Page 28 of Naughty by Nature

Wade had been sprawled on the bed passed out, the t-shirt he still wore spattered with Cheyenne’s blood. A haze of red had gone over Sheridan’s vision, and he’d gone ballistic. He didn’t remember dragging Wade out to the parking lot, or fending off the blows the man rained on him when he finally became aware, but he did remember fists flying as they tried to control the man. Patterson, the veteran sergeant at the time, pulled him off the man. Wade ended up going to the hospital that night as well, but his injuries hadn’t been as devastating as Cheyenne’s.

Sheridan’s heart was thudding. He wasn’t sure if he came across Wade that he wouldn’t beat the shit out of him again.

That was another reason for his guilt. Sheridan prided himself on being a good cop, but what Wade had done to Cheyenne pushed him over a line he’d never crossed before. For the first time in his career he hadn’t been able to control his emotions.

After years of thinking about it and dwelling on it, he knew why, but it didn’t make it any easier.

Pulling into the department’s lot, he secured his vehicle and headed inside. Perhaps if he applied himself to other work it would give his emotions a while to even out.

* * *

Cheyenne waited,breath held, it seemed, all day. It felt like the other shoe was just … about… to drop.

The kids were good and kept her interested. She liked working with smaller classes. It gave the teacher more time to work one-on-one with the students, which increased their learning potential astronomically. Already her seven kids, all third graders, were doing things that they hadn’t been able to before.

At lunch time she took a break from the kids and headed up to the main office. Joy smiled at her when she came in. “You received a package dear. I was just going to call you. Do you think we should call the sheriff?”

Cheyenne’s heart raced with anxiety as she looked at the plain brown box. Wade’s distinctive scrawl marked the top. It looked like the envelopes that had arrived for her at the Blue Star, that she’d always sent back unopened. “Where did it come from?”

Joy pointed at the front door. “A young man just dropped it off, as well as those.” She pointed at the little glass of carnations at the end of the counter.

Cheyenne stared for a moment, wondering if she’d been knocked into a twilight zone and just didn’t realize it. Wade had never brought her flowers. She tried to think who else it could be, but no one came to mind.

The thought of crossing the space to the counter and actually opening the box made her nauseous.

“Let’s call Sheridan,” she decided. “I don’t want any part of that.”

Joy nodded with understanding and reached for the phone. Cheyenne sent Joy’s granddaughter down to her class to tell them to read quietly until she returned. Then she paced, and looked out the glass front of the school.

Sheridan was there within just a few minutes, the gold Sheriff’s Department truck gleaming in the sun. As soon as she saw his big, confident body walking up the sidewalk, some knot of tension eased deep within her. She didn’t walk into his arms, but as soon as he walked in the doors she moved near him.

He gave her a smile and rested a hand on her shoulder, which was enough for her to walk into the office with him.

“When did the box get here?” he asked Joy.

“Eight twenty-one. It was a delivery boy that used to go to school here. I knew him.”

Sheridan pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and pulled them on, before reaching for the card on the flowers. “Did you read this yet?”

Cheyenne shook her head. She hadn’t even noticed the card.

Sheridan gave the flowers a good look before plucking the card from the post. Once again, Cheyenne’s heart was racing and she felt like she was going to be sick.

Sheridan turned the card so that she could read it.

I’m sorry. I miss you, wife. W

Wow. She snorted in disbelief. Only very rarely had Wade ever said he was sorry for anything, and that had mostly been in the beginning of their marriage when she’d actually meant something to him. Later on, he hadn’t spoken a word of apology for anything. She shook her head at the ridiculous thing.

Wife? Seriously? Her emotions began to boil.

Sheridan replaced the card and reached for the box. He cut the flaps open with a slice of his knife. Blue tissue paper poked from the hole, and he started pulling it out, letting it fall to the floor. Inside was another envelope, this one business size. On the front it said, ‘To my Girls’.

Fury seized Cheyenne as she read the words. “No way! He did not write that!”

Sheridan opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of plain stationery. His eyes flicked over it quickly before he turned the page for Cheyenne to read.

‘To Caroline, Savanna and Grace,’ she read.

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