Chapter 11
Sutton
“Here you go. Take this coupon down to the diner’s booth and get yourselves a free ice cream cone. Your sister can have one too.”
The two kids excitedly hold out their hands for their prize.
“Thank you, Officer!” The young boy emphasizes his gratitude with a high five.
“Thanks for wearing your helmets. My friends and I will be driving around this summer with more of these coupons, so make sure you wear them when you’re biking.”
“We will!” The little one bobs her head. With a ring of her pink bell, she races off, her brother pedaling after in her dust.
A rare chuckle slips out. This is one of my favorite community events. At the start of summer, the town partners with the police and fire departments to host a safety event. We gather in the parking lot at city hall with the goal of making safety education practical and approachable.
This year, I’ve been assigned to helmet safety, which works well.
As a single dad to an eight-year-old, it gives me the opportunity to put eyes on the kids and parents my daughter spends time around and who she might meet in the future.
For a small town and someone who works for the community, there aren’t many people I don’t already know, but every so often, a newcomer moves in.
My new nanny, for example.
The thought of her sends a heated prickle up my spine. Not that I have the damnedest clue why. Call it a gut feeling. There’s just something suspicious about her. The fact that she treats my daughter like a princess doesn’t prevent my distrust. Hell, it heightens it.
Maybe my brothers were right. I am a skunk.
I scan the crowd of people milling around, not seeing a familiar black messy bun, and relax my shoulders. The woman is infiltrating my life. The only place I seem to find respite is at my job, and even then, I spend half the day wondering what she’s up to.
Another group rolls to a stop at my station, redirecting my thoughts. I hand out more coupons with my spiel, pausing at the last little hand extended.
“Nellie-Jo, you’ve already been here.”
“Uh-oh,” she says.
“Three times,” I add. Puffing out my chest, I tap my badge. “We like to call that theft.”
“Busted!” The leader at the front yells, pedaling away as if I’m about to turn on my siren. Not sure that bodes well for his future. Two girls chase him on their bikes, laughing as they leave Nellie behind.
“Daddy!” My daughter gives me an angry pout.
“Sorry, Buttercup. One per customer. Why don’t you check out one of the other booths instead?”
Besides bike safety, kids can tour emergency vehicles. They’ve stationed a cruiser, a fire truck, and an ambulance near the back of the lot. It’s a big hit with the younger ones.
The fire department is hosting demonstrations on fire extinguishers, and later, they have a burn demonstration planned to show the effect of keeping doors closed at night. I intend to watch that one with Nellie once I close down here.
Car seat technicians provide car seat safety checks and education to caregivers. There’s a small self-defense demonstration by Officer Calloway taking place in the grass, and beyond it, Officer Marlowe is running a K-9 demonstration, a crowd favorite.
“I’m going to get you back for that, Dad,” she grunts in frustration, opting for the more grown-up version of my title.
Not going to lie, when she makes the full change over, it’s going to fucking hurt.
“Save the revenge for the real criminals.” My lips twitch in a rare smile as she chases down her friends.
During the infrequent free moment, I quench my thirst. The station handed out cold water bottles, though mine is more lukewarm after sitting in the booth. Shielding my eyes, I search for where Nellie biked off to. Even with my mirrored shades, the sun overhead still forces me to squint.
“Hot out here, isn’t it?” A feminine voice draws my attention away from the search.
A sparkly purple bike pulls up beside me. Perched upon the seat is one of Nellie’s dance friends, Maddie, with her light hair tucked into a tight bun. Her older sister, Rylee, brakes beside her on a matching pink bicycle, an equally severe bun on her head.
Their mother, Stephanie, lifts her sunglasses off her face, settling them atop her brown hair, and rakes her sharpened gaze down my torso.
“You look like you could use a drink,” she says, meeting my eyes for a second, only to appraise my body again like I’m the last half-priced designer bag on the rack.
“All set.” I shake the half-empty bottle of water between us.
“Something stronger? Some of us are gathering at The Rocks once all this ends.”
Hell, no. This woman has been trying to sink her very married claws into me since the girls started kindergarten together.
“Can’t. Have to stay for tear down.”
“That’s a shame.” She flashes an artificially white smile in my direction.
“Girls, where are your helmets?” The intense desire to move this trio along from my booth urges me to confront the children. “You know I can’t give out free ice cream if you aren’t wearing them.”
Maddie shrugs. “We lost them.”
“I don’t want to ruin my hair,” Rylee says.
“Well, I don’t want you to ruin your skull if you get into an accident. Do you have them at home?”
The girls exchange a look that tightens my spine.
“We do,” Maddie drags the word out. The next sentence tumbles out. “But Mom said we should leave them so we could come to your booth.”
“Maddie,” Stephanie hisses. She glances at me behind coy lashes. “That’s not what I said.”
“You did! Mom, you said that Officer Stone would give us new ones.”
I fight to keep the exasperation from my face, serving their mom a hardened look.
“I did not say that.” Stephanie drops her sunglasses back over her eyes, having the decency to look uncomfortable, but the blush could be all part of the act.
“Then you’re all set. If I see you with them on this summer, I’ll give you a coupon.”
“Can’t we have one today?” Maddie asks, the seriousness of the situation sinking in for the eight-year-old. I wonder how long she’ll remember that her mom’s idiotic games cost her an ice cream.
“Sorry, girls. Those are the rules.”
“That’s not fair,” Maddie whines.
“Quiet, Mads.” Rylee elbows her sister. “Mom wasn’t going to let us eat the ice cream anyway.”
It appears the older one has already cottoned on.
Sorrow inches into my gut. I know what it’s like to be born to a parent who puts their selfish interests ahead of their children.
My father behaved similarly to Stephanie when he had an affair with his teaching assistant and left my mother and us boys for the younger woman.
Unfortunately, Stephanie hasn’t yet figured out that I’m the last person who’d ever participate in adultery.
Not in a million fuckin’ years. That shit tore my family to shreds.
I nearly lost my brother, Spencer, in the process, both physically and mentally, and didn’t see him again for twenty years.
A horn honks loudly, followed by a bell and a shriek. Stephanie and her girls rush out of the way as what looks like a small biker gang pulls to an abrupt stop on the pavement they just vacated.
“Hey, Officer Sunny!” Ms. Thompson gives the yellow horn on her handlebars an obnoxious honk. The bicycle looks vintage. It’s clearly older than us both. Noticing my confusion, she shares, “I found it in the garage. Isn’t it awesome?”
Certainly not my garage. She must mean at her rental.
My chest puffs on a restrained chuckle. I shake my head. “It’s something.”
“You almost ran us over!” Stephanie makes a show of brushing imaginary dust off the front of her designer jeans.
“Sorry about that. The brakes are rusty.” Ms. Thompson plants her feet flat and stands, holding the bike so it doesn’t fall over. “It’s nice to see you again, Stephanie.”
Stephanie crosses her arms. “The nanny, right?”
“It’s Alice.” Ms. Thompson smiles sweetly. Without warning, she directs the full pretty thing at me, swiftly punching me in the gut. “Nellie said I needed to come by for a helmet and some ice cream.”
“Did she? Did she also tell you she already had an ice cream?”
“Of course! This one’s for me.” Ms. Thompson winks at my scheming child. I don’t need to be a detective to know the two of them are in cahoots. She inches forward and slaps the cracked banana seat of her bike. “Besides, this bad boy needs a tune-up.”
“You actually plan to ride that thing?”
“You know it. If Nellie and I want to ride our bikes to school, I need to make sure mine is road ready.”
My lips twitch. Normally, her banter drives me up the fucking wall, but right now, I’ll take anything over the adulteress sucking all the air out of my booth. “All right. Hop off that thing and let me have a look.”
As Ms. Thompson gets situated, six bikes race past us, with Nellie somewhere in the middle. Her eyes gleam victoriously at the mission accomplished.
“I’ll have to hold it for you. It doesn’t have a kickstand.
Probably fell off twenty-some years ago,” she says.
She moves to straddle the front tire and hold the bike by the handlebars.
Her legs are short like the rest of her, but they’re tanned and toned where they leave her jean shorts, capped off with her signature white sneakers.
I avert my gaze to the chain, trying to think of something other than Ms. Thompson straddling anything. Unbidden, the image of her straddling me pops into my head.
Get it the fuck together, Sutton.
She leans forward, her cleavage appearing in my line of sight. I quickly avert my gaze to the rusty bike chain. Since when do I notice her cleavage? It must be because she’s finally out of one of her baggy sweatshirts.
“Is the home-wrecker gone?” she whispers.
“Yup.” I swallow over a lump in my throat.
“Good. I thought she was going to tear your shirt off and lick the sweat from your nipples.”
Dear God. Suddenly, I’m thinking of a tongue on my nipples, and it doesn’t belong to Stephanie. I wasn’t sweating before, but I sure as fuck am now.
“Are you jealous, Ms. Thompson?” A swipe of my tongue wets my lips.
“Just looking out for my job security, Officer Sunny.”
My ass rests on the heel of my shoe, relaxing a forearm on my knee. “Do you always have a ridiculous imagination?”
“Oh, come on. I’d have to be blind not to see that the woman wants you to call her Mommy. And once that happens, who needs a nanny?”
“Never gonna happen.”
“Single for eternity, eh? Me too.”
This conversation is barreling down a dangerous road, one I haven’t explored in nearly seven years.
One I’m perfectly fine keeping locked tight until Nellie graduates from high school.
Rocks sputter beneath my shoes as I push to my feet. “Needs a new chain. Bring it by my house in the morning, and I’ll get one put on for you. Here’s a helmet.”
“What about my coupon for free ice cream?”
“Are you going to give it to my daughter?”
Her eyes shoot skyward. “No, I’m going to eat it by myself.”
I hold out the paper. When she grabs the other end, I lean in close. “I don’t believe you,” I murmur. The words hold a deeper meaning I’m yet to unscramble.
“Want to share it?”
Lust swiftly punches my gut when her brown eyes drop to my mouth.
Squinting at her, I flatten my lips. “No.”
“Didn’t think so.” She pulls the paper from between my outstretched fingers, and I let go.
“See you later!” Throwing a leg over the rusty death trap, Ms. Thompson honks the horn three times as she pedals off.
“At the emergency room, maybe,” I gripe, squeezing the remainder of my water bottle into my mouth, attempting to wash our verbal sparring match from my tongue.
For the remainder of the day, I throw myself into my booth, handing out a damn coupon to just about anyone who asks for one. Fuck the rules. I even tracked down Maddie and Rylee just to give myself something to do.
Anything other than think about Ms. Thompson and her smart mouth, and that feeling snaking through my dick that tells me I haven’t been laid in way too long.
For fuck’s sake, I can’t bed the damn nanny.
And this woman?
With how wild and carefree and unfiltered she is? She’d probably spread my business across the damn town.