I shook my head at Jackson with a relief that I could not understand. I had no claim on Sabrina. But, unlike him, I liked a challenge—especially the kind that looked like a sexy librarian hiding behind a pair of glasses. What would it take to get her to go out with me?
“Hey, now. I do not want to know where you put your iron, Jackson. TMI.” I returned his look. “Wait a minute, back up. Her last name is Logan? Not one of Doc Logan’s daughters?”
“Yep. Cora, the older one, passed about nine years back. You were already at UT, remember?” I did remember; it was a car accident of some type, a terrible tragedy. “Sabrina went to that girls’ school in Maryville. That’s probably why you don’t know her. I know her because I know everyone,” he answered me with yet another smirk. I was glad to be back in Green Valley. Everybody knew everybody’s business in this town. If Sabrina was too shy to talk to me, I could most likely find out everything I needed to know from alternate sources.
“You’re a real man about town, Jackson. You know, Doc Logan fixed my knee when I was at UT,” I recalled.
“I saw that game.” He cringed. “How’d it feel to have your foot face the other way?”
“About as shitty as you’d imagine,” I replied and sat in the chair across from his desk. My last football game at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville had ended with a destroyed ACL, MCL, and other assorted injuries—fun times. I was pretty sure my dashed professional football trajectory is what led to the downfall of my marriage. My ex-wife needed a little more out of life. And that more looked a lot like money and mansions and a bigger diamond ring than the one I had given her after she got pregnant with our oldest daughter, Makenna. After our second daughter, Melissa, was born, Isabelle had started working as an assistant to Jefferson Hickson, a big-shot, jackass country music singer in Nashville. Which led to a lot of lying, cheating, and the eventual divorce. These days, if I ever wanted to see her, I could turn on the TV during any country music award show and watch the dollar signs flash in her eyes whenever the camera panned to her. I never admitted to anyone that it wasn’t a great loss. I didn’t love her like I wanted to love the woman I married. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, I would have never asked. It was a relief when she left me.
“You feel like hitting Genie’s after work?” Jackson’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts.
“I can’t tonight. I’m supposed to have dinner with my folks. My mother is still trying to get my father to quit harping on me about joining the business. I’ll probably hear all about it at lunch, too.” My father ran Monroe & Sons, the family construction business that had been passed from father to son for over seventy years. The office sat in a huge old Victorian mansion smack dab in the middle of Green Valley. Old Papaw Monroe had built it to show off and it worked. Everyone went to my dad when they needed any kind of construction work done. All three of my brothers worked for my father. It pissed him off when I moved to Nashville after college with my ex and my oldest daughter and joined the police force.
“He started that up again? You’ve been a cop for over seven years.”
“Yeah, he thought when I moved back to Green Valley, I’d work for him. After dinner with the parents tonight, I’ll need a few beers. How about tomorrow?” I offered.
“Good deal. I’ll be your wingman. Trying to date Sabrina Logan will be an exercise in frustration.”
“I’ll catch you after lunch. Later, Jackson.”
He lifted his chin in response.
I got up and headed out of the station to meet my family at Daisy’s.
I was glad to be back in Green Valley. I’d missed my brothers. I’d missed my parents. I had always been close to my mother, and I wished my father would let the whole Monroe & Sons thing go and let me be.
I pulled into the lot and headed into the diner. Daisy’s Nut House was a Green Valley staple that had turned into a franchise. Miss Daisy was a friend of my mother’s and a sweet lady. But I needed to stay away from Daisy’s doughnuts. The fat kid that still lived inside me could eat a dozen of those suckers without blinking. I liked having abs and the ability to touch my toes. Plus, foot pursuits and manhandling drugged-up junkies into the back of my cruiser were sometimes parts of my job and I couldn’t do either with a big doughnut gut dragging me down.
I jogged across the parking lot and spotted my brother Everett near the door. Of all my brothers, I was closest to Everett. We were stuck in the middle of our group of four and closest in age.
He waved as I approached. “Dad is here. I’ve been instructed to not let you leave,” he informed me. Then he reached for my arm to pull me back when I turned around to leave. “Come on. Mom will have my ass if I let you go.”
“Fine, I’ll come inside.”
We entered the restaurant. I followed Everett as he led me to the table. They had already been seated and ordered for me. I only had an hour for lunch.
My mother waved at me from a table in the corner with a huge smile lighting up her face. “Wyatt, honey. I heard!” she cried.
I sat down and glanced at my father. He was already eating dessert. He had a piece of pie half-finished on his plate and was staring out the window. He turned and deigned to give me a small smile and nod. I returned his nod. When he was ready to talk to me instead of pout like my daughters do, then I would give him the courtesy of a proper hello. My mother elbowed him and shot him a glare.
“What did you hear?” I asked her and reached for my glass of water.
“About you and that darling assistant librarian, Sabrina Logan. The girls just love her story hour.” My eyes shot to hers and I choked on my water. She placed her phone on the table and gave me her full attention.
Everett laughed in his seat next to me. “It’s all she’s been talking about, bro.”
“How could you have possibly heard about that? It just happened.” I sank the lemon slice into my glass of water and took another sip.
“Is she okay? Was it an accident that made her stop on the side of the road?” She peered at me over the rim of her glass of iced tea. Her eyebrows were raised in expectation of a juicy story, I was sure.
I looked at her in amazement. “It wasn’t an accident—how? What?”
“I listen to the police scanner while I do my gardening. When I heard about you driving Sabrina Logan’s Jeep to the library, well, I called Julianne MacIntyre right away to see what happened after that. Those scanners only give you part of the story, you know.”
I just blinked at her until she continued explaining. Everett snickered and sipped his coffee. My father continued to stare out the window, studiously ignoring the conversation.
“Julianne was already at her office window, watching. She saw you two chatting and smiling at each other. So, did you ask her out? You should. Julianne told me she’s a good girl—shy and sweet and smart as a whip. She’d be much better suited to you than that disappointment you married, and the girls already adore her. They talk about her all the time. We never miss a story hour.”
My mouth opened, but no words came out.
“Just eat your lunch,” Everett advised. “She’ll do all the talking.”
“Hush, you,” my mother admonished him with an indignant huff. “I love all my boys and I want what’s best for you.”
“Speaking of that—” my father started to say.
My mother shushed him. “I finally have my grandbabies in the same town as me. I have my boy back, too. You will not ruin this for me, Bill Monroe. You will keep quiet and get over this.”
“I can’t help how I feel, Becky Lee. He should join the company with his brothers. All Monroe boys join Monroe & Sons. We’re a family company and this is what we have always done,” he argued.
“No, no. You have three of our boys working for you—that’s enough. So, yes. You can get over it and you will.” She stared him down.
He got up with a huff, said goodbye, and left.
My mother took my hand and held it. “He’ll get over it. You’ll see. I’ll be wor
king on him. You can bet your bippy on that.” She turned away from me and shot one last glare at my father’s retreating back. I didn’t envy him. My mother was tough.
But despite my mother’s obvious determination, I was still not sure she could change his mind. I had three brothers. My oldest brother Barrett was an architect, and Everett was next—he was a carpenter. Then came me, and then Garrett, who was a foreman on one of Dad’s crews. They all worked at Monroe & Sons, for my father. They didn’t mind that I didn’t join them and neither did my mother. Why did my father hate my choices so much?
I picked up my turkey sandwich and took a bite. My mother was something else. I’d never be brave enough to cross her. I wondered how long she would freeze my dad out.
Becky Lee Monroe had managed to whip four obnoxious boys into shape. She could raise one eyebrow and we’d be shaking in our sneakers—her ‘mom look’ had always bent us to her will. I had considered getting my own ‘dad look’ to use on my girls, but they’d just laugh at me if I raised an eyebrow at them and told them what to do. Girls were too smart for that kind of thing; they always required explanations and logic, not just threats of time-out.
“So, did you ask her out?” Everett asked, breaking the tension left over from my father’s grumpy exit.
I laughed. “I did. She didn’t say yes, but she did say I could swing by the library and ask her again. You’re right, she’s pretty shy.”
My mother sighed. “Oh, that is so sweet. I raised you boys right. Such gentlemen, all of you.” She picked up her phone.
“Who are you texting?” Everett asked her.
“Julianne, of course,” she answered without looking up.
That’s just great. Would the whole town find out I’d attempted to ask Sabrina Logan on a date? I already knew enough about her to know that this would freak her out.
Chapter Four
Sabrina
I was lost in thought, and only half concentrating on the drive toward Genie’s Bar to order the chicken for tonight’s dinner. Harry was quiet in the back seat. He was probably lost in his thoughts, too.
I didn’t want to skip work and hide. I wanted to go out with Wyatt. I wanted to say yes to him if he came back and asked me again. I wanted to go out with him more than I wanted to hide from him. Something like this had never happened to me before. I finally wanted something more than I feared it.
I was jolted out of my thoughts by Harry’s voice from the back seat. “Can we stop at the park? I want to look at the leaves. I was counting, and I think there are four different colors, maybe even more.”
“Sure, we have time. It’s on the way.”
I pulled into the parking lot. It was a gorgeous day. Harry was right; there were definitely at least four different colors of leaves decorating the trees and floating in the air on the gentle breeze. Green Valley was always a colorful wonderland during the fall season. I helped him out of the back seat, and he took off.
“Riri, I found a yellow one! Now there are five colors!” he shouted as he ran ahead toward the small playground.
“Wait for me, Harry! I’m wearing high heels,” I called out. I was pleased that he listened. He slowed to a stop, and bent to pick up another leaf.
“Orange!” he shouted excitedly with a laugh, then took off again. I wasn’t too worried—he had never run away from me before. But I still preferred him to be within my sight.
“Harry, slow down!” I shouted as I left the cement trail and tried to run on my tiptoes onto the grass for a shortcut to the playground. But the pointy heel of my boot dug into the wet ground and I yelped as I stumbled in my quest for balance and landed on my butt on the grass.
Harry stopped and ran back in my direction when he heard me yelp.
“Hey, it’s you!” Harry shouted and waved. A huge smile lit up his face.
I turned my head and looked up to see Deputy Sheriff Hottie McOhMyGod standing behind me with his hand held out, and that delicious grin-dimple-eye-crinkle combo lighting up his face. He was out of uniform now, I observed, as my eyes traveled up his denim-clad legs, trim waist, and broad chest covered by a dark gray Henley. The shirt was tight around his biceps and half tucked in behind his belt buckle. My mouth dropped open when I realized I could see his abs through his shirt. Amazing. He must do a lot of crunches.
“Hey, Harry,” he said and waved back with a big smile on his face.
I was beginning to develop suspicions that he was as nice as he was hot. And that made him just like a unicorn. A total keeper.
“Hello,” I breathed. I had to force myself to look up at him—like when looking at the sun, I did it with a half-lidded gaze.
“Let me help you up.” He stepped in front of me, bent forward, took my hands, and pulled me up. He steadied me with his hands on my upper arms. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Mm hmm.” It kind of sounded more like a moan rather than an answer. “I mean, yes, thank you for helping me up.” I lifted to my tiptoes when my heels started to sink in the grass again. My word, he was still taller than me. I brushed away the leaves that clung to the back of my long cardigan and tried not to sigh too loudly.
“You’re welcome. Feeling better, little man?” he said to Harry.
“Yes. I had a bad day at school. But then it got so much better. I was at the library, which is pretty much my favorite place in the world. And I have leaves! I want all the colors.” He held out his leaves: red, yellow, and orange.
“There are a lot of colors to choose from today, that’s for sure,” Wyatt answered.
“I know!” he shouted. He then turned around to set them on one of the benches next to the playground. I watched as he ran to the copse of tall yellow poplar trees near the picnic tables to collect a few more of the colorful leaves that had fallen beneath it.
“I’m glad he’s okay,” Wyatt said.
“I—thank you for your help today. I forgot to say it earlier.”
“You’re welcome.” His eyes drifted from mine; they quickly moved down my body and back up. “Those heels are dangerous in the wet grass. Be careful,” he said as I tottered on my toes.
“I will. Thanks.” I shivered. I could feel his eyes on me like a touch.
“I guess I’m unlucky. I take my girls to this park all the time, but I’ve never seen you here before.”
“Oh, we don’t come here that often. It’s usually too crowded, so we do other things…” I trailed off and looked at his boots. They were nice—black—and they looked sturdy and warm.
Look at his face.
I looked up; he was grinning at me. I smiled nervously back and adjusted my glasses with the tip of my finger. We both looked to the parking lot at the sound of a car pulling up and stopping.
“That’s my girls,” he said. “My mother picks them up from school and keeps them until I get off. It’s such a great day, I told her to drop them here instead of my house.”
“It is beautiful out today,” I agreed. I jolted when I saw two adorable little red-headed girls alight from the car, then quickly looked up at Wyatt when his mother started waving wildly from the front seat. “It’s Makenna and Melissa. They’re yours? They are little angels! I do a story hour at the library—they always come to it.” I beamed up at him. I waved to the girls as they ran up to where we were standing.
“Yep, it’s been just the three of us since the divorce,” he replied.
I had figured he was single—yay! He’s divorced! Was I a horrible person for being happy about that?
They waved at their grandmother from the pathway as she drove off. No offense to Wyatt’s mother, but I was glad she left. Meeting her would have probably given me a heart attack. I could talk to kids. It was adults that got me all tongue-tied and stupid.
“Miss Sabrina!” Melissa cried. “You’re here at the park! Hi.” She held out her tiny fist.
“Hi, honey.” I bumped her fist with my own and laughed when she blew it up.
“Hi, Miss Sabrina,” Makenna added with a smile. N
o fist-bump though.
Makenna had always been more reserved. Though I knew we shared a love of old Nancy Drew Mysteries and Judy Blume books. She was in the fourth grade, which made her near the same age as Harry. Makenna was a quiet girl and seemed mature beyond her years. She reminded me of myself at that age.
Melissa, on the other hand, was a little firecracker. I already knew she was in kindergarten, loved the color pink, Fancy Nancy books, and wanted a puppy more than anything in the world. She was a talker, and she was a sweetheart; she was how I had always wished I could be.
“We’re going to collect leaves for our grandma. She wants to make an arrangement for her table,” Makenna continued. “Come on, Mel.”
They took off, but Wyatt stopped them. “I haven’t seen y’all all day. You have no ‘hi’ for your dad? I want my hugs,” he said with a mock frown.
Melissa burst out in giggles and ran at him with a jump. He caught her and gave her a twirl. Makenna hugged him around the waist, and he bent and kissed the top of her head.
And while all of this was going on, I swear I fell in love.
Was that the hottest thing I had ever seen? Why yes, yes it was. My ovaries blew up—that is a thing. I believed in it now. Plus, he was making me feel hot all over. I was sure I was blushing as red as the leaf Harry was waving at me from the bench. But worse, I not only felt hot, I felt other things. Things I usually only felt when I was alone. In fact, I was sure I would feel those things when I took a bubble bath tonight.
For the love of Dumbledore, stop thinking like that.
“That’s better. Now go get Grandma some leaves,” he said with a wink.
Crime and Periodicals: Green Valley Library Book #2 Page 3