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“Freya!”
“Aurora?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you get a new number?”
“Not exactly.” I ignore Garrett’s intense stare. “Hey, I need a teenytinyfavor. Are you busy?” I manage to get through the call without having to out my current jail-bird status. In this small town, keeping it a secret is probably an impossible hope. But I’m clinging to it until the last possible second. I’m so relieved she agrees to fill in for me that I nearly cry.
When I hang up the call, I feel Garrett’s steely gaze boring into me. “You didn’t ask her to bail you out.”
I look at the police chief like he’s lost his mind. Freya and I have become friends since I moved back, but we’re not close enough for me to confess I’m in jail. Or to ask her to borrow five hundred dollars. “Why would I ask her to do that?”
“So you can get out of jail.”
“Guess I’m staying.” I pretend that this is a happy occurrence. That sleeping on a hard cot without a blanket in sight isn’t the worst thing that could happen. In retrospect, it’s not. I absently rub my wrist through my sweater, willing those unfortunate memories to vacate from the back of my mind. One of these days, I’ll figure out how to cook without starting a fire. Finally proving to Grandma Rose and my sisters that I’m more than capable of taking over the family diner.
Today is not that day.
Garrett slides the phone back across the desk, offering me the receiver. “Gray, if you can’t come up with bail, you’re stuck here until you get a court date.”
Well, that sounds awful. “How long will that be?”
“If you’re lucky?” He shakes his head. “Three months.”
CHAPTER4
Garrett
“Gray, you can’t stay here that long.” I scrub a hand over my head, no doubt screwing up the shaggy hair that’s overdue for a cut. I’ve had to cancel the last two appointments I made thanks to emergency calls encroaching on my time off. Perks of being the chief in a small town.
“I don’t have five hundred dollars.” Aurora wraps her fingers around the bars and presses her forehead to it. Damn that sweater for hanging dangerously low, exposing the valley between her tits. I’ve lost count of the sleepless nights since she came to town, kept awake by fantasies of those delicious nipples in my mouth.
“Why didn’t you call one of your sisters?”
“Have you met them?” She lets out a heavy exhale, shuffling back to the cot and dropping onto it. She props her elbows on her knees and drops her face into her hands. For the first time, I feel bad for the shitty accommodations. I’ve slept on hard ground that’s been kinder to my back that one of those fucking cots. “I’d never hear the end of it. Plus, Grandma Rose is already shorthanded.”
“I can’t hold you until your court date.”
“But you just said—”
“You’d be transferred. This jail isn’t meant for long stays.”
Aurora’s doe eyes turn instantly shiny as her top lip quivers. Fuck me. There’s no bigger weakness I have than a woman crying. With Jade showing up on my doorstep this morning with tear-soaked cheeks, I’m at my fucking limit. “Can I pay part of it now? I have two hundred dollars. Maybe a little more. It’s in my purse—”
“Not how it works, Gray.” I refuse to make eye contact as I pull my phone from my pocket and shoot a text to my sister. I don’t trust myselfnotto do something reckless. Like let Aurora Gray walk right out the door without posting bond at all. Just one of the many fucking reasons I can’t give in to what I feel for this woman. If she needed my help, I’d give up my badge before I even realized what happened.
I can’t very well protect Caribou Creek if I’m on suspension.
All my life, I knew this was what I was meant to do. To serve and protect. I can’t risk throwing it all away because I’m completely in over my fucking head when it comes to Aurora Gray.
I hesitate from putting my phone away. “Do you want me to call Rose?”
“No!” Big, fat tears drop from her cheeks and splash against her sweater. “Please don’t do that.”
“She’s going to hear about this eventually.” I can’t stop the newspaper from printing public information. By next Tuesday, the old codgers who like to sit at the diner and sip their morning coffee over the weekly paper will make sure the entire town knows Rose Clayton’s granddaughter was arrested. The irrational urge to call in a favor at the local paper tugs at me, demanding a fight when I try to shove it down.
“I’ll tell her,” Aurora says through sniffles.
