daughter was, during these times, Fin’s eyes would drift to Reesee and his face would relax. Reesee had become his touchstone during a shit time in his life. Whatever Finley Holliday saw in Clarisse Haines, it eased him.

  And Mike couldn’t say he didn’t like that, not only his daughter’s capacity to give it but a grieving kid’s access to it.

  Things had changed yesterday at the farm for Dusty. With her Mom and Dad in town, Kirby had been moved into Fin’s room and Dusty into Kirby’s room.

  She’d also asked Mike if they could meet a
t Frank’s for lunch rather than her making sandwiches and bringing them over for him to eat in his car on the way back to work after he spent his lunch hour with her in his bed. This was, he would find, because she’d located Darrin’s will and she wanted to hand it over to him. It was also because she wanted to put her finger on his pulse about how he felt about the impending meeting with Audrey. His woman knew if she hit his backdoor, their time would be spent not talking about important shit but doing important shit.

  Truth be told, he wanted her in his bed. But he’d never in his life had a woman who looked out for him. And honest to God, suddenly having it, he didn’t know what to do with it. Vi, he knew if their relationship had progressed, would be like that and he knew it by the way Cal had slid out of avoiding life into living it, this guided by Vi’s hand. And he understood, having Dusty’s attention, concern and care, that was what he’d been looking for in Violet, what he’d been looking for all his life. And never finding.

  Having it was another story.

  Mike was used to shouldering the burden. It felt strange sharing it.

  Although strange, he could not say that strange was not good.

  He figured it wouldn’t take long to get used to it.

  He was skimming the will, looking for mentions of the land, thinking about all this shit when he heard, “Mike?”

  His eyes lifted and he saw Rocky moving across the bullpen toward his desk, her high, thin heels clicking on the floor. Mike knew Raquel well. She came to the Station often, close to her brother, close to all the cops being part of the family for two generations.

  Still, as often as he saw her, like Vi, February and, now, Dusty, he never got used to her beauty.

  She dressed well in an unintentional, sex-kitten, school marm way. Tight skirts, high heels, perfect makeup. Mike figured every boy in school had a crush on her, every girl wanted to be her when she grew up.

  “Hey Rocky,” Mike greeted, dropping the will and jerking his head to the chair beside his desk. “Have a seat.”

  She smiled and sat, dumping her purse in her lap. This action stretched her skirt across her hips, her thighs and then she crossed her legs. She had deep history with Tanner that eclipsed their recent reconciliation and marriage. They’d been together years before, it went bad and they both went their separate ways. Seeing her sitting there, her long, shapely legs crossed, her demeanor one that indicated she had no idea her affect on a man, not for the first time Mike understood why Tanner worked flat out, once she found herself free from her cheating husband, planting his ring on her finger.

  “Everything good?” she asked, head tilted slightly to the side, eyes unwavering on him.

  “Some of it phenomenal, some of it shit.”

  Her lips tipped up and she murmured a soft, “Life.”

  “Yeah.”

  She took in a breath and said, “I need to talk to you about Rees.”

  Mike felt his shoulders get tight.

  This was a surprise. He’d figured her visit was about Merry and how her brother was fucking it up, not pulling his finger out and sorting shit with his ex-wife Mia, a woman he still loved, a woman he still wanted and a woman he was fucking around with getting back. If it wasn’t Merry, he figured it was something else, something to do with his job or how he could help her with a kid at school going off the rails.

  Rees, absolutely not.

  He knew Rees was in Rocky’s class. He also knew Rees was getting straight A’s in that class. So a discussion seemed unnecessary.

  Unless it was yet something else he didn’t know about his daughter.

  “She okay?” Mike asked.

  Rocky nodded then leaned forward but did it with head bent, pulling open the bag on her lap. “The usual thing to do would be wait for a parent teacher conference but I didn’t want this to wait.”

  She pulled out a folded lengthwise, thin sheaf of papers and set it on Mike’s desk.

  “That’s an assignment,” she declared as the paper flipped open and Mike saw a large, red, circled “A+” at the top.

  Seeing the grade, puzzled, his eyes went from the paper to Rocky.

  When he caught her gaze, she shared, “I’m delaying returning these reports back to the kids for you to have some time to read that. If you could get it to Layne tomorrow, I’d appreciate it.”

  “Clue me in, Rocky,” he invited.

  “It’s exceptional, Mike,” she whispered and Mike’s gaze on her grew intense as his chest started to warm.

  “Pardon?” he asked.

  “It’s exceptional,” she repeated. “And when I say that, in all my years of teaching I have never, not once, seen anything the caliber of your daughter’s work. To say she’s advanced would be an understatement. We’re not talking a freshman doing junior or senior class work. We’re not even talking a freshman in high school is doing college-level work. I’m telling you that her report on Flowers for Algernon could be published.”

  Mike blinked and he did it slow.

  Rocky kept going. “This isn’t the first time I felt that with one of Rees’s assignments. At first, I hate to admit, I thought she was plagiarizing. This is because I’ve never seen anything like it turned in, not once, not in my career. But I checked it and she isn’t. Then I thought it was a one-time deal. But considering that assignment,” she tipped her head to the paper, “is her fourth exhibiting that level of talent, it’s not a fluke. She’s gifted and when I say that, she was already a maestro at fourteen but with each assignment, the quality becomes richer. And I wish I could say this was because of my excellent teaching skills,” she said on a grin, “but it’s not. For Rees, it’s coming naturally.”

  Mike said nothing as he processed this information, the warmth in his chest intensifying and expanding.

  Rocky filled the silence.

  “It isn’t just her writing that’s exceptional, which it is, Mike. I fall into her reports. She has a unique style that’s remarkable. It isn’t like she’s doing an assignment, answering a question. She’s building worlds around the books she’s reporting on. They move her and she has absolutely no difficulty expressing how they do. But it’s more. She absorbs meanings and subtexts from the novels they’re assigned to read with a maturity that’s astounding. She sees things I don’t see, feels them and then is able to express them in extraordinary ways.”

  Rocky’s words washed over him and Mike’s eyes dropped to the paper as he lifted a hand and touched his fingers to his daughter’s work like he’d skim them over the finest piece of crystal.

  Rocky kept speaking. “I know on a cop’s salary it wouldn’t be easy considering, uh…your ex-wife probably isn’t in the position to help but with that caliber of work, Mike, Rees Haines has no business at Brownsburg High School.”

  Mike’s eyes shot to her and she kept talking.

  “She’s that gifted. She needs to be in a school for gifted children. At the very least, she needs to go to writing camps where she can be encouraged to explore her talent, expand it. I’ve spoken to her other teachers and although she struggles with math and science, any course closely connected with the arts, she excels. It’s quiet, not showy and her other teachers and I don’t think she understands her gift, even knows she has it. In fact, we all feel that she’s phoning it in which would mean that if she actually were to make a concerted effort, exemplary work would become something else entirely and all of it good. Her gift needs to be recognized and fed, Mike. And if you like, we can set a meeting where you, she and I can talk about this and I’ll be happy to research schools and possible scholarships. But I encourage you to find a way to help your daughter recognize her talent and further find ways she can be guided to explore it.”

  “We’ll set the meeting,” Mike replied immediately. “And I’d appreciate it if you came to it with suggestions of schools which would be a good fit for Reesee.”

  Rocky’s face softened and her lips tipped up. “Excellent,” she whispered then she held his eyes and asked quietly, “You had no id
ea, did you?”

  Mike shook his head. “She asks for help on homework but usually geometry, biology. Not English Lit.”

  Rocky nodded but her head tilted to the side and she went on, “And Rees? Does she understand her gift do you think?”

  Mike shook his head again. “She has no clue.”

  Rocky smiled flat out at that and whispered, “Then this meeting will be fun.”

  Mike thought of his daughter, how, until recently with Dusty and Fin in her life, she seemed to be losing her way. He also thought of Dusty’s words on Sunday.

  Then he thought, yes, it fucking would.

  Mike smiled back.

  Rocky reached out a hand and touched the report. “You read that. Layne said he’d drop it by the school if you’d swing by his office tomorrow and give it to him. Does that work for you?”

  “Absolutely,” Mike replied.

  Rocky smiled again and stood, throwing the straps of her bag over her shoulder.

  Mike stood with her.

  “Good news is,” she started, her eyes shining, “it wouldn’t be good to pull Rees now and move her to a new school so I get to have that one, beautiful, shining moment in a teacher’s life to recognize and educate a prodigy as I get her all semester.”

  Mike studied her seeing, clearly, she got off on this shit. She loved her job but more, she truly was elated to have the chance to work with his daughter.

  That warmth in his chest grew intense.

  Mike grinned at her. “Thanks for takin’ the time to share this with me, Rocky.”

  She leaned in, eyes warm, holding his and said with feeling, “My pleasure, Mike.”

  He lifted his hand, she took it and he pulled her slightly to him. She tipped her chin back and he bent in, brushing his lips against her cheek. Her skin was soft, her hair and perfume smelled good and Mike liked that Tanner had that. Tanner was a good man. And Tanner’s ex made Audrey seem tame. A slightly nutty, easy smiling woman who smelled good, dressed good, looked great and loved her job teaching kids was so far better than the shit Tanner’s ex shoveled not only during their marriage but after it, it wasn’t funny.