Sheriff’s Pregnant Ex by Leslie North

10

“Turn left at the next crossroad,” she said, directing him.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked as he made the turn. Part of him was anxious to return to Darby Crossing. He’d been out of contact with his deputies for hours. But the rest of him was surprised at how anxious he didn’t feel. For the first time since he became sheriff, he wasn’t worried about what was happening in town. Being with Caitlin was too important to him to fixate on his job when he wasn’t even on duty. He was still processing what she’d said by the lake about falling for him. It was as if his wildest dream had come true.

“Pull off here,” she said, “and park under that cottonwood tree.”

He did as she asked. They got out of the truck and walked through a small stand of trees to a field of yellow wildflowers on the other side of it. He recognized them immediately. They were the same as the one from his tattoo.

“What are they?” he asked, as he studied the flowers. Each bloom was small, only an inch or two across, but all together they looked like a golden carpet. Texas offered a variety of types of wildflowers, but he didn’t know the name of this kind.

“I looked them up once—they’re a type of coreopsis called Golden Wave. But to me, they mean freedom and happiness.” She walked into the field and spun around in a circle, completely unguarded for a moment. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her quite like that—unburdened and happy.

“Tell me why,” he encouraged her, wanting to understand better.

“When I was in high school, I used to ride my bike out here, sit in the flowers and draw. It was my place where no one could find me, where nothing mattered but making myself happy,” she said. He understood her need to escape from her family. So this had been her secret spot during those tough years. She paused, her arms dropping to her sides, as she turned her face to the sun. “I haven’t been here since coming back to town. I’ve missed it.”

Suddenly he got why she’d drawn the flower for him all those years ago instead of writing I love you. It was her way of inviting him into her world, sharing what was precious to her. He wished he’d understood that then, because maybe…maybe things would have turned out differently for them. But he was starting to believe in second chances.

“I can’t go years without seeing them in bloom again,” she said.

“You should come back more regularly to visit the field. It’s not that long of a drive,” he said. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “You could come often, probably every weekend because you wouldn’t want to miss anything…any changes in the flowers, that is.”

“Maybe I should do that.” Her voice was soft, but her gaze was direct. “Since it isn’t far, and there’s something here to draw me back.”

They both knew they weren’t really talking about the flowers. What if they could see each other every week? It could work. He’d stay here and continue as sheriff, and she could live the life she wanted in the city. They could have weekends together. Other people managed relationships at a distance. It wasn’t ideal, but if that was all they could have, he’d take it.

He walked toward her, cutting a path through the field. When he reached her, he plucked a flower and tucked it behind her ear. The sunny color almost matched the shade of her hair.

“It’ll fade fast,” she warned. “They do after they’re picked.”

“Not this one. This one will stay beautiful.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking over the soft skin.

“And you know that how?” She tilted her face up to his, inviting a kiss.

“I’m sheriff.” He kissed her forehead and then the tip of her nose. “That gives me some special powers in my jurisdiction.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “You must be a mighty sheriff if even the flowers have to follow your orders.”

“It’s the law,” he said and kissed her fully.

Only the fact that he didn’t have any more condoms with him kept him from laying her down amongst the flowers and making love to her again. He kissed her while the sun shone on them before leading her back to his truck and heading back to town.

“I’ll drop you off at home,” he said as he turned off Main Street onto Chaska. “I want to check in with my deputies, but I won’t be long.” He’d pick up some paperwork and take it home to complete it. That way, he could spend more time with Caitlin before he had to go to work the next day.

“Hurry back,” she said. “I have plans for you.”

“I’ll need to work some.” But he could imagine her curled up on the couch next to him, maybe sketching as he’d seen her do often while he worked.

“See you in a bit.” She leaned across the seat and kissed his cheek before getting out of the truck. He waited until she was in the house to drive to the station. He couldn’t quite believe what had just happened between them. He was still processing what it meant for their relationship, their future. The thought that he had a future with her put a smile on his face.

All of his good feelings disappeared as soon as he opened the door and saw men in each of the holding cells. His chief deputy was on the phone, but Sofia gave him a nod and held up one finger, indicating that she’d explain in a minute. To top it off, his youngest deputy was excitedly pacing between the holding cells, his head swiveling between them as if he expected one of the men in custody to spontaneously combust at any moment.

“Kilpatrick,” Brian snapped out. “What’s going on?”

“Hey, boss.” Mack made a beeline for him. “You should’ve seen what happened. That guy had that guy in a headlock—”

“In my office,” Brian said, not wanting this recitation to go on in front of the “guys” who seemed to be the problem. He waited until Mack had closed the door and taken a seat to pin him with a stare. “Start from the beginning.”

“Sure thing,” Mack began. “We got dispatched to the tavern at three till one. I’d just concluded a traffic stop on Lariat Road, so I hustled back to town, and got there ahead of Sofia.”

Brian didn’t want to even think how fast his deputy had driven to beat someone who was likely closer. “What did you see when you arrived?”

“The guy in the denim shirt out there had the red shirt guy in a headlock, and it looked like they’d been going at it for a few minutes. Tables and chairs were shoved all over the place.” Mack gestured as he spoke. “Margie got sliced, too.”

“What?” Someone had gotten hurt? That wasn’t the norm in Darby Crossing, even in a bar fight.

“You know Margie.” Mack gave him a wide-eyed look.

“I know who you mean.” Everyone in town knew the tavern’s bartender and manager. She’d been working there since Brian could remember. “Sliced by what?”

“The red shirt guy had a knife, about a five-inch-long blade. Before I got there, Margie’s arm got cut when she tried to break up the fight herself. You see, these guys had some bad blood left over from the rodeo. They’re both bull riders. Denim shirt beat red shirt by a smidge and was ragging on him about it. After a few beers, they started to shove each other around, and it got worse from there. Like I said, denim had red in a headlock when I walked in.”

Brian shuddered to think what his overly enthusiastic cowboy of a deputy did then. “Your response?”

“Just like we trained for a couple months ago, I started talking to them, trying to de-escalate the conflict.” Mack adjusted his tone as if he were speaking to the drunks.

Brian had all his deputies take the course, but he wouldn’t have bet money that the training had sunk in for Mack. He was reluctantly impressed. “And it worked?”

“Took some time, but yeah. Red shirt agreed to drop his knife so long as the other guy released the headlock. I counted it down from five, just like we were taught. When I got to the number one, they both did what I asked. By that time Sofia was there, so we took them into custody and brought them back to the station. What charges do you think we should file? I mean, we could go for attempted murder because of the knife, but I’m thinking assault might be better. Sofia said to wait and ask you.”

“Right.” Brian wanted to hear Sofia’s take on the story before making any decisions. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Mack—especially since it sounded like he’d handled this surprisingly well—but getting two perspectives was always better. His door opened and Sofia walked in. “Mack, you go on out and get working on your report. We’ll be out in a minute.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Mack went past Sofia, but not before giving her a lingering look. Brian shook his head. He was going to have to deal with that office crush sooner rather than later. Not at the moment, though. There were bigger problems.

“You tell me what happened,” he said to Sofia. She went through the incident for him, and her account tallied with Mack’s. “So he really did de-escalate it?”

“Yeah,” she assured him. “I was keeping an on eye him in case I needed to step in, but he knew what he was doing.”

“How’s Margie?” he asked.

“I just got off the phone with the hospital,” Sofia said. “She’s got a slice on the forearm, not deep, but it took five stitches to close. She was lucky it wasn’t worse.”

Brian thought the same about the whole damn incident. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“Because I had it under control.”

“Bar fight with an injury and a deadly weapon, and you don’t contact me?” His people had managed it, but still, he couldn’t believe they’d left him in the dark.

Sofia huffed out a sigh. “It’s okay for you to take a day off every once in a while, Brian. We had this. You made sure we had the training, and Mack, for all his flaws, handled it perfectly. And if he hadn’t, I was there and would have stepped in. What more do you think you could have done? What’s the point in making me chief deputy if you don’t trust me to make decisions while you’re gone? Don’t you have confidence in me?”

Dammit. He hadn’t meant to insult her. “Of course I do. It’s not that.”

Sofia crossed her arms in front of her and eyed him. “Then what is it?”

“Nothing. You both did great. Will you go help Mack get the report done, please? I’ll be out in a few minutes to look at it.” Brian waited for her to leave the room before slumping back in his chair. His staff had done everything they should have without him being there, but the situation could have gone all kinds of wrong. And he couldn’t help remembering all the damage that had been caused by the previous sheriff’s lazy, lax attitude.

Training had been ignored, and basic laws had gone unenforced. It had resulted in tragedy for Brian personally when his brother and father were killed in an accident that could have been prevented if the sheriff had been doing his job. There had been other accidents, too, other things that had slipped through the cracks. Brian knew that he could never live with himself if he let down his guard and disaster struck.

He scooped up the paperwork he’d come for before going to check on Mack’s report. He spent an hour with his youngest deputy, assisting him in creating a report that the prosecutor would accept and tamping down Mack’s excessive enthusiasm. He’d done the right thing, but this was one incident. The key to this job was doing the right thing every time. Brian would have to keep a close watch on him to make sure he stayed on track.

Long after he expected to, Brian made his way home. It was already evening, and he wanted nothing more than to sit on the back deck with Caitlin…but he couldn’t.

“Hi.” Caitlin met him just inside the door and put her arms around his neck. “Do you want to order a pizza for dinner or do you want to come upstairs with me?”

“Not tonight,” he said, stepping out of her hold. The fact that he was so tempted to give in to her proved that he had to be firm. She had too much pull on him, but he couldn’t let himself get distracted from his responsibilities.

“What is it?” she asked and put her hand on his arm, making him pause. “Did something happen?”

“Yeah.” He could tell her what, but he didn’t see the point. “And it reminded me that I can’t avoid my responsibilities like I did today.”

“You regret today?” she asked softly, and he could hear the hurt in her voice.

“No, not regret—but I have work to do.” He went up past her and closed himself into his bedroom. Normally he didn’t work there, but he couldn’t be around Caitlin. He’d taken his eyes off his duties for a few hours and someone had been hurt. He couldn’t let that happen again.