Page 37 of The Devil on my Chest

“That’s outside. We’re not letting out little ones sleep outside.”

“I know that.” Rocky patted Mal’s hand. “I mean, what is outside the back of my office?”

“Not a lot, it’s part of the parking lot and a couple of dumpsters.”

“We’ll build space for the little ones there.” Rocky beamed.

“Babe, I love you dearly, but I’m tired, and you’re not making any sense. I am due in a matter of days. There’s no way we can get anything built in that time. What are the babies and I meant to do in the meantime. Did you want me to throw up a tarp between the dumpsters and huddle under that with our twins?”

“It’s not like you and I haven’t done that before, but no, I want a lot better life for our little ones and I know you do, too. You leave this to me.” Whistling, Rocky pocketed Mal’s map and went to retrieve his hat. “Don’t go having those babies without me, hon. I love you.”

Mal slumped back in his – Rocky’s – seat as Rocky sauntered out the door. “I’m not sure I even want to know what he’s doing now,” he muttered as he swung the chair from side to side. He reached for his phone as it started to ring. “Sheriff’s office, Mal speaking. How can I help you?”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rocky sauntered up the road to Mrs. Hooper’s store, his mind brimming with possibilities. He imagined that they could very easily get a small room built on the back of the sheriff’s office that had a doorway from Rocky’s office through into it. It would still allow Rocky to conduct the meetings Mal believed he needed the space for, although Rocky snorted at the very idea.

He was sure he’d held a total of two meetings in that office since becoming sheriff. One time with an out-of-town lawyer who needed reminding that Arrowtown was a shifter town, and once when two council guards came into town on the same case.

Rocky didn’t need stuffy people in his office.I wonder if I can tell Mal I’m allergic to them,although he quickly discounted that idea. Mal had enough on his plate at the moment, something Rocky was doing his best to help with.

The way Rocky saw it, most of the people who came into the office were friends. They didn’t stand on ceremony any more than Rocky did. Simon was a lawyer, yes, but Rocky didn’t count him among the stuffy people he preferred not to deal with. In truth, Arrowtown was a very small town, and very few outsiders came into town for any reason. So it wasn’t as though Rocky had to deal with many strangers in his official capacity.Unless they were campers.That still made Rocky grin.

Mal was getting really tired. Rocky worried that it had taken Mal so long to bring up the discussion on what would happen once the babies were born. He genuinely thought that Mal was going to say he’d be staying home with the babies, and Rocky had already decided that if Mal was at home with the babies there was no way he was going to be able to concentrate on any work he was meant to do. He’d be useless.

Yes, both Liam and Joe worked as deputies and left their babies while they were doing it, but Beau and Trent had a baby area set up in Trent’s workshop office and Liam was there more often than not when there were no calls to attend to. Joe was often on call from home. Between him and Doc, they managed their childcare between them.

So Rocky had already decided if Mal left the sheriff’s office, then he would too. That’s why he’d already had a serious talk with Simon about his and Mal’s financial situation. He knew they could afford to live comfortably for a very long time if they were careful. And Mal was the most careful person Rocky knew. It was who he was.

So Rocky didn’t have any worries about it. But now Mal had said he wanted to keep working, and Rocky understood that was probably because of Mal’s insistence on feeling useful, not only to Rocky and the babies, but to the community as well. But now he’d said it and made his wishes known, having a dedicated space for their babies at work, to Rocky, seemed like the best idea.I’ll just have to make sure Mal doesn’t overdo it, he thought, as he went into the store, nodding at Molly and Nancy, who were shopping together along one of the aisles.

Well, that was a development I didn’t think coming, although Rocky was pleased. With luck the friendship between the two women would stop two young boys from getting into any further trouble.

He beamed his best smile at Mrs. Hooper, who was standing behind the counter, her arms folded across her ample chest. “Sheriff,” Mrs. Hooper said. “What brings you in here today? You’ve already got a freezer full of my pre-cooked meals.”

“I know, and we enjoy them almost every night, thank you,” Rocky said. He could be nice when he needed to be. “Mrs. Hooper, I need your help.”

“Has this got anything to do with finding space for the babies in the sheriff’s office after your poor Mal gives birth to that bulk he’s carrying around his midriff?”

Rocky nodded. “Yes, indeed. I know we’re cutting this close, but as soon as Mal came to me with this problem, I knew that the best person to solve it would be you.”

He flattened out the piece of paper that Mal had given him and pointed to the spot behind his office. “I think we could build something here, with a door through into my office, but I’m open to suggestions,” he added because Mrs. Hooper seemed to know everything. If she thought there was a better way, Rocky knew that Mal would accept anything Mrs. Hooper said because she genuinely did seem to know best.

“I don’t know that you need a room just for your babies,” Nancy said, coming over, Molly following her. “I’m thinking that you’ve got enough space behind that precinct of yours to build a big enough daycare to solve more than one baby problem here in town.”

“What do you mean?” Rocky said, although he could see Mrs. Hooper was nodding. “I just needed somewhere where we could put the babies down for a sleep while Mal was working. I mean, we’ll feed and play with them when they’re awake, of course we will. And we will continue to do our duties diligently the way we’re supposed to.”

“You mean Mal will.” Mrs. Hooper laughed, which was an unusual enough sound at the best of times. “But yes, we don’t want to lose Mal at the sheriff’s office, and no, we don’t want to lose you as sheriff either, Rocky, so don’t feel we’re bruising yourego. But Mal is the one that keeps this place orderly, and you know it. You, Liam, and Joe are just the muscle.”

Mrs. Hooper had a point. Rocky could concede that. “I don’t know what you mean about other babies,” he said. “We’re only having two. I just thought a small room off here with a door through into my office.”

“Think bigger, Sheriff,” Mrs. Hooper said, tapping the paper. “There’s a whole big space at the back of the office. Even at it’s busiest time, it’s parking for three cruisers, since you’ve started driving one now Mal can’t get on his bike. And you know there’s no way you can put your babies on the bikes either, so it will stay at three cruisers. That’s all the parking you need. Anyone else can park on the street, and most people do.”

She pointed at the piece of paper where Rocky thought the baby room could go. “Your three cruisers, they can be parked there. But this space here would be the perfect place for a daycare center.”

Rocky remembered there was quite a big empty lot at the back of the sheriff’s office, but he was dumbfounded. “You mean paying people to look after babies? I really think Mal wanted to do it himself.”

“Then your Mal’s an idiot, but he gets a pass this one time because he’s pregnant, tired, and probably not thinking straight,” Mrs. Hooper said. “Think about it logically. There are mothers all around town, and fathers too, let’s not get sexist about this, but there are parents who would give their eye teeth to pay for somewhere where they could drop their babies off for an hour or so.

---