Chapter 38
Chapter 38
Daphne’s mom and dad were waiting outside the station, which meant the three troublemakers had to squeeze in the back seat. Daphne ended up in the middle, shoulders hunched up near her ears, thighs pressed against Ellie’s and Grandma Mabel’s.
Her mother turned around to look at the three of them. “Where’s the pot?” she asked, as if that was the most important thing.
“That no-good, stick-up-his-ass sheriff confiscated it,” Grandma Mabel grumbled.
“You did bonk Archie Jr. on the head with it,” Helen pointed out.
“Only the lid!”
“Besides,” Ellie added, “Archie was acting like a violent psychopath. Grandma saved Daphne’s life.”
Daphne shifted to grab her seat belt, shoving her sister’s hip out of the way so she could buckle it. “It was all for nothing,” she said.
“Oh, honey,” Grandma Mabel replied, wrapping her arms around Daphne’s shoulders. “We had fun, and I got to hold my mother’s Dutch oven one last time. It was worth it just to see you stand up for yourself.”
Eyes prickling, Daphne nodded. She didn’t have the heart to tell her family that it absolutely had not been worth it. She’d broken all the rules that she usually lived by. She’d acted recklessly, and now she was facing the consequences. Total humiliation, the loss of a good professional reference by the sheriff’s department, and a surprise breakup as the cherry on top.
As her father put the car in gear and drove away from the station, Daphne kept her eyes on the road ahead. All she could see was Calvin’s face when he’d spotted that stupid cast-iron pot. The recognition, quickly followed by a horrible, hollow look in his eyes. She’d watched him realize that she’d lied to him.
In that moment, Daphne knew she’d been wrong about him. She’d thought he would toss her aside as soon as he tired of her, the way Pete had done. Calvin would see that she wasn’t the brave, impulsive woman she’d pretended to be, and he’d grow bored. But she’d had it all wrong.
That brave, impulsive woman was real. She came out when Calvin challenged her, when he made her feel like she could be anything she wanted. Daphne had hidden from herself, had kept herself small, but the bad boy from high school who’d been driving her nuts for the better part of two decades had seen what was beneath the veneer of responsibility she wore.
Calvin had cared. About her. About what might be growing between them.
As they left the Carlisle town limits and drove north, Daphne had the horrible, sinking feeling that she’d hurt him in a way that couldn’t be fixed.
She should’ve been honest with him from the start, this good man with a big heart and a history full of hurt. There were deposits of courage buried deep inside Daphne, and she should’ve mined them when she still had the right to speak to him. Daphne had wanted to take risks, but she’d shied away from the one gamble that might’ve actually paid off. Now it was too late.
Calvin deserved better. He deserved a partner who saw that core of gold and valued him for who he was, not a cowardly little mouse who thought she was brave because she ran around stealing old cookware to make herself feel like she belonged.
At her parents’ house, Daphne sank onto the couch and remembered the Monopoly game they’d hastily set up on the coffee table. She remembered the couch dipping when Calvin sat down beside her, the way his eyes had sparkled when he looked at her.
He made her feel like she could do anything, and she hadn’t had the decency to return the favor. She’d taken the confidence he’d given her and thrown it back in his face. She hadn’t trusted in his affection, because her own insecurities had gotten in the way.
And now it was over.
“They could do with better coffee at the station, I’ll tell you that much,” Mabel said, sinking into her usual armchair with a fresh cup.
“Believe it or not, it’s better than it was the last time I was there,” Ellie replied. She glanced up when the side door opened, and Hugh strode in. His shoulders dropped in relief when he spotted Ellie. She beamed at him. “I’m back!”
“I thought you were done getting arrested.”
“It was Daphne’s first time,” Ellie protested as she sprang up to her feet and spread her arms toward her husband-to-be. “I was there for moral support.”
Hugh shook his head and wrapped Ellie in strong arms. He ducked his face into her neck, and the two of them swayed slightly as they hugged. Daphne watched, her heart squeezing when she heard Hugh say in a quiet, private voice, “I missed you last night.”
Ellie pulled away and pressed a kiss to Hugh’s lips. “Me too,” she told him, then turned to Daphne. “But you should have seen us! Daphne kneed the mayor in the balls!”
Hugh gave Daphne an appreciative nod. “Nice.”
“I don’t think he’ll be mayor much longer,” Grandma Mabel said, “what with the embezzlement and all.”
“And the concussion,” Daphne added, shooting her grandmother a sideways glance.
Grandma Mabel sipped her coffee, smiled, and said nothing.
When her father came to sit next to her, Daphne leaned her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her, and for a moment, she felt like a little girl again, safe in her father’s arms. As her mother went around to refill everyone’s cups, then sank down in a chair of her own, Daphne listened to the excited chatter and realized that she’d been wrong about something else.
She did belong here. She was just as much a part of this family as anyone else. Not because she had decided to be brash, but because they would always be here to support her. Her parents had encouraged her to leave the island for college. They’d cheered on her academic dreams, even when tears had streamed down their faces when it came time to say goodbye. They’d been there for her when Pete walked out; all she’d had to do was tell them, and the whole family had rallied around her.
Yes, she was different. She liked numbers and got a special kind of thrill when using complicated queries and pivot tables in her spreadsheets. Her family couldn’t relate, but they accepted it. Encouraged it. Celebrated it.
She’d never been on the outside of the Davis clan. The only person who needed to accept Daphne for who she was was herself.
“I saved you the heel of the bread I made this morning,” her father said, his cheek pressed against the top of her head as he held her. “How do you feel about having it with butter, maybe a little jam? We picked up the rhubarb stuff you like so much.”
It was ridiculous that an offer of bread, butter, and jam would mean so much to Daphne, but her eyes still prickled. Even though everyone in the family liked the heel, her dad would always save it for her when he could—even when she’d spent the night in a Fernley County Sheriff’s Department holding cell. No one else in the household liked rhubarb jam, but her parents had gone out of their way to stock it for her.
How could she have thought that they didn’t appreciate her for who she was?
“That sounds really good, Dad,” she croaked, throat tight with emotion.
He kissed the top of her head and got up to move to the kitchen. A second after he’d vacated his spot, Helen took it and wrapped Daphne in another hug. “I love you, Daphne,” she said quietly.
Brushing tears off her cheeks, Daphne nodded. “I love you too. I’m sorry.”
Helen laughed as she pulled away, pressing a kiss to Daphne’s forehead. “Nothing to be sorry about, sweetheart. I’m just glad you’re here, and you’re okay.”
Daphne nodded and wiped her cheeks again, and her attention was drawn by Hugh’s voice.
“So, wait, Archie’s been embezzling money? Those break-ins were him? Why?”
Daphne explained everything she’d learned about Archie Jr.’s schemes. “Not sure about the Romano’s break-in, though,” she noted.
“I’m sure it’ll all get figured out soon,” Grandma Mabel said, then brightened when the doorbell rang. “That’ll be Harry and Greta. They said they had something to show us.”
“I’ll get it,” Ellie said as she got up. A moment later, she came back, trailed by Harry, Greta, and Ryan Lane.
The teen had his laptop under his arm, and he gave everyone in the room a little wave. He held up a USB drive. “Got all the recordings from yesterday. You guys want to see them?”
“Hot damn!” Mabel said, jumping up. “Do we ever!”
“Shouldn’t you be giving those to the police?” Daphne asked.
“They already have them,” Ryan said, taking a seat on a rickety wooden chair and setting his laptop on the coffee table. “I figured you’d want your own copy.”
“Whatever we’re paying you, I’m doubling it,” Mabel announced. “Let’s start with that ridiculous dance.”
Ryan glanced at Daphne, a grin twitching at his lips. “Sure,” he said, and Daphne groaned. For the next while, the whole gang watched and rewatched the footage from the night, dissecting every interaction, laughing at every replay of Daphne kneeing Archie Jr. in the testicles, and going through the fight frame by frame.
Once her mortification had died down, Daphne actually enjoyed herself. She watched herself fight and dance and scheme, and knew that the woman on the recording wasn’t a stranger. It hadn’t been an aberration of her character caused by temporary madness. She was that woman who retrieved family heirlooms and defended herself in the face of danger.
And Calvin had known it all along. He’d seen her, even when she hadn’t seen herself.