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Chapter Four
Ethan
My chief had been aware of my application to the County Detectives Office, so when I went into his office later that morning, he wasn’t all that surprised. He stated that as much as he hoped I would succeed, he’d had his fingers crossed that someone else would get the job. He hated losing me, but he knew that at least he’d have someone he could depend on at the county level when major cases came in.
In a small town, word traveled fast, and I didn’t want my family to hear about my new job before I got a chance to announce it this weekend. Henley was the only person that I had spoken with about it, besides my father, so I asked the chief to keep it under wraps for a few days.
He wished me well and told me that I would always have a place here if I changed my mind.
What was Riley going to say? Would she wish me well? The chances are that I’d probably move closer to our county seat so that I’d be closer to our office. As it was, Millerstown was on the very edge of our county. Would she care? Did I want her to? Perhaps I wanted her to beg me not to leave, just like she did when I brought her home. Would she ask me to stay closer? If she did, would I?
Nope! I was done with Riley and her wicked, sexy ways. She was no good for me, and I needed to get over her and move on. I looked forward to putting that distance between us and focusing on something else. Something that did not have anything to do with her.
So, if that was what I wanted, why, as I drove to my parents’ house on Saturday, was I a nervous wreck about saying anything at the end of Coral’s party? I knew that everyone would be happy for me, and I was excited about it. All of them, including Riley, knew I had applied. It wasn’t like I could hide it. The process had included many of them during interviews on my background check.
I hadn’t seen Riley since I dropped her off at her car Thursday morning. Usually, we texted a few times a day, and I’d found myself a few times pulling up her contact information to do just that. Only to shake my head at myself and ditch the message I was going to write.
She hadn’t contacted me either, and I knew she was still pissed at me for what I said. Did I feel bad about that? Not really. She did drink a lot, and recently, she’d been drinking enough to have blackout spells. I think I had only one or two episodes like that in my thirty-two years, and they were minor. The first being my twenty-first birthday, and the next was when I’d graduated from the police academy and had gotten a job.
I had no intention of ever doing that again and had a hard time accepting that she liked to do that or that she would drink so much over and over again that it would continue to happen.
I pursed my lips as I turned the corner. I hadn’t meant to call her an alcoholic, but wasn’t her behavior just that? A person who wasn’t able to control their urges to drink, drank enough to have blackout spells, and didn’t see the effect they were having on themselves or others? I was pretty sure that was the exact description of being an alcoholic.
I knew her denial was also precisely that of someone with a drinking problem. God knew that I’d seen my share of them on the job. Maybe I needed to say something to Henley about it. Perhaps he could talk some sense into his sister, or maybe he would tell me to go pound sand and that his sister didn’t have a problem.
I sighed as I pulled down the lane to my parents’ house and parked. I was about an hour late, but that was okay. I’d had to help out with a situation at work for a few hours, and I knew that my family would now be just about ready to eat.
There were quite a few cars here already, and as my eyes slipped over each of them, I didn’t see Riley’s SUV. Okay, maybe she wasn’t coming. That was probably better.
It was a beautiful May evening, and kids were out in the side yard kicking a soccer ball. Music was playing around back, and little lights were strung along the bushes of the pathway. Laughter and voices pulled me forward, and I ran into Wesley as I rounded the house.
“Hey, there you are. I was wondering if you were going to make it.”
“Yeah, I had to go into work for a little while.” I slapped him on the back as Marisol ran past me.
“Hi, Uncle Ethan,” she called out merrily as she raced toward the other kids.
“Hey, Marisol.” Wes’s eyes followed her as she ran, and a smile slipped over his lips. “You really love that little girl, don’t you?”
“Oh, man. That young lady had me wrapped around her finger the day she fell off the jungle gym.”
I laughed, remembering the story of how he’d been jogging and seen her fall. Her mother, Charlotte, had attacked him for putting his hands on her to check her. Charlotte had later learned in the ER that Wes was a doctor and not a creeper.
“When are you gonna settle down and have a few of your own?” Wes asked as he peered my way.
I laughed again. “Yeah, well, I think that all depends on when I find a woman that wants the same thing that I do.”
Wesley frowned slightly and looked off to the side. I followed his gaze to where it landed on Riley as he spoke. “Yeah, I guess she hasn’t grown up yet.”
“Ha! Yeah, I’m not sure your sister will ever grow up,” I said as Riley sipped from a beer and leaned toward a man that I didn’t know. “Who is she with?”
“His name is Joe Newman; that’s all I know. He’s new to the area, I think.”
He was laughing at something that she said. He seemed enthralled with her, but weren’t most men? I shifted my gaze off him to find her looking at me. For two seconds we stared at one another, and I knew that she was still mad at me. She turned away, leaning closer to the guy and putting on her flirt.
“I’m going to go find a beer,” I said to Wes as I slapped his shoulder and went to find the cooler. On my way, I stopped and said hello to people I passed, and it wasn’t until almost two hours later that my path finally crossed with Riley and her date. Until then, I’d been able to keep my distance. It was easy to be conversing on the opposite side of the yard with forty people here.
I removed a beer from the cooler and looked up to see the guy waiting to get one. “You need one—or two?”
