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It is good, really good, and I know that as I sort myself out and what I want my life to look like in the next few years, it will just get better.
“I know Mom has told you more than once that she’s happy to have you back, but I am too.”
“Dad.” I barely get through the tightness in my throat. My dad isn’t a guy who is big on telling you how he feels, but over the years he’s made it clear on more than one occasion that he didn’t like me living so far away and that he wanted me to be closer.
“We love you, honey.”
“I know.” My eyes start to water, and he shakes his head while he holds open his arms. I walk to him and fall against his chest, and his arms close around me.
“We’ve missed having you around.”
“I know, and I missed you guys too.” I close my eyes, and I feel his lips rest against the top of my head.
“Things are going to be okay, and I know you feel like you failed in some way, having to come home, but you didn’t, Genevieve, and there is nothing wrong with changing your plans when the plans you made change.”
“You’re right,” I agree, and he gives me a squeeze, then lets me go.
“So what are your plans for the rest of the day?” He changes the subject, obviously reaching his heart-to-heart capacity.
“I have a few calls to make, and I want to start doing some online advertising for the Daileys so that we can hit the ground running next week once we go live. After I get that done, I’m meeting Tiffany for a drink later. Are you and Mom doing anything tonight?”
“I’m going to be watching football; your mom will probably spend the evening calling around to get donations for Wyatt’s campaign.”
“She’s determined for him to win.”
“If there is anyone in this town who deserves to win, it’s him,” he tells me, and something about his tone causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.
“Oh, good, you guys are both here.” Mom comes into the room carrying about a dozen shopping bags, cutting off the question I was going to ask my dad, which is sitting on the tip of my tongue. “I need some help getting the stuff out of my car.”
“What is all this?” I ask when she places the bags she’s holding on the table and a few red and blue sparkling stars fall out of one.
“Me and the girls are going to make some signs this evening using the conference room here, since it’s the biggest space we have.” Her eyes lock on mine. “I’m recruiting you and Anna to help out.”
“I have plans to get a drink with Tiffany tonight after work.”
“Perfect. She can help, too, and I’ll buy a couple of bottles of wine.” She starts for the door, ordering Dad and me to follow. “Come on; I want to get everything in before it starts to rain.”
Obviously having no choice in the matter, Dad and I follow her outside to get the rest of the stuff from her car. And once we have it all in the office, I send Tiffany a message letting her know that there has been a change of plans, and since she loves my mom, and me even more, she agrees to come to the office when she gets off work.
Chapter 10:
Sheriff McHottie
Wyatt
I grind my teeth when I walk into the sheriff’s office and hear the guys I once considered friends snicker. All fucking day I’ve had to endure their constant harassment over the radio, and it doesn’t seem like they are going to stop with the bullshit anytime soon. Ignoring the fact that I can feel them staring, I make my way to my desk and take a seat in my chair. If I could have gotten away with going straight home when my shift was over, I would have, but the reports I need to file can’t wait until I’m back on duty in two days.
“Hey, Foster,” Russell calls out, and my fingers twitch on my keyboard.
“What?”
“Miss Mary and the rest of the ladies at the senior center said they will all be voting for you in December.”
“Great,” I grumble while the other guys chuckle.
“I just want to know if Sheriff McHottie will be your official title,” Bryan says, and I sigh. I can’t blame them for giving me a hard time. Hell, I gave Cole shit for days after Jenny got ahold of his uniform and glued rhinestones to it, and that wasn’t half as bad as this situation.
When I stopped by the coffee shop on my way into work this morning to pick up my usual large black coffee with a scoop of sugar, I assumed from the way that everyone seemed to be looking at me that they might have heard about the party I broke up last night. A party that grew out of control when a couple of the older kids found out that a high school freshman’s parents were out of town and they took it upon themselves to invite a few people over to his place. It might not have been so bad if it was just a few people and if drinking wasn’t involved, but as tends to happen, word got around about where the party was at, and soon the house was overrun. When I arrived, there had to be over a hundred kids in the less-than-three-thousand-square-foot house, and they had taken over every inch of it. There were even a few idiots who decided that it would be a good idea to swim in the outdoor pool despite the freezing temps outside, which is why we got a call. A neighbor saw what was going on next door, knew that his neighbors were out of town and that the house shouldn’t have been filled with kids, and called in to dispatch. After I arrived and shut the party down, we ended up calling the parents of the kids we caught who had been drinking, along with the parents of the poor sap whose house had been taken over. To say his parents were not happy with the state of their residence when they got home at two in the morning is an understatement. And who could blame them? It smelled and looked like a frat house on a Sunday after a bunch of smelly twenty-one-year-olds spent the weekend partying. There were beer cans, alcohol bottles, and trash everywhere. And on top of that, it was obvious more than a couple of the bedrooms had been used for kids to hook up in, including the kid’s ten-year-old sister’s bedroom.
