Falling for the P.I.

by Victoria James

  Chapter Six

  Kate fumbled around in her purse, searching for her phone as it vibrated somewhere in that black hole. She was standing in line with the girls and Alex and Cara, waiting their turn for the carousel ride. It was the first county fair any of them had ever attended. They’d found out after living in Still Harbor for a year that the fair was a huge deal. It ran for almost an entire week, and there were horse shows, livestock competitions, contests, food exhibits, and an amusement park. They had promised the girls that they’d attend. It was a gorgeous autumn day, warm with a light breeze. They were going on hour number four and had promised one more ride before they went home.

  She glanced down at the display on her phone: so, do I need to volunteer more of my services in order to see you again?

  Matt. She tried not to smile, or look as though a giant tremor ran through her. Cara and Alex were stealth at deciphering if something remotely interesting was happening with her. He had called her a few days after their dinner and she wasn’t so petty that she couldn’t admit she was thrilled he’d called her. She told herself she could be thrilled, but she didn’t need to act on that feeling. So she hadn’t called him back. That was rude, and chicken of her.

  And if she were being totally honest with herself, which she sometimes avoided, he had gotten close, closer to her and Janie than any other guy had. Despite being royally pissed that he’d interfered at the restaurant, she had also been touched. No guy had ever gone to bat for her, regardless of whether or not he’d been right, and that in and of itself brought forth another problem. Had Matt been right? Was she just chicken? Was she the same little girl who had been silenced? Should she have been the one to get up, fearless, and confront those people?

  She stared down at the lit screen, and bit her lower lip wondering if she should answer. Of course you should. Answer. He’s a good guy. He’s a hot guy. Answer.

  She quickly typed a reply. No, but you might have to get me more poutine.

  Omigod, she’d broken out into a sweat just typing that. It was because her sisters were staring at her. That was why. Alex tried to snatch her phone. Another gu-glink sounded, and Kate stared at her screen, turning her back.

  Consider it done. Where are you?

  Hmm. That sounds kind of stalkerish.

  No. If I were a stalker, I would have said, great, I’m watching you right now from the bushes.

  She laughed out loud.

  “Omigod, you’re sexting,” Alex whispered in her ear.

  Kate glared at her and held the phone to her chest.

  “Come on, we’re almost next,” Cassandra said, pushing them up the line like they were a herd of cattle. Sure enough, they would make it on the next carousel stop.

  “I’m not. I just need to answer this. It’s for work.”

  Alex scoffed. “I’ve seen the teachers you work with. I know it wouldn’t create that blushing and frenzied typing.”

  Kate ignored her. She needed to get this text out before the carousel. I’m at the county fair.

  Great. I love fairs.

  Liar.

  Sort of. Never been to one.

  She wasn’t going to laugh out loud again.

  Yup. And rides. I’m about to go on a carousel right now.

  How bout I meet up with you? One hour?

  Kate chewed her lower lip.

  “Say yes,” Cara whispered, reading over her shoulder. Kate frowned and looked down at Cara’s boots. “I should have worn heels, then you wouldn’t be able to read over my shoulder.”

  Alex nudged her. “Seriously. Do it. Say yes…” She looked at the girls. “We’ll take the girls home after—or to that cattle show over there—and you two can have time alone. Besides, you will never again score another man as hot as…Zibbits.”

  Kate shot her a dirty look, and then typed. Okay. Five o’clock. I’ll meet you at the Ferris Wheel.

  See you, TG.

  TG. Tough girl. She was not internally smiling at the nickname.

  “Who’s TG?”

  She glared at Alex. “Omigod, when did you become such a spy?”

  A rapid tugging on her T-shirt reminded her they weren’t in high school discussing boys and dates, not that that had ever been their lives, but at the moment that’s what it felt like. She looked down to see Janie staring up at her anxiously.

  “It’s our turn,” Janie said, pointing at the teenager who was motioning for them to get on.

  “You’re right, let’s go,” Kate said, taking her hand, glad to have an excuse to collect her thoughts. The girls all decided they needed to ride on black horses, so after much walking around the retro carousel, they were each in different areas. She helped Janie onto the horse, smiling as her daughter squealed, even though the ride hadn’t started yet. She gave her a kiss and stood to one side of the horse, holding onto Janie’s waist. The ride started with a gentle jostle and soon they were turning, the amusement park passing before them, the wind gently lifting their hair, the music dancing around them until all Kate could do was enjoy this moment. It was moments like this that made her so thankful for everything. She squeezed Janie’s waist gently and kissed the top of her head, inhaling the sweet smell of her strawberry shampoo.

  She would be meeting Matt in less than an hour. Matt. She hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind all week. She glanced down at her clothes and closed her eyes briefly. Not exactly Tough Girl clothes today. No, today she was wearing sneakers with neon pink laces, worn jeans, and a pink T-shirt with a pink sweatshirt tied around her waist. Of course, she was wearing this candy-colored ensemble because Janie had begged her to wear the same colors she was wearing. Hm. Alex was dressed all in black. Maybe she should ask her to swap clothes. Black would be a better image, but that would mean infinite amounts of teasing. And her hair. She was wearing an SHH baseball cap. Well, whatever. The man was coming to a county fair. It was casual.

  How good could he possibly look?

  Hot.

  Good God, Mr. Zibbits looked delectably scruffy, leaning against the wire fence. He was wearing jeans that were worn in all the right places, a T-shirt with the University of Toronto logo, and sunglasses. The shirt was tight around his chest and biceps, but loose over his stomach. And he was currently smiling. It was a smile that could stop traffic.

  “You are indebted to us forever,” Alex whispered as all six of them walked over to the man, like some messed-up, all-female version of the Brady Bunch. “We gave up that man for you. Just handed him to you on a platter, while we were forced to scarf down mounds of fried food and watch.”

  Kate couldn’t reply without risking Matt hearing, but she agreed completely. She owed them.

  “Look, Auntie Kate, your friend is here!”

  Matt walked over to them, and she tried not to stare at his slight limp. So she hadn’t imagined it the other night. She quickly went over to say hi, noting how awkward it felt since…they weren’t really anything. They were friends who kissed each other at the end of their visits.

  “Hi, ladies,” Matt said with a warm smile.

  And then they were all blabbering about a mile a minute, engaging him as they told him about the fair. She and Janie stood together. She knew Janie would have a hard time keeping up with the rapid pace of the chatter, plus all the noisy distractions around them.

  “So we’ll get going,” Cara said. “And Janie, why don’t you come back with us, honey?”

  “I was thinking we could hang out with Janie for a while,” Matt said.

  Kate was surprised and didn’t know what to do. She looked from the sincerity in Matt’s blue eyes down to her daughter. Janie was smiling up at him as though she liked the idea.

  “Why don’t we do this? We’ll hang out and get something to eat and then meet back here in an hour and take Janie home. That’ll give you guys time to check out the fair and then have time,” Cara’s eyes shot between her and Matt, “for just the two of you.”

  What was wrong with her? Kate was a take-charge woman. So
why was she letting everyone make all these plans for her? Because Matt had floored her. He could have easily agreed to Janie going home right away. Instead, he’d made the obvious attempt to get to know her even more. That went a hell of a long way.

  “That sounds great,” Kate finally said. “We’ll meet you back here in an hour.”

  “See you, ladies,” Matt said, grabbing her hand. Janie was already holding her other hand and the three of them made their way across the field and back toward the entertainment section.

  “So this is a county fair. Never been to one of these things.”

  “Neither have we, but it’s fun. The girls had a great time,” she said, squeezing Janie’s hand.

  “What was your favorite thing today, Janie?” Matt asked, looking over at her. Janie looked up at him and then pointed to the booth with giant stuffed animals dangling off the side.

  “I like unicorns.”

  “Janie is kind of obsessed with unicorns and we blew almost twenty dollars trying to win one.”

  “I’ll win one.”

  “But it’s impossible to win. They are rigged so people keep spending money.”

  They approached the counter and Matt slapped down a twenty-dollar bill. Toy rifles were lined up and only a few were taken by other patrons. Janie started jumping up and down. Kate shook her head. This was going to be trouble, maybe even a full-blown meltdown. The poor girl was going to be disappointed for the second time today.

  Matt positioned himself behind the rifle and Kate refused to acknowledge the incredible display of flexing muscle as he aimed. Fired. Bull’s-eye. Once, twice, and three times.

  “Omigod,” Kate said as he straightened up, and gave her an incredible smile.

  The teenager must have been shocked too, because he was scrambling with words when he came over, gave Matt his change and told him to pick whatever animal he wanted.

  Matt kneeled down to look at Janie in the eye. “You pick, sweetheart.”

  “The pink unicorn,” she said.

  “Pink unicorn please,” Matt said, straightening up. Kate looked down at Janie and refused to get all emotional, but the look in her daughter’s eyes as the giant stuffed pink unicorn, with the furry white horn, was handed to her would be imprinted in her mind forever. The unicorn was almost bigger than Janie and, when she hugged it with enough force, she almost toppled over.

  “What do you say, Janie?” Kate asked, swallowing the lump in her throat.

  Janie moved the unicorn in order to look at Matt. “Thank you, Mr. Zibbits.”

  Kate coughed and placed her hands on Janie’s mouth for a moment. “No, this isn’t Mr. Zibbits, honey.”

  Matt gave her a pointed look. “Speaking of Zibbits, I’m going to ask you about him later.” He reached out and tussled the top of Janie’s head. “You’re welcome. Now how about we get some food?”

  Janie nodded and Kate forced herself to put aside the feelings that were running rampant through her body. She needed to process them in private. She needed to analyze him when he wasn’t around flashing grins, and spewing “sweethearts” from his mouth.

  “How did you manage that?” Kate asked as they began walking toward the food stands.

  “I’ve had a bit of experience. Before I quit the force.”

  The police force. Right. Well, she was a grown-up and she knew she couldn’t live in the past where everything was black and white. Just because she had been let down by an organization that was supposed to protect her, didn’t mean all cops were the same. She felt he was one of the good guys.

  Janie abruptly stopped walking.

  “I want to go do that contest,” Janie said, tugging on Kate’s hand. They looked over at where she was pointing. Kate frowned as she stared at the three-legged race contest. It was another one of those moments where she struggled between wanting to let Janie do anything and wanting to keep her safe. She didn’t want to limit her—she wanted her daughter to grow up believing she could do anything—but this was beyond her. That wasn’t being pessimistic, just realistic.

  “Well, we were planning on getting some food now, Janie. Matt already got you the unicorn. Why don’t we take a break from all that stuff?” She held her breath, hoping Janie would go for her explanation.

  Matt read the sign out loud. “It says kids can choose a partner, the only requirement is that it’s fair play, open to all ages.”

  Janie started walking ahead of them. “I don’t know,” Kate whispered as they followed behind Janie. “She’s usually not this extroverted.”

  “Looks fairly tame. We’re right here, we’ll watch her.”

  “If only Cassy and Beth were still here. One of them could’ve partnered with you, sweetie,” she said, leaning down beside Janie. They were in the crowd full of people getting ready.

  “I want to,” Janie said.

  Kate nodded after a minute. She was going to have to learn not to be so over-protective.

  “I’ll sign her up, you help her get ready,” Matt said, already walking over to the registration table.

  Janie had no fear and walked right into the crowd of children. Kate stood a little off to the side, close enough that she could hear what was happening, but far enough that Janie had her independence. She crossed her arms and watched as the children one by one began pairing off. One of the event coordinators, a young woman, addressed the crowd of children. “Okay kids, the race is about to start, so find your partner and then come up to the starting line where we’ll help you into the burlap sack.”

  Panic stomped on any ounce of excitement Kate had when the last two girls were Janie and another little girl who looked around her age. Matt joined Kate, but she couldn’t even look over at him, her eyes were glued on the two kids.

  “What’s up?”

  “She’s going to reject her, Matt. I’m going to go over and pull—”

  He grabbed her hand in his and squeezed. “You don’t know that,” he whispered.

  She nodded and it literally felt like her heart crumpled into a thousand pieces as the little girl backed away from Janie and went to stand with her parents, who did nothing to stop her. She heard Matt swear under his breath, and before she knew what was happening, before Janie could figure out what had just happened, he was by Janie’s side. He kneeled down, said something to her. She nodded vigorously and held his hand. To the starting line. What was he doing?

  She watched as he spoke to the coordinator, watched as the young woman fell to his killer smile and then melted in front of him, handing him some rope and a sack. He was going to do the race with Janie. He spoke to Janie, and she nodded, her tongue protruding slightly as she listened, her eyes focused on the course in front of them. They leaned down a little. Kate smiled as Janie tried to copy Matt’s position. Kate held her breath and waited, watching. She didn’t miss the look Matt shot the dad of the little girl who’d walked away from Janie.

  The starting flag was raised and everyone was off.

  The crowd cheered and everyone was yelling their kids’ names as they made their way across the course. Kate was jumping up and down, and Matt and Janie were neck and neck with two boys. She could tell that Janie was leaning heavily on Matt, and one of her arms was clutching his leg, but he just grabbed on to her, his eyes on the finish line.

  Kate let out a scream she had no idea she was capable of and threw her hands in the air as they broke through the yellow ribbon at the finish line.

  Matt swooped Janie up in his arms and hugged her tightly. Emotion washed through Kate, pummeled over her in waves that held her down for a moment, making her feel as though she were drowning. She knew in that moment, watching him with her daughter—laughing, hugging her—that she felt something profound for this man. He hadn’t let her daughter feel the biting sting of rejection. Twice. He’d defended them without thinking, while she’d stood on the sidelines, doing nothing.

  He’d taken over, changed the situation. He’d defended Janie when everyone else had rejected her. Kate had spent her enti
re childhood waiting for someone to do the right thing, to help her mother, her sister. There was a time, before Derek, when she had believed in fairy tales and happy endings, believed that right would always win, that someone would save them, someone would believe her. And no one had. She had spent her entire adolescence avoiding people, relying on herself, trusting no one. She had given up on the idea that there were men with inherent decency in them. Until now.

  Janie and Matt were walking toward her. Kate opened her arms and Janie came flying into her, almost knocking her down. “We won!” she screamed, holding out her ribbon. Kate squeezed her eyes shut, holding Janie, letting all the hope that had evaporated over time to trickle back in. Kate gave her not nearly as many kisses as she wanted before Janie was standing up with Matt again. He’d obviously won her daughter’s heart as well.

  She noticed with a small pang that his limp was back and he was favoring his other leg, probably because of hauling Janie along during the race, but he didn’t say a thing.

  “Okay, I think we need to eat.”

  “Yeah, Matt and I are hungry,” Janie said, beaming up at him, as though he’d just given her everything she’d ever wanted.

  Five minutes later they stopped in front of a food truck that was advertising the best poutine around. “Are you game?” he asked, tilting his head in the direction of the grease pit.

  She smiled at him. “Definitely.” She looked down at Janie. “Do you want fries, sweetie?”

  Janie nodded. “Ketchup.”

  “Of course. Everyone needs ketchup,” Matt said, walking up to order.

  “Wait, I’m paying,” Kate yelled, a little too loudly.

  Matt looked around. “Nope, my treat.”

  “You already treated us.”

  “More treats.”

  She bumped her hip against his, trying to shove him, but the man was solid.

  “Did you just hip bump me in an attempt to pay?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh.