Sheriff’s Pregnant Ex by Leslie North

19

“I’ve got something I want to share with you.” Maggie sat down across the table from Caitlin.

“Sure, we’ve got about fifteen minutes before dinner’s ready.” Caitlin felt as though she needed to return her friend’s kindness for letting her stay at the apartment by cooking dinner. She’d made chicken Florentine, homemade bread sticks, and a Caesar salad.

“Perfect. Let’s use this time to talk.” Maggie pulled her laptop from her bag and opened it. “I found what I think is the ideal location for our tattoo parlor.”

“You did?” Caitlin was surprised. They’d gone to look at three storefronts in the past few days, but none had called out to them, so they’d agreed to wait until one grabbed their attention.

“Here it is.” Maggie turned her laptop around so Caitlin could see the screen. The storefront was cute, obviously in an older downtown area with a lot of charm and some vintage details.

“It’s pretty.” Caitlin studied the image. There was something familiar about the large front windows and the decorative architecture. She peered closer, sure that she’d seen it before, but she couldn’t place where. “Is it expensive?”

“Nope, cheaper than the places we’ve been looking, and bigger, too. The building is narrow and deep, giving us space for the individual rooms we’ll need for tattooing and a great waiting area, too. There’s even an apartment on the second floor if one us needs to live there.” Maggie was smiling, pleased with herself, as if she knew something that Caitlin didn’t.

“That might be me if my subletter doesn’t get out on time.” She’d agreed to a three-month sublet, but now her tenant was asking to extend that to six. Caitlin couldn’t keep sleeping on her friend’s couch with a baby on the way much longer.

“I was thinking I’d like it,” Maggie said as she scrolled through the interior pictures so Caitlin could see them. “You’d be living someplace else.”

Caitlin snorted. “Like where?”

“With Brian.”

Caitlin had tried hard not to think about him, but she spent so much time focusing on putting him out of her mind, that he was always there. She was proud of herself, though, that she’d resisted contacting him even though she’d wanted to so much. She had her first prenatal appointment the next day. When she’d made the appointment, she’d desperately wanted to let him know about it, but she’d stopped herself, which had required shutting her phone off and leaving it in the car overnight. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Besides, it would be a long commute to work.”

“Only a couple minutes, I think,” Maggie said. “Darby Crossing isn’t that big.”

“Darby Crossing?” Caitlin looked again at the front of the building and recognition hit her. The building sat kitty-corner to the diner, which made it just down the street from the sheriff’s office.

“That’s right. It’s everything we said we wanted and a little more, for a great price.”

“But in my hometown?” Caitlin said, feeling the usual pressure in her chest she always did when she thought of living too near her parents.

“I think we could make a go of it there. I did some research.” Maggie pulled papers from a folder and consulted them. “The closest tattoo parlor is in Carson, thirty miles away.”

Caitlin almost smiled, guessing that parlor was the one where Brian had gotten the yellow flower tattoo on his butt. “That’s true.”

“With the rodeo coming to town again next year,” Maggie said, “plus the customers we’ll get drawing from the thirty-mile radius, I’m sure we’d stay busy, especially when word spreads that two hot chicks create works of art there. People will flock to us.”

Maggie made a good argument. The town’s rodeo weekend had been such a success that the plan was to expand it to three weekends and hold it annually. Thousands of people had come to the town for the event. Having enough business to be successful in Darby Crossing wasn’t the number one problem in Caitlin’s mind. Living in proximity to her family was.

“I was thinking that you’d want to be closer to Brian if you could be,” Maggie said. “For the baby’s sake if nothing else.”

“Yeah, that would make it easier,” Caitlin admitted, still processing the possibility and weighing how she felt about moving home.

“And I’ve got a hankering to live where I can see hottie cowboys on a regular basis.” Maggie shot her a smile. “I don’t want to pressure you, though. If you really feel you can’t live there, I understand.”

“I don’t know if I can or not,” Caitlin said. She thought of her issues with her parents. They’d hate the idea of her owning a tattoo parlor, especially one right under their noses, but was that enough to deter her from returning to a place where she could be with Brian? Maybe it was time to stop letting her parents dictate her decisions about what she did with her life. They were going to disapprove, no matter where she was or what she did. She didn’t have to let that hold her back anymore.

She’d always thought she could never go home because her parents would take it as a sign of failure—that she couldn’t hack it in the city. But that just wasn’t true. Her confidence in herself was being restored. She’d gotten her money back, she and Maggie were moving ahead with their plans, and…she sighed. She had the love of a good man if she could make it work with him. Was that enough to undo the years of hurt she’d experienced?

Probably not undo, but it might be enough to begin the healing. If Brian was willing to do the same. Her heart started to beat faster at the thought of being with him again. She knew there was no guarantee that it would work out for them. So many things were in their way, but could she commit to trying?

Her fresh start could be in her hometown with a man she’d fallen in love with years ago. That was an odd thought, but an appealing one.

“Brian would have to give a little,” Maggie said cautiously, making Caitlin laugh.

“You mean he’d have to be less of a workaholic and get over his god complex?”

“Yeah, that.” Maggie smiled. “Do you think it’s possible?”

Caitlin didn’t know. It would take bravery and trust on her part, and a willingness to work through his issues for Brian. She felt suddenly frightened, and felt a little lost, like a child who knew that picking the right path in the forest would lead to a rainbow and the wrong one to a swamp. She couldn’t go back into that swamp again. She couldn’t bear to come second or watch their child come second.

Could she be brave enough to risk it, knowing how much she loved Brian?

“I don’t know,” Caitlin finally said. “I need a few days to think about it. But thank you. You just opened a door that I had convinced myself was locked tight forever.” Caitlin hopped up and gave Maggie a hug, feeling cautiously optimistic about the future.

“I want you to take your time deciding,” Maggie said a few minutes later when they were eating dinner. “When I contacted the real estate agent, she said she didn’t have anyone else currently interested, so we have time. If we decide we want the storefront, it’s available for immediate occupancy.”

They could be in business quickly. And it was way cheaper than anything they’d find in Austin, meaning their startup costs would be low. From a business perspective, the decision was a no-brainer. To Caitlin’s heart, the way forward wasn’t as clear, but the possibility had planted a seed of hope. It was up to her to water that seed to see if it would flourish.

She went to bed that night and dreamed about fields of yellow wildflowers. When she woke the next morning, she wondered if it was a sign. If her subconscious had made a decision already. And whether she could trust that that was the right decision.

It was on her mind at her prenatal appointment when she completed the paperwork and saw the doctor. The obstetrician answered her questions and she even heard the baby’s heartbeat. Tears came to her eyes when she listened to the wump-wump-wump of her and Brian’s child. She missed him so much and felt that he should have been there with her.

She drove back to Maggie’s apartment thinking of Brian. By the time she reached the complex, she’d decided to call him. She was apprehensive about opening the possibility of her return, because what would their relationship be if it didn’t work out? She also knew that she had to try.

She parked and walked toward Maggie’s door, past the small courtyard with a fountain and benches. Caitlin stopped short when she saw a tall figure in a Stetson standing by the fountain. Brian. Had she somehow conjured him?

At that moment, he spotted her and strode toward her. She waited for him to take her in his arms, but he stopped a foot in front of her, disappointing her. What had he come to say?

“What are you doing here?” Her words were barely a whisper.

“I came to tell you that I resigned as sheriff,” he said. “I want to be close to you and our baby. So I hope your offer for us to be together here still stands.”

“You resigned?” She was genuinely shocked. Brian’s whole life revolved around being sheriff of Darby Crossing. He was willing to give it up for her?

“I did,” he said. “I love you so much that I don’t want anything to come between us. My job was, so I delivered my resignation letter to the mayor’s office this morning and drove here, hoping that I’m not too late.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he went on.

“Before you say anything, I want to make you a promise. If you’ll take me back, I swear that I’ll always make you and the baby my first priority. I know now that you’re everything to me and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to convince you of that.”

His eyes searched her face. She could see hope in his expression, along with fear. She understood that mix of emotions because she’d felt the same until a few moments ago. His willingness to give up his job was all she needed to face down her old fears. Happiness, true and complete happiness, was right in front of her.

She couldn’t find words, so she grasped his shirt front and pulled him to her. The kiss they shared was sweetest one of her life. Afterwards, she buried her face against his chest and just let him hold her for a moment. His hands stroked her back, and she could have stood like that forever, but she had her own things to say.

She led him to a shaded bench in the courtyard. “I’d been thinking about you and about us, too. I had made up my mind to call you today and tell you that I’m willing to move back to Darby Crossing so we can be together. I don’t want you to give up the job you love, but I want you to commit to taking some real time off every now and then and delegating responsibilities. When you make a promise to me or the baby, you need to keep it. Can you do that?”

He seemed shellshocked for a moment. “Are you sure that’s all right with you? I don’t have to be sheriff. I don’t have to live in Darby Crossing.”

She smiled at that. “Yes, you do. Being sheriff is who you are, and Darby Crossing is where you belong. I don’t want you to change for me, because I love you.”

His hands gripped hers. “I can talk to Sofia about taking more on. I’ve realized that it’s not good for the department to be so reliant on me. And I want to be able to walk out the door at the end of the day so I can spend time with you and our family without checking my phone every five minutes.” He leaned closer until their foreheads touched. “You are more important to me than anything else in the world.”

He kissed her again, and her world felt completely whole. She’d have him and their baby. She couldn’t ask for more.

“What about your parents?” he asked when they parted. His expression showed his concern.

“I’m going to learn to live near them,” Caitlin declared. She’d let her parents dictate and control so much of her life so far. She was no longer going to let them have power over her any longer. “If they’re willing to play nice, they can be part of their grandchild’s life. If not, it’s their loss.”

“You know I’ll support whatever you want to do about them,” he said, kissing her again, but he pulled back suddenly. “Wait, you can’t move home. What’ll you do about your business with Maggie? I don’t want you to give that up.”

She smiled. “We’ve had a change in plans. What do you know about a storefront available in downtown Darby Crossing?”

“The old Heisler place,” he said instantly. Of course, he would know every inch of the town.

“That’s the one,” she said, remembering the florist shop that had been in that space when she was a kid. “Maggie and I are looking at it for our business. What do you think?”

Before answering, he pulled her into his lap. “I think we’re going to have a beautiful life together.” And then they kissed for a long time.