Page 21 of The Sweet Spot
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it.”
“Honey, you have to—”
The office door opens, and Micah walks in. He takes one look at Jennie and envelops the both of us in his arms for a bear hug.
When he finally steps back, he eyes me first, and then Jennie. “What the hell just happened?”
“I’m going to kill Dave Braggart,” I say.
Micah rolls his eyes at me. “You’re a cop, Chris. You can’t go around threatening to kill people. Please tell me you meant that in a metaphorical way.”
“Don’t be so sure,” I mutter. He’s right, of course. But I can’t let this stand.
Chapter 8 – Jennie
I can’t stop shaking, and I’m cold all over, all the way to my core. I think I’m in shock. I had thought—had hoped anyway—I’d never see David again.
Chris sits me back down on my office chair and begins to pace. Micah stands off to the side, leaning against a filing cabinet, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Who initiated the divorce?” Chris asks.
“I did.”
“You said he hurt you,” he says gently.
I shake my head. “I don’t want to talk about it. If this was something I wanted you to know, I would have told you long before now.”
“I understand that, sweetheart, but if I’m going to help you, I need to know everything. How did he hurt you? Was it physical? Emotional?”
“Both. And more.”
Chris’s eyes close hard and his breathing deepens. “Jennie, I need to know what we’re dealing with.”
He sayswelike this is about both of us.Welike we’retogether. The waterworks start again. I haven’t cried this much in a long time. My eyes flood with tears, and they quickly spill over onto my cheeks.
Chris muffles a curse as he locates the box of tissues on my desk. He pulls out several and hands them to me.
I dab my cheeks. “I really need to go home for a while. Just to get my head on straight.” I need to process.David’s back in town, and my restraining order expired a long time ago.
“All right,” Chris says with a reluctant sigh. Apparently, he’s willing to put the interrogation on hold for the time being. “I’ll drive you home.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather walk. The exercise will help me clear my head.”
“Fine. Then I’ll walk you home.” And before I can say a word, he says, “I’m not letting you take a step outside of this diner by yourself. In fact, you shouldn’t go anywhere alone until this is under control.”
“You’d better listen to him, Jens,” Micah says. “I don’t think the sheriff is going to take no for an answer. And I’m with him on this, so it’s two against one. We win, you lose.”
I laugh. When we were kids, we solved disagreements using majority rules. I guess some things haven’t changed.
“Fine.” I open my side desk drawer and grab my purse. “Just let me tell the staff I’m leaving.”
Chris waits for me while I tell my employees goodbye for the day. When I’m ready, he walks with me to the back exit and out into the rear parking lot. As I notice him scanning the parking lot, I realize he’s looking for David.
We cross the parking lot to the sidewalk that leads back into the residential part of town. He knows the way to my house like the back of his hand. We walked this route literally hundreds of times when we were in school. Micah, Chris, and I often walked back to my place to watch TV after school or play Tomb Raider or Grand Theft Auto on my PlayStation. We played a lot of video games in those days. That’s what I got for having two guys as my best friends.
Chris is pretty quiet as he slows his pace to match mine. When we reach my house, we head for the side door. I pull out my key and unlock the doorknob and both deadbolts. The upper deadbolt is a bit of a stretch for me.
Because Granny has an unfortunate tendency to wander off, we keep the doors locked at all times so there’s no risk of her getting out. In the five years since her dementia worsened, she’s gotten out only twice—but that was too enough for me.
