He went back to studying his report. He glanced up with his pen poised over the form. “Date of birth?”
Trudy sighed and mentally turned the other cheek. The one still scraped up from her meeting with Watson.
11
Ben took down Trudy’s information and prepared to bicker pleasantly with her all the way to her job.
“Ben, I’m serious about counseling for you. I don’t think you’re reacting to people in a way that’s conducive to good interpersonal relationships. In fact, a growing body of statistical and ethnographic research suggests that many of today’s adults have been raised with a lack of caring, prosocial adult role models. They show all the symptoms of…”
“Tru-Blu, I hope you’re enjoying the sound of your own voice because I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”
Sweet little Trudy shot fiery arrows at him with her blue eyes. “What I’m trying to say is…”
“Don’t start in on all that psychobabble again, Tru. You’re giving me a headache.”
“What I’m trying to say…”
“Give plain English just one shot.” Ben sent his truck up the road toward Bella Vista Christian College, enjoying the pulse of his truck and the pretty, fuming woman beside him.
“Okay, how’s this? You’re a little old to still be a detective third grade, aren’t you?”
“That’s a low blow.” Ben glanced away from the road to glare at her. “Just because you make a fortune, doesn’t mean everybody has to.”
“It’s not a low blow. It’s an observation. Your lieutenant looks younger than you. You hung up on his boss. You yelled at ten people. Your people skills are wretched, and it’s costing you money.”
“I make plenty of money. And I’ve got the best arrest record in the precinct. If I get passed over for promotion because I don’t know how to play footsie with the brass, then fine. I’ll stay a third grade.”
Her eyes lit up, and Ben realized he should have played it cool. Instead, he’d just admitted she was right. Good grief, he’d broken under interrogation like a junky who needed a fix.
“What if Tru Intervention could make you more money?”
“That’s not the intent of your books, is it? You didn’t write them so I could cash in on them.”
“You wouldn’t be cashing in. You’d be making peace with the world. The new harmony you felt would make everything in your life easier.”
“I’ve told you, turning the other cheek doesn’t work for cops. I can’t turn the other cheek with a criminal.”
Tru seemed to swell up with indignation. Ben wished he could pull over and watch her get all cranky.
“Could you at least try it with people who aren’t shooting at you?”
If he hadn’t been enjoying her temper so much, he might have missed what she said, because he ignored her boring little speeches most of the time. Unfortunately, he’d been listening, and she’d made some sense.
Ben tapped his fist on the steering wheel and clenched his jaw. He might think her ideas were dumb, but he was honest. And he had to admit she was right. “Yeah, I suppose I could try it on people who aren’t shooting at me.”
“Why did you do that to Scott? We weren’t in that big of a hurry. Why didn’t you take three seconds with each person who asked you a question? Instead of yelling, just say, ‘I’ll get right on that as soon as I’ve taken the statement of this poor victimized woman.’”
“If I stopped every time someone bothered me, I’d never get any work done.” Ben flinched. He shouldn’t have pulled the phone out of Scott’s hand. Good grief, he’d hung up on the captain.
“Ten people. Three seconds each. ‘I’m helping this poor victimized woman.’ That’s thirty seconds of your day. You’re going to do all those reports as soon as you can, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you wouldn’t be lying. You wouldn’t be playing footsie. You’d just be speaking softly to people you already respect. It’s a bad habit to bark at them. Break it.”
“They don’t care what I act like. They’re used to me.”
“What’s the raise if you get promoted?”
Ben knew exactly how much. He’d been passed over for it often enough.
“Thirty seconds a day of more polite interaction with your colleagues could add up to thousands of dollars a year—if you’ve really got the best arrest record in the precinct.”
“I do,” Ben growled.
“Then that tiny change in your behavior might be all it would take.”
Dead silence fell over the truck. Ben relished it and wished it would last. It was his turn to have some class, though. “I hate admitting I’m wrong.”
“Everyone does.” Tru used her Soft Answer Voice, letting him off the hook, sparing his pride. It worked, too. He could feel his temper cooling. Which meant she was right, and he was wrong.
“They’ll think I’m up to something.”
“You could try honesty. You could say, ‘I’m taking a class about changing behavior patterns and it makes a lot of sense. I’m going to try and be an easier man to work with.’”
“I’d sound like such a wiener.”
Tru shook her head. “Okay, tough guy, how about you wait until someone says, ‘what’s up with you, Garrison’, and you say…” She lowered her voice an octave. “‘I’ve been bitin’ your heads off for the last fifteen years. I’m gonna knock it off.’ Is that un-weiner-ish enough for you?”
He grinned across the seat at her. She smiled back.
“Except it’s been more like eight years.”
“Oh, I thought you only served four years, then went straight into the police force.”
“I did.”
Trudy’s brow furrowed but she said nothing while she revised his age downward five years..
“Tell me what’s going on in that head.”
“Nothing much.”
Ben was good at detecting. “How old did you think I was?”
Trudy gave him the worst innocent smile he’d ever seen. “I have no idea your age. It’s never come up. What does that have to do with this?”
He wondered just how old she’d guessed he was…and why? Cynicism might be carving lines in his face. He decided he wouldn’t push it, it might hurt.
Looking at the traffic, he eased himself off the interstate toward the college. “I might try that second thing. I could pull that off—some of the time.”
“You could.” Tru had a smug smile on her face.
He had the impulse to wipe it off. A pathetic impulse, he knew. As part of the new Ben Garrison, he controlled himself. “I’ll do it. I’ll read your books again and try to put the cynicism on hold and give it a try.”
Tru rested her hand on his arm. “And I understand how the work you do could make you cynical. I know you’re a Christian, Ben. You shF ould pray about it?
Ben snorted as he pulled onto the university grounds. “Sorry. No snorting from now on, either.”
“Not even in class?”
Ben was silent for a minute. “I hate to make a promise I can’t keep. How about I just promise to do my best?”
Tru nodded as he pulled to a stop in front of her building. “And I’ll stick to my guns, and we’ll nail Watson before he hurts anybody else.”
Ben threw his truck into park and reached his hand across the seat to her. “It’s a deal.”
She smiled without a hint of a smirk this time and shook his hand. “Are you picking me up tonight?”
“Four-thirty, right?”
“I won’t step outside until you’re here.” She dropped his hand.
He wasn’t tired of hanging around her yet, so he said, “If you have methods to make a person more kind and soft spoken, what’s say we experiment with me instead of those hard-case lunatics you’re working with now?”
“Hard case lunatics?”
“I was thinking of Liz and your secretary, Ethel.”
Tru slid off his truck seat, landed, and turned around. He liked the way her ey
es glowed.
“Really? You mean it?” Ben got out and came around to face her. He didn’t mean it, not really, but he’d do anything to keep her eyes shining like that. “Sure. What are these methods, exactly?”
He’d told her he’d read her books, and he had, but hard core skimming was the only thing that had gotten him through. He waited for her to call him on it.
“Well, it’s intensive; we run shifts of counselors one-on-one, twenty-four hours a day. The counselors give constant encouragement, unconditional love and train our patients to react to situations with a soft answer. I’d stay with you as much as possible.”
“How’re you supposed to do that?” Ben didn’t look at her. “We’re both at work all day.” He couldn’t look at her when he was so mesmerized with the thought of spending twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with the lovely Tru. He resisted banging his head on the truck door to clear his mind.
Tru looked behind her at the Psycho Building as if she were contemplating resigning her job so she could save him from himself.
She looked back with a little furrow of worry between her eyes. “I usually just refer people. Dr. Pavil has a huge staff of counselors, many of them volunteers, who take shifts. They stay almost 24/7 with a new patient. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in being referred?”
“I don’t suppose I would.” Ben braced himself to give her the bad news that he was just kidding anyway. There was nothing wrong with him.
Okay, sure he was a little short tempered. Who wasn’t? He’d already decided to be more polite. Surely he wasn’t one of those amoral poverty freaks she was talking about. He was a cop for Pete’s sake. Nothing immoral about arresting bad guys for a living.
Before he could call the whole crazy thing off, she whispered, “I’m a failure you know.”
Shocked, Ben shut up before he could tell her he didn’t want her help. “No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. I write all about how to help people, and I get letters all the time from people who love me because I’ve helped them so much. But I never do anything. You’re right about me living in this safe, ivory tower, spouting theories with no idea if they work.”
“They work. I think. At least the books sell.”
Tru’s face clouded up like an approaching storm.
Ben waited for her to lightning all over him.
“They do work.” Tru’s cute little fists clenched and Ben wished her well with this temper tantrum. Bless her heart, she was still sweet, even when she was angry.
“My message is true,” she insisted. “How can a fundamental Biblical message as pure as Love Thy Neighbor not be true? Of course it’s true.”
Ben held up his hands to ward off the next crack of thunder. “Hey, you’re the one who said you’re a failure. If you’re going to keep changing sides in the argument you don’t need me. You can fight with yourself.”
Tru deflated and that worried look appeared again.
I should have let her yell. She needs the outlet. Ben decided right then he’d let her take all her repressed anger out on him for as long as she needed. It’d be his own personal counseling ministry.
He looked right in those pretty blue eyes. “Tru-Blu, you’re not a failure and your theories work. Of course, love should be the answer. But this planet is filled with imperfect people. Not everyone makes the right choice. In a way, we both have the same job.”
“We do not.” She looked horrified, and that irritated him. “Our jobs are nothing alike.”
“You try and reach people with love. I’m there when they don’t accept your help. I’m just a little farther down the curve than you are.”
“I really do…or rather…Dr. Pavil and others like him really do help people. Even people who are pretty mixed up have responded to my methods.”
“I’m sure they do. I’ve read some of your email. Not just the crazy stuff from Watson. And I’ve read the testimonies in the back of your books from people who have changed their lives. Why else would I be willing to work with you on my own dumb self?”
“You’re not dumb.” Tru’s eyes sparked with fierce anger, as if she were defending him against someone else’s insults instead of his own.
The vulnerable look faded from her eyes, so Ben teased her again, which was safer than pulling her close and hugging her for being in his corner.
“My job wouldn’t exist if everyone loved each other.” Ben tucked his hands in his pockets to keep them from getting him in real trouble. “A lot of people fall about a million miles short of loving others. So here I am, gainfully employed. Forget about thinking you’re a failure.”
“I am a failure, Ben. I believe what I write, but I also think God gave me these words because he meant for me to make a difference in the world.”
“You do make a difference.”
Tru shook her head, looking like a stubborn little mule. A cute, sweet-smelling mule, but still…
“I think God is disappointed in me. He wanted me to do more than just write the books. He wanted me to work with people.”
“You work with your students.”
“No,” Tru crossed her arms. “I mean troubled people. He gave me this ministry, and I’ve played it safe. I say all the right words, but I don’t get my hands dirty. Do you really think God planned for me to make millions of dollars on a message he sent to me? On books I’ve written using a gift from him?”
Millions? Ben gulped. “You’ve helped more people with those books, and by training counselors than you ever could have working one-on-one with people.”
Tru’s jaw clenched, and she planted her fists on her hips as she glared at him. “You know what I mean. I could do all that and still help someone.”
“Okay, you’ll help someone. Me.”
“You don’t count. You’re not crazy enough.”
Ben felt ridiculously grateful for that assessment. “Well, there’s no reason to jump in at the deep end of the pool first off. We’ll figure out how we’re going to fix me, and you’ll get some experience as a counselor. I might not be crazy, but we can both agree I’m a failure. Way more than you are.”
“We’ll do it, Ben. But it won’t be like a real counseling job for me, because you’re already terrific. It’ll just be us working together to try and fix a few little quirks that hold you back.”
“And maybe, while we’re at it, we could work on toughening you up?”
“I don’t need to toughen up.”
“Liz,” Ben said. Nothing more.
Tru shuddered with blatant fear. “Okay, we can work on a few things.”
For one shocking moment, Ben considered dragging her into his arms and giving her a good-bye kiss. He jogged around his truck to prevent that. “I’ll see you at four-thirty.”
He drove away smiling. He didn’t really intend to change much. Oh, it wouldn’t hurt him to dredge up a few rusty manners his mama had taught him as a kid. Please, thank you, stuff like that, but otherwise, he was fine.
It wouldn’t be hard to be a fixer-upper for Tru-Blu Jennings. He couldn’t wait.
12
When she got through whipping Ben Garrison into shape, she’d know that she’d done the Lord’s work. She couldn’t wait.
She was going to work on her theories in the real world. She’d finally get a chance to serve God with her hands as well as her words.
She lay awake for long hours that night rehearsing speeches and getting to the bottom of his hostile view of the world.
Then, when her mind started chasing itself in circles, with her scolding Ben then giving him a hug, then jumping away when the hug felt too nice, then scolding him some more, all while he coughed at her, she turned to the state capitals.
Alabama – Montgomery
Alaska – Juneau
Arizona – Phoenix
Arkansas – Little Rock
California – Sacramento
She also memorized a good portion of the book of James, although she found from hard experience that
she didn’t retain it well after one o’clock in the morning.
“Tru-Blu, you get down here!”
Ben was early.
She glanced at the clock.
Wrong. She was late.
She dragged her sensible, low-heeled, sling-back taupe shoe on her foot, hopping as she tried to move and finish dressing at the same time. Her eyes burned and her head felt like it was wrapped in cotton. She had to get some sleep one of these nights.
“And the next time I get here and find you in the house…”
Liz!
Liz and Ben were together, without a referee!
Trudy bolted out the door, one shoe on, one shoe off.
“I’m ready, Ben,” she sang out, trying to maintain her soft answer voice. She had a feeling she would need it this morning.
“And I’d like to know where you get off…” Liz vibrated with anger, which meant her belly fat and extra chins vibrated, too. The woman was in motion everywhere. She jabbed a stout finger under Ben’s nose. “…telling me I can’t come in here, when it should be clear to a newborn basset hound that I’ve got Tru’s permission to be here.”
Trudy stumbled slightly on the last five steps and was plunging to her death when she slammed into Ben.
Of course, he caught her, jerked her to her feet, pulled her up against him to steady her and managed to keep yelling at Liz the whole time. Finally, a man who could multi-task just when she needed him least.
“Ben, remember what we talked about last night?” Trudy wriggled out of Ben’s grasp and placed herself between the two sparring partners, facing Ben.
Ben didn’t even spare her a glance.
Liz put her hand on Trudy’s shoulder.
Yelling into Tru’s ear, she said, “Don’t you defend this arrogant, pushy…”
Ben caught Trudy’s other shoulder and held her in place. “Don’t shove your boss around like that.”
Ben looked at Trudy for the first time, which was amazing considering he’d snagged her off the steps like a pop fly. “I remember exactly what we talked about last night, Tru. We were going to toughen you up. Well, lesson one starts right now. You tell Liz here that you’re not going to put up with her rude treatment and insulting remarks anymore, and then I’ll toss her out onto that over-fertilized lawn of yours.”
Loving the Texas Lawman_A Texas Lawman Romantic Suspense Page 10