Willow (The Willow Series Book 1)

by Cheri Lewis

  “Ain’t that the truth. Speaking of apologies. What’s up with you telling the Chief to go easy on Wade?”

  I shrug. “I guess I’m changing in my old age.”

  “Pfft... Yeah, right.”

  He pulls along the curb and parks in front of my house. I quickly scan the yard and everything seems to be just as I left it last night. My house is a simple ranch style home. Three bedroom, two bath, with off-white vinyl siding and dark blue shutters on the windows. I’ve lived here for two years now and still haven’t hung a single thing on any of my walls. Not that I ever have anywhere I’ve lived but when I moved in here Brandy kept trying to get me to hang pictures or photos, make it my home. I told her it was my home, all my shits it in it. Why do I need stuff hanging on the walls to say it’s my home? I take that back. I did buy a calendar from a kid doing a fundraiser that stopped by my office. I hung it on my kitchen wall near the coffee maker so I could keep up with what day it is.

  I glance at Heath. “Hey, do you have a minute?”

  “I told you earlier I’m sleeping on your couch.”

  “Good. I got something I want to show you.”

  I get out of his truck and walk over to mine to get my keys and my cell phone where I left them before I was arrested. I decide to leave my taser in the truck. I’ll reset it and charge it later. The less Heath knows the better. I have several missed calls and texts. I scroll over them quickly to make sure there isn’t anything that needs my immediate attention and I’m relieved to see there isn’t. I get to the front door and I look back to see Heath pulling a gym bag from behind his seat. I push the door open let out a gasp then yell, “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  “What?” Heath asks and I can hear him running up behind me.

  “Joe!”

  “What’s wrong? Who’s… oh? You got a dog?” Sheer surprise can be heard in his tone about me having a dog.

  “Joe Matthews, where are you?” I shout.

  “Damn… it made a mess. Why didn’t you put it in the kennel?”

  I spin around and scowl at Heath. I look back when I hear toe nails approaching and they’re coming in fast. Joe comes sliding around the corner. Tail wagging. Happy to see me. I point to the floor at all the mess all over the floor. “What did you tear up?”

  Joe dances around excitedly at my feet. “He’s gorgeous, Willow. Where’d you get him?” Heath asks as he bends over and picks him up.

  “He’s yours now.”

  I look around the room and can’t find anything that’s missing stuffing or what he could use to make such a mess. I walk down the hallway and step over the large puddle I’m sure is puppy pee. I find a pillow case that was on a pillow on my bed with a hole chewed in one corner. How did he get the pillow off my bed? I flip the light switch on in the bedroom and there’s more stuffing. It looks like it snowed sporadically in piles all over my floor. I find pieces of shredded cloth on the floor next to my bed. I sit down on the end of the bed and take a deep breath. Why did I get a dog? Why didn’t I do what I said when I told him I wasn’t going to keep him? How can I look after a dog when I can barely look after myself? I fall back onto my bed and stare up at the ceiling fan spinning slowly. I feel the bed move then I have a dog sniffing with his wet nose and licking all over my face. I push him away and sit up. He wiggles his way into my lap looking up with his dark brown eyes pleading to be petted. “What am I going to do with you Joe?”

  Heath leans against the door frame. “You’re going to keep him because I can’t have pets and the Willow I know doesn’t give up on anything or anybody.”

  I pet Joe behind his ear and he lays his head against my chest looking into my eyes. “I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t going to get rid of you. But you can’t be doing this every time I leave the house. We’re going to have to come to an understanding.”

  “Hey, Willow?”

  I look up at Heath.

  “You look spent. You go on to bed. I’ll clean up the mess and I’ll take the couch. Wanna get some supper afterward?”

  “I’m actually starving right now but too tired to eat. The dog piss in the hallway has to be gotten up now. It’ll ruin my wood floor. But the rest can wait until after we get some sleep.”

  “What about the poop in the kitchen?”

  I glare at Joe then sigh. “I’ll clean it up. It’s my responsibility.”

  “How about you do one and I’ll do the other? Which one you want hallway or kitchen?”

  “I need to let him out and I’ll do the hallway.”

  I sit on the edge of my porch waiting for Joe to do his business as I scroll back through my text messages and emails. Mostly are clients wanting an update. Cheating spouse, insurance fraud, divorce, suspected child abuse… it’s a depressing world we live in sometimes I think to myself as I stick my phone back down in my pocket. Joe takes a large pooh in the middle of my yard and I stare at it a moment because I don’t want a large pile of crap lying in my yard. I wonder if they make diapers for puppies. “Come on, Joe.” He runs up the sidewalk is on the porch before I’m even able to stand.

  Heath opens the door. “You want a plastic bag?”

  I look back over my shoulder and see he’s changed into his sweat pants and a t-shirt. “For what?”

  “For the dog poop.”

  I frown. “What do I need a bag for? I’m not going to keep it.”

  “Now I know you need sleep. No, you use a grocery bag to pick it up and throw it in the garbage.”

  I laugh at my own stupidity and shake my head. “That’s a good idea. I was going to get the shovel out of the shed around back but a bag would be faster and easier.”

  Heath disappears into the house and comes back with a bag. “I cleaned up the hallway and kitchen. That mess out there is all yours.”

  I look up and smile at him. He’s the closest person I can call family. Growing up over the years I’d pretend to have a brother and Heath is exactly what I imagined he would be like. “Thanks.”

  After I dispose of the pooh and wash my hands twice then fall into bed with Joe right beside me.

  *****

  I open my right eye only because my left is smashed against the pillow. I can see the daylight from outside peeking around my blinds but it’s not bright so it must be late in the afternoon or early evening. My muscles ache as I begin to wiggle around. I can hear Heath in another room talking to somebody but I’m not curious enough to find out who. I roll over to my back and grab my cell phone off the nightstand. I blink then rub my eyes several times when I see the time reads six o’ two in the morning. That can’t be right. I sit up on the side of the bed. My head is pounding and my tongue is sticking to the roof of my mouth. I walk to the bathroom and down a glass of water from the sink. Turning my head side to side I examine my puffy face in the mirror. I peel the bloody bandage slowly off my leg and decide to wait to clean it or put a new bandage on it until after I get my shower, which will be in a few minutes. I use the bathroom, brush my teeth and brush through my oily messy hair before sliding on some shorts as I make my way to the living room. Heath is sprawled out on my couch with Joe in his lap. But that doesn’t last long when Joe sees me he leaps off the couch spinning round and round in excitement.

  “Sleep good?” Heath asks.

  I cross my arms over my chest. “Why’d you let me sleep so long?”

  “You were out. How long had it been since you last slept? You snored like it’d been days.”

  “I only got an hour or so last night or the night before whenever it was.” I walk over and sit on the loveseat that’s adjacent to him. “I’m starving.”

  “There’s cold pizza and wings in the fridge.”

  “You stayed all night?”

  “Yeah, I slept a while. Then me and the puppy hung out.”

  I look around the living room floor and it’s all cleaned up. “I told you I’d get it up when I got up.”

  “You got to get him a chew toy. He started pulling at the foam that was on the floor makin
g a bigger mess. Besides I didn’t mind. It was something to do. I gotta work tonight. I stayed up all night so my sleep schedule isn’t screwed up.”

  “How much longer are you on nights?”

  “Two more months.”

  I nod my head then pull the throw that’s on the back of the couch over my legs. I watch as Heath throws a ball across the floor making it bounce and Joe chases after it. “Thanks for watching after him.”

  “You going to work today?”

  “I have to. I have four cases I need to get wrapped up.”

  “Want some company?”

  “Don’t you need to sleep? Wait a minute… who are you avoiding? This isn’t like you.” It was too late. The words had already left my mouth before it registered in my brain what today’s date is and what it means to him. “I’m sorry, Heath. I wasn’t thinking. I’ve got a pounding headache and the last forty-eight hours have been pretty eventful.”

  He makes a clicking sound with his mouth and Joe runs across the room to him and he picks him up. “It’s not your fault. I’m a grown man. I should already be over it or have dealt with it by now, you know.”

  I know he doesn’t want my sympathy. He just wants to be near someone and not alone. “How old would she have been?”

  He shrugs like it doesn’t matter but I know it does. “Twenty-five, Twenty-six… somewhere around there.”

  Not much can make me cry on the drop of hat but just imaging what he went through before he was placed in foster care crushes me. I was taken by the courts system when I was six and had been living with the Simmon’s for a few weeks when Heath arrived. I don’t remember a whole lot but I remember he used to cry all the time when he first got there. Over the years Heath and I would be together for a while then I’d go somewhere or he would. Then a few months or a year would pass and we’d end up together again at the same foster house. Sometimes we’d be at different foster homes but at the same school. Heath and I really lucked out when we got into a long term home together at Mrs. Maybelle’s. We managed to finish the last few years of high school together before the state turned us loose. I’m not sure why she started caring for foster kids but she was the best one I ever had.

  I yawn and pull the blanket up over my arms. “Well, today is your lucky day. Do you want to try to catch a cheating spouse, insurance fraud, help someone’s divorce?”

  “Insurance fraud sounds like it could be interesting.”

  I lean forward on the couch to stand. “Insurance fraud it is. I’m going to get a shower then we’re going somewhere to eat a huge breakfast.”

  *****

  I let out a loud burp. Heath looks at me with disgust and rolls the driver’s side window down on his truck. He waves the file I just handed him on the insurance fraud case, fanning the air. “Why in the hell any man finds you attractive I have no idea.” I let out another little burp and blow it at him. “You’re a pig,” he adds.

  I smile then movement up the street catches my eye. “Hey, there’s our guy.”

  I pull out my camera and turn it on. I zoom the lens way out and take a few test shots making sure the pictures are clear.

  “What are we checking for?”

  “It says he fell and hurt his back and right arm.”

  He opens the file. “What was he doing?”

  “Read the file.”

  “Welp, he’s lying.”

  My brows furrow. “How do you know?”

  “It also says he hurt his groin and he’s clearly not in pain.”

  I roll my eyes. “You men and your dicks…that was weeks ago. He’s saying his elbow and back are still too messed up for him to return to work.”

  I snap pictures of him using his right arm to pull himself up into his SUV. Heath cranks his truck and we follow him to the parking lot of a strip mall. We wait while the man fishes around in his trunk and pulls out a duffle bag.

  “He can’t be this stupid,” Heath says in surprise.

  “You wouldn’t believe how stupid people can be.” He cuts his eyes to me. “Well, I guess you would know…” We watch as the man makes his way into the gym. I snap a quick picture of him using his right arm to pull the door open and enter the building. I turn my camera off put it back in its case then pull the black duffle bag shoved at my feet up into my lap. “You want to go in a take a tour of the gym with me?”

  “I ain’t sitting in the truck while you have all the fun.”

  I pull out a small leather purse embellished in faux gems and shiny metal. Heath lets out a laugh because I don’t carry purses especially a cutesy purse. I roll my eyes and pull out the small compact recorder turning it out and making sure I have a memory card in the slot. I do a test recording and watch it play back on the small screen to verify it’s working. I slide it into place and secure it then look at Heath while reaching for my door handle. “You ready?”

  When we enter the gym Heath and I both scan the area looking for our person of interest. Randy an overly peppy employee is more than happy to show us around the gym while trying to sell us on everything from tanning, the juice bar, to our own personal trainers. Heath bumps my elbow and nods his head toward the elliptical machines. There our guy is going wide open pumping his arms and his legs at full force. I make sure to get a solid thirty seconds of the man exercising by asking question about the machines. I know our guide thinks I’m the biggest idiot on the planet with the questions I’m asking. But I had to make him stop speed walking long enough to get what I needed.

  We have to sit through a twenty minute presentation as to why we really want to join their gym. They’d even waive the hundred dollar paperwork fee if we sign up today. “It’s such a great deal,” Randy assures us. As we’re standing to leave, our peppy tour guide is now disappointed that we won’t be signing today and I decide to do one more pass through. There’s no such thing as having too much evidence in my line of work.

  “May I use your restroom?”

  “Sure, do you remember where it is?”

  The sign at the back of the building that reads restroom is a dead giveaway I would think. I nod politely and leave Heath to further his conversation about why joining will be so beneficial. I scan the machines once again and find my fraud committer standing in front of the mirror bringing a heavy dumbbell from his side to his chest. I bend and pretend to tie my shoe to make sure I get him using his right arm multiple times. After I use the restroom I come out and look for Heath and don’t see him. He must have had enough because he isn’t in the building anymore.

  I thank Randy again for the tour and walk out the front door. The sun is shining bright and right into my eyes. I squint and see Heath leaned up against the tailgate of his truck talking to someone. I force my face to remain indifferent when I see it’s wannabe Roscoe that he’s speaking to. I also pretend I don’t see him or notice the Texas longhorns muscle shirt accentuating his well-toned arms I already knew he had. I also don’t notice his gym shorts hanging around his trim waist or his well-defined calf muscles. Nope, I don’t see any of that. When assholes start look appealing, it’s time to knock the edge off.

  I walk to the passenger side of Heath’s truck and open the door using the seat to set my purse on so I can turn off the recorder.

  I nearly jump out of my skin which is isn’t a common sensation for me when a voice too close for comfort states slowly, “I think you and I got off on the wrong foot.”

  I finish what I’m doing then slide my phone out of my pocket completely ignoring him. I scroll past my normal go to person for a fling. We’re on the outs and I’m not ready to go there yet. I get to the number I’m looking for and hit dial placing the phone against my ear. It only rings once.

  “ ‘ello.”

  “Hey Riley, it’s me, Willow.”

  “Yes ma’am. What can I do for you?”

  “You busy tonight?”

  I hear the squeak of his chair when he sits up. “Like a date?” he asks completely surprised.

  “Yes, a date. Jimmy’s,
say around eight thirty?”

  “Yes…Yeah…Sounds good…I’ll be there then… and thanks… I mean… okay. I’ll see you then.”

  I hang up the phone and take a big breath as I stick it into my pocket.

  I turn around and almost yelp as I see Wade’s still standing there with his arms crossed. He doesn’t seem upset but he does seem curious. “Riley from my station?”

  I shrug and lean forward to talk to Heath who’s still standing at the rear of the truck watching us. “I’m ready when you are.”

  I scoot into the seat and reach out to shut the door. Wade’s hand stops it. “You don’t have to speak to me. That’s fine, but I came to apologize for the handcuffs. I shouldn’t have used them on you.”

  I shrug again and look up finally looking him in this dark chocolate eyes. “It’s all good.”

  His eat-shit smile tells me he doesn’t believe me and he shakes his head. “You have a nice day, Willow.”

  I pull on the door and he releases it. I stare out the windshield while I wait for Heath. When he finally does get in he looks at me and says, “Riley? Seriously?”

  “Hey, you have Stacey. I guess I have Riley.”

  “You get all you need to close the case?”

  “Yep. Case closed.”

  “That was really boring.”

  “That’s how it is ninety percent of the time. I need to go get Joe then go to the office. You coming with me?”

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind though I need to get a few hours of sleep.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  I walk into Jimmy’s bar a little before eight and find a seat at the bar. Country music is thumping over the loud speakers. I nod at Tony, the bartender, as he walks up to the counter. “Whatcha drinking tonight?”

  “Straight tequila.”

  He reaches for a shot glass and pours the liquid poison that makes me immune to everything. I down the shot in one gulp. It burns deep in my chest but it’s exactly what I need. I turn my back to the bar and watch as people laugh, dance and talk loudly over the music. I feel my body relax and I know the liquor is doing its job. I glance at the clock on the wall in the corner by the three pool tables and it’s almost eight-thirty so I motion the bartender for another drink.