Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (20 page)

Rogan gave Fluffy a little nudge and she obediently hopped down, giving Eli a look that promised a revenge-poop either in his shoes or his den in the very near future.

Eli tried to keep a stern look on his face as he tossed the folder to Rogan. Rogan swallowed hard, clearly thinking he was in trouble.

“So you have an ‘A’ in English Lit and tomorrow you will be reporting to Ms. Carter’s Advanced Placement Class instead of Mrs. Cannifarm’s.”

“Wha—? How?”

“Oh, yeah. And better figure out what you’re taking at the college. You have less than a week before classes start.” A smile overtook Eli’s face as Rogan’s expression moved from surly, to hopeful, to ecstatic.

“Really?” he asked.

Eli nodded.

In one swift motion, Rogan hopped to his feet, leapt over the coffee table and engulfed Eli in a bear hug. “Thank you,” Rogan said, his voice sounding choked.

Eli wrapped his arms around his son and savored the first hug Rogan had ever given him.

“You’re welcome,” he said, feeling like he’d finally done something right.

Chapter Eleven

What in the devil is going on with Emma?

Rob had watched his wife that very morning, normally the farthest thing from a morning person one could find, attack the breakfast dishes with the sort of gusto only seen by the dementedly tidy.

Which wasn’t his wife. While he had no complaints as far as Emma’s housekeeping skills went—if she was doing the house chores, it meant
he
wasn’t—she didn’t tackle her house cleaning duties with any sort of great pride. That is, until the past couple of weeks.

The floors had become spotless, the kitchen sparkled and there wasn’t an ounce of clutter to be found anywhere. Even the laundry was done. Everything was perfect and tidy. Except that Emma had started to look a little frayed around the edges.

“Everything okay, honey?” he’d asked as she’d dropped the omelet pan in the drainer next to the sink and pulled the plug on the dishwater.

“It’s great!” she’d said with more vim and vigor than he’d ever seen out of her before noon.

“Everyone ready for school and work?” She looked to Judy, Jack and Jeff, who’d stared back as if their mother had been possessed by an alien—which Rob wasn’t ruling out yet.

Even at noon, as Rob sipped his coffee from his perch at the counter of Sudden Falls Diner, he was still wondering. He ate lunch here every Wednesday. It was his way of keeping in touch with his constituents. The diner was a good place to catch up on town gossip, to see and to be seen. Well, that and the diner served a fantastic Pot Roast sandwich on Wednesdays.

He listened to some of the conversations going on around him. Tom Dancy, the owner of the local feed store objected stringently that corn prices were on the rise with Jeff Wharton, a local farmer. Jake Plumber, who had spent Friday night in the hoosegow following a drunk and disorderly, chatted amiably with the police chief as if nothing had happened. Sudden Falls business as usual.

“I found the nicest little coffee table at Millie’s yesterday.” This overheard from Patty Evans, whose daughter went to school with Rob’s daughter, Judy. Patty and Emma had shared PTA duties since their kids started kindergarten.

The renewed thought of Emma had him chilled in a cold sweat. Had she somehow figured out his secret? It wasn’t like her to hold back if she had. Of course, nothing much about Emma had been like her usual behavior lately.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead while Patty and her lunch companion continued to talk about the store. “I can’t believe you actually shopped there,” Patty’s friend said.

“Maddie never did anything to me personally
and
her brother had died a month before that. It’s been more than fifteen years. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.”

Rob couldn’t make out the response. He glanced out the window, across the town square where Aunt Millie’s Antiques sat on the corner. The store had been open for more than a week and he was starting to sweat bullets about how he was going to get in and get the club’s stuff out of the basement. They were definitely looking to him for that.

A few other members of Silver Shadows were equally interested in recovering their stuff and avoiding detection. His office phone had been ringing far more with personal business than he’d like. And his blood pressure was on the rise.

Perhaps he should meander across the square and check out the situation.

“More coffee, Mayor?”

“No thanks, Betty.” He pulled out a ten-dollar bill and dropped it on the counter. “This cover the check?”

“You know it,” she replied.

He drained the remainder of his coffee, slid his arms into his overcoat and headed out the door, crossing the street at the light. A bell above the door to Millie’s Antiques jingled as he let himself into the antique store.

Someone streaked out of sight before he could figure out who it was, and Maddie O’Callaghan greeted him. “What can we do for you today, Mayor?” Her eyes darted to the left where the streak had been.

A streak who, if he recalled correctly, wore the same bright floral print dress his wife had donned this morning. The calculator in his head did the math and came up with the same number, or name in this case, repeatedly.

His stomach sank. This was not good. Emma? This close to his darkest secret?
Kill me now.

Stepping around Maddie, who clearly tried to impede his progress, he made his way between shelves until he found the huddled form of his wife, crouched behind an oak armoire.

She caught sight of him and blew a stray length of hair off her forehead with a puff of air directed straight up. She was so adorable it almost broke his heart.

“Hello, Emma.”

She stood and bussed a kiss across his cheek before turning to direct her next statement at Maddie. “It’s a lovely piece, but I don’t think I’m interested in purchasing it. My husband thinks we already have too much furniture.”

He bit the inside of his lip to curb a smile. He should probably be fairly irritated that she was lying to/in front of him, but he couldn’t help it. There was something so…delightful about her artless innocent act that he couldn’t help but think he might be able to extend lunch by forty-five minutes or so and take his wife home to their very empty and child-free house.

He leaned toward her. “The jig’s up, darlin’. Your nametag gave you away.”

She winced as one hand came up over the tag residing below her collarbone and then her shoulders fell. The bell above the door rang again and Maddie turned to greet the customer, thereby giving them some privacy.

“You’re going to try and make me quit, aren’t you?”

He was tempted. Anything to get her as far away from this place as possible. And yet, the look of complete dejection on her face was enough to change his mind.

Hell. Maybe he liked playing with fire.

Her shoulders squared and she looked him in the eye, clearly ready to go to battle. That hadn’t happened in a long time. “‘Cause I refuse to. I like this job. I’m good at it. And I’m not going to quit.”

Or maybe he liked the sudden spark this new job had given her. He sighed. He knew he’d regret this. “You can keep the job.”

Her face brightened so much the temperature in the room went up by degrees. “Really?”

“Of course. I’m not an ogre,” he felt it necessary to say. Had he really been that controlling? How had that happened?

“I know. You’re a darling.” She reached out an arm and giving him a squeeze around the waist.

He smiled. At that moment, he would have done
anything
for her. “But I have to insist on something.”

Her look became guarded. “What?”

“We need to hire someone to come in a couple of times a week to deal with the house. You’ve been killing yourself the last two weeks.”

He wished at that moment for a camera. Her look of utter stupefaction was priceless. Finally, she raised an eyebrow. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Unless I can get you to take a long lunch right now.”

Emma blushed before stretching up on to her tiptoes and dragging his ear down toward her mouth. “I can’t leave right now. But I’ll definitely reward you for your generosity as soon as the kids are in bed.” She followed the shocking statement by licking the outer rim of his ear and then breathing in it.

Rob felt warmth run through his entire body. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said with more anticipation than he’d felt in some time. Sure, sex between them was like oatmeal. It wasn’t flashy or tremendously exciting, but it definitely warmed you up from the inside out and satisfied a hunger.

He disengaged from his wife who leaned against a pillar fanning herself before stepping around the armoire nodding at Maddie and taking his leave before he embarrassed one or the both of them.

That afternoon was the first in a long time where his attention was less focused on the inner workings of Sudden Falls, Ohio and his secrets, and more focused on his “real life”.

Rogan looked up at the knock on his door. “I realize this is something I
should
know, but do you have a driver’s license?” Eli stood expectantly, shuffling from foot to foot.

Rogan nodded. “My grandmother didn’t get around very well, and I got one when I lived with her last year so I could help her out.”

Eli smiled. “Alright then, college boy. Heads up.” Eli lobbed something in Rogan’s direction. Rogan plucked it from the air and realized immediately it was a set of keys.

His heart began pounding. “What is this?” he asked, more hopeful than he should have been.

“Sudden Falls is a small town. There’s no mass transit between here and the college, and I’m not mean enough to make you ride a bike the seven or so miles back and forth to school. Those are keys to your new car.”

His mouth went dry and speech escaped him for a long moment. “Really?”

“Well, not
new-
new. More like
gently-used
-new. Want to see?”

Rogan jumped to his feet, feeling like a little kid at Christmas. But no Christmas he’d ever actually had. He thundered down the stairs and landed in the driveway. Parked there was a late-model, four-door Subaru sedan with silver paint. Sure, it screamed “Safety-vehicle” but never in a million years would he have hoped for something so nice.

Speechless, he stepped to the car and peered in the window. It was every bit as nice inside.

“You’ve got the keys, kiddo. You don’t have to steam up the window. Want to go for a spin?”

Rogan nodded, knowing he was grinning like a fool. If he was dreaming, he hoped never to wake up. He unlocked the doors with a chirp of the keyless entry system and slid behind the wheel. It smelled like a new car.

Eli hopped into the passenger seat and began pointing out the features. “Blue-tooth Audio player, cruise control, air conditioning, power windows, power locks. It’s three years old, but it was a second car, so the mileage is pretty low.”

“Thanks,” Rogan said, barely able to get past the lump in his throat. No one had
ever
done anything this nice for him. “I’ll get a job so I can pay for gas and insurance and stuff.”

“I’ve got the insurance.”

Rogan started to argue and Eli put up a hand. “You’re going to be going to two different schools. You’ll be up to your eyeballs in homework soon. I can give you enough of an allowance to keep you in gas and junk food and maybe this summer I’ll find a job for you at the company? You could either sling burgers, or you can do some real-live computer work. I’ll warn you, it may be scut work, but it’s got to be better than fast food.”

Rogan decided that he must be living in some sort of alternate universe. One where everything seemed to be working out. Which meant, inevitably, Becca would be back for him momentarily. Probably before the end of the week.

“Let’s fire this baby up. We need to stop by the grocery if we want dinner tonight and I need to pick up some dry cleaning. Care to chauffeur?”

Rogan checked his mirrors, started the engine and carefully pulled out of the driveway. He felt unusually nervous about driving with Eli in the car. What if he did something wrong? Ran a stop sign he didn’t see? Went over the speed limit? Crossed the yellow line by accident?

He’d driven Nana around long before he was old enough for a driver’s license. And that had been near Chicago. In a boat of an old nineteen-eighty-something Ford LTD. Sudden Falls hardly had the same traffic problems and this car was practically a Hot Wheels in comparison.

The local Kroger was a too short, three-minute drive away. They stopped, picked up Shake-n-Bake, pork chops and broccoli—which Rogan knew Eli did because it was Rogan’s favorite—and then they were on to the dry cleaners.

“You can stay in the car if you want. I’m going to run in and come right back out.” Eli hauled himself out of the passenger seat. Rogan left the radio on and sat back to contemplate his good fortune when a car pulled up to his left.

Amy Goodman sat in the passenger seat while her mom hurried in. She smiled, waved and rolled down her window. He pushed the button on the door and his slid down as well.