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“Pie,” Penelope said, pointing to her plate with her fork. “No more talking, just pie.”
Laughter filled the kitchen, and she liked that sound maybe more than she should. Ten years she’d been traveling, road-tripping all over the coast, finding work where her heart told her to stay for a bit. She liked her life. No, she loved her adventures. But if she were being honest with herself, this wasn’t so bad either. Home. Family. And neither was the idea of having more of Darryl.
An hour later, Darryl moved toward the desk with the typewriter and grabbed an incident report out of the filing cabinet. Typically, he did these reports the night the incident occurred, but the snowstorm had gotten in his way. Not that he minded. Christ, his muscles were sore, his chest was lighter, and his blood felt like it was pumping through his veins easier. Christmas came early this year, and dammit, history was repeating itself again. Five days he had with Penelope ten years ago. Five days he’d get again. At least this time when she left, he’d get to say goodbye. Though, admittedly, he was still grappling with the real reason why she left, and that it wasn’t because he’d screwed it up by blurting exactly what he’d been feeling at the time.
A good twenty years before Darryl had become a cop, the River Rock police station had taken ownership of the old courthouse on Main Street with its big white columns outside. Inside the station, the space was modernized with the reception desk at the front near the waiting room. A thin hallway down the left side led to a larger room with beehive desks, some with computers on top, others with typewriters.
When he took a seat at the desk, his captain said from somewhere behind Darryl, “Update on Penelope Carter.”
The captain sidled up next to the desk. He was a broody guy, big in the shoulders, and in the center, and his dark eyes matched his typically hard expression.
“Community service during the holiday events,” Darryl responded.
“That’ll do.” The captain went to turn away when he suddenly froze. “Wilson,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “Let’s not make it a habit of drooling over the women we take into custody. Remember everyone is looking at you for your promotion.”
Darryl sat back in his seat and arched an eyebrow.
“Ms. Carter wasn’t the only one seen on that video,” the captain pointed out.
It was a rare thing to see amusement in the captain’s eyes. Even rarer to see his shoulder’s shaking with his laughter as he strode away. Great. The shock at seeing Penelope again, the heat he’d felt for her all those years ago that had taken his damn breath away, returned with a vengeance, and having her close again had brought unexpected intensity.
He didn’t need to see the video to know that happened. He’d been there. Experienced it himself.
He put his mind back onto his work and continued typing up the report on Penelope Carter. A 911 call had been made, and Darryl had to write up the report, detailing her community service work, no matter that he didn’t want her name anywhere near a police report. And there was no fooling nothing, she remained as much of a problem today as she had the second he saw her. Once, he blew his long-awaited promotion by getting drunk and ending up in a bar fight that placed himself at the center of the town’s gossip for weeks. That couldn’t happen again. Penelope was the type of girl who skated drunk on fountains. Fun, but not exactly good for his reputation. The higher ups were watching him. He wouldn’t regret his night with Penelope. He simply needed it to be only a one-time thing. Soon, she’d leave. Life would go back to normal. He could deal with the loneliness if he had his job. When everything went south with his wife, he always had his work and the respect of the people of the town. He didn’t want to sacrifice either.
This year, he’d taken over one of the retiree’s positions in the Christmas events to prove he was the right guy for the job. He wanted strictly a day shift to have something that resembled a life, and to get that, he needed the promotion to police sergeant.
When he hit enter to type on the next line, a deep voice said, “Who’s the sexy skater?” Jack Fitzpatrick, Natalie’s brother and Darryl’s long-time buddy, grabbed the chair from the desk next to him and twirled it around, sitting on it backward.
“She’s the cousin of the Carter sisters,” Darryl replied, using his two index fingers to terribly type out the report.
“Ah, so it is Penelope Carter.”
Darryl didn’t know what Jack meant by that. He didn’t care either. What he did care about was the fact that perhaps the whole station had heard about the video. Ignoring the amusement in his friend’s light brown eyes, he asked, “How’d you hear about the video?”
“Natalie, actually.”
Darryl stopped typing and glanced sideways at his ex-brother-in-law. “She called you?”
“I think you made her day.” Jack smiled, thrusting his fingers through his wild brown hair. “Her friend shared the video on Facebook, and she told me that you looked cozy.” Jack leaned forward, his eyes all but twinkling. “A little recon later, she discovered the woman was Penelope Carter, the girl you had a crush on during camp one summer.”
At that, Darryl froze. “I don’t remember ever telling Nat about Penelope.”
“In passing, she said.” Jack shrugged. “She seemed to know who she was and got all excited. You know how she talks fast and shit.”
Darryl shook his head, focusing back on the typewriter, and his job. “She needs to stop worrying about me.” He began typing again slowly, ensuring he didn’t make any mistakes. “Tell her that I’m fine, and that it’s weird for an ex-wife to worry about their ex-husband’s love life.”
Jack cupped Darryl’s shoulder. “Don’t think she’ll stop that until you marry again.”
Most times, ex-spouses had a level of resentment, but that didn’t exist between him and Natalie. He loved her in the most platonic way. They stopped having sex way before they broke up, and because of that, a friendship had been borne that made Darryl want her to be happy. Truly happy. Not just half-assing it through life. He’d seen his mother go through hell, never demanding her own happiness. He wouldn’t do that to any woman. Especially not a woman that cared about him. “Tell Nat that I’m not with Penelope. She’s leaving after Christmas.”
“But you’re sleeping with her.”
Darryl glanced sideways and arched an eyebrow. “Why again is this any of your business?”
Jack paused as a couple of cops strode by and then he grinned. “Because I’m part of the gossip train now and need the goods or my sister will slaughter me.”
“Pussy.” Darryl laughed, shaking his head and starting to type again. “Are you heading out to Wisconsin tonight for the holidays?”
