Page 29 of Heart of the West

“We’ll be in by nine in the morning. Can you get the Bennett’s big van and pick us all up?”

“I’ll see you there, sweetheart.”

I am so screwed. Dee and Clay are already gone. I have to clean the house, grocery shop. Christmas shop. Prepare meals and work at the station.

Chapter 16

Ruby

The sheriff ran out of the police like someone set his tail on fire. Trixie and I look at each other before she shrugs.

“I’ve never seen him like that before. Let me go check with dispatch.”

I nod my head and watch Trixie hurry from the front desk down the hallway. I haven’t been past the front desk. I have no idea what the rest of the police station looks like. When Trixie is still gone a few minutes later, I take a seat and open my phone.

I pretend to look through my phone while I think about the last two weeks. Effrem is clearly avoiding me, and I’m doing my best not to take it personally. I confessed everything to Dustin the day after. He invited me out to dinner. We went out to Jolene’s, the town’s honkey tonk. They have amazing pork tenderloin sandwiches and perhaps the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted.

Dustin’s becoming a good friend. The only guy friend I ever had that’s not gay. I was beginning to think gay men were the only men in my life that cared about me. My father certainly didn’t. Roger, well, we know how that turned out.

After dinner, four beers and three new line dances later, I spilled my guts. Dustin explained that Effrem and Evie had practically met in the cradle and were friends before dating, then marrying.

She died in a tragic accident on their ranch. A spooked herd of wild mustangs trampled her. After she was thrown from the horse. She was found wrapped around her, then three-year-old son Clyde’s body. Her sacrifice saved his life that day.

Dustin told me that Effrem hadn’t dated no one and, to the best of his knowledge, had never slept with another woman outside of Evie. He suggested the sheriff likely feels guilty for cheating on his dead wife.

I can’t compete with the memories of his beloved wife. Frankly, I don’t want to. I became second fiddle in my marriage the moment I couldn’t conceive children. Over the years, I went from second fiddle to persona non grata. I won’t go through that again. I’ve wasted enough of my life. As much as I’m attracted to the sheriff, I’m going to have to let it go and move on.

Over the past two and a half weeks, the moving truck finally arrived. I have a storage unit for most of my things. It won’t fit in the apartment’s small closet. What clothes I had left were still too many to fit into the apartment. I had rolling wardrobes in the storage units with my spring and summer hanging in them.

I’ll think about looking for another place to live after the bakery’s been open for six months and I get an idea of what my revenue is going to be. It could be little or nothing for the first couple of years while the business gets up off the ground. Of course, at the rate my soon to be ex is ripping me off, I might have to pay him. My half of everything is now an offer of twenty-five thousand. I’m not signing.

Trixie makes it back out to the front desk.

“You will never believe it. Poor sheriff. Buck, our second in command, broke his leg in three places today. He was helping a friend trim a tree or something when there was an accident. Sheriff was supposed to go out east to visit his daughter.

“His middle child, Jessi, is dating some boy from Connecticut. That’s where she goes to school. She’s in Yale attending law school. He’s supposed to meet her boyfriend’s parents. I can’t remember Jessi ever having a serious boyfriend.”

Trixie gave me a lot of information to process. Not that she knows or understands the extent of it. As far as I know, only fourpeople know about the one-night stand. Me, Effrem, Dustin, and God.

“I’m sorry to hear he’s going to miss out on meeting the parents. Has he met the boyfriend before?”

Trixie shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I can’t recall the Chief mentioning Jessi had a boyfriend. He’s very protective of her. All the kids, really. Little Clyde was only three, and Jessi was nine when they lost their mama. Dalton, the oldest, was seventeen. He took it the hardest. Clyde was too little to understand, and Jessi surprised everyone by simply adjusting. Chief took them all to therapy and everything.”

Chapter 17

Effrem

I park the truck out front and head into the office. I have no idea how in the Sam Hill I’m going to pull off the holidays. I have twelve days to cook, clean, play host, and manage the sheriff’s office with my right-hand man out of commission for months.

He’ll hate it, but I’ll put him on desk duty in a couple weeks. If not, he’ll drive Tilly and whoever’s helping him insane. Buck never could sit still. Two weeks convalescing, he’ll be grouchy, ornery, and cantankerous. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Sandwich in one hand, I pull open the door with the other. Hurrying into the lobby, I nearly ran into Ruby.

Fuck, I don’t need this. Wait a minute, Ruby.

“Ruby, I’m in big trouble, and I need your help.”

She looks at me. I see a dozen thoughts flit across her face before she replies.

---