Chapter 36
RILEY
“J ust try your best to take it easy today,” Sawyer warns me, placing a plate of toast in my hand before he smooths his hand over my belly and kisses it goodbye.
“Have a good day,” I call out cheerily as he closes the door. Then, as soon as I hear his truck pull off the drive, I quickly get up, heading for my room to put on my uniform. Last night I had a thought… if the Gendrys have been keeping their victims close to here, they may have taken some of them from nearby, too.
My plan is to hit the city. I’m gonna visit the soup kitchen and some food banks to see if anyone's noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Homeless people rarely get reported missing, which makes them the perfect target for people like the Gendrys.
I’m on my way out the door when I remember the toast Sawyer made me. He’s gonna be mad enough if he finds out what I did today, and deciding I need the brownie points, I pick it up and take it with me. I head out the door toward my patrol car, gripping the toast between my teeth as I unlock the door and maneuver my heavy body behind the wheel.
“Holy fuck.” I jump out of my skin when I glance right and see Sawyer, spun towards me, resting his back against the window of the passenger seat.
“Goin’ somewhere nice, baby momma?” he asks, flicking the toothpick in his mouth and crossing his arms.
“What the—how did you?”
“Spare key and intuition.” He holds the spare key out in front of me, and when I go to take it, he lifts his hips and slides it back in his pocket.
“Seriously, Sawyer, what are you doing in here?”
“I should ask you the same question. Doc told you not to go to work.”
“Technically, I’m not. I’m heading into the city to do some research.” I act innocent to all charges.
“You're wearing your uniform,” he points out.
“I have to look authoritative. I’m heading to the city to check out a few homeless shelters and find out if anyone knows something. I can’t just stay indoors twiddling my thumbs when there are more girls out there suffering.”
“Fine.” He shrugs.
I’m a little surprised at how fast he’s backed down, and I watch in confusion as he takes the toothpick out of his mouth and reaches across me to grab my safety belt. Dragging it over my body, he ensures it rests between my chest and under my bump, before clicking it in place. “Looks like Daddy’s coming for a ride-along.” He leans down and strokes my tummy. “I swear your momma was put on this earth to test me.” He kisses me there before sitting back in his chair and fixing his own belt.
* * *
“Well, that was hopeless.” I feel deflated as we head back to the car, and I won’t admit it to Sawyer, but my back is aching from all the walking we’ve done. No one seems to have noticed anything abnormal; half the people we spoke to looked at us as if we were crazy, and I don’t have any more information than what I came here with.
“Well, it doesn't have to be a complete waste of a day.” Sawyer looks across the street toward the baby store. “We ain’t got any of the stuff we’re gonna need, guess while we’re here we could take a look.”
He makes a valid point, and I’ve been so caught up in solving this case that I haven’t done any of the fun, exciting stuff that comes with being pregnant.
“Sounds good.” I let him take my hand and drag me toward the door.
“So, I’m assuming that now you’ve learnt to share, I get a say in some of this?” Sawyer backs himself into the store and holds the door open for me.
“I could quickly change my mind,” I warn him, rolling my eyes when he spots a huge, stuffed lion and immediately lifts it onto the counter.
“We don’t need that.” I shake my head and laugh at him.
“We sure do, my girl’s gonna love animals.” He pats my tummy before rushing toward the strollers and testing one out.
“Sawyer, that's a double buggy; we only need a single.” I turn the price tag over on one of the ones close to me, and the amount it costs almost has me passing out again.
“Not if I knock you up a second time,” he comes from behind me and whispers, then, kissing my cheek, he moves on to look at something else before I can argue. It’s not the first time Sawyer’s made a comment like that, and it makes me question if he understands how serious I am about what will happen when the baby comes. This temporary relationship we’ve been slipping into isn’t healthy. It’s only going to make the outcome of this harder for us both, but I can’t seem to tear myself away from him. I like having Sawyer close. I like the way he cares for us. All I can do is hope that my senses come back to me once I’ve had this baby.
“You thought about what color you wanna paint the nursery?” he asks, studying the changing unit options.
“Does it matter right now?”
“Hell yeah, it matters, we need to know if we go with dark wood or white for the furniture.”
“Well, I know we keep calling her a she, but we should wait to be sure before we paint any walls.” I rub my palm over my stomach when I feel her shifting position. “I was thinking she’d sleep in with us for the first few months, that’s normal, right?”
“Us?” Sawyer raises his eyebrows at me hopefully.
“I meant me…” I correct myself. “But I was assuming that you’d stay the first few nights after she comes, won’t you?” I feel a little panic pick up in my chest, which seems pathetic considering I was supposed to be doing this entirely by myself.
I’m a strong woman, and I seem to be forgetting that lately.
“I’mma stay for as long as you let me.” Sawyer puts my mind at rest.
“Can I help you?” The store clerk comes from out the back and she pauses on her feet when she sees Sawyer.
“Yeah, do you have some kinda checklist for first timers? We’re both new to this.” He continues sliding his hand over the changing unit and testing out its strength, while she continues checking him out. She eventually glances toward me, and when I offer her a sarcastic smile, she turns bright red.
“A list, of course.” She quickly gets to work on finding it.
“Ohhhh, Riley. I’m getting me one of these.” Sawyer’s eyes light up when he sees the baby carriers. “Can you show me how you strap this bad boy up?” he calls over to the clerk. His excitement over this is infectious, and I laugh at him until someone catches my eye on the other side of the window. Someone who can’t possibly be there. I move closer to the display in the window so I can get a better look, but there's no one there.
“Jack,” I whisper his name, certain that I saw him.
“What ya say, darlin’?” Sawyer calls out, holding his arms above his head while the store clerk has the time of her life, strapping the harness from the carrier around his waist.
“I just saw Jack.” I turn back to the window and stare through the glass before my feet give out, and everything goes dark.
* * *
“Riley, baby.’” Sawyer’s stroking my face when I come back around, and I can see how worried he is as he takes the cup of water from the store clerk and brings it to my lips. “You're lucky I was fast enough to catch ya this time. I’m taking you straight to the hospital.”
“No, I don’t need a hospital,” I tell him firmly. “It was just a shock, I swear I saw Jack outside,” I admit, fully aware of how crazy that sounds.
“Jack? You told me Jack’s dead,” he speaks to me slowly, as if I’m confused. I sit myself up a little straighter and see he’s still wearing the baby carrier strapped around his middle and hanging open between his legs.
“He is dead. There’s no way it could have been him, but I saw someone who looked just like him.”
“You know, I’ve heard a lot of stories about spirits visiting their loved ones when they're pregnant. Last Christmas, when my sister was due, she was sure she saw our gran,” the store clerk tells me sympathetically. “I guess when you're pregnant, you just need that little extra comfort.”
I see the sad look her suggestion puts on Sawyer’s face, despite him looking away and trying to hide it.
“I’m sure it was just a passerby who looked like him.” I crush her theory, and when I try to stand back up, Sawyer helps me to my feet.
All his excitement seems to have faded as he unstraps the carrier from around his waist and places it on the counter beside the lion.
“We’ll just take these, we can come back another day for the rest of what we need.” He keeps his arm wrapped around my waist as the clerk moves behind the counter.
“You good?” he checks, still trying to hide his hurt.
“I feel fine, honestly. And I’ve never believed in ghosts,” I assure him.
“Sure.” Sawyer fakes me a smile while the cashier bags up the lion and the carrier.
* * *
It takes me some time, but I manage to convince Sawyer that I don’t need a hospital. He does, however, insist on driving my patroller home and taking me straight to see Dr. West. It’s against regulations to let a civilian drive a state-owned vehicle, but I let it go because I’m exhausted.
“Sawyer. Sheriff Hale.” Tabitha, the receptionist, greets us both as we take a seat in the doctor’s waiting room. I’m sure that everyone in town has had Eleanor’s confirmation that Sawyer is the father of my baby, so it’s only natural that folk will expect us to be a couple.
At the moment, it’s hard to deny that we are one. He comes home to me every night when he’s closed the bar. We spend all our free time together, not to mention the mind-blowing sex we have. Even I have to admit it’s gonna be weird when the baby gets here and all this is over.
“Sheriff Hale.” Dr. West calls us inside, and when I sit down, Sawyer takes the chair beside me and leans his arm over the back of mine.
“Sawyer said on the phone that you lost consciousness again.” Dr. West doesn’t look impressed by the fact I’m wearing my uniform.
“It wasn’t that bad, we were in the baby store and I thought I saw something out the window that couldn’t have been there.” I feel Sawyer’s hand tense around mine. “I just blacked out for a few seconds.” I play it down, because I don’t want this to get blown out of proportion.
“Well, as it turns out, I got a call back from the hospital earlier this afternoon, and I can explain the dizzy spells and fainting.” He taps his paperwork on his desk.
“Your iron levels are low,” he reveals.
“What does that mean?” Sawyer leans forward in his chair with concern.
“It means I need more iron,” I tell him sarcastically, and when neither he nor Dr. West laughs, I worry that this might be more serious than I thought.
“Of course, you’re right, you do need more iron. I can prescribe you some supplements, and there are certain foods you can eat which are rich in iro–”
“Make me a list,” Sawyer interrupts him, pushing the notepad that’s resting on the desk in front of him, and Dr. West nods dutifully as he picks up a pen and gets to work.
“I also suggest you take my advice seriously and consider taking some time off the job, or at least cutting your hours until you go on official maternity leave.” He rips the top sheet off the pad and hands it straight to Sawyer. Then, after scribbling something on a different pad, he passes it to me. “That’s your supplement prescription. I know Mark stocks them over at the drugstore,” he assures me
“Thanks, Dr. West.” I smile gratefully, understanding why the women in Clearwater Creek get sick so often. He’s nowhere near as hot as Sawyer, but he’s handsome and assertive. The way he manages to keep himself so private despite living in this town is miraculous.
I sit and wait in the passenger seat of the patrol car while Sawyer heads to the drug store to pick up my prescription. I know after what the doctor said he’s gonna to be coming down on me even harder about resting up, and as I watch him cross the street to the grocery store to get some food from Dr. West’s list, I smile to myself and feel real lucky.
“You okay in there?” I stroke my hand over my belly when I feel her kicking. “I’m sorry I’ve been so preoccupied. I want you to know that you are the most important thing in the world to me.” My eyes fill up with tears. “I’m gonna do everything that Dr. West and your daddy tell me to from now on,” I promise, quickly drying my eyes before Sawyer gets back to the car. He hands the grocery bag across to me and pauses before he starts the engine.
“Riley, I don’t wanna fight, but you have to listen to what the doc said. Lily is safe, you can’t do anything to help those other women right now. When people are high on drugs and adrenaline, it’s amazing what they can do. Lily could have been running for miles before she got picked up. I’ve spoken to Jamie and he’s assured me he’s gonna do everything he can to figure this out, and trust me, if there's a man who can, it’s him. Leave everything to us, and focus on her,” he begs, as his huge hand spreads out over my stomach.
“Okay,” I agree without protest.
“You have to think of your baby, and you're getting far too pregnant to be—what did you say?” He stops mid-protest when he realizes I’ve agreed with him.
“I said, okay.” I look back at him and watch his mouth drop open. “And I thought we were both in agreement that she’s our baby now.” I don’t know why he used the words your baby during his little speech. Perhaps it was because he was expecting me to fight and thought it was what I wanted to hear, but it turns out that it isn’t. Hearing him say that puts dread inside me, and I’m confused as hell over what my mind is doing.
“ Our baby,” he corrects himself with a wide, happy grin on his face. Then, after shaking his head and laughing to himself, he starts the engine to take us home.