Pumpkins and Promises

by Elle Rush

  The very thought of being away from the station churned his guts. That was a sign in itself. He worked with good people, competent law enforcement officers. The whole town wouldn’t fall apart if he took a vacation. If he came back relaxed and able to focus, he’d be an even better sheriff.

  He owed Brooke a big apology for treating her as a suspect instead of as his girlfriend.

  Aaron heaved himself to his feet and moved to the computer in the office. Halloween was just around the corner, but the first week of November was notoriously slow before things started picking up before Thanksgiving. Instead of just taking the afternoon off to take Trevor to Woodlands Trades Institute, there no reason for him not to take an entire week off for some rest and relaxation.

  And because it was all Brooke’s idea, he’d make sure to share some of that time with her. If she’d still want to.

  Chapter 33

  The charred husk of a building wasn’t the most romantic location Brooke could think of, but when Aaron called after another silent weekend and asked if they could talk and suggested the spot, she agreed without hesitation. They needed to have a serious conversation; the place was irrelevant.

  But maybe it was more than a convenient spot for him to meet while he was on duty. After she parked on the street and walked up the lane to where Shelley’s Shack used to be, she found a card table with a thermos, two mugs, and a plate of baked treats. Folding lawn chairs sat on either side. And Aaron, out of uniform.

  The trees were mostly bare, but the spruce and pines blocked most of the breeze coming off the lake. Aaron was in a leather bomber jacket with a scarf wrapped around his neck, the ends tucked against his chest. She had the hood of her sweater hanging over her jacket collar to protect her neck and block any drafts.

  She was warm enough, but the steam coming from the mugs on the table was a welcoming sight. “I didn’t expect this.”

  Aaron pulled out her chair. “It’s a prelude to an apology. The real apology is going to be much nicer with hot food in a restaurant, but I had to do something now.”

  “How is this an apology?”

  “It is the scene of two crimes. At least the ignition spot.”

  “The arson! Have you found whoever did it?”

  “We did. It took all weekend, but we tracked down the ones who got away from the parties. Ryan Dempsey was not entirely forthcoming about who was in attendance. Joseph Piney Junior’s kids realized that nobody was coming here anymore, so they started using it for weekend parties while they were at college. Gerald had no idea. Joe the third invited some friends to the last one. They had a few beers, decided it was too cold, and decided to move the barbecue inside. Then things got out of hand.” Aaron had gone into Minneapolis to personally interview the family. “I guess the grandson confessed to his parents, which was one of the reasons they were dodging my calls. Caleb Quentin is in the clear for everything.”

  “That’s good to hear. He’s a good kid.”

  “He is.” Aaron took a deep breath, then stood even taller. He stared her straight in the eye. “What was criminal was the way I behaved. I’m sorry, Brooke. For accusing you of hiding information from me when you were trying to figure out what to do with some shocking news. For saying you didn’t respect my job when I was the one who forgot where the line was between my career and my personal life. For getting mad that you were just being a good person trying to help Caleb when I wasn’t able to help. I’m…I’m just really sorry.”

  Brooke was speechless. She hadn’t expected anything like this. This was everything she’d said to him, but she thought he’d brushed it all off. It sounded like he’d listened to every word. “Thank you, Aaron. That means a lot.”

  “Not as much as you mean to me. You were right. My cop-button is stuck on the on position. I had Poppy look up the last time I took any real time off. She had to go back three summers to find a week of vacation days in a row. I have to remember how to take off the uniform again.”

  “You’re too good a sheriff to get burned out, Aaron. The town needs you, but it needs you healthy and able to do your job.”

  “That’s what Mac said too. So did Gene Wyatt.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” This was the most frustrating thing about being an adult. Knowing what had to be done, but not being able to do it for somebody else. She hoped Aaron would at least let her help.”

  “To start with, after Halloween, I’ve booked a week off. I was already planning to take a day to do a campus tour of the Woodlands Trades Institute with Trevor. Now I’m going to take a couple days and go hunting with Roy.”

  Traipsing through the bush with a rifle didn’t sound like a relaxing day to her, but Aaron was smiling at the thought of it. “You sound like you’re looking forward to it.”

  “I haven’t gone out in a couple of years. Then I’m going to stop hogging all the on-call nights and spread them equally throughout the department. That way I can have more time to spend with this incredible, kind, helpful, beautiful woman I know. If she’ll forgive me for being a jerk.”

  She couldn’t stand fast enough to hug the man in front of her. “Yes, I forgive you for being a gigantic jerk.”

  “A gigantic one, huh?”

  “You pretty much said I was an accessory after the fact to a break-and-enter.”

  “Gigantic works.” He huffed a small laugh. “We need to get you to stop using television crime-show vocabulary.”

  “Maybe you could teach me the real words. After you’re back from vacation.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  When he hooked his finger under her chin and tilted her face for a kiss, Brooke closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of his lips on hers. “Now that’s an apology,” she said once he let her go.

  “Tell me I didn’t ruin what we were building,” he whispered. “I was halfway in love with you at the corn maze and what I was feeling was growing by the day until I took a torch to it. Please say you still feel the same way.”

  “You rocked me pretty badly, Aaron. I understand why you were mad, but that didn’t make you right. And my cape-wearing days aren’t coming to an end anytime soon. I’m still going to fight for people who deserve it. Are you going to be able to deal with that as part of the whole awesome Brooke package?” That was her big worry. She knew he had a good heart, and she could forgive his frustration in a bad situation, but it wasn’t something she was willing to tolerate as part of their potential future life together.

  “I can. I promise,” he said. “And if I can’t be both your man and the town’s sheriff, I’ll step back and let one of my deputies deal with the legal situation while I support you. Because I’ll support you as much as I love you, Brooke.”

  “I love you, too, Aaron.”

  He kissed her again, and the entire world disappeared. When they broke apart, the world erupted into a joyous chorus of fall. Leaves rustled in the wind, and a pair of sparrows in the pine tree by the road burst into song.

  Aaron pulled out her chair again, and once she was seated, he topped up her coffee before sitting down himself. “What have I missed since I’ve been Cop Aaron twenty-four hours a day for the last week? Boyfriend Aaron needs to catch up.”

  “I had my midterm on Monday,” Brooke told him.

  He flinched. “I didn’t even call to wish you luck.”

  “You’d wished me luck before the fire. I used that. Now I’m waiting on my results.”

  “I’ll bet you aced it.”

  She crossed her fingers. “I hope so.”

  “What else is going on?”

  Brooke had missed this. Filling in each other about their days, the big stuff and the mundane. Having someone to share the ups and the downs with. “The school board refused to address the issue of gender bias in their dress code at their last meeting. Two of the members acknowledge Jordan’s op-ed piece that the parking space allocation system was unfair, so they’re opening that up for public discussion next month.”

  “That sounds like it�
�ll be a good time.”

  “My baby girl will have a portfolio that will knock the socks off any journalism school admission panel, that’s for sure.” For the last week, Jordan had been putting together admission packages. She’d spent hours with her father over video conferences discussing themes for her entrance essay. Jordan planned to have them all in the mail by the end of the month. She was hoping for conditional acceptance letters for Christmas. “How about you?”

  “Sadly, I already told you most of my news. A campus tour with Trevor. Hunting with Roy. If it were summer, I could take a few days and go camping. Or if it was winter, I could take a snowmobiling trip. I guess I’ll have to stay home and watch baseball playoffs.”

  After seeing his collection of ball caps, Brooke recognized his sarcasm. “Poor baby.”

  “I know, right?” He grinned, and there was a hint of real enthusiasm behind it. Mostly Aaron still looked tired. She been telling him he needed a break for weeks, but now she saw that she’d underestimated the situation. He needed a rest. He wasn’t approaching burnout; the candle he was burning at both ends was already flickering.

  “I have a little good news, too,” she said. “Caleb has moved into his new studio apartment a few days early. He cleaned it and has been sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag while he and Lucy have been painting. Once they’re done, we’re going to try to get him some furniture and housewares to help set him up. Right now, he’s out of his car and has a place to shower and cook meals. That’s good.”

  “That’s huge.” It was nice that something he’d investigated had ended without criminal charges. “We have three old sofas in the basement. Since the only people ever down there are Trevor and his friends, I’ll bet he’d be willing to give one up. If Caleb will accept a gift from me.”

  “You won’t know until you ask.” The teenager had accepted a lot of charity in the last few days. It was hard on the ego to acknowledge that you needed that much help. On the other hand, Caleb seemed to have a practical head on his shoulders, and a sofa was a sofa. Practically every teenager in the country had hand-me-down furniture in their first apartment.

  “Maybe I can ask him over for pizza on Friday night. Or ask Trevor too. I want Caleb to know he’s still welcome.”

  “I’ll leave that for you boys to figure out.” Aaron wasn’t the only one who’d come to some personal realizations. Brooke, reluctantly, had recently acknowledged that she wasn’t the world’s best juggler. Between Jordan, her job at the Dew Drop Inn, her classes, and Aaron, her schedule was full to bursting. Running the Jackson Corn Maze fundraiser had pushed her over the edge; it had taken two weeks to make up the study time she’d missed. She couldn’t work on any more of Jordan’s senior fundraisers and fulfill her regular volunteer commitments while she was going back to school. She’d had to turn down a shift at the food bank because she still needed to sleep. Brooke felt like she should be doing more, but there wasn’t any way to create more hours in the day. Aaron was going to have to fix his history with Caleb on his own.

  “When you get your marks back, I’d like to take you out to celebrate,” Aaron said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a nice date night. I’ll make sure to send everybody to whoever is on duty that night, which definitely won’t be me.”

  It wasn’t graceful, but Brooke managed to stand and lean over the card table to kiss him again. “That sounds perfect.”

  Chapter 34

  The next day, the Dew Drop Inn was in a rush to get ready for a prospective wedding party who were coming to tour the premises. Their wedding business had tripled in the six months since Mickey Wagner had taken over. There hadn’t been much time to get into wedding bookings for that summer, but next year was looking like it would be back-to-back brides. She stuck around long enough to see Mickey start the visit and overheard the guests talking about the spotless hotel. When her boss flashed her a thumbs-up behind the guests’ backs as she walked out the door, Brooke left smiling.

  She had to hurry. She and Aaron would only have a short time to have supper to celebrate her midterm exam grade before he had to return to patrolling on the night before Halloween. During the trick-or-treat season, Aaron told her that most of the tricks happened on the thirtieth.

  Brooke took extra time getting ready. Not because she was with Aaron, which was always nice, but because she was celebrating herself tonight. She’d earned it. She thought she’d been crazy to go back to school at her age while working full-time, and she wasn’t sure she’d make it. She and Jordan had to sacrifice a lot for her to chase that dream, but it was paying off.

  Supper with Aaron was rushed, but still wonderful. Even in the day they’d been apart, each of them had news to share. Caleb had accepted Trevor’s invitation to come over on Friday, and Aaron was planning to order pizza to celebrate Caleb’s new apartment. The sofa issue was still unresolved, but Brooke assured him it was an excellent first step.

  After an exceptional chicken piccata, their waiter brought out two pieces of pumpkin pie as part of the Halloween special. “I love this time of year. I’ll eat pumpkin pie from the beginning of October to the end of November. I don’t know who decided that we should prioritize other kinds for the rest of the year,” Aaron said as he took a spoonful of the whip cream piled on top.

  “It makes it more of a treat,” she said.

  “Speaking of treats, and hopefully not tricks, don’t you have some news for me?” Aaron asked. “Did you get your grades back on your midterm exam?”

  “I got them back alright.” Brooke still couldn’t believe it.

  She took a sip of coffee, then another bite of pie.

  “Are you going to tell me what you got?”

  “Oh, you just asked if I got them back. Did you want to know what my grade was?”

  “It’s not too late to arrest you, you know,” Aaron growled.

  “Okay. In that case, you might be interested to know that I got…” She faked a cough, then took another sip of coffee.

  “Brooke!”

  “Ninety-two percent!” she crowed. “The second-highest score in the class.”

  “I’m dating a genius!”

  “I know.” She didn’t try to hide her pride. She’d worked hard for that grade. “But it gets better. My professor contacted me this morning. She said that, between my marks on my introductory accounting course over the summer and my first assignment and my midterm, I might be able to qualify for a scholarship for next semester if I maintain my grades.”

  “That’s fantastic!” Aaron raised his water glass. “Congratulations twice to my brilliant girlfriend. I know you can get that scholarship.”

  “Thank you.” She reached across the table to grab his hand and give it a squeeze. “I think I scared Jordan with my squeal when I got that call. It could cover the next two courses in my program, plus all my books.”

  “How do you feel about depreciation rates now?”

  “They’re my favorite, tied with mortgage interest calculations. I love depreciation. Next is capital gains taxation. I can’t wait!” She surprised herself, because she meant it. Despite all the work and hours that she spent studying, she did actually enjoy the subject. Most people wouldn’t find numbers that fascinating, but they made sense for her.

  “You have no idea how much I’m learning about accounting just by being with you,” Aaron said. His words were joking, but his tone was serious. “How important it is for debits and credits and pros and cons to balance. How to decide if paying a penalty is worth the price in the long run.” He hadn’t let go of her fingers, and now he covered it with his other hand, holding her in a warm cocoon. “Figuring out the true cost of something.”

  “And discovering that some things are truly priceless,” she added quietly.

  “I love you, Brooke. I don’t care that we’re in the middle of pie. I’m going to kiss you now,” he announced.

  He dragged his tie through the whipped cream, and Brooke knocked her fork to the floor, but the kiss was totally
worth it. It said everything about what they’d been through and where they were going. And now the whole town knew it. There was only one problem: if his kisses got any better, Brooke thought she might spontaneously combust.

  Aaron sat down again wearing a completely satisfied grin. He still hadn’t let go of her hand. Until he suddenly dropped it, then pointed into the middle of the restaurant. “Neil Dempsey, if you are coming over her to complain about something, don’t. Call the station to make your report. Because if you say anything to me tonight, I’m going to arrest you on first-degree murder charges for killing my excellent mood.”

  The scowling man turned on his heel and stalked out of the dining room, followed by the amused chuckles of other patrons.

  Aaron grabbed her hand again. “Now where was I?”

  “Before you told me you loved me, you were complimenting me for being a brilliant student,” Brooke prompted.

  “Right. You’re a genius. A star scholar.”

  “Do go on.”

  “A shining example of a bookkeeping wunderkind,” he continued. “You are a little obsessed with haunted cornfields, though.”

  She shrugged, then winked at him. “Nobody’s perfect. But I’m close.”

  Chapter 35

  “Trick or treat!” Brooke heard the call echo down the street and up the stairwell, where Lucy Callahan had staked out a step near the front door and was handing out candy to all the little boos and ghouls who arrived in costume to celebrate the spookiest night of the year. Brooke pulled on thick wool socks, zipped her hoodie over her flannel shirt, and headed downstairs to keep her friend company.

  It was unseasonably cold for the last day of October. Any jack-o’-lanterns left outside wouldn’t make it through to morning without frost damage. The weather channel was already predicting a slight chance of overnight snow. The kids were making the most of this last day of October.