AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So we were back to that conversation, were we? My chest squeezed tight at his words. The years seemed to fall away then, and I just saw Dean the way he’d always been—standing there with his heart on his sleeve. But he wasn’t the man he’d been then. Years had piled responsibilities on both our shoulders. And those responsibilities had changed us.
“I’m sorry, too.” I breathed in real deep. “And… the truth is… it’s none of my business.”
“It is, though,” he said with a sigh. “Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll steal a s’more and a hard cider from Mason. Then we’ll have a chat.”
I raised an eyebrow. “This is an alcohol worthy tale?”
His lips twisted into a grim little smile. “You have no idea. Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”
Then he loped away, ducking past his nephew to snatch a s’more. I watched him do it, admiring the way his uniform molded to his backside. Some things really didn’t change. Dean was kind, he was funny, and he still had a great ass.
And that was comfort enough for me.
***
Dean sank into a lawn chair I’d set up in the shadow of an oak. Sicily and I had a stock of the things in the back room of our trailer. It was sort of a tradition if you lived in a rinky-dink town like Windy Ridge. The rule of public events was: bring your own lawn chair. Bringing your own beer was optional but highly encouraged. Of course, that had beenbeforethe Fog. Now beer and moonshine didn’t pack the same punch for the citizens of our little town, much to everyone’s chagrin.
Even the lawn chairs were a thing of the past, with so many of us unable to squeeze our bulk into the damn things. As if to prove my point, Bud and Ol’ Ned were sitting cross-legged on the ground next to the bonfire, shotguns laid across their laps, craning their necks around, just in case the bat-man decided to show his ugly face around here.Ol’ Ned was saying something but Bud was too concerned with bitting that danged spot on the back of his rump again. Hmm, looked like he needed another flea bath.
Dean, meanwhile, had stuffed half the s’more into his mouth. And he’d piled his paper plate high with several more, and I bit back a short, frustrated laugh. Deanreallywasn’t looking forward to telling the story about his daughter. If I’d been a bigger person, I’d have let the conversation go, but I wasn’t the bigger person here. I wanted... no,neededto know what the story was between the two of them. Call me nosy, I guess. I just wanted him to open up to me the way I’d opened up to him.
Dean looked disappointed when he reached the end of the stack of s’mores, leaving only crumbs behind. If he’d had a little less dignity, he’d probably have licked those away too, just to give himself another minute. Instead, he set the plate aside and fixed his gaze in the middle distance, not looking at me.
“Do you know what a badge bunny is?” he asked finally.
My brow furrowed. “No, I can’t say I do.”
“It’s a woman, usually on the younger side, who only dates cops. There’s an equivalent for most men in uniform—groupies, I guess you’d call them. Women who will only date policemen, firefighters, first responders, or military guys.”
“Ah, that explains it,” I said, allowing myself a small, teasing smile.
“What explains what?”
“Deputy Drayton was the only law in these parts before you turned up and he had his own sort of following,” I finished with a laugh.
Dean frowned at that. “Drayton?”
I nodded. “He’s nice and all, but I wouldn’t line up to date him.”
Dean snorted. “You wouldn’t, but you don’t really care about things like status. There are those women who do though.”
“Okay, so… you dated or married a badge bunny?” I guessed.
Just the thought made me feel queasy. Dean had strolled back into my life after so long, acting pretty much like his old self. And even though it wasn’t supposed to, the reminder that there’d been a large part of his life that I hadn’t been privy to stung.Until I told myself that was stupid and to knock it off.
Dean’s eyes fluttered closed, and he nodded wearily, slouching a little in his chair. “I didn’t know it at the time, but yeah.”
“Interesting.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“In the beginning, all she cared about was the badge and the uniform. She hid it better than most, but I figured it out, eventually.”
“How?”
“All her past boyfriends were highway patrolmen. By the time I realized she was more into my badge than she was into me, it was too late.”
“She was already pregnant?”
He nodded. “Right.”
