“Loaned to our department by the real police, over in Morgan Bay. Technically, they’re the real law in this area.”
“Right.” I crossed my arms. “Well, you take your job very seriously.”
He smiled. “I’m just serving and protecting my community.”
“So, this is what Ash meant when she said you became a policeman by accident.”
“We were having a town meeting and I was voted in. I’d just come back to town.”
“And why is April back here?” I asked.
“Oh, well, that’s not really the end of the story, with her,” he said.
“It’s not?”
He shook his head. “No. She came back here about two years after I did. Things with Anthony didn’t work out, and we got back together for a year, and then she left me again.”
“What? She left you twice?”
“Told you I wasn’t good at reading woman signals.”
“Who did she leave you for this time?” I asked.
“She went back to Anthony, or should I say that he came here for her and won her back. By that stage, I must have been a serious disappointment to her—living with my sister, running a little B and B, volunteering as a police reservist.”
“Oh my God,” I said, holding my head. “She left you twice, for the same man. And she still lives here with him?”
“I thought they would go back to Cape Town, but they didn’t, because they’re making a fortune designing houses for the eco estate.”
“Wow. Okay.” I looked at him in shock.
“It’s like a wise person once said,” Mike started. “The heart is also just a muscle, and it takes time to heal a strain.”
“You memorized it?” I smiled at him.
“I told you, your book really helped me.”
“Has your strain been healed yet?” I asked him, not able to make eye contact. Feeling coy.
“Has yours?” he asked.
“What?”
“You were heartbroken when you wrote that book,” he stated.
I nodded. “I am over the sprain—well, sort of. I still find myself doing a lot of things motivated by getting him back,” I said. “Like my car. I don’t even like Porsches; I just got it because it was his favorite car and buying it meant I could rub it in his face!”
He smiled at me. “I tried that shit once before—trust me, it doesn’t work. People don’t love you or want to be with you for things. They love you and want to be with you because you’re you.”
This time Ididlook at him. Our eyes locked.
“So, that’s me. My story,” he whispered.
“Thanks for telling it,” I said back.
He shrugged. “It was good to talk to someone who understands. Ash just gets angry and wants to drive by and fuck April up, which puts me in a difficult position, being the official unofficial law man of this town.”
I smiled at him. “Do you like what you do now?”
