Page 50 of Traces Of You
But without seeing him, she wouldn’t know if this was just one more figment of her imagination.
“I don’t know. Anything more or better than I had.”
“You’ll get it,” he said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“I won’t hold you to any promise,” she said, laughing.
“I want you to,” he said. “Because this time I’m keeping it.”
13
MY RESPONSIBILITY
Right jab, left jab, right, right, left, left. Right upper cut!
Sweat was trickling down his back, his arms were growing heavy, but his brain was in overdrive.
“What did that bag do to you?”
The black bag in front of him represented every scenario in his mind.
It was this asshole Oliver Frontage.
It was the helplessness he felt in trying to save Reenie.
Her making that reckless call last night.
His reawakened feelings when she walked into his life over a week ago.
“Nothing,” Ford said to his deputy. He was in the gym before his shift getting his workout in.
It was where he usually did it. Once he got home for the night, he needed to relax as much as he could.
He hadn’t been home much in the past week. He thought he’d sleep better than on the spare bed in Clay’s house, but he hadn’t.
What he learned from Reenie agitated him too much.
None of this made sense.
Something was off and not adding up and he hated to think she was keeping pieces of the puzzle from him.
“You done with it now?”
“Sure,” he said, picking up his towel and wiping his face. It was barely six and he’d been here for thirty minutes beating his frustration out.
He walked over to the side and grabbed a jump rope. He’d rather do that than run on a treadmill though he still did that too.
Ford wasn’t on patrol like he used to be. Not always chasing criminals down on foot or needing to in his position.
He didn’t care. He was young for his position and he was going to make sure that he was in as good of shape as those below him, if not better.
Lead by example was how he was raised and it’s what he was passing on to those serving under him.
He had to make sure everything he did kept him in those standings.
And that meant doing it all by the rules.
After ten minutes of jumping rope, he went to the treadmill and set it for twenty, then he’d call it a day and hit the shower.
