Tiny Blessings, page 19
“And I’ve been paying the price ever since. I want my friends back. You know how many times I picked up the phone to call you, how many times I thought about coming over to your house and begging your forgiveness? You know how badly I want you to stand up for me too? The most important day of my life and neither of my best friends will be there.”
“And whose fault is that? Go home, Mitch!” Jace turned on his heel.
“Mary Ann’s in town,” Mitch called to Jace’s back. “She’s renting the Stoddard cottage on Miners Road.”
Jace stopped in his tracks, frozen. “What about it?”
“I thought you should know.”
He waited for Mitch to drive off and went back inside. “He’s gone,” he told Brett.
“The guy’s got a set of balls on him, I’ll say that for him.”
“He always did.” Jace hopped up on one of Brett’s work counters and took in the workshop. Brett kept his tools neat as a pin. “What do you have over there?” In the corner of the room was an entire kitchen minus the sink, appliances, and countertops.
“It’s for a house in Nevada City. A couple from the Bay Area bought it and then promptly gutted it.”
Jace got down to take a closer look. “Nice.” Brett did beautiful work. A few years ago, after he came back from Afghanistan, he took a course through the VA to learn a trade and joined his uncle in the cabinetry business.
Jace let out a breath. “Mary Ann is in town. According to Mitch, she’s renting the Stoddards’ place out on Miners Road.”
“Damn. When did that happen?”
“I don’t know.” Jace told him about the incident at Grady’s school. “Until now I wasn’t completely sure it was her. But Mitch confirmed it.”
“I wouldn’t believe anything that knucklehead says. If he told me it was raining outside, I’d go out and look.”
“Except it’s too much of a coincidence. She’s here, Brett. She’s here and she’s going to make trouble for me, Charlie, and the boys.”
“Why do you think she didn’t call you first and at least give you a heads-up? It doesn’t seem like Mary Ann.”
Jace pinned Brett with a look. “It seems exactly like her. She’s always done whatever the hell she wants with no regard for anyone but herself. If she cared, she wouldn’t have walked out on her children and ignored them for six years.”
“How are you planning to play this?”
“I’ve got full custody of Grady. Let her try to fight that because I’ll crush her. As for Travis, he’s an adult now. He’ll have to make his own decisions, but it’s killing me. It’s freaking killing me.”
“You’re not gonna like what I have to say, but she is their mother, Jace. She may be a lousy mother, but she’s their own flesh and blood.”
“Are you telling me I should let her back into their lives only so she can walk out again? Because she’ll do it at the first sign of a shiny dime that draws her attention elsewhere. Maybe it’ll be cooking school in Paris or a job working as a safari guide in Africa. Who the hell knows with her?”
“I don’t like it any more than you do, Jace. But maybe Grady should have some choice in this. He’s fourteen, not the baby he was when she left.”
Jace didn’t want to talk about it any longer. The whole thing made him sick to his stomach.
“What’s going on with you and Jill?” Jace leaned against the wall.
“She’s seeing a guy in Roseville. A pool contractor she met online.” Brett shook his head. “He seems decent enough. Has two kids of his own about the same age as ours.”
“And you’re okay with it?” Jace asked.
“It’s not like I have a choice, but yeah. We’re over, Jace. There’s no coming back from her and Mitch. From me . . .” He trailed off, but Jace understood what wasn’t being said. Jill hadn’t supported Brett when he’d come home from war a different man from when he’d left.
“How about you?” Jace cocked a brow. He knew Brett had started dating.
“Nah. I’m in no rush.”
“It’ll happen when it happens. And when it does, ooh doggy, it’ll knock you right between your eyes.” He grinned, remembering how he fell for Charlie. “Who would’ve guessed about Mitch? He’s a better man now my ass.”
Brett threw his head back and laughed. “Between you and me, I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He doesn’t have any friends anymore. He went from being town hero to pariah.”
“Nah,” Jace said. “You’ve always been our town hero, Brett, not Mitch. I’ve got to get back to the station. Do me a favor, stay out of trouble. No more throwing cabinets at people.”
Brett followed Jace to the door. “Let me know how this Mary Ann thing shakes out. Take it easy, okay?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Jace decided to swing by the Stoddard cottage. He told himself it was on the way to his office, which it wasn’t. But he was anxious to see if Mitch’s information checked out. At some point he’d have to confront Mary Ann, but he wanted to consult with his attorney first. In the meantime he’d do some reconnaissance.
He took the exit to Miners Road, a residential area just outside of Dry Creek. The burbs, he and his cousins liked to joke. Despite a farm supply store and a new strip mall with a sandwich shop, a laundromat, and a dollar store, there wasn’t a whole lot out here besides homes. It was a hodgepodge of new construction—lots of two-story minimansions with swimming pools—and older homes that were a little worse for wear.
But it was only a matter of time before Mitch and his development company bought up the eyesores, tore them down, and built shiny new ones.
Dry Creek, like every small town in California, was experiencing a growth spurt. Folks from the cities were coming to retire because the real estate prices were better here than wine or ski country. And young people who could work from home enjoyed the bucolic charm, the good schools, and the relatively low cost of living that Dry Creek had to offer. Located only an hour away from Sacramento and three from the Bay Area, it was close enough to “civilization” that it wasn’t too much of a compromise.
Not everyone in Mill County liked the influx—Grandpa Dalton would’ve hated it—and it sure didn’t make Jace’s job any easier. But it was what it was.
In the self-interest department, the changing demographics had certainly been a boon for Dry Creek Village. The new residents, accustomed to all the amenities of city life, loved eating at Gina’s steak house, buying farm-fresh groceries, including the ranch’s beef, at Dalton Market, and furnishing their new homes with pieces they bought at Refind.
Jace had no reason to complain.
He hung a right on East Creek Lane and a left on Miners. It was a nice-looking street. Two years ago some of the residents petitioned the city to turn the vacant lot behind one side of the street into a soccer field and a small park. The city went for it and, with the help of volunteers and private donations, they had their park a year later.
The Stoddards’ property backed up to the park. After Dick Stoddard’s wife died of cervical cancer a few years ago, he moved to Folsom to be closer to his daughter. But he couldn’t bear to sell the cottage, where he and his wife had raised their two children. So, he rented it out. Last Jace heard, an elderly couple from Arizona was leasing it. But that must’ve changed if Mary Ann was living there now.
At the last minute he turned the corner and parked his marked vehicle near the soccer field on Juniper, then walked around the block to Miners. He stayed on the opposite side of the street from the cottage, passing the neatly trimmed front yards and well-kept houses.
He knew almost everyone who lived here, many of whom were the parents of kids he’d gone to school with or his former classmates, who’d inherited their family homes.
As he got closer to the Stoddards’ place, he climbed up onto Christy Wheeler’s front porch. Christy and her partner, Tammy, were both sheriff’s deputies, so he knew they were at work. And even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t mind Jace making himself at home. He’d known Christy his whole life. Her grandfather had been one of Grandpa Dalton’s best friends.
Christy and Tammy’s wide deck was a perfect vantage point for spying. He could see the cottage perfectly from here, but it was just far enough away that someone across the street wouldn’t be able to identify him. Just a guy with a cowboy hat, sitting in a rocking chair. Pretty par for the course around here.
Sure enough, there was a white compact car in the driveway. Jace zoomed in with his phone camera and snapped a picture, then sent it to his watch commander to run the plate. He suspected the car was a rental, which meant he’d have to do some fancy footwork to get the rental company to give up the driver. It wasn’t like this was official police business.
Then again, he really didn’t have to corroborate that it was Mary Ann because he knew it was. There was a time when he could sense her presence with his eyes closed.
He’d been no more than a kid himself when he’d fallen for her. And the more he loved her, the more she’d acted like a caged animal ready to bolt the minute the door opened. Then they got pregnant with Travis and she was stuck. Stuck with him is what she’d said. Stuck with Dry Creek Ranch and living in a nothing town.
Next came Grady and she was jumping out of her skin, so filled with wanderlust that she spent half her days glued to the Travel Channel.
Everything he did to try to make her happy only made it worse. Joining the Mill County Sheriff’s Department so he could be closer to home instead of commuting to Roseville, where he’d been a police officer. Hiring Mitch to draw up plans for a house so she’d have her own domain instead of living with Grandpa Dalton.
Loving her until he thought he’d go crazy with it.
She’d called his love suffocating. A fortress built to keep her in. So she scaled the walls, ran as fast as she could go, and put an ocean between them.
And now she was back. For how long he couldn’t say. But long enough to do some serious damage.
He sat there for a while. Why? He didn’t know. He supposed the cop in him wouldn’t be satisfied until he got indisputable proof that it was really her.
His phone rang, disrupting the silence.
“Hey, Annabeth, everything okay?”
“Everything is fine. I just wanted to make sure you’re planning to be in the office this afternoon.”
“Why?” Annabeth could be a pain in the ass sometimes, micromanaging him like she was his boss instead of it being the other way around. But his job was unpredictable. Because it was a small department he often went out on calls himself. This was all to say who knew where he’d be this afternoon?
“Uh, you have a deadline with the city council to get that proposal in for the new body cameras.”
What the hell was she talking about? “That’s not until next week.”
“Uh . . . oh, for goodness’ sake. Just be here.” With that she clicked off.
He shook his head because there was never a dull moment around this place; then he got up to leave. Jace was halfway to his vehicle when a call came in on his radio. It was a burglary in progress at the Dry Creek Market. He looked at his watch. Lunchtime at the middle school, which meant another kid lifting a candy bar.
He put his light bar on his roof, turned on his siren, and took off.
Chapter Five
“Why are we doing this again?” Charlie got in
Aubrey’s car.
“Because it’ll be fun.”
Charlie was too tired to have fun. The fact was she was dead on her feet from working in the store all morning. Just buckling her seat belt was a chore and the bumpy ride out of the ranch was going to make her have to pee. Again.
And something about Aubrey’s story about going to town to look at some old furniture the sheriff’s department was giving away didn’t make sense. Charlie could work wonders with upcycling most furniture. She’d even been known to filch an old chair or table from the side of the road waiting for garbage pickup and make it look like a million bucks. But she had her limits. She drew the line at metal desks and swivel chairs.
“What kind of furniture?” Because if it was anything worth salvaging, Jace would have told her about it.
“Annabeth said it was stuff they had left over from years ago, back when they used good, hard woods.”
Charlie was dubious, but Aubrey seemed so excited, she didn’t want to burst her balloon. At least she could pop in on Jace. He’d been so tense when he left for work that she’d thought about him all morning.
“I still can’t believe Mitch is having a big wedding at his house,” Aubrey said. “After the debacle with Jill and then her family’s ranch, I would’ve figured he’d want to lay low. Or have his wedding in another county, where everyone didn’t hate him.”
“Maybe they don’t have anywhere else to have it.”
“Or he just wants to show off that ridiculous house of his. The one he built for me”—she put air quotes around “me”—“was bad enough. But at least it wasn’t any showier than Tiffany’s house, or any of the new builds in Dry Creek. But this new one . . . uh, can you say Medici Palace? What a tool.”
Charlie laughed because the house, a fake-looking Italian villa, really was ostentatious. Like Tuscany threw up. He’d even planted a small vineyard to give it that wine country feel.
Mitch, a successful developer, had sold the old house—the one he and Aubrey shared before the breakup, before she’d married Cash—at a hefty profit to a tech guy from Silicon Valley who could telecommute and wanted his kids to grow up in the country. And he’d built the Italian one. Charlie suspected it was Mitch’s way of waving his middle finger at the good citizens of Dry Creek, who’d disowned him.
“It’s actually kind of sad,” she said.
“Nah, not sad. Douchey.” Aubrey turned off on Main Street, heading for the Civic Center “I hope the bride has a large family, otherwise it’s going to be a tiny reception. Just his assistant, Mercedes, and Mitch’s mom.”
Aubrey pulled into City Hall lot and found a parking spot close to the sheriff’s headquarters, which Charlie was eternally grateful for. There was only so far her aching feet would take her.
Aubrey flipped down the passenger seat’s visor and pointed to the mirror. “You want to put on some lipstick?”
“Why?” It wasn’t as if they were going nightclubbing. For the next hour they’d be rooting through a bunch of dusty furniture in the bowels of the sheriff’s department. “Are you trying to tell me that I look awful?”
“No, of course not.” Aubrey pinched Charlie’s cheeks. “You’re just a little pale. Put on some lipstick, Charlotte. You’ll thank me for it later.”
Charlie was starting to get the sense they weren’t really here for furniture.
That suspicion was confirmed eight minutes later when two dozen deputies, support staff members, and county workers yelled, “Surprise!” at the top of their lungs as she and Jace simultaneously entered the conference room. The usually drab space had been decorated in pink streamers, yellow balloons, a baby shower banner, and a sheet cake topped with a fondant pair of tiny pink cowboy boots.
A smile spread across Jace’s face that took Charlie’s breath away. He loved his staff and this community so much that it warmed her heart to see how much it loved him back. Even Tiffany was here. Although she didn’t work for the sheriff’s department, she was Jace’s campaign manager and had her hands in every Dry Creek cause, charity, and ad hoc committee.
“Did you know about this?” Charlie asked him when they had a moment alone.
“Not a clue. You?”
“Not until a few minutes before we walked in, when Aubrey made me put on lipstick. This is so sweet. I can’t believe they went to all this trouble.”
“You two. Pose by the cake. I want to take a picture.” Tiffany herded them to the cake table, where she proceeded to snap photos of them with her phone.
Charlie cornered Annabeth, who she presumed was the architect of the party. “This was enormously kind of you to organize. It’s just so . . .” Charlie choked up, waving her hands over her teary eyes. “Don’t mind me and my pregnancy hormones.”
Annabeth gave her a hug. “It was a group effort. Everyone wanted in on it. Now go open your presents and then we’ll have cake.”
A folding table was piled high with gifts wrapped in lots of pink paper and frilly bows. She and Jace were having a girl, which was public knowledge. They had chosen the name Keely but weren’t broadcasting it because Charlie was superstitious and didn’t want to jinx anything. The name, though, had been Grady’s idea. He had a classmate named Keely, and Charlie and Jace adored the girl as much as they did her name.
It took a good hour to tear through the packages of adorable onesies, receiving blankets, toys, books, and even a high-tech high chair, a group gift from Jace’s top command. But Charlie’s favorite present was a handmade quilt made of vintage Western fabrics that Annabeth had no doubt spent weeks sewing.
If Charlie felt weepy before, she was only seconds away from a monsoon of tears. There was no way to describe the gratitude and joy she was feeling. She’d come to this beautiful town almost four years ago, running from a monster. The people of Dry Creek had not only taken her in and given her their protection but they’d also helped her heal. And now these very same people would be there for her child.
Keely would not only have a big, loving family, she’d have the adoration of a whole community that would watch her grow.
Jace and Cash loaded the gifts into the back of Aubrey’s car.
