Page 5 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

As the mayor of Firefly Island, my father had worked closely with the police chief. The two of them were thick as thieves and, I learned, about as honest, at least when it came to wedding vows. The chief’s extramarital affairs were an open secret here in Firefly and, although numerous, had all amounted to little more than flings.

My father’s indiscretion, however, was the opposite. His infidelity was the best-kept secret this town had ever had. It was discovered only after he died, and was with only one woman, Danielle Marsh, who was my dad’s secretary and was also fifteen years younger than him. My old man’s affair was as cliché as it could get, with one exception: it resulted in a baby. Ironically, my mother had thrown the baby shower for Danielle. That baby was thirteen now, and she was the reason I was in the police station today.

“Callum’s here to report Chloe Marsh missing.” Brenda Baker handed the chief the report I’d filled out.

Officer Baker held two distinctions, one as the first female police officer in Firefly Island and the other as the longest-serving, which she reminded me of when I arrived at the station. She’d just received a Rolex watch to commemorate her forty-fifth year on the force.

“Is that right?” Chief Dawson put on his reading glasses, which hung around his neck, and skimmed the paperwork before lifting his head to peer down at me over the spectacles. “When’s the last time you saw the young lady?”

“I went to her room to check on her last night around ten p.m., and she was gone,” I relayed the information I told both Brenda and a very young Deputy Clarke, who had gone out on a call halfway through the report I’d started filing with him.

I wasn’t familiar with Clarke. If the peach fuzz he was rocking on his chin was any indication, he couldn’t have hit puberty that long ago, and he had to be new in town. And by new, I meant he had to have moved to Firefly sometime after I’d left ten years ago because I didn’t know him. Brenda explained they were a bit short-staffed today due to the annual New Year’s Day parade that was happening in the Downtown Historic District, so Clarke was the only officer at the station besides the “Big Boss” to answer the disturbance call from the Piggly Wiggly.

“Callum has custody of Miss Chloe now that her mama passed,” Brenda explained.

Temporary custody for now, but that was splitting hairs.

“I heard about that. Poor Danielle.” Chief Dawson shook his head before shrugging. “I’m sure she’s just runnin’ around with her friends. You know how youngins are. Have you called ’round?”

“No. I don’t know who her friends are. I just got to town yesterday.”

Forty-eight hours ago, I got a call from an attorney that Danielle Marsh, the mother of my father’s illegitimate child, had died and I had been named as my half-sister’s guardian. I didn’t know my sister at all. I’d met her once at my father’s funeral when she was three. Despite that, I packed up my truck and drove across the country with my six-year-old son from Arizona to Georgia to figure the situation out.

When I arrived in my hometown yesterday morning for the first time since my father passed away ten years ago, I picked up my sister at the friend’s house she’d been staying with since her mom passed and brought her to the Christmas tree farm I grew up on. My paternal grandfather Buzz, who was in his late eighties, still ran the business that had been in his family for three generations and lived there with my mom, who remained there after my father’s death. She was on a cruise with friends, but I was able to speak to her when they reached a port, and she insisted that I stay on the farm with Chloe and my son Matty.

It felt strange to bring my father’s illegitimate child to my mom’s home, but she had always been forgiving when it came to my father. Even after his will revealed not only his infidelity but also a child that his affair had produced, she never had one bad word to say about him. I always assumed it was because my dad was really the only family my mom had—well, him and Buzz, my grandfather.

She never talked about her family. The only things I knew were that she was an only child and that she’d run away from home when she was fifteen. I’d asked about her childhood countless times, but she always changed the subject. My mom lived by the motto, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all, so that response led me to believe there was nothing nice to say about her parents.

“When you gonna get back in the ring?” Chief Dawson asked.

It wasn’t a ring; it was a cage. I was an MMA fighter, not a boxer, but again, there was no point in correcting him.

“I’m retired.” I was semi-retired, but tomayto, tomahto.

“Why’s that? Martinez must’a really rung yer bell to have ya hang up yer gloves.”

I stopped fighting after it became evident that I was going to need to take on the majority of the responsibility financially, physically, and emotionally for Matty. There was no way I could devote the time necessary to training at my previous level and be, for all intents and purposes, a single father.

“Do you need more information from me to find Chloe?” I asked, refocusing the conversation back to my missing sister.

“Did she say anything about where she might be?” Chief Dawson asked.

I sighed. I’d put all this in my report.

“Last night after dinner Chloe asked if she could go out with friends for New Year’s. I didn’t think it would be a good idea, so I said no.”

It had been my knee-jerk response. Thirteen was too young to go out on New Year’s Eve, and she just lost her mom. I didn’t want her to do anything stupid, but it seemed like that’s exactly what I’d pushed her into doing.

“Did ya now?”

I nodded. “She went upstairs to her room.” She slammed her door so hard it shook the entire house, but I left that part out.“When I went up a of couple hours later to check on her, she was gone. I went out looking for her. I went down to the beach and the cave. I went to the pier. I drove around the dunes, went up to the lookout, and the drive-in.” I went to all the old spots that teenagers used to go when I grew up here. I found a lot of teenagers, but no sign of Chloe. My half-sister was only thirteen, but I even checked the only bar in town just in case she managed to sneak in. “I stopped by Southern Comfort just in case she snuck in; no one had seen her.”

Sheriff Dawson didn’t look particularly alarmed. In fact, he didn’t even look slightly alarmed. He exhaled as he handed the papers back to Brenda. “I’ll make some calls round to folks and send out a BOLO.”

I wasn’t sure that I’d accomplished anything by coming in and reporting her missing, but at least I’dtriedto do the right thing. I’d had temporary custody of my sister for exactly twenty-four hours, and she was missing. What the hell had her mom been thinking when she chose me to be her guardian?

“Thanks.”For nothing. I turned to leave feeling more helpless than I had before I walked through the doors.

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