Chapter Fourteen
Nate stayed away from Bella for the next four days, not that anyone was counting. The main sheriff ’s office piled enough shit on his plate for a valid excuse. The paperwork would kill him long before some rampaging criminal. He bet Wyatt Earp didn’t have to do performance appraisals.
When he finally got clear enough to work his way back to Ghost Falls, his day started bad and kept sucking more and more. Most of the last three hours he’d spent outside of Ghost Falls in a tiny berg that also fell within his county, trying to explain that the legalization of marijuana in Colorado didn’t mean a free pass for anybody with a plot of land to start growing and distributing.
Hauling some dealer into jail would have made his day, but this had been a family. Times were hard; people tried to do what they could to get by. Considering he’d probably spent his day destroying their only source of income, the elderly couple whose operation he’d had to shut down had taken it remarkably well.
On the way back, he’d gotten a call about a vicious dog and had to take some kid’s beloved pet to the pound. He’d get back out there in a day or two to see if he could calm everyone down. The dog hadn’t done any damage, and Nate had spent a little time at the pound. Basically, the dog needed some training, but it didn’t look like a dangerous animal. In the meantime, the little guy who’d lost his dog would probably cry himself to sleep tonight.
Big city police work this was not. On days like today, he found he actually missed the city. Not the adrenaline of it, but the anonymity. In cities, faces blurred one into the other and made it easy to keep your distance, not get involved. With the county budget stretched to the seams, it meant everyone knew his face, and most of them knew his name and enough about him to pass the time of day.
Deputy Gabby’s voice crackled over the radio.
He didn’t have the patience for it and snatched up his cell phone. “What is it?” he said when she answered.
“Sheriff ?” Gabby sounded disapproving. “I was trying to raise you on the radio.”
“I heard.” Low blood sugar always made him bitchy and he’d missed lunch as well. “Lucky for you we have these neat little gadgets called cell phones.”
A deliberate pause down the line almost made him apologize. Screw it! Gabby needed to fix her attitude anyway. She was a good cop, had great instincts and did her job thoroughly, but she could do with a bit of workplace etiquette.
“Liz Gunn called. She lives at—”
“Gabby, I’m there almost every second week. I know exactly where the woman lives. What does she want?”
“Just following procedure, Sheriff. Making sure you’re aware of all the particulars.” Gabby sniffed.
“What does she want?” Either he got some food in his belly or he’d rip her a new one.
“Seems there’s a problem at her neighbor’s.”
That got his immediate attention. “Which neighbor?”
“Number—”
“Give me a name, Gabby, or I swear I’ll have you handing out loitering tickets outside Walmart for the rest of your career.”
Her sigh traveled down the line. “Bella’s house. If you’re still a ways out, I can run over and check it out.”
After four days of not seeing Bella, Gabby had handed him the excuse he needed. “I’m on it.”
“Sheriff ?” It wasn’t like Gabby to sound unsure of herself.
“What?”
She cleared her throat. “Before you go over there, you should know Bella filed a report a couple of days ago.”
Frost crept up his spine. “What kind of report?”
“Some guy she knows made a mess of her store.”
Spiking blood pressure did nothing for his mood. “And you’re only telling me about this now?”
“She wanted to keep it quiet,” Gabby said, sounding surer of her ground.
“And you agreed to that?”
“I said if anything else happened, I would have to tell you,” Gabby said, her usual shitty ’tude back in control. “Something else happened and I’m telling you. Bella didn’t want you to know.”
He slammed the radio down. They would fucking see about that.
* * *
Bella stood on her front lawn, afraid to go near her front porch, barely recognizable under the mound of flowers, soft toys, boxes of candy, and balloons. “I take it Adam’s been round.”
Liz nodded. She’d joined Bella shortly after she’d gotten out of her car. “The deliveries kept coming all afternoon.”
Four days and not a word and now this. “Damn.”
“I think this might even qualify as a shit moment, or perhaps we could even go with fuck,” Liz said. “I started taking photographs after the third truck.” She nudged Bella and showed her phone. “I even got one of psycho boy himself dropping off a box.” Liz tilted her head and stared at the image. “It’s too small to be a boiled rabbit.”
“Huh?” Bella took a hesitant step forward. Adam had desecrated her home, her safe place.
“Don’t you know anything?” Liz rolled her eyes. “It’s from a movie. Fatal Attraction? No?”
“Why?” She wanted it all gone.
“I think that’s your best clue.” Liz pointed to a row of balloons fastened on the balustrade and spelling out “Forgive Me.”
Offerings covering her entire front porch and must have cost a fortune. “Why is he doing this?”
“Now, don’t panic or cry or lose it or anything, but I think you might have a bit of a stalker.” Liz rubbed her back.
“A bit?” A huge, lurid orange elephant stared at her with its dead beaded eyes. “This is crazy.”
“I called the sheriff ’s office,” Liz said. “I spoke to Gabby. What a bitch! But she made a note of it on the file. Apparently, this isn’t the first time he’s done something weird to you.”
Bella told her about the other day and the flowers. The small box Adam had delivered personally sat on her doormat with a card attached. She didn’t want to know what that card said. In fact, all of this had to go. Like poison, Adam spread into more and more areas of her life. First her, then her store, and now her home.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Liz gaped at her. “If I’d known, I would have nut punched him when I saw him this afternoon.”
Liz would do it too. Bella snorted a laugh. “You were busy.”
“Yeah.” Liz went redder than the big, stuffy heart blocking her door. “I’ve been doing . . . stuff.”
Liz’s front door opened and Noel appeared.
“Is that the stuff you’ve been doing?” Bella tittered at her own daring. Nothing she said would stand a chance of shocking Liz anyway. It was so freeing not to feel like the person you were with judged you, or waited to pounce on any transgression.
“Damn it, Noel!” Liz crossed her arms. “I told you to stay in the house.”
“You sure did.” Beaming at her, Noel trotted over. “But I wanted to remind you to take some more pictures.”
“I know that.” Liz snarled. “I’m not like that stupid bimbo you were screwing. While you were still married to me.”
Noel pursed his lips. Then he gave a short nod. “Why don’t I load all this stuff up and take it to the old folks’ home? They’ll get a kick out of all these flowers, and at their age, the only vice some of them still have is candy.”
“You could take the stuffies to the rec center.” Bella for sure wasn’t keeping them, and they might make the kids there very happy.
“Good idea,” Noel had a nice smile. It lit up his plain features and made his face interesting. The sort of interesting that clever people wore. “Did you get photos of all of it?”
Liz growled.
Noel hopped over to the porch and grabbed up a large bunny, the big heart, and a basket of peonies. “My truck’s over there.”
Bella worked hard not to stare. Somehow, she couldn’t picture Noel driving something like that. Huge chrome fender, oversized tires, and flame detailing down the side, not to mention the rack of horns planted on the hood.
“I know, right?” As Noel headed for his monster, Liz pulled a face. “You had him driving a Prius.”
Bella laughed. She had indeed. “Shall we give him a hand? The sooner this stuff is out of here, the sooner I’m going to feel better.”
“Sure.” Liz shrugged and raised her voice as Noel headed back their way. “But I’m doing it for you, not him. If it wasn’t for you, I’d make the little shit do it all himself.”
“No stature jokes, honey.” Noel stopped and gave Liz a reproachful stare. “Those are too easy for you.”
It took a bit of determined cramming, but they managed to get everything into Noel’s truck.
“I’ll get the wine.” Liz nodded toward Bella’s house. “Meet you in five?”
“I’ll be there.” She opened her front door. Noel had left the small box on her Ho Ho Ho doormat. The name of a local jeweler scrolled across the top. Bella toed it to the side. She didn’t care what that box housed, she wasn’t going to wear it.
Liz arrived as she finished her quick kitchen tidy-up. Under her arm, she had two bottles and the jeweler’s box in her hand. “I’m not even going to talk about that doormat.”
“It’s festive.”
“It’s . . . never mind.” Liz put the jewelry box on the table. “Don’t you want to see how much you’re worth?”
“Nope.” Bella took the wine from her. “I’m not keeping it anyway.”
“Huh.” Liz dropped into a chair, picked up the box, and shook it. “You’re a woman of principles. I would have kept the bling.”
Trying not to dwell too hard on the fact that the first time a man had given her jewelry he turned out to be a whack job, Bella poured the wine. “Speaking of keeping things . . . Noel?”
“That’s not even a decent segue.” Liz, the big faker, hid behind her glass.
Bella needed the distraction of dissecting someone else’s life for a bit. “Are you seeing him again?”
“Define seeing.” Liz fiddled with the box. “If by that you mean am I sleeping with him again, that would have to be a yes.”
Last month she would have turned up her nose at Liz’s comment. Now, she enjoyed her honesty, envied it even. Bella took the seat opposite her. “Doesn’t that get confusing?”
“Hell yeah.” Liz sipped her wine. “Got anything to eat?”
“You don’t want to eat anything I cook.” Bella wrinkled her nose. “I tend to put pink marshmallows on everything.”
“Everything?”
“Most things.” She pushed away from the table and opened the cupboard. “But we can eat the marshmallows on their own.”
“This vintage goes especially well with marshmallows.” Liz tapped her zebra-print nail on the bottle. “It’s the sex,” she said. “With Noel, I mean. The sex is un-freaking-believable. I’ve never had it so good.”
“Really?” Trying to picture that, Bella failed.
“Oh, I get you, sister.” Liz raised her eyebrows. “He’s nothing to look at, but that man is hung like a donkey. Even better, he can leave you boneless in the morning and then get up and make you breakfast.”
“Boneless?”
“Like out of it.” Nodding, Liz sighed. “He always says if you’re nothing to look at, you’d better be able to rock a girl’s world.”
This time, Bella sighed. “I’ve never had sex like that.”
“Never?” Putting her glass back on the table with a clink, Liz frowned at her. “Not even with our yummy sheriff? I could have sworn he had that look about him. The one that says he knows what to do with a woman. Oh well. The hot ones are often the worst lays. It’s because they don’t have to try too hard.”
Most of that went right over her head, so Bella said, “I’ve never had sex with Nate.”
Liz snorted. “You kissed him like that and then kicked him out the door?”
Face burning, Bella got to her feet and went to rummage around for something else edible. “Did everyone in Ghost Falls see that kiss?”
“Nah.” Liz gave a gutter chuckle. “Just me and Mr. Powell.”
“Oh God.” She thunked her head against the cupboard. “It was the best kiss I’ve ever had and now I wish it hadn’t happened.”
“Hmm.” Propping her chin on her palm, Liz studied her. “You know, babe, if you were one of those women who could hit that and run, I’d be shaking your hand right now. But you’re strictly picket fence.”
“I am not.” But her objection lacked heart because she kind of was. She wanted it all. The gorgeous husband, the family home, the children. Problem being, she wanted those things from a man who’d rather chew his arm off than give them to her. “I think I’m right back where I started. No progress in the getting-over-Nate department.”
“I hate to tell you this,” Liz winked at her, “but you never were making any progress. I only let you think so because I was kind of hoping you’d be able to fake it till you made it.”
“Thanks.” Bella snatched up her wine. “So, what are you going to do? About Noel?”
“Nothing.” Despite Liz’s shrug, Bella caught the flash of uncertainty. “He says he’s sorry. That he wants to give it another chance, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“He screwed around on me.” Liz’s eyes flashed wrathfully. “That’s bad enough, but he did it when I was undergoing my chemo.”
“Ouch.” Yeah, Bella didn’t see a lot of wiggle room in that one. “What does he say about that?”
“That he’s sorry.” Liz drained her glass. “That he was scared and he did a stupid thing. He’s never stopped loving me . . . yadda, yadda, yadda.”
“Do you think he—”
Her front door crashed open. She and Liz jumped and looked around.
“Bella!” Nate’s voice came from the entrance. “I told you to lock your damn door.”
Looking windswept, pissed off, and so gorgeous Bella’s knees gave way and she had to grab the edge of the counter, he appeared in her kitchen doorway.
“Hi, Nate.” Liz saluted him with her wineglass.
“Liz.” Barely pausing in striding across the kitchen, he gave Liz a curt nod but scowled at Bella. “How many times must I tell you to lock that door? Jesus, Bella. There’s some psycho out there trashing your store and leaving shit all over your front porch and you’re sitting here drinking with the door wide open.”
“I know tae kwon do.” With a smirk, Liz got to her feet. “Anyhoo, I’m gonna let you two crazy kids fight it out. I think I heard Noel head back a little while ago and I’m about ready for another round of his magic dick.”
Nate flinched and looked a little ill.
Heat burning up her cheeks, Bella had to hide a grin. Liz needed a whole spoonful of sugar to make her palatable. It was one of the things she’d grown to like about her.
Liz’s heels clipped down the hallway. The front door squeaked open and shut again. More footsteps made their way down the porch stairs and grew softer.
Nate’s face stayed grim, but his tone had softened. “Are you all right?”
With those intense eyes burning into her, she couldn’t lie. “I’m fine. A bit freaked-out but fine.” She took a tentative step closer. The need to touch burned through her and she placed her hand on his chest. “I did lock the door when I went to work. I just forgot with Liz coming over.”
Dropping his head, he stared at her hand, pale against the khaki of his shirt. “I was worried about you.”
“I know.” That hit her even harder in the knees than his overwhelming physical presence.
His chest muscle tensed beneath her fingers. “That’s maybe not a good idea.”
“Why?” Beneath her hand, he burned hot, his heart beating strong and sure.
“Because I don’t think so clearly when you touch me.” He took her hand, pressed a kiss into the palm, and released it. “We need to deal with this Adam asshole, Bella. Before he gets worse.”