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CHAPTER1
JANET
“You knowit’s your fault I’m in this mess.” Wyatt tips his beer at me and I smirk, raising my glass. I’m not normally a fruity drink kind of girl, but I won a bet and I’m cashing in. I ordered the most expensive drink on Reggie’s menu and this shit is dangerous. There’s so much sugar and fruit that I can’t taste the booze, but I can feel it.
“Mess? You know how babies happen, Collins. You did this yourself.” Montero laughs and slaps Wyatt on the back. “I knew this would happen when I caught you naked that one time.” We’d given him shit about that for weeks. He and the now wifey got it on in her comic shop and somehow tripped the alarm. Officers Montero and Jones took the call and found them mostly naked in the middle of the store.
“Morgan made me chase Nora, got Pops involved, and now I’m gonna be a dad again.” He tips up the beer, winking at me from behind it this time. He can play angry all he wants, but he’s the one who talked Nora into a baby, and we all know it. A year ago, I definitely didn’t think I’d be out at my ex’s bar celebrating a new baby with my partner and best friend, but here we are. One push to go to speed dating and he’s gone and made a whole human, again. Cruze will be starting kindergarten just in time for a new baby to arrive. He’s so fucking happy he can’t stop smiling, and I can’t blame him. Wyatt Collins was born to be a family man.
“When’s it your turn, Morgan?” Montero, Collins, and Bales all look at me. Forget the fact that we live in a small town with three whole lesbians in it, these guys want to know when I’m settling down. I wish I could say they’re stupid and think I’d pick a man, but they all know better. I run my hand over my hair despite knowing it’s in a tight bun and going nowhere.
“My turn?” I eye Reggie at the bar and almost sigh. Once upon a time I thought she was my turn, but she was too busy giving every curious straight woman in town a turn as well. To each their own, it just sucked to be waiting for her at home when she was fucking everyone but me. To her it was no big deal, to me it hurt. I assumed asking me to move in was her way of saying she wanted to settle down, but it clearly wasn’t. She just needed help with rent and wanted someone on deck in case a tipsy straight woman wasn’t available. We’re still friendly, but nothing can get me down that road with her again.
“Your mom told me yesterday that it was a shame that only one of her three kids likes women, but still can’t find one.” Wyatt chuckled and I had to laugh. My mother adopted three kids in her late twenties and all of us turned out to be gay. Being the loving hippie she is, it doesn’t bother her, but she’s pressuring us for grandkids and apparently enlisted my partner to help her . Both of my little brothers are busy finding themselves right now, so she’s not harping on them to make little crotch goblins, only me. She even emailed me ads for international adoption agencies last week. The problem is that I don’t want to be a mom alone. I want a partner right there with me, by my side for all the parenting ups and downs.
“Find me a woman and I’m game.” I shrug. Why not? I’m clearly having no luck on my own and I’m sick of driving to the bars in Knoxville to talk to women and not getting anywhere with it. According to everyone around me, I’m a catch. I have a good job, my rent gets paid on time, I have a decent car, and I’m easy on the eyes. Finding a woman shouldn’t be this hard, so I’ve kind of given up. I tried a few times after Reggie. When one woman’s husband came home and wanted to watch, I was out. Men are pigs.
“What about apps? There’s an app right?” Montero pulls out his phone and starts tapping the screen with his big meaty fingers.
“Nora still hosts speed dating,” Wyatt offers, and I glare at him. “Right yes, the hetero of it all. My bad.” The speed dating was great, but in a town of so many straight people, it definitely wouldn’t work. I look at my three friends and around the bar. I know they’re just trying to help, and yeah, I’m lonely. I admit it. But it makes me a little sad. Montero has a great woman who works in finance or something and is practically a millionaire, Bales has his first grandkid on the way and has been with his wife for thirty years, and Wyatt has Nora.
Not that life is bad, but at thirty, I really thought I’d be settled down with a wife and maybe a kid by now. I at least wanted a dog, but so far, it’s not happening. I take another long sip of my too sweet fruity drink and lean back in the chair. Reggie catches my eye and tips her head at me in acknowledgment. I tip mine back and look at Collins. He’s glaring at me. I shake my head to let him know it’s nothing to worry about. When I caught Reggie cheating, I spent three nights on his couch crying and eating all the ice cream in his house before I got myself together and hit the gym. I haven’t been upset about it since. Well, not much.
They keep talking, mostly about work, but I pull out my phone and open the app I just said I didn’t want to use. Three messages stare at me, so I tap them. I roll my eyes immediately and delete the first one. I’m not looking to be some gross man’s fantasy by banging his wife in front of him. Not judging, just not my thing. The second one is all the way in Knoxville and told me she likes my pictures. I thank her and move to the next. Not that Knoxville is too far away, but I have the kind of job that takes up a lot of hours at weird times, especially when the Sergeant is my partner. I can’t get a call and make an emergency wait forty minutes because I was hanging with my girlfriend in a different town. When I’m on duty, I need to stay in East Hollow, and it wouldn't be fair to have a woman driving here for me every time only for me to pick up and go if I need to.
“Maybe I’ll just get a dog. Or a cat? Sad single people have cats, right?” I laugh but no one else does so I put my fruity cocktail down and stand up, tossing a few bills on the table. More than two beers means an Uber for me, and I had a mixed drink as big as my head, so I pull out my phone and tap on the app a few times, calling a car to Reggie’s. Within seconds it tells me that one R. Madison is en route to pick me up. I have about ten minutes, so I sit back down.
“You’re still messed up about being here, aren’t you?” Collins leans over to my ear. I shrug. The truth is, yeah, coming to Reggie’s is hard for me, but we’re adults and it is what it is. Plus, if I want to drink socially, this is it. Reggie’s is the only bar in East Hollow. “I can take you home.”
“I got an Uber. It’s fine. Drinks are on me since I was shit company.” I nod at the money and grab my coat from the back of my chair. “I think the beer made it worse. I should be over this shit, really, but I’m not and I brought the whole mood down.” I back away from Collin’s ear. “Sorry I was a bummer. I’m gonna head out.” Before I can even stand, a woman is next to me, long legs, blonde hair, and skintight jeans.
“So, this seat will be free?” She zeroes in on Wyatt, as they always do, and he shakes his head. He’s good looking in a classic all-American way, if you’re into that kind of thing.
“No, it’s not free.” He lifts the beer and taps his ring against the bottle.
“Sorry to bother you.” The woman looks at me when she says it and we all bust out laughing. It happens all the time, they either think I’m the wife or his sister. I guess I can kind of see the sister angle. Wyatt’s tall, over six feet, and I’m on the taller side at five-nine. We both have blondish hair and strong chins. We also banter like siblings. It happens when you’re best friends and partners for so long.
I feel my phone vibrate and tip my chin at my coworkers, zipping up my jacket. “Have another one on me.” I point at the money and turn to go, leaving my friends laughing about Collins and I being married.
Outside, the February wind whips around and tears through my jacket. The heat clinging to me from inside is long gone the second I step out the door. My head is a little buzzy from the massive drink I ordered. For a split second I think about canceling the Uber, then think better of it. Last thing I need is someone I know pulling me over. I’d be the headline of the East Hollow Gazette tomorrow. ‘Local cop drives drunk’ is a career ender. I grab my bag from the car, make sure I didn’t leave ammo in the glove box, and check that it’s locked up. I look around to make sure I can’t see anyone I know in the lot before reaching in the side pocket of my bag and pulling out my only vice. I put the cigarette to my lips, grab my lighter, and flick it to life, taking a long inhale and lighting up the night with a tiny orange ember. The first drag has my shoulders relaxing and my teeth unclenching.
My phone buzzes again and I check to see that my driver is five minutes away. I take another drag and savor it. I used to be a heavy smoker, a pack and a half a day, but Reggie made me quit. It was the only good thing she did for me. I started again after the breakup, but on a much smaller scale. I get one a night, and that’s it. I know it’s shit for me but considering it’s my only vice and I’m at the gym every day, I let it slide in my own mind.
A car pulls into the lot, and I look at my phone screen. The map shows a car moving at the same time as the car, so I carefully stub out my cigarette, put the unsmoked half back in the pack and spritz myself with cologne. I also pop in a piece of gum. Not that I care if this stranger smells smoke on me, but I hate smelling like anything gross. I get a text at the same time I start approaching the car.
R. Madison has arrived.
A photo of my driver appears on my screen, and I nearly drop my phone. The woman looking back at me is gorgeous. Long auburn hair coming from a black beanie, big sea-blue eyes rimmed with the most gorgeous lashes I’ve ever seen, and a smirk that says she’s up to no good. I stop in the gravel between two rows of cars, staring at my phone screen for a beat too long. So long that headlights hit me and a car honks. I take two strides out of the way and the car hurries by. I blink at my phone and look at the car idling a few feet away. I know I’m a little tipsy, but surely there’s a filter or something on this picture. Are they allowed to do that when they drive an Uber? This R. Madison is way too pretty to… yeah, I have nothing here, she’s just gorgeous. I get a follow up text reminding me that my fare starts when she arrives, and I tuck the phone in my pocket. The car is a black four-door with a shiny paint job and glistening wheels. It’s a nice car. I walk around the back, checking the make and model before reaching for the door handle. I pull, and nothing happens. I hear the click a second later and try again. The door swings open and I poke my head inside.
“R. Madison?” I wait for her to turn toward me, and my mouth goes dry. It’s definitely her. Same mischievous smirk, same long hair covered by a slouchy beanie, and same gorgeous eyes rimmed in dark liner and thick lashes.
“Are you Janet?” Her voice is high, chipper, and sweeter than cotton candy. I love it instantly.
I really need to get laid or get it together because for a beat I don’t answer her.
“Oh. Yeah, that’s me.” I hold up my phone and show her the app as I slide in the back seat and close the door against the chill outside.
“Great. Buckle up officer and we’ll get out of here.” She turns back to the front and I grab for the seatbelt, clicking it in place.
