CHAPTER SIXTEEN
By Thursday, Donovan felt like he’d been in uniform for a week straight. The entire town had lost its damn mind, and he, Colby, Layla, and Minnie were stretched thin trying to restore peace every five seconds.
Every time he lay down to sleep, every time he stepped in the shower, his phone went off with another crisis. Someone had stolen an entire rolling rack of turtlenecks from the Second Chances sidewalk fire sale. Aretha had come to her senses after trying to brain Fitz with hardbacks only to get into a shoving match with Amethyst Oakleigh in the canned goods section of Farm and Field Fresh over the last six cans of tofu tomato soup.
Colby had taken the night shift and ended up driving half a dozen teens home to their parents after they attempted to move the statues in front of the high school into a compromising position. Minnie was working overtime just to keep up with the avalanche of paperwork.
He had yet to make and keep a date with Eva. So he did the next best thing.
He’d snapped up the copy of her book she’d found at Fitz’s store and tucked it into his desk drawer. Between the peaks of crazy, Donovan read. A chapter here, a page there. And now was as good a time as any to take a break. He checked to make sure the door to his office was closed, slipped out of his shoes, and opened the drawer.
He’d read for ten or so and then see about tracking down some lunch, he decided.
Eva’s writing was strong, her language straightforward. Donovan had never picked up a romance novel before in his life, but he could guess at the genre’s appeal. She added layers to her characters, and he found himself thinking about the book, about the characters, even when he wasn’t reading.
It wasn’t just the story that interested him. It was what it told him about the author behind the words. The heroine, he’d discovered, had been abandoned early in life by her mother and had taken to hiding her feelings to protect the rest of her family.
It gave him a better idea of what was going on in the brain of the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind or his heart.
He paged through the paperback to find his spot, too embarrassed to use a bookmark in case Minnie snooped through his things like he imagined she did when she got bored behind the desk. Donovan propped his socked feet up on his desk and dug in.
He’d managed a chapter and then the better part of another when things began to heat up on the page. The heroine and her hero were losing clothing faster than he lost money to Fitz at poker. Donovan tugged on his collar and glanced up to make sure his door was still closed.
He was just getting to the good part, the really good part when his door flew open. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or embarrassment that had him chucking the book across the room. It hit the window with a thwack and fell behind the worn couch that he’d been grabbing cat naps on since the planets had gone to hell.
“Everything all right, Cardona? You look a little feverish,” Beckett asked from the doorway. His cocky ass smile made Donovan realize he wasn’t fooling anyone with his pitching arm. It was a good thing he was wearing his daughter Lydia in a sling or Donovan would have considered taking a swing at him.
“To what do I owe the interruption?” The Pierce brothers—all three of them—plus Niko filed into his office with three kids and a dog. Donovan tried not to think about the scene he’d just been reading.
Jesus. Was that sweat on his brow? Was he sweating?
“Man, you’re sweating. You coming down with Colby’s food poisoning?” Carter asked.
“Nope. Just a warm day,” Donovan said, wondering where he usually put his hands when he wasn’t hiding something. Everywhere they went felt awkward and fake.
“It’s forty-five degrees outside,” Jax pointed out. “See, buddy. This is what happens when grown-ups lie. They get all red and sweaty,” he said to his foster son, Caleb. Caleb, at six, was all big eyes, messy hair, and shy smiles. He nodded with the hint of a curious smile as if still stunned that he was invited to be part of the man crowd.
Niko let Baxter, his dopic teenage puppy, pull him further into the office. “I think Baxter wants me to look behind the couch,” he announced. “He must sense a threat. Maybe you should use him as a police dog?”
Baxter’s tail wagged so wildly that Donovan wondered how his ass end hadn’t broken off yet.
“Touch that couch, and I’ll throw you in the slammer,” he threatened.
“There’s no doors on our cells,” Jax reported to Nikolai. “You sit in a cubicle until someone bails you out.”
Niko frowned thoughtfully. “And I do have my attorney here.” He jerked his thumb in Beckett’s direction.
“Worth it,” Carter nodded, juggling Meadow from arm to arm as the little girl giggled.
Niko handed the dog leash to Caleb. “Hold this, Cale.”
Together he and Jax moved the couch away from the wall while Donovan tried to bite back every violent threat that he wanted to rain down on his stupid friends. Meadow’s big blue eyes were the only thing that made him hold on to his temper.
“Aha! Apparently, the sheriff has succumbed to the same book club our wives have,” Jax held the book over his head.
“Fine. I’m reading it. Let me have it,” Donovan sighed, waiting for the torrent of torment.
Instead, Carter shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, man. No judgment. That book got me—” he glanced in Caleb’s direction. “L-A-I-D once already today. I call dibs on it when you’re done with it.”
“Man, Cale’s six,” Jax snorted. “He can spell plenty. Caleb, spell hammock!”
Dutifully Caleb recited the correct spelling. “What’s get laid mean, Uncle Carter?” he asked.
Carter grinned. “Oops.”
Beckett flipped through the book, his eyes widening. “Wait. Is this physically possible?”
“What?” Jax asked, leaning in to peer at the page.
“If she’s like, you know, bent like that…”
“Yeah, I think so. I mean if the angle is right,” Jax frowned thoughtfully.
“Hey, Caleb,” Donovan said to the kid. “Miss Minnie made cookies today. Why don’t you go on out there and see if she’ll give you a cookie and some juice?”
“Okay!” Caleb hauled ass out of the room with Baxter on his heels. Beckett and Jax continued to try to re-enact a particularly acrobatic pose.
“No, you’re the woman,” Jax said, elbowing his brother.
“I thought you were,” Beckett argued.
“You two.” Donovan pointed to the two stooges, “You go any farther and I’m going to tase you both.”
“How far are you in the book?” Beckett asked, consulting the page again. “Did you get to the part where Carley’s in the bath and—”
Donovan shoved his fingers in his ears. “I can’t hear you! So, you might as well shut up!”
“Don’t ruin it for him, ass—… hat.” Carter said, punching his brother in the arm.
Meadow grinned up at him as if she knew her daddy shouldn’t be saying those words.
“Don’t punch me when I’m wearing my baby!” Beckett gave Carter a half-hearted shove back.
“Anyone feel like telling me why you’re all in my office in the middle of some astrological apocalypse?” Donovan yelled over the din.
Baxter wandered back in licking his chops to get the last crumbs of Minnie’s homemade dog treat off his nose. He strolled over and laid down under Donovan’s desk.
Beckett pointed at him. “We do have a purpose. A couple of them.”
“Beckett and I were wondering if there’s been any progress tracking down Reva and Caleb’s mom?” Jax said, his eyes on the door.
Damn it.
Jax and Joey had been granted emergency guardianship over Reva and Caleb when the kids’ mother abandoned them that spring. The Pierces were ready to make it permanent. But without Sheila Flinchy signing away her parental rights, custody was temporary and tentative.
Donovan shook his head. “I had a hit on her in the system ten days ago. A speeding ticket and driving unregistered in Oklahoma but nothing since then. This week it kind of got away from me.”
Everything this week had gotten away from him. And now he was letting friends down. He was the asshat.
“We know you’ve got your hands full right now. Which is why we were thinking it’s time to hire a P.I.” Jax told him.
“I’d be happy to work with an investigator in whatever capacity I can to help,” Donovan said, still kicking himself.
“Joey and I know you would, and we appreciate it. We’re ready to make this official, and the sooner, the better. Jojo woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare thinking Sheila stole the kids back. I had to wrestle the Nerf gun away from her and talk her down.”
“We’ll get this figured out, and we’ll make it legal, make it right,” Donovan promised.
“Great. We’ll put the investigator in touch with you,” Beckett said, making a note on his cell phone.
Carter tickled Meadow. “Business concluded. Who’s ready for lunch and interrogating Cardona about a certain redhead?”
Meadow’s hands flew up in the air.