Chapter Seventeen
Jo had two very different personalities, three if he was counting properly. She let her guard down around her friends, but even then she wasn’t the exact person he’d met on the East Coast.
The whole person slowly came into focus.
They’d returned from the high school after giving poor Drew the riot act on what he should and shouldn’t do. Gill was convinced that the kid knew their number. He knew they were all secretly laughing along with him and it was only a matter of years before they’d laugh about the whole thing over drinks.
There were a couple more hours at the station, along with a drive through town and the city limits. When the clock was officially off, he and Jo returned to Miss Gina’s, where Gill had a culinary experience he’d never matched before.
He had no idea who Zoe Brown was, but he had every intention of looking her up when he was back home.
The woman could cook.
Miss Gina managed to bring out a few photographs of all three of the girls when they were tweens in lanky bodies and identical haircuts.
He liked them. The whole lot.
They were a strange kind of family that didn’t share blood. For some reason that made it even sweeter.
He followed Jo into her home and watched her routine as she walked through the house, shedding her uniform, and with it the personality she’d adopted because of it.
Gill watched her from the doorway of her bedroom. Her bed was made, but without a lot of fluff. No massive stack of pillows for Jo to have to deal with every day. There was a book on her bedside table, one he couldn’t see the title of from where he was sitting. He’d have to check it out before he left. There was a lot to be learned about a person by their reading material.
“You’ve seen every end of River Bend twice,” Jo said from the adjoining bathroom. “What did you think?”
What did he think? “I’m actually kinda surprised it’s survived the last decade’s failing economy.”
Jo pulled the band from her hair, letting it fall on her shoulders. “We’ve actually grown. And with the new homes going in between here and Waterville, we’ve had a larger demand on commerce and traffic. The business owners love it.” She looked at him through the mirror as she pulled a brush through her hair.
“If the town grows, won’t your budget afford another full-time deputy?”
“There is already talk of another part-timer.”
“So it’s you and Deputy Emery?”
She nodded as she left the bathroom, sat on the edge of her bed, and unlaced her shoes. “Yep. Deputy Fitzpatrick helps out part-time, comes in full-time whenever Emery or I take time off.”
“Both these men worked with your dad?”
“Yeah.”
“Did one of them want your job?”
She toed off one shoe, started on the next. “I think Karl did. He took over for a while after my dad, but the town wasn’t excited to push him on to being the town sheriff. They weren’t happy to elect someone they didn’t know either.”
Gill moved to the bed and sat beside her as she shed her shoes. “So who was sheriff between you and your dad?”
“Karl stepped in as interim, but overseen by the Waterville department.”
“Then you graduated from the academy and the town elected you.”
“In a nutshell, but it wasn’t that easy. I had some serious groveling to do while I got my feet wet in Waterville.”
Gill leaned back on his elbows and watched as her mind worked through the details for him. “Groveling?”
“I wasn’t the poster child for propriety growing up. I skated the line every time I found the damn thing and crossed over it whenever no one was looking.”
The woman was too hard on herself. “You were a teenager.”
“I was rebellious and bucked everything.”
“Did you graduate from River Bend High?” He already knew the answer to that but wanted to make a point.
“Skated through.”
“Did you go to jail?”
“My dad put me in a cell once to prove a point.”
“But were you arrested?”
She lowered her head. “No.”
“Did you do drugs? Spend every weekend wasted?”
“I was forced onto the track team, or that’s how it would have worked out. We found our share of liquor.”
Gill reached for her hand and made her look at him. “At seventeen I was arrested for assault. Bloodied the nose of a kid hitting on my high school girlfriend.”
Jo tilted her head. “Well—”
“Drunk in public at twenty-one,” he continued to list his crimes. “Should have been nailed for drunk driving at twenty-two. Back roads of my hometown, it was late, but that isn’t an excuse. Joined the marines and spent the next four years eating sand and praying for rain.”
Jo linked her fingers with his, watched his face while he spoke. “How did the FBI come in?”
“I trained in intelligence and investigation when I wasn’t armed in the service. Took two years on the other side of the service to earn my degree, and the FBI was right there asking me to work with them.”
She smiled. “Sounds like you figured your shit out.”
“So did you. We’re not a whole lot different.” He stroked the side of her arm, enjoyed the softness of her skin.
“You ended up with the better job.”
“I picked a different job. You can always pick something different, too. Nothing is stopping you.”
She looked like she was about to argue, then changed her mind. “You know,” she said as she trailed her free hand down his chest, “I’ve been talking about River Bend, my job, and my life for hours when all I really want to do is help you take this off.”
The look in her eyes meant trouble. The kind he liked to see. Gill lifted both his hands above his head and lay back on the bed. “Do what you have to do.”
Jo climbed over him, straddled his hips with her thighs, and ran both hands over his chest.
Everything south of his belt line heated. Breath caught in his throat when Jo dug the tiny bits of her fingernails into his skin. She bent over, brushing her breasts against his chest, and brought her lips to his.
Then someone pounded on her front door.
She stopped all movement and waited.
“Jo?”
The voice was male, not one Gill recognized.
“I know you’re home. We have to talk.”
Jo blew out a breath, rested her head on Gill’s shoulder for a brief second before pushing away.
“Who is it?”
“Karl Emery.”
“Your deputy.”
“My deputy.”
Gill placed both hands on Jo’s slim hips and plucked her off his frame.
“Jo!” More pounding.
“Persistent, isn’t he?”
She grabbed a rubber band off her dresser and tossed her hair up into a ponytail before meeting the noise beyond her front door.
This was ridiculous. It was as if the town had a radar on her life and knew when she was trying to find some kind of balance.
She opened the door with enough strength to show she wasn’t happy for the late call. Karl was dressed casually, with his gun belt around his hip. He was on duty this time at night, but it wasn’t as if he needed to patrol River Bend, just take care of any calls that might come in and call her only when he needed backup. Which didn’t happen very often.
“I hope this is important,” she stated after opening the door.
“You were in the principal’s office with Drew today.”
So this was personal. “Yes, I was. As his coach.”
“Why wasn’t I called?”
Jo felt Gill walking up behind her.
“I assumed Richard called you.”
“He didn’t. You should have.”
Karl took that moment to notice Gill standing behind her. Karl’s eyes flared and then narrowed.
Jo stood back, giving him room to enter her house. “Let’s take this away from the neighbors,” she told him.
Once inside, she lifted both palms to the men. “Karl, this is Gill, my friend. Gill, this is my deputy, Karl.”
Gill extended his hand, and for a moment it didn’t appear that Karl was going to shake it. When he did, it was brief and no words were exchanged.
“I shouldn’t hear from my son’s girlfriend’s father that my kid was nearly suspended today.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Jo protested. She took a moment to give him the short version of what went down. Not that it appeased the man.
“When a cop is called on my kid, I need to know about it!” Karl wasn’t letting it go.
“Coach. I was there as his coach. Richard wanted me to drill home to Drew that if he continued doing this kind of thing, he would be kicked off the team. I thought for sure he’d call you and Caroline to discuss the situation.”
“Well, he didn’t.”
“Then you need to be on his door, not mine.” Jo looked the man directly in the eye and didn’t back down.
“I guess you’ve been too busy today to bother dropping over one block to let me know what happened.” His eyes lingered on Gill.
Her teeth ground together, his implications clear. “Yes, Karl. I was a little busy today. Trying to find new homes for dogs and patching city streets and getting out squad cars scheduled for maintenance. It has been a busy day.”
“Not that the sheriff needs to justify her day to you, Deputy.” Gill expressed her thoughts in a deep voice that made Karl turn his twisted ego on the other man in the room.
Karl leaned forward. “I’m here as a citizen of this city asking the sheriff why I wasn’t notified of her presence in a situation regarding my son.” Jo could cut the bitterness with a knife.
“Your beef is with Richard, not me.”
“I work with you.”
She conceded. “And had I seen you, it would have come up.” She needed to decompress the situation. Working with the man wasn’t optional, it was mandatory. “I’ll stop by tomorrow and talk with both you and Caroline about the whole thing. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, but Drew knows he messed up.”
Karl’s breaths slowed down. “You should have called me.”
“Your point is taken, Karl. Now if you don’t mind, it’s been a busy day.” She reached behind him and opened the door.
He left without a backward glance.
She closed the door and leaned her forehead against it.
Gill came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist to gather her close.
“I am so done.”
He kissed the space between her shoulder and her neck and whispered in her ear. “I know, sweetheart. Come on. Let me help you forget about all this for a few hours.”
Jo reached around and held his arms close before turning her head toward his. “A few hours?” she teased.
“I’ll do my best.”
He lifted her in his arms and walked them back into her bedroom.