“So you started your affair to have a child?”
“No . . . yes, I don’t know.” Her tears increased, and large black smudges of mascara blotted the top of her cheeks.
“Which is it?”
“I wanted a baby. Only it didn’t happen.”
“So you went looking for another man?” Jo fisted her hands, thinking her father had been played.
“After your mother passed, Joseph would come around once in a while, asking what a woman would do in regards to raising you.” Caroline rubbed her palms against her pants. “Your father was a good man.”
“I get it. So you had an affair.”
Caroline stared at the ground.
“How long did it last?”
“About a year.”
Jo’s heart slammed hard in her chest. The thought of her father sleeping with a married woman for a year made her sick.
“You got pregnant?”
She agreed with a single nod.
“Did my dad know?”
“He figured it out . . . later. I didn’t tell Karl.”
“So who broke it off, you or my dad?”
Caroline wove her fingers together, nerves at the surface of her movements. “When Karl told him he was going to be a father, your dad said we were over.”
Well, at least Jo had to give him that. “Where did Stan come back in?”
Caroline was silent.
“We’ll get the answers from him,” Gill said.
“Stan has always been around. He wanted more than I was willing to give him. When he divorced Helen, he assumed I would leave Karl.”
“But you didn’t,” Gill stated.
“Stan started acting strange right after his divorce was filed. Kept saying he had given up everything for me, and I still wasn’t happy. I assumed he meant his divorce, but then he said a few things that made me wonder if there was more to his statement.”
Jo and Gill silently stared at each other.
Gill took that moment to sit down. Jo kept her back to the door, her good arm cradling the one in the sling.
“Like what things?”
“He said Karl was behind the dog killing.”
“A lot of people thought that.”
Caroline tilted her head to the side. “He isn’t. And Stan was over the day Drew found the . . .” She swallowed hard.
“So you figured Stan was behind the animals.”
“Yes.”
“Did that scare you?”
The tears in her eyes started to spill harder. “Yes. He told me Karl wanted your job and was willing to do anything to get it.”
“Is that true?”
“No. Would Karl like to be the sheriff? Yes, but not at your expense.”
“Caroline.” Jo caught the woman’s attention. “What do you remember about the night my father died?”
Fear replaced Caroline’s tears. “I was at home, Karl was on duty since your dad was up at the cabin. Stan wanted to come to see me, but I didn’t want to take the risk. We argued.”
“What did you argue about?”
“The usual. We should both file for a divorce, I could move in with him in Waterville.”
“But you didn’t want that.”
“No. I didn’t want to live in Waterville, I like River Bend. I didn’t want to move Drew away from his friends. I know it’s hard to believe, but I love Karl. I never wanted any of this to happen.”
Jo kept her disgust toward the woman to herself.
“So you and Stan argued. What then?”
“He said he would arrange it so that he would move to River Bend.”
Jo narrowed her eyes at Caroline. “And isn’t that exactly what he did once my father was murdered?”
Caroline winced. “Stan commuted, would stay at the hotel outside of town once in a while.”
“And since he and Karl were working opposite shifts, Stan was able to spend more time with you.”
Silence.
It took everything in Jo to keep from saying what she truly wanted to say. “Someone shot me today. Was it you?”
“No.” Caroline shot her eyes toward Jo.
“Was it Karl?”
“No, he wouldn’t.”
“Was it Stan?” Jo asked.
“I don’t know.”
She did know, she just couldn’t admit it, even to herself.
“One more question, Caroline.” Jo leaned forward.
Caroline bit her bottom lip.
“Did Stan kill my father?”
The woman JoAnne had known most of her life, the mother of her half-brother, brought her hand to her mouth and cried.
“Why now? Why, after all these years, has Stan made me his target?”
“I don’t know! He’d tell me that if all the obstacles were gone, we’d be happy together. Karl has come home every night stressed, angry . . . everyone was turning against him. The last time that had happened was right after your dad died. When you came back in town and the election made you sheriff, Stan all but disappeared. Then after a year he was back, flirting, asking me to meet him. It wasn’t often, just once in a while.”
Like Jo cared.
“Next thing I know he was getting divorced and making me choose.”
“Why go after me? Why not go after Karl?”
Caroline’s back straightened, her lips pushed together. “Karl’s a good, honorable man.”
“A man you’ve cheated on for years.”
Caroline swallowed hard.
Gill moved between them, blocking Jo’s eye contact.
“It looks to me as if Stan has been framing Karl from the start . . . JoAnne’s father’s death, the attempts on Jo’s life. Even all the animals.”
Caroline nodded.
“If Stan discredits Karl, maybe Karl doesn’t hold the same ‘honorable’ mention in your head.”
Caroline stared, mouth open.
“Maybe Karl is deemed the bad guy in all of his, the man responsible for killing the father of his illegitimate son, and maybe then taking the life of the woman who took the job he should have had.”
Horror reached Caroline’s eyes.
“And maybe then all those obstacles are gone, and you’d have nowhere else to go but into his arms.”
Gill stopped watching Caroline and stared at Jo.
While her heart tore open, some of it healed.
At least now she knew.
Jo stumbled outside the room, leaving Gill and Caroline. Jo met Drew’s gaze.
She attempted a grin. If there was a silver lining to any of this, it was the fact she had a brother.
Karl stood at Drew’s side. The sight of the two of them together twisted her gut.
Drew said something to his dad, and Karl offered a half smile to Jo before nodding in her direction.
“Hey.” Jo sat on a waiting room couch, patted the seat beside her.
Drew, still wearing the uniform for the day’s track meet and the scent of a kid who had been running most of the day, sat beside her. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m fine, Drew. Pissed off about Stan, but . . .”
Drew huffed. “We’re all ticked off at him.”
“There are some things you need to know,” she said.
“My mom’s been messing with him.” Drew’s words cut her off.
“I know.”
“Is my mom in trouble?”
“We have a lot of questions for her.”
Drew bit his bottom lip. “Is what he said about your dad true?”
Jo covered her hand with his. “Yes.”
Drew sucked in three rapid breaths. “Does that mean . . . ?” His question hung in the air.
Jo found Karl watching them, humility on his face.
She squeezed his hand. “You still have a father, Drew. But . . .”
He turned and looked at her.
“You’ve gained a sister.”
Moisture filled his eyes.
Damn hers for doing the same thing.
> “I like that,” he said.
She needed a bigger smile on Drew’s face. The adrenaline of the day was starting to dump out of her system, and she guessed it was doing the same in his. “Just means I get more than chocolate at Christmas.”
He found his grin. The sneaky-ass one she saw many times in her own mirror. “Means I get to call you JoAnne.”
Her smile dropped. “No one calls me JoAnne.”
Drew did one of those faces kids do to pretend he was contemplating her suggestion. “Well, as I see it, you can’t fail me in track . . . you can’t take away my diploma . . . and Christmas is months away, JoAnne.”
She swallowed hard. “I see how this is going to be.”
“No, you don’t. You might be many things before I was . . . but we became family at the exact same time.” He squeezed her hand back. “We’re going to learn this together.”
Damn kid was going to make her cry.
“Dork.”
Drew pulled her into a quick hug before moving back to his father.
Epilogue
Caroline stayed through Drew’s graduation before packing her belongings and leaving River Bend. The investigation didn’t find her guilty of anything other than infidelity. The town gossip spread like a case of the flu, especially when it came to light that Joseph Ward . . . trusted sheriff of River Bend . . . was just as guilty as Caroline for their transgressions.
Standing beside Drew and her deputy, Karl, Gill held Jo’s hand during the graduation ceremonies of River Bend High.
They were a strange family, one born of lies and deceit. But Jo was happy for it.
Jo had a brother. While she never thought she was missing something in her life, she realized when he became more than just another kid on the field, another attitude-filled teen, she missed a whole lot.
Gill insisted on staying with her the week that followed.
Mel and Zoe moved into the role of reunion alumni committee without having any connection with the class that had graduated three years after them.
The six of them stood around the bar, listening to Principal Mason score free drinks off the graduating class of ten years before. With little to entertain the small town, many showed up regardless of the fact that several of them had graduated more than twenty years before.
“Can you believe this? Thirteen years since we left this school,” Zoe said as she leaned on Luke’s arm.
“I don’t feel like I’ve ever left, and this isn’t where I grew up,” Wyatt said, laughing.
“So, Zoe,” Jo said. “What are you going to do with the family home?” Zoe’s siblings had been paid for their portion, her mother was still serving time, and her father was dead. But the house that had haunted Jo’s BFF still stood.
“Felix had a great idea,” she told them. Felix was her longtime director and friend.
“Oh?”
“Yeah . . . we’re gonna blow it up.”
Jo paused. Gill squeezed her hand.
“Blow it up?” Gill asked.
“Kitchen disasters. You know. The typical ‘I blew up my kitchen cooking a turkey’ episode.”
Mel frowned. “No one blows up a kitchen cooking a turkey.”
Wyatt nudged her.
“I didn’t blow up anything. That stove was defective!”
They all laughed.
The music slowed, and Luke pulled Zoe onto the dance floor.
Mel and Wyatt followed.
“Wanna dance?” Gill asked.
Jo put the drink in her hand down and shook her head. “No. Dancing isn’t what I want to do.”
Gill raised an eyebrow and grinned.
Two hours later, as they rolled over on the bed long after they’d exercised every possible muscle either of them owned, Jo snuggled into the crook of Gill’s arm.
“I’ve been thinking,” Gill said.
“Sounds like trouble.”
He laughed. “There’s a promotion available for me with the bureau.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“It is. I wouldn’t have to leave Eugene.”
She didn’t even realize she’d been holding her breath. “Are you taking it?”
“I’m thinking about it. Which means that Shauna will need a new partner.”
Jo shifted her weight, damn shoulder still ached, even though the sling had been off for less than a week. “Sucks for her.”
He paused. “Unless it’s you.”
Jo lay perfectly still. “Me?”
“Well, I mean . . . you’d have to apply, pass the agility, which you’d ace. You might be eligible with your years of experience as a sheriff, and if not, a few classes to get your degree can work.”
Jo leaned up on an elbow. “You think I need to go back to school?”
“If the agent thing interests you.”
Her heartbeat pulsed in her head. “I don’t think I ever thought about it.”
“You have some time. I wouldn’t take the promotion until after the first of the year.”
“You think they’d hire me?”
Gill tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They’d be fools not to.”
Could she? Was she capable? “The FBI,” she whispered.
“Something to think about.”
Jo looked around the room. Her father’s room, albeit a different color with different furniture.
“You’ve made things right here in River Bend, JoAnne. Maybe it’s time for you to make things right for you.”
She was smiling as she slipped back into the crook of his arm. “I’d have to live in Eugene.”
“Yeah. But I have that part covered,” he told her.
“How’s that?”
“You’d live with me.”
They already bunked up whenever they were in the same town.
“Live with you?”
“Of course. Where else would you live?” The foregone conclusion laced the tone in his voice.
“My own place . . . an apartment?”
It was Gill’s turn to pull away and make sure she saw his eyes. “Why?”
“I don’t know—”
“No. You live with me. You’ve burned through three lives since we met. I don’t trust you on your own.”
“Don’t trust me?”
“Nope. Sorry. So you move in with me. We can visit here on the weekends—”
“Whoa, back up. I have a life here.”
“No. You’ve been living here. Your life is with me.”
“My life has been in River Bend.”
He hesitated. “I’d make a really bad deputy sheriff.”
The thought of him in her uniform made her laugh.
“See.”
“You would suck.”
“But you.” He kissed her nose. “You’d make a stellar agent.”
Jo placed a fist on his chest, rested her chin on it. “Stellar, huh?”
“You kicked ass at Quantico.”
“All my friends are here, Miss Gina . . .”
“And you’ll only be two hours away and you’d visit often.”
She sighed, already halfway making up her mind. She’d never had the option before. “I’ll consider it.”
His smile was a slow, easy grin. “So . . . shack up, get married?”
Jo narrowed her eyes. “Was that a proposal?”
He rolled his eyes. Which Jo wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him do before. “It’s a conversation before a proposal. It isn’t like we’ve been outside of a hospital long enough to know that’s what we want.”
“True.”
His hand lingered on the skin of her naked back as they spoke. “I like the idea of getting married,” he told her as if he had just figured that out. “My parents did it the other way, but I don’t know . . . maybe—”
“Wait, wait . . . your parents aren’t married?”
Gill shook his head. “God, no. Hippies to the core. Miss Gina would love them.”
“And that worked?”
“Worked f
or . . .” Gill looked at the ceiling for the answer. “Going on thirty-six years now.”
Jo blew out a breath.
“As far as I see it, when two people love each other, a piece of paper is just that. But if you want it, I get it.”
“I don’t think that was a proposal either.” She was teasing him, and his words of love hadn’t escaped her.
“So you’re a proposal girl . . .” He winked. “Got it.”
“Well, I want a ring at least.”
“Duh. I can’t have men hitting on you,” he said.
“Oh, they’re gonna hit on me.”
He frowned. “Good thing I’m a big man.” His hand moved over the curve of her ass and squeezed.
“You know I love you,” she told him for the first time.
“I know. And I, my sexy sheriff, love you. But you know that, too.”
She crawled up his chest, intending to make sure he knew just how deep her affection was, when the sound of something soft hit the side of the house.
They both stiffened.
Jo relaxed first.
“I’ll get my gun.” Gill tried to move her off of him.
“Don’t you dare,” she told him, pinning him back to the bed.
“Someone is outside.”
She nodded. “Yep.”
He tried moving her again.
“You can’t shoot my brother.”
“Drew?”
“Yeah . . . it’s reunion night.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see . . .” Jo pressed her lips to Gill’s and made him forget all about the noise outside the walls of her father’s home.
The next morning, when she and Gill stood outside in a sea of toilet paper–laden trees, he turned to her and said, “We are moving to Eugene.”
“Fine. But I’m keeping the house.”
“And I’m using the cabin.”
“It will be a great place to take kids.”
Gill squeezed her close. “I really hope you’re talking about our kids.”
She sighed. “I think I’m gonna need that proposal before we talk about children.”
He kissed the side of her head as moist, sodden toilet paper dripped from the roof.
Rocco, her rottweiler pup, barked at their heels.
Acknowledgments
So many people to thank . . . where to begin? Let me start with Kari and Brandy, my inspirations for this series. Our friendship grounded me as a kid growing up and inspires me as an adult today. Thank you, Kari, for the information on Quantico that you could share. I hope the places I strayed from reality weren’t completely off the mark. And if they are, well, this is a work of fiction.
Making It Right (A Most Likely To Novel Book 3) Page 31