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“I did.”
Malcolm smiled indulgently.
“Your job is waiting for you. I’m sure the therapy will make you a better officer.”
“Yeah, right,” Jack grumbled as he let himself out.
Andy was waiting for him in the break room.
“Well?” he demanded as he poured Jack a cup of coffee.
“It feels good to be right,” Jack said as he took the offered mug.
“Fantastic.” Andy thumped him on the back. “It’ll be good to have you back.”
Jack sat in an old wobbly chair.
“That’s the thing,” he told his friend. “I’m not sure I’m coming back.”
Andy spat coffee over the grey Formica table.
“What the?” he said as he grabbed a cloth. “All I’ve heard for months is how much you wanted your job back. How we’re useless without you. How it’s your whole life. You even stopped showering in protest. So what the hell are you talking about?”
Jack shrugged.
“I’m as confused as you are,” he said. “I thought I’d jump at the chance to get back. Now, it doesn’t feel as important. I’ve got a lot on my mind. I put my foot in it big time with Davy. I need to sort that out first, before she does something stupid. Or before her scary friend puts a hex on me.”
A slow knowing smile appeared on Andy’s face.
“Ah, I forgot, you’re in lurve.”
“It’s not love. It has nothing to do with love. It’s...” He cast around for the word. “Responsibility. I feel responsible. She’s my tenant. I need to look out for her.”
“You’re only fooling yourself. Trust me, I know the signs. Let’s look at the evidence.” Andy was enjoying himself far too much. “Two weeks ago you were glued to the couch, crying into your beer, begging me to make the department t
ake you back. Then you get tied up by a fantasy girl and now you’re wondering if you should change your life.” He paused, pretending to think. “Nope, you’re right. She has absolutely nothing to do with this.”
“Look,” Jack said with long suffering. Sometimes he seriously wondered why they were friends. “Apart from the fact I need to do some damage control with Davy, hanging around the old house these past couple of weeks has made me think. I have an opportunity here, I could do something with the place. Maybe start a business of my own.”
Andy’s eyes went wide.
“You want to run a bed and breakfast?” He started to laugh. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all year.” He held up a hand to stop Jack talking. “Let me tell you, Jackie, you’re not a people person. Unless this is the kind of place you stay in for an experience, like, say, get the shit scared out of you by the owner, then I don’t think you have a hope in hell of being a success.”
“Funny. Really funny.”
He sipped his coffee while Andy calmed down. No people skills his backside.
“I was thinking of running a security business,” he said when Andy stopped laughing. “Run self-defence classes, maybe security seminars for home owners, that sort of thing.”
“You’d be bored out of your mind.”
“Maybe.” Jack wasn’t convinced. He also hadn’t nutted out the details yet. All he knew was that he had options. Options he had to consider. It was time to rethink his future.
“Okay,” Andy said. “But what are you going to do about your tenant? You can’t very well start a business when you have a sitting tenant, with rights. How are you going to get rid of her?”
Jack was silent. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get rid of her. Maybe there was some way she could stay in the house and he could run the business around her. Maybe from the garden? He needed to think this one through a bit more.
“Like I said,” he told a grinning Andy. “I need to think about things. Right now I don’t have any plans, just a vague idea.”
