by Mary Leo
The cozy shop buzzed with the usual morning rush, as customers hovered over the glass display counters waiting for their morning shot of sugar and caffeine. Holy Rollers was the morning hangout for all ages. Coco couldn’t get through a week without stopping in at least three times for a latte and her usual cream-filled, chocolate-covered doughnut, a treat she was anxious to get to once she got back home.
“Only for about three or four days,” Coco told him, trying her best to convince him that this was a good idea and truly believing that once Russ knew all the facts, he’d be on her side. After all, Russ was a reasonable man, a man of virtue. Why else would he be running for mayor and doing so well in the polls? The good people of Briggs would never elect someone who didn’t exemplify their moral code. “Just until his apartment is livable again. Right now, there’s no water due to a broken pipe.”
Baby Lily slept in her donated car seat on a chair next to Coco. Outside, the sun tried its best to melt the snow, but the cold temperature wouldn’t cooperate.
“So, let me get this straight. Tilly might be the sheriff’s baby?”
“It’s Lily, and yes. Dani Century is the mom, but we really shouldn’t be talking about this here.” She looked around to see if anyone was close enough to listen in on their conversation. “Sheriff Wilson doesn’t want this news to get out.”
“Huh. And he claims he had no idea about any of this?”
“He’s not even certain that Lily is his. He’s getting a DNA test to prove it one way or the other.”
Russ snickered and shook his head as he drank his coffee. “Gotta hand it to the sheriff. Never thought he’d be a part of something like this. A reckless scandal of the year for ol’ Briggs, Idaho.”
“It’s not a scandal, at least not yet. No one knows about it but you and me, and I only told you because I know I can trust you. And I wanted to make sure you understood all the facts of why Jet’s staying with me. But it has no bearing on our relationship. Matter of fact, I hope our date is still on for tonight.”
“Of course it is. My only concern is how this might look to the good people of Briggs...the sheriff moving in with my girl. Might cause a lot of speculation, a lot of unnecessary gossip.”
“Not if we don’t tell anyone. It we play it right, by the time the gossip leaks, Sheriff Wilson and Lily will have already moved out.”
“Yes, but I...”
Russ kept getting distracted by friends and acquaintances who wanted to wish him a good morning or talk to him about anything from extending the Western Days festival to adding a streetlight on Main and First.
“Excuse me, Mr. Knightly, but we sure could’a used those extra plows in the last couple’a days,” Marty Bean, owner of Moo’s Creamery, said in a loud voice. “You’ve got my vote, that’s for sure.”
“Thanks,” Russ told him, turning to shake his hand. “I appreciate it. There’s so many more community improvements I want to make. You’re going to be amazed at how efficient this town runs after I’m elected.”
“Looking forward to it,” Kerry Walker, the local cobbler, told him, holding on to a paper cup filled with a hot beverage and carrying a pink box of pastries.
It had been like that ever since she and Russ sat down. People kept coming up to their table to wish him well with the election that was less than two weeks away. Great for Russ, but not so great for a serious conversation with him.
“Is this Lily?” Betty Hastings, an older woman, asked. “I heard all about her from Amanda Gump. Poor little dear. Glad you’re both taking such good care of her.”
“It’s our pleasure, especially while the sheriff is so busy,” Russ told her.
Coco’s stomach did a flip and her throat tightened. She gave Russ a look, but he seemed to ignore her.
“Our sheriff has enough on his plate without having to look for Lily’s mom,” Kerry Walker said. “Poor darlin’ needs her mom.”
“She sure does,” Russ announced, as he gazed lovingly over at Lily. It was the first time he’d really looked at her since she and Coco had arrived almost an hour ago. “And her dad.”
Panic tightened Coco’s chest and she could feel her eyes go wide. Hadn’t she been clear enough that Jet’s paternity was a secret?
“Whoever that is,” seventysomething Phyllis Gabaur added. Phyllis was by far the town’s biggest and best gossip. If anyone wanted to spread a rumor, they could just say something in front of Phyllis and it would travel faster than if it had been written in the sky.
“Didn’t you know?” Russ began, looking over at Coco, who shook her head. “Oh, wait, that information might be a secret. Is it private and confidential, darling?”
Coco hated this.
“Actually...”
“I love secrets,” Phyllis said.
I bet you do, Coco thought. “We’re all simply waiting to learn information about Lily like everyone else. There’s no secret,” Coco said, trying her best to quell the storm and not pique anyone’s interest. If Phyllis thought there was a secret, she would be relentless until she learned its origin.
Russ turned, set his focus squarely on Coco and with a reassuring voice said, “Oh, well, in that case, if it’s not a secret that Sheriff Wilson is the father—”
“Might be the father,” Coco said, leaping to the sheriff’s defense. “Wait...no... We can’t be...” She clammed up, but she couldn’t take back the words.
“Our sheriff is the father? Well, I’ll be,” Phyllis said, and slipped away like dust in the wind. One minute she was there, ogling baby Lily, and once she had her tidbit of gossip, she vanished.
Coco’s heart raced, and as if on cue, Lily stretched her arms and legs, and opened her eyes.
“Wow, Sheriff Wilson has a baby,” Betty said. “That’s wonderful news!”
And with that, questions came rapid-fire, but Lily wanted no part of it. Her wails permeated the shop, and soon everyone in it, including the staff, stared at Lily. Coco wanted to get out of there. Fast. The damage was more than done.
She slipped on her coat and collected Lily, and without Russ even noticing, she stepped out of Holy Rollers. She needed to find somewhere to feed Lily, and then she wanted to meet up with Jet and explain what had just happened before he heard it from almost anyone.
Coco picked up her pace.
* * *
“WHY DIDN’T YOU tell me you were the father?” Cindy Whipple asked as she rung up Jet’s only item—earplugs. Several customers walked up and down the aisles collecting items in their baskets, but Jet knew they were doing their best to listen to the conversation he was having with Mrs. Whipple.
“Excuse me?” He wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. The register was making too much noise. He knew she’d said something about a father, but he wasn’t sure in what context.
“Baby Lily... The other night when you stopped by for all those baby things...why didn’t you tell me you were her father?”
He did a mental shudder, almost in disbelief that she already knew about the letter, and he wondered how that was even possible. It was barely noon. How in the devil could it have gotten out and spread so quickly? He’d only told Coco and from the way she’d talked last night, there was no chance she would have passed that information around. She knew how he felt about it. How unsure he was that Lily was actually his. She wouldn’t do that to him.
Would she?
“There’s more to the story,” he told Cindy while handing her a five-dollar bill.
She made change. “Like what? I’d love to hear it. And I was right about the mom being one of them Century girls, wasn’t I? I’m pretty good when it comes to these kinds of things. Got a sixth sense. Should have been one of them fortune-tellers. Might have made a lot more money reading tarot cards than opening a corner market. Although I still can’t figure out why a man like you ever got mix
ed up with the likes of one of those girls. Makes me wonder who you really are under that badge you wear on your chest every day.”
“I’m just a man, Mrs. Whipple, like every other man in this valley.”
She handed him his change and nodded, a knowing look in her eyes. “You mean you’re a horny toad?”
By now everyone in the store was standing around, listening to them talk.
He took his change and grabbed the earplugs off the counter. “Good day to you then, Mrs. Whipple.”
“Well, now that you’re living with Doctor Grant, don’t you go gettin’ her in a family way, as well. She’s a proper veterinary doctor, she’ll be wise to your seducin’ ways. Besides, she’s dating Russ Knightly and if things keep going the way they are, she could be our first lady. Everybody knows that.”
“I’ll keep that in mind and try to keep myself in check,” he said and stalked out of the store, with everyone snickering as they stared at him.
“Is that a promise?” Cindy Whipple hollered after him.
Never turning around, he hotfooted it out of the store.
Once he stepped outside, he suddenly noticed how some of the townsfolk were staring at him, smirking with each hello. He hadn’t thought anything of it earlier when he’d gone into Holy Rollers for coffee and a cream-filled doughnut. He figured everyone was merely being nice after all he and his deputy had done during the past couple of days, what with the big snowstorm.
But now he knew the truth. They were gossiping about his connection to Lily.
Coco had probably spilled his secret to someone, maybe Drew, and it had spread exactly like he had predicted. He wanted to lash out at Coco for spilling the information. He thought for sure she would hold it close at least for a couple days.
Apparently, she hadn’t.
He couldn’t figure her out. When they were together, he thought for sure there were some embers burning, if nothing else, at least the embers of a solid friendship. Then, as soon as she was out on her own, she’d turned on him. Betrayed his trust. But maybe there never was any trust. Maybe he’d been played for some crazy reason he couldn’t quite understand. Maybe it had something to do with the election. With Russ. With her inner desire for power.
He knew he was probably thinking off the deep end.
It didn’t make any sense, especially since he’d loaded up his SUV with enough of his things for several days, and he’d found an air bed at Hess’s Department Store like she’d told him about, bought it, and he was just about to bring it over to Coco’s apartment and set it up in that spare bedroom she’d talked about.
But now he wasn’t sure that he should.
Why would she invite him in, appear as if she had his back, if she was simply going to stick a knife in it?
He couldn’t begin to imagine her motives.
For a man who valued his privacy...treasured his privacy...all the details of his now scandalous affair had instantly become fodder for the town’s busybodies.
As he hurried back to his vehicle down the now cleaned sidewalks, past the open-for-business shops on Main Street, trying to get a handle on all of this, total confusion muddied up his thoughts.
He’d known this would happen eventually, just not the first day.
He beeped open the SUV and jumped inside, shutting out the town around him, trying his best to understand what this all meant.
Chapter Seven
For the next couple of days, Jet and Coco were polite and mindful of each other’s privacy, circumstances that Jet appreciated. Circumstances that he knew were only temporary. He went about his business, and she went about hers, meeting only at night for dinner, a situation he didn’t fully understand, given how, until recently, Russ had buzzed around her like a bee to a flower.
Not that he was complaining about the situation. He wasn’t. Matter of fact, he truly enjoyed their dinners, and was looking forward to one tonight, but he found it curious nonetheless and continued to keep his distance.
They hadn’t discussed how the town had learned about his letter from Dani, because it never came up in conversation. Every time something even remotely close to that subject was mentioned, one of them would quickly change the subject. And for the time being, Jet could live with that just fine.
Plus, he didn’t press his luck. He tried to be gone when Coco woke up in the morning, dropping Lily off with Drew and her folks whenever possible. Sometimes, like yesterday, Coco had packed up and left with Lily before he’d stepped out of his room, which was okay with him. He had also learned how to pack up Lily with everything she needed and take her with him when all he had to do was attend a council meeting or participate in a school function.
He even managed to set up a DNA test with Lily without anyone, even Coco, knowing what he was up to. He wanted to keep the test a secret for as long as possible. Not that everyone didn’t already think he was the father—he just didn’t want them betting on the results, which he knew for a fact they would do.
He’d made the appointment with Doctor Bradley Starr, the town’s general practitioner, for a Saturday afternoon, when he knew Coco would be out tending to two new stallions on one of the outlying ranches and couldn’t take Lily along. There were virtually no internet or phone signals out there, and Coco didn’t want to put Lily in that kind of situation, especially while out in the pastures.
The doctor agreed to have them come into the office when no one, not even his nurse, would be around. They could meet in complete privacy.
“From all indications, Lily is about three weeks old, maybe closer to four,” Doctor Starr said. “Her weight is right on target, and in general, she’s in very good health. We should get the results of the DNA test in about five to ten business days.”
Jet did up Lily’s pink jumper, then slipped on her warm funny monkey outer jumper and zipped it up. When she was all nice and toasty, hood fastened, hands completely covered, Jet secured her in her car seat.
“There you go, sweet cakes. You’re all set.” He looked over at the doctor. “That’s great news on all fronts, Doc. Thanks.”
Lily had barely fussed during the exam, and now she was busy looking around at all the bright pictures and mobiles that dominated the small examination room. Even though Doctor Starr was a GP, he treated most of the babies and children in the town, so he kept one of his examination rooms dedicated to those patients.
“I’ll send the results over to the station when they come in. Will that be okay?”
“Yes. Thanks. And if it’s possible, I would so like it if you could keep all of this to yourself.”
“Sure thing, but how are you coping with the possibility, Jet? Everything okay?”
Jet and Doctor Starr had been building a friendship of sorts ever since Jet had first come to town. Not only was the doctor his personal physician, but on the first Friday of every month some of the guys in town would play poker at Belly Up. Although no money would ever change hands in any of the games the sheriff participated in, at least.
“Doing fine, just fine. No worries there.”
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do if Lily is yours? And what kind of relationship you’ll have with her mother?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, but for now, Dani has moved on. We won’t be having a relationship.”
Jet shrugged on his coat and secured his hat on his head. He was in no mood to discuss the scenario with the doctor or anyone, for that matter.
“Then have you thought about how you’ll take care of Lily? Raising a child is a big responsibility, Jet.”
“Believe me, I’m fully aware of that.”
“It would mean moving to a bigger place. That thimble of an apartment you live in now won’t cut it. And you’ll need to hire a full-time nanny. Admittedly the city doesn’t pay you very much, so that exp
ense alone will be tough, not to mention all the other costs of raising a child.”
He picked up Lily’s car seat. “Doc, I appreciate everything you’re saying. Really, I do. But in my line of work, I can’t afford the luxury of ‘what if.’ I only deal in the facts, and right now, there are no facts supporting Dani’s claim. And until paternity is proven, one way or the other, all I can do is provide Lily with a safe and loving environment.”
The doctor rested his hand on Jet’s shoulder. “All well and good, Sheriff Wilson, but I can see that Lily has already stolen your heart. I’m thinking if it’s proven that she’s not your child that will be harder on you than if she is.”
Jet hated the fact that Doctor Starr might be right. No matter how hard he tried to steel his feelings for Lily, whenever she did something new, or reacted to his voice, she stole a piece of him that would always be hers.
“Either way, I’m fine.”
Jet shook hands with the doctor and snuck out of the office through the back door, knowing perfectly well that someone might see him coming out of the front door, which was right on Main Street.
Before he stepped one foot outside, he was about to toss a blanket over the top of the car seat to shield Lily from the cold wind, but that sweet little baby seemed to be looking right at him, making him sigh on the spot.
Not only was he falling for Lily, but despite himself, he was falling for Coco just as hard.
* * *
“THESE LITTLE GUYS are perfect,” Kenzie told her sister Coco as they loaded the baby llamas onto Kenzie’s horse trailer.