Chapter Eleven
Mike shifted papers from the inbox, sorted, sacked and seemed to do it all over again before finally just picking a stack and tearing through it until the last of that pile was finished and in his outbox for Mary Sue or Tiffany to take from there.
He glanced at his watch and saw it was nearly lunch. He lifted his phone and dialed into the front office.
Tiffany picked up midway through the second ring. “Wha’cha need, boss?”
A lot of answers to that question came to mind, but he bit those back. “A lunch date. What do you say?” There was a long pause on the line that left him to wonder if they’d been disconnected. “Tiffany?”
“Um, thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass.”
He frowned and slouched, thankful the door was shut so she couldn’t see his disappointment. “Already made plans with Mary Sue? That was nice of you, though I would have rather taken you somewhere.”
“No, I don’t… I’ll be there in your office in a second.”
He hung up the phone, not liking the way her careful words were settling in his gut. Before he could consider it further, his door opened and she slipped in, quietly shutting the door behind her. She approached his desk. Her fingers were tucked behind her back. Her head was angled down. Things were looking worse for him.
He rocked back in his chair. “Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say?”
She glanced up and met his gaze, her eyes were wide and searching. “I was hoping to have this conversation at home, or just anywhere but here.”
“Then let’s go to lunch and talk there.”
“That’s just it. The going to lunch. With you. I knew this would be coming.” She turned in the room, a heavy breath seeped from her lips as she faced back to him. “I don’t want people to know we’re together. Not yet.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Your career. I’ve thought it over a lot and this is for the best. I just don’t want people knowing we’re together. I won’t have my stupid past mistakes mess up your whole life.”
He wanted to stand up and shake sense into her. Kiss sense into her sounded even better. He remained in his chair because he feared she’d run from the room if he got up. “Don’t you think that should be my choice?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t. We can be a little more public after the November election and your job is secured. I’ll keep working here. Hopefully the talk about me will settle down and then my past can’t hurt you.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” She pulled her lips in her mouth and released them. Her eyes were heavy and her whole damn face just sad. “I don’t think so.”
“It’s only May.” It was hard as hell, but he forced his voice calm. “You want me to hide you for the next six months?”
She cupped her hands together and wouldn’t look at him, but nodded for an answer.
“I’m not ashamed of you. I will not do this. My career will be fine. As I said, I’ll bring you up to me. Give us two weeks together and people will forget the things you’ve done. They’ll see you as I’ve come to know you. Look at Mary Sue. Already she’s asked you to help her this weekend at her house, like you said.”
She blinked, still staring at the bookshelf off to the side and headed for his door. “I care for you far too much to risk bringing you down.”
He stood as she slipped out his door. “Tiffany.”
She kept going.
“Tiffany, get back in here.”
She stopped long enough to poke her head in the door and to shake it. “We can discuss more of this later. Away from here, but that’s why I won’t go to lunch with you, or go anywhere with you.”
“Tiffany.”
But the door pulled closed to a soft tick. He started after, to catch her and drag her back in to finish this, but stopped himself. Not here. She wouldn’t appreciate that and he didn’t have an argument for her. Didn’t know how to say she was far more important to him than anything else.
He dropped down in his chair and stared at the oak door. And did nothing but stare and try to think of an argument, but continued to come up blank. Two hours later of blankness, the brass knob on his door twisted.
Mike’s heart jumped, hoping she was back, hoping she was coming to say never mind, but he was left disappointed as the door swiftly swung wide and a tall and large male frame filled the doorway.
Mike stood. “Mayor. What can I do for you?”
“Mike, I sure hope you can explain to me why Tiffany McBride is behind that desk, looking like she’s working here.” Mayor Bratton gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. “I’ve gotten no less than a dozen calls to my office in the past week, not to mention caught hell from my wife at home.”
And fuck, there was Tiffany, her head jerking up at the sound of her name. Mike cleared his throat, hoping to draw the mayor into the privacy of his office for this conversation, but it wasn’t happening.
“She works here. She’s going to be Mary Sue’s replacement during her maternity leave.”
The mayor wasn’t always known for being discreet about his opinion, but he got things done for Apple Trail. This exchange didn’t seem to be any different as he turned sideways in the doorway to give Mike a clear view of Tiffany. “You’re putting the town in her hands? Hands that once egged my house and threw bags of burning shit on my porch?”
Mike cleared his throat. While harsh, this was what he needed. Here he could prove to Tiffany that she could be brought to his level and there was no need to hide her. “Ms. McBride is proving herself to be an unexpected valuable resource here. Mary Sue can vouch that.”
“She better damn well be. One fuck up and don’t think it won’t go unnoticed and that’s going on your head, straight to Sherriff Michaels.” Mayor Bratton turned on his heel and walked out.
Mike didn’t want to, but he glanced up. Tiffany’s head was down as she studied something on the desk. Mary Sue stood at her side, her hand on Tiffany’s arm and she whispered something that made Tiffany nod and glance up. Nothing but confidence shown on her face as her brows rose and she very clearly said
I told you so.
But how wrong she was about that.
Mike stuck to the inside of his office for the rest day. If he went out there, he’d regret it in an instant by opening his mouth. At five, he grabbed his keys, and all but ran out the door and nearly crashed into Mary Sue coming in.
She startled back, hand automatically going to her belly as a protective covering. “You scared me.”
He winced. “Sorry. Did you need something?”
She held out a stack of papers. “Just to give these to you. If you had a moment, I thought we could glance through them real quick. It shouldn’t take but fifteen minutes.”
Mike glanced up, to tell Tiffany to wait, but she was nowhere to be found. “Where is she?”
Mary Sue pulled her lower lip in her mouth.
He shook his head. “Put those on my desk. They can wait until tomorrow.”
He slipped around her and ran through the front. Yes, ran. Again. Never in his life had Mike run through the courthouse building, but he did this time and he ignored the looks from the few townspeople standing inside tending to their business.
He broke through the front glass just as Tiffany’s old red truck was turning off the square. Towards his home, but he wasn’t a fool. She would go past his drive and to the next one. To her house.
He jogged down the front steps, clicking his locks open on his truck as he approached. He jerked the door open and was brought short by Deputy Watkins calling out for him.
Mike glanced over his shoulder. “Yes?”
“I was checking in on rotations for this week?”
Mike blew out a breath. There were two deputies in Apple Trail. They worked their own rotation schedule, swapping as needed. Never had Mike been questioned about it. “Tell your wife to stop stalling me.”
Deputy Watkins chuckled. “That’s what I told her, but she insisted. Knew she’d be looking out the window and you never piss of a pregnant woman.”
Mike nodded to all this as he climbed in his truck and was turning over the engine, still aware he was being stalled nonetheless. “Tell Mary Sue I said thanks.”
“Thanks?”
“For seeing the good in Tiffany, befriending her and wanting to help her. There’s more to Tiffany than what most people see and Mary Sue sees that. So thanks.” He pulled his door closed and backed from his spot and gave chase.
Well out of town, he drove on past his long drive. He couldn’t see his house, but knew she wasn’t there. He wouldn’t stand for this hiding their relationship and he wasn’t going to let her get away from him. Not after he just got her for, Godsakes.
He turned down the long gravel drive of the McBride place and pressed the pedal a little lower. It was less than a half a mile drive, but it seemed he traveled ten miles before he reached the end and parked next to Tiffany’s red truck.
He jumped out and Tiffany’s cousin’s Jessie came out the front.
“Where is she?”
Jessie shook her head and trotted across the yard until reaching him. “She’s on the back porch. And, Mike? You better do right by her. You know I’ll kill you dead and leave you in the middle of daddy’s property. Five hundred acres gives me a lot of places to dump you.”
“Ha.”
She stopped and looked back. “I’m not joking.”
And she likely wasn’t, but he refused to hide what he wanted.
Chapter Twelve
Tiffany kicked her feet off the swing. She didn’t have much time before he was here and she had to be ready. This wasn’t going to be like at the office. At the office, he’d been forced to keep his distance. Not so much here…where he could touch her, bring her under his spell and make her lose all sense of logical thought.
The crunching of footsteps on grass snagged her attention and she looked to the side as he rounded the corner. He didn’t look overly mad. At the least his hands weren’t in fists. His shoulders weren’t drawn up tight.
Actually, now that she really looked, and he was looking back, she could say he appeared pleased. She stood and walked to the top of steps. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He leaned on the porch railing. “Never would have thought you a coward.”
Her gaze popped up, but any hints of anger that had begun building seeped out at the sight of his grin. “I just didn’t want an argument there on the steps of the courthouse.”
“So you conned Mary Sue into stalling and when that didn’t work, she roped in Watkins.”
“Actually, Mary Sue told me to run along a bit early.”
“Uh-huh, like you didn’t know what she meant. Why did you come here? You’ve come to my home every day for over a week, but not now.”
She blinked. “Your house is too hard. Too many memories. I can’t fight you fairly there. Really, it’s only fair that I go inside and talk to you through a window to have this fight.”
He frowned. “What fight?”
She swallowed and held tight to the old white wicker rocking chair. “The one that’s coming that we’re going to break up over.”
His brow rose. “Just to clarify, ‘cause it seems you have all this figured out. First, you decide the state of our relationship without asking my opinion, then apparently you decide that state you picked out isn’t going to work, so you decide we’re going to fight at which point, we break up. That the gist of it?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well hell, Tiffany, I’m real sorry, but that’s just not going to work for me. Like I told you, I just gave myself permission to have you. I’m not planning to let you go, I don’t give a shit what you have planned for us this afternoon.”
She shook her head, trying not to cry. He had to be wonderful. Of course he would be. She’d known he was wonderful for years. “You’re being an idiot over this. Can’t you see I’m doing this for you because I love you?”
And it was out. And she couldn’t take it back. His lips parted, eyes widened and was there somewhere to hide? He walked up the steps and she didn’t have it in her to move. She wanted him, damn it. Wanted to feel his heat and hands even if he was going to finally turn her away.
He cupped her shoulders. “And I love you. Because of that, I refuse. We’re not hiding.”
“After all these years of you looking out for me, why can’t you just let me take care of you? Just this once?”
“Because I’m not ashamed of you and will not hide you and imply otherwise.”
She backed out of his hold. “You need to leave.”
“Tiffany.”
She took three more steps back, putting a rocking chair between them. “Just go.”
“I’m not leaving until we figure this out.”
“We’re at an impasse.”
“You’re being ridiculous! Six months from now, people aren’t going to give a rat’s ass. You’ll be different in the town because you have the job at the office.”
“It’s years of foolishness, Mike. Six months minding my manners isn’t going to change that. I thought that we would be okay. That I could slowly earn back in the good graces of a few people, but I’m not sure I can. Not in such little time.”
“You could.”
“Or I might not. Either way, I am not going to risk your career over my reputation.”
“I don’t give a fuck about—”
“No. Don’t. Don’t even say it. You’ve worked hard. Besides, you said temporary. That my job is temporary. I’m training now for when Mary Sue takes maternity leave.” As she kept talking, his face started falling, but she couldn’t comfort. If she touched him, it’d be too much. “After she has the baby, what then? All those mouths to feed and one cop salary? I don’t think so. She’ll need that job way more than I ever did. You can have me behind closed doors until November…or not at all. I’m not going to see you throw your life away over something this stupid.”
His cheeks glowed red, hands fisted at his side. He turned on his heel and walked away.
And she let him go when every fiber of her told her to run after and stop him, but she didn’t. She was a big girl.
It was finally time to pay the ultimate price for her poor decisions.
But she wouldn’t do it standing on this porch. She ran. Down the steps, through the garden and into the woods and she kept running. Breath rasped up her itching throat. Her heart pounded as she kept running down a narrow path, swatting clinging, thin spider webs, ignoring the prickly pine straw covered ground under her feet, she didn’t stop.
The sun darted rays through the tree top, birds chirped a spring-satisfied tune. Sap and pine scented the air and should have been a perfect path. It wasn’t. It usually never was when she came running through here like hell bent on wheels.
She ran on, around a corner, past a large sweet gum and stepped on several prickly balls that shot stabs of pain up her legs. She was thankful for an excuse for the tears streaking over her cheeks. The path forked and she slammed to a halt.
To the left, her parents tree. Tiffany’s solace. Where she went anytime things became too much. She hadn’t been that way in years.
To the right, a path leading to Mike’s backyard. The future she craved more than anything. Her chest crumbled into her knotting belly.
She ran to the left. To the only place where she could find a glimmer of the parents she missed so damn much. The path narrowed further, this place long forgotten to anyone but her. She slowed and dipped under low limbed Oak trees and stepped within a clearing no larger than ten feet by ten feet, if that much.
To anyone else, they wouldn’t notice how the other trees had not grown close to this one. How this one tree had managed to grow strong and large in the middle of these woods. They would only notice the heart and initials carved out in the bark.
Like since she was a teenager and she first found this place, she put her hand to the smooth heart, fingered the deep groves creating the initials and tried to remember her parents’ life. As if in this one carving, dating back to when her parents’ had been teens would deliver them to her somehow.
She had no clue what this tree or this spot had meant to her parents. Had they met here often? Escaped to this place in the woods for privacy? She sank to the dirt covered ground and leaned against the tree and closed her eyes again, hoping just this once, she would feel a hug from the parents she dearly missed.
Only the unforgiving rough bark met her skin.
The roots were large and uncomfortable under her bottom, the gnats bit at her skin, but she didn’t leave. She wrapped an arm as much as she could against the unfeeling, massive tree. Her knees were tucked to her chest.
Heart bleeding dry. Hot tears streaked over her cheeks.
She was so tired of losing things.