Dixie
I got Elma home without further incident. Getting the wheelchair inside took a little finessing and some muscle but I managed it. I made a mental note to ask Church if he was handy with a hammer and a saw because she was going to need a ramp to help her navigate coming in and out of the house until she was healed enough to use the walker. Once I had her comfortable on the surprisingly chic leather couch (no giant cabbage flowers or pastel prints for Elma Mae) with all her recorded shows fired up on a flat screen I knew most men would be envious of, I went to work finishing the laundry that had caused her tumble in the first place.
After I had that easy chore handled, I discovered that the hand rail leading up the stairs was loose, another thing I was putting on Church’s list of things to look at, and I asked for a rundown of other things I could help her with while we waited on Church to get back. He’d sent a message that Dalen was with Jules and that the cop had gone all kinds of protective parent and insisted the younger Churchill get his head checked out. My brooding biker was on his way back home now, and I could tell that Elma was excited to finally get some time with him.
She asked me to organize all the food that people from the community had brought by and stocked her fridge with. There was no way she was going to get to it all before it went bad, so she asked me to find something that would feed all of us, plus the nurse that was coming in and staying with her for dinner, and divvy up the rest and freeze it. She also asked me to water her flowers in the yard and to bring all the stuff she would need that was upstairs in her master bedroom downstairs since there was no way she was making that trip until the brace came off. Her kitchen was something that would leave even the Barefoot Contessa impressed, so it was no chore to bop around the fancy marble countertops and stainless steel appliances.
I left something that looked like a giant dish of lasagna in the fridge for dinner and then made my way outside to tackle the flowers as the sun was going down. Being from the city and living in an apartment most of my adult life I’d never had a garden. We were lucky to have a small square of grass in our front yard to play on when we were kids, so Elma Mae’s sprawling, lush landscape was like something out of a fairy tale. I had no problem picturing Alice and the Mad Hatter at tea amongst the flowers and fauna. I spent more time touching the velvety soft petals and smelling the fragrant blooms while daydreaming about the perfect intimate garden wedding than I did actually watering the plants. It was so very easy to get lost in all the wonderful things Church’s home had to offer that I couldn’t imagine how hurt and how scared he must have been to leave it all behind without a backwards glance. I knew he would hate it, but it made me feel sorry for him. He was absolutely right that there was a lot of goodness here to turn your back on.
Lost in my own little world I didn’t hear his bike or the heavy fall of his boots as he walked up behind me. I also must have tuned out him calling my name because when his hand landed on my shoulder it freaked me out. I jumped. I screamed. I flailed around like a lunatic and when I whipped around to confront my unseen assailant I sprayed him right in the face with the hose that was still dangling out of my hand.
Stunned that it was friend and not foe, I stood there with the hose trained on him as he swore at me, yelled my name, and tried to evade the water. It didn’t work. He was drenched. Head to toe, sopping wet as I gave him an unwanted shower. He snatched my wet weapon out of my hand and bent the green rubber until there was a kink in it big enough to stop the flow of water. He shook his sandy head, water droplets flinging every direction as those better than hazel eyes narrowed threateningly at me.
“Seriously?” He ran a hand over his face as I struggled to contain a laugh. The humor died when he shrugged out of his soggy leather jacket with a grimace, leaving him in nothing more than a soaking wet T-shirt that clung to every defined muscle he had. The boy looked good without even trying, get him wet and make him a little angry and everything that made me a girl sat up and took notice. Jeans that clung to all the parts of him that I didn’t want to share made my mouth water and my cheeks pink. I wanted to snap a picture of him so I had it when real Church was gone and battery operated Church was all I had left. Hell, I might not even need the vibrator. The picture would be enough to get off on.
He shook his head again and swiped a hand down the back of his neck, where water was rolling down the collar of his shirt. “Didn’t you hear me calling your name?”
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Obviously not. You scared me.”
He looked down at his dripping front side and then back up at me with a smirk. “Are you sure you didn’t just want to get me wet?”
I laughed and let my eyes roll over him in an obvious way. “I mean, I’m sorry-not-sorry that I got you all wet.”
One of his eyebrows quirked upwards and I felt like an idiot for not knowing exactly what was coming next. Before I could let out a sound or put my hands up in a defense he let go of the hose and I was hit in the face with an onslaught of water. It was cold, so I squealed and he was too fast for me to evade when I darted to the side to escape the spray. The chilly wetness stuck my shirt to my chest and had my curls falling heavily into my face.
“Stop!” I held my hands up in surrender and barked out the order over a laugh. I had to shake my hair out of my eyes to look up at him and when I did my knees almost buckled. It wasn’t a full smile; the light didn’t reach his eyes or shine out of him and it didn’t make his perpetual scowl lighten up, but man oh man, did it transform his face from something beautiful to something that was better than beautiful. The barest hint of his teeth, the tiniest indent in his cheek that hinted at the fact he was probably hiding a dimple or two, the lift of his brow from frowning to not … it all made my heart turn inside out and solidified that I might want him for myself but I wanted that smile for the rest of the world. No one should be kept from something so stunningly special.
While I was enraptured and unable to move he made his way over to the spigot to turn the water off. When he came back his shirt was in his hand and the late afternoon sun was kissing his bronze shoulders, making him look like an ancient bronze statue come to life. “What were you daydreaming about so hard that you didn’t hear the Harley or your name?” It was an innocent enough question but one I wasn’t going to answer truthfully because he didn’t need to know that I had him standing at a flower-covered arch in Elma’s yard waiting for me to walk down the aisle towards him. I was afraid that would kill that glorious smile when it was so newly resurrected.
“Uh … I had a little run-in at the hospital.” I pulled the front of my sticking T-shirt away from my stomach and wrung it out in my hands. It would serve him right if I pulled the thing off in front of God and everyone but I didn’t want to give Elma Mae a reason to go back to being nasty to me. I was sure a half-naked redhead running around her yard would have the neighbors talking, that was if they could get past all the golden glory that was Church.
“What kind of run-in?” His rumbling voice dropped lower and all the humor fell away from his handsome face. Leaving the grumpy, glowering one I was so familiar with back in place. “Elma Mae still giving you the business?”
I shook my head, which sent water flying in all directions. He had to step back to avoid getting wet. “No. We came to a truce. She was testing me and I finally stood my ground and passed. We’re pretty much best friends now.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him but his stern expression didn’t waver.
“What happened at the hospital, Dixie?” There was no room for argument or further beating around the bush.
“I was in the parking lot moving the truck and I had my head in the clouds as usual.” I was daydreaming about him then as well. It was like an addiction; one I was going to have to quit cold turkey pretty soon. “This black SUV came roaring out of a parking spot a few yards away. They almost hit me. It was close enough I could see my reflection in the door. There were no other cars around because I parked that big-ass truck like shit, so it was obviously deliberate.” I held up a hand before he could speak. “And no, I didn’t get a look at the driver or a license plate because I was too busy thanking my lucky stars I didn’t get run over.”
“Dixie.” My name was coated in concern and exasperation. He dropped his soggy T-shirt to the grass and reached out and pulled me to his bare chest. I was so stunned I didn’t immediately react because I couldn’t believe he was hugging me of his own volition. “Are you okay?”
I let out a shaky sigh and leaned into him. His skin was like warm silk stretched over iron and stone as I rested my cheek on his naked pec. I wrapped my arms around his narrow waist and let my fingers trace lazily over the twin little indentations that rested right above his backside. It was the best hug I’d ever had in my life, partly because I hadn’t had to ask for it, it’d just been given, but mostly because it came from him and I knew a few days ago there was no way that he would have willingly pulled me into his arms. He cared. He might not care the way I wanted him to, but he cared nonetheless.
“I’m okay. It shook me up a little and it made me nervous to have Elma in the truck with me on the way back here but nothing else happened.” At least nothing else happened that I was aware of.
“You know all of this is connected somehow, right? You almost getting run down, someone setting the good ole boys on me and getting Dalen instead. Someone is mad we left Denver and the more incidents that occur the more it seems like someone is downright pissed we left together. My drug dealer seems unlikely but Jules is going to check into him and I spent all afternoon looking for the boys that put a beating on my brother but they must have gone to ground, so there won’t be answers from them until I find them. This all feels like it might point to someone you rubbed the wrong way, pretty girl.”
I jerked back and looked up at him with wide eyes. “I don’t rub people the wrong way, Church.” In fact, I went out of my way to make sure I didn’t.
He grunted and lifted his hands so that he could tunnel his fingers through the damp spirals that were a kinky mess all over my head. He used his palms to tilt my head back even farther so that we were staring into each other’s eyes. “I know you don’t think you do but I need you to think back, is there anyone that gave you any kind of bad vibes lately? Anyone from the bar seem unusually irritated or annoyed at you? I know you’ve been online dating and there can be some real oddballs on the internet. Did any of your dates strike you as strange or off?” I wanted to squirm after he asked the question. I wanted to forget the disaster online dating had been and I wanted to forget the reason I had been so desperate in the first place was because of his irrational fear of getting close to anyone.
“There were only a handful and they were all pretty weird.” I let my hands fall from around his waist and went to take a step back but he wouldn’t let me go. His multicolored gaze kept me rooted to the spot as he told me to explain what I meant by weird. I groaned and raised my hands to hold on to his wrists while I talked.
“The first guy seemed nice enough but halfway through dinner I went to the bathroom and when I came back he was gone and so was my wallet. He took it right out of my purse and disappeared.”
“The fuck?” His outraged growl actually made me smile.
“Yeah well, I preferred him to the next guy, who never bothered to disclose that he was married and that he and his wife were swingers looking for a third to play with while the kids were out of town. He also used a picture that was wayyy out of date, because when I went to meet him I hardly recognized him. He was like … the same age as my dad.” I wrinkled my nose at the memory as Church swore again and tightened his hands on the sides of my head.
“The last guy was actually very nice. He was quiet. He was shy. I don’t think he’d ever been on a date before.” His eyes narrowed to slits and his mouth pulled down into a frown that I was sure had scared men that were far bigger and fiercer than I would ever be. “I might have given him a chance, or at the very least a second date if—” I paused as an animalistic sound rumbled loud and possessive out of his chest. “If he hadn’t brought his mother along with him. Our entire date was chaperoned and monitored, and while he was nice enough she was a shrew and a bully.” I felt my brows draw together as memories of that evening played through my mind. “In fact she was angry when I wouldn’t let them into my apartment for a drink. Way angrier than the situation called for. It was obvious that she was the one that set the date up and was the driving force behind it, so she was far more upset than he was when I pulled the plug.”
“You got a name on the mother and son duo? It may be a long shot but it’s as good a place to start as any.”
“But that’s crazy. It wasn’t even a real date. She couldn’t really have been so angry that she followed us down here and tried to run us off the road. Who does that?”
He leaned forward and kissed my forehead before stepping back and rolling his heavy shoulders. “You’d be surprised how little it takes to set someone off, especially if they’ve only got one oar in the water.”
I snorted at his very southern turn of phrase and pointed at him. “Better watch out, Church, your southern is starting to show.” It’d always been around in the sensual, sexy drawl but now that he was back where everyone sounded like him his accent was getting stronger and his speech was slipping into familiar phrases and patterns that I’d never heard him use back in Denver. “I’ll look at my phone and give you momma’s boy’s number and name. I meant to delete all those dating apps I downloaded but I never got around to it because you showed up and made everything go crazy.”
That unpracticed and rusty grin flashed back across his face. “That’s what I do.” It sure was. My heart had been crazy for him since day one. “No more online dating, Dixie. You don’t need it. The right guy is going to come along and he will be everything you ever wanted him to be.” He bent to pick up his shirt and tossed the soggy mess over his shoulder. “I’m going to go in and check on Elma. I’m sure she has a list of chores she’s been waiting ten years to hand down to me.”
I waved him off and told him I needed to finish the flowers as well as dry off a little before heading inside. I also told him I would handle dinner if he called his dad and brother and told them we were all eating with Elma that night, and more than likely every night for the rest of the week so we could help her with all that food the neighbors had brought over. What I didn’t tell him was the right guy for me was standing right in front of me and he did have everything I wanted, but he also had a lot of things I didn’t want because that was how the world worked. No one was guaranteed anything, so you made do with the few blessings you did have and tried your best not to squander them. It was a lesson I think he was slowly starting to learn but my time to get it to sink in and make him realize what we could have if he believed, in him, in me, in us just a little bit, was running out.
DINNER WAS GREAT. The nurse that was staying with Elma didn’t look a day over nineteen and had her hands full cooing over both Elma and a battered Dalen. Watching Elma and the Churchill men reunite filled my happy heart with all the things that it longed for. Church was relaxed, well, as relaxed as he ever was, and the change was huge as he joked around with his brother and traded lighthearted jabs with his father. Elma couldn’t stop smiling and at one point she asked me to help her use the restroom, not so she could actually use the restroom but so she could sit on the closed toilet seat and cry. This was a moment too long denied and it was obviously overwhelming for her.
All I could do was pat her on the back and wait until the emotional storm passed. I helped her erase all the evidence of her sob-fest and served everyone a slice of the coconut cream pie I found in the fridge like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. After pie and a few episodes of The Blacklist, Julian ordered Dalen home to finish homework and reminded him that they had an early meeting with the principal and the kids he had ditched school with. In typical teenaged fashion Dalen played up his injuries, though his face did look like it had been smashed into a very unforgiving wall, and pleaded with his father for a sick day.
Church called him out, saying the only reason he didn’t want to go to school was because his coach was going to hand him his ass for missing class and getting hurt in the process. He softened the verbal blow by assuring his little brother that teenaged girls couldn’t resist flocking around an injured sports star. He urged him to take the punishment because the rewards on the other end would be pretty sweet.
When father and son left I quietly excused myself as well so that Church and Elma could have some alone time. When I was walking out the door he was sitting next to her on the couch, his arm around her shoulder, her head on his chest as he told her about all the places he had been and all the memories he had made in the last year. I couldn’t help but be a little touched that his voice lightened and his tone softened when he talked about Denver and all the people that had welcomed him there. I was glad to know that all the efforts put into including him, into letting him know he was one of our own even if he wasn’t ready to embrace us back, hadn’t gone unnoticed.
I walked up the block and across the street to where the Churchills called home and tapped lightly on the door before letting myself in when there was no response. No one was in the living room, so I helped myself to a quick shower and decided I needed to check on both my dog and my neighbor. I pulled Poppy up on FaceTime and waited for what felt like forever for her to answer. Her pretty face had a tad bit more color in it than it normally did as it filled the screen.
“Hey, Dixie. How’s Mississippi?” I heard Dolly bark somewhere in the background and was hit with a pang of longing. I missed my pretty blue girl and her constant companionship. She was my ray of sunshine when I was worn-out from spreading light all over everyone else.
“It’s actually pretty amazing. It’s like something from a Nicholas Sparks movie.” Ugh. Bad reference. No one in those movies ever got a happy ending without something terrible happening first. “It’s very pretty and everyone has that slow southern drawl. I kind of love it. How is my girl doing?”
Poppy whistled and suddenly the screen was filled with a happy drooling face that I missed so much. I cooed at Dolly, told her she was a good girl, and promised her I would be home soon. She danced around and barked like she understood what I was saying but then took off when Poppy tossed a ball.
“She’s good. I’ve had her with me at the clinic most days, but Wheeler asked to watch her yesterday. He took her to work with him. I think he’s lonely over there all by himself. All he does is work and sleep … oh, and order pizza. You might need to air out your place when you get back. It’s definitely getting a distinctive dude funk to it.”
I chuckled and looked up as Church opened the door. He noticed I was on the phone and half mouthed half mimed that he was going to hit the gym set up in the garage before taking a shower. I guess when you had a future hall of famer and a police officer in the family, fitness wasn’t taken lightly and I was glad he dipped out without subjecting another friend to a round of phone sex they didn’t sign up for. Especially this friend.
“You’ve been over at my apartment with just Wheeler there?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice. She avoided strangers and strange men in particular like they all had the plague.
“Just for a minute here and there. I wanted to get Dolly’s rawhide and her dog bed that I knew were in your room. She doesn’t like my bed. I was there when your sister showed up. It didn’t go well.”
She bit down on her lower lip and ducked her head so that her face was partially obscured.
“Don’t worry about Kallie. She can be a bitch, but she’s not all bad. Things are really complicated with her and Wheeler right now and you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s pretty worried about you after the confrontation.” I didn’t tell her that I thought his priorities were kind of screwed up in that because it wasn’t my place or my problem.
“He’s very nice.” He was. He was also freshly heartbroken and cut loose. He’d been set adrift after a long time spent with the same person and a little too raw to be thinking about the quiet, damaged girl next door. But again not my zoo and not my monkeys.
“He is a great guy. I’m glad things are going okay with him there while I’m gone.” I was going to ask how her very pregnant sister was doing when my phone dinged with an alert I didn’t recognize. I told Poppy how much I appreciated her looking after my girl and assured her things were going well on my end as well. A slight exaggeration but I figured she didn’t know that.
When I pulled my phone away from my ear I froze in shock when the dating app where all my disastrous dates had sprung from pinged with a match. This particular app was set up to narrow down possible prospects within a twenty-mile radius of wherever your phone was. The service was letting me know there were men using the app in Lowry that met all the requirements I’d filled out when I initially set up the app. It also meant that anyone using the app would be able to find me and my profile if my phone was in that same area.
Staring at it in shock as realization dawned I got up and practically ran through the house towards the door that led from the utility room to the garage. The space had been converted into a home gym that rivaled the setup at the twenty-four-hour fitness center I kept a membership to but never used. It was full of serious machines and heavy weights that indicated the men in this family were dedicated to taking care of themselves. The door slammed shut behind me, which had Church looking at me through arms that were bulging and straining as he hefted a bench-press bar loaded down with what looked like more weight than I had on my body straight up.
“I think I know how whoever has been tailing us has known where we’ve been since we left Denver.” I watched in awe as he pushed the bar back up and lowered it a few more times before setting it on the cradle with a loud clink. I knew he was strong but watching all those muscles move and work was mouthwatering and mesmerizing.
I held my phone out to him as he leaned his head back on the bench to look up at me. “The dating app where I met all those guys has a location finder. I think it’s used for people looking for a quick hookup more than anything, but it notifies you when someone you’re interested in or that matches your preferences is within twenty miles of your phone. You can open the alert and it gives you a real-time map that shows you exactly where your match is at. If it’s one of the guys that I went on a date with then all they would have to do is be within twenty miles of my phone at all times to know where I am.”
He reached for a towel that was lying on the ground next to a half-empty bottle of water and motioned me over with a crooked finger. He was sweaty and shiny, his veins standing out under the glossy sheen of his skin.
“So if you look at the guys you answered the alert on will the map show you where they are currently?”
I stopped by the bar and put a shaking hand on the smooth metal. “If they have the location service enabled.” I tapped the screen of my phone and opened the app. He watched me as I poked through the different saved profiles and conversations I’d saved to find the guys I’d agreed to go out with. First up was the thief. He was still in Denver and I wanted to kick myself for not thinking to use the app to locate him after he took off with my wallet. Next was the swinger. He appeared to be somewhere south of Denver towards Colorado Springs but still nowhere near Lowry. Lastly was momma’s boy. I scrolled and scrolled but couldn’t find any traces of him in the app. His profile was gone and with it any record of the interactions we’d had while he was signed up.
“The first two are still in Colorado, well, their phones are at least. The last guy, the one who brought his mom on the date, is gone. I can’t tell where his phone is at and I can’t retrieve any of our conversations. It’s like he disappeared, which is no big surprise considering it was his mom using the app all along.”
“What was his name?” Church took the phone from me and pressed a bunch of stuff on the screen as he messed with the apps and settings.
“His first name was Joseph and his last name was something common.” I furrowed my brows together as I tried to remember how he’d introduced himself, or rather how his mother had introduced them. “The last name was Erikson. Joseph and Marie Erikson.”
Church handed me the phone and I slid it into my back pocket as he looked at me out of soulful and serious eyes. “Either of them could have made a new profile, clicked on you, and tracked you here. It would make sense. All the things that have been happening seem geared towards scaring you, probably so you’ll leave and go back to Denver. The beat down that Dalen caught was meant for me. They want me out of the way so you are on your own and scared.”
I put a wobbly hand to my throat and shifted my weight nervously. “So what do we do now? I need to get rid of that app.”
He shook his head and laid back down on the bench, which put his head right at thigh level. All I had to do was take a step forward and that unsmiling but oh so sinful mouth would be right where the seam of my jeans was already a little damp from watching him throw those weights around like he was Hercules.
“Don’t delete it just yet. I turned off the location locater but left your profile up. We might need it to see where those other guys you went out with are and it won’t hurt anything to see who else pings the app while you’re here. One of the new hits will probably be the fake profile of whoever it was that followed you from Denver. We can see them, but they can’t see you.”
He put his hands on the bar over mine and curled them around so he was holding me in place. I bent my head so that I was looking down at him and felt my blood start to heat at the smoldering intent making the brown in his eyes turn darker with desire.
“I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.” It was a promise he couldn’t keep but I appreciated that he made it anyways. “Want to work up a sweat with me? I picked up a little something while I was at the gas station with Dalen earlier.”
My hair fell forward around my face as I continued to stare down at where he was lying with his face really close to the part of me that was particularly fond of those full lips and that clever tongue.
“Girls don’t sweat. We glisten.” He let go of my hands and slid his palms around my waist so that his hands had ahold of either side of my ass.
“I will gladly make you glisten all over.”
I sighed. It would take a woman with far stronger willpower and who was far less in love with him to turn down an offer like that.