Chapter 2
Chapter Two
HAYES
Idropped my head on a heavy sigh before telling myself it was for the best. In spite of my body’s desire to get up and run after Temperance to make sure she was okay, I stayed firmly planted in my seat.
Slugging back half my coffee, I got down to work while I waited for my lunch.
I was barely at it for five minutes when I was interrupted by a litany of curses coming from the front of the diner.
Looking up, I spotted Eden Brenner trying to navigate the heavy glass door while keeping hold of her crutches.
Eden was relatively new to town, having only moved to Hope Valley months earlier, but in the time she’d been here, she’d made things interesting, to say the least.
It started with her estranged brother following her to town and breaking into several residents’ houses. Eden had suffered the consequences of his associations with and being on the run from some really bad people, which included being kidnapped, beaten, and shot twice.
During that whole debacle, my buddy Lincoln Sheppard had fallen pretty damn hard, and was slowly working to maneuver himself into her life in a permanent way. Once the shit hit the fan, he gave up on slow and made her his in a very official capacity.
I quickly moved from the booth to help her clear the door without doing any further damage to herself.
After I got her inside and stable on her crutches once more, I gave her a disapproving look.
“Jesus, woman. You need to be more careful. You were just shot. You should be at home in bed right now.”
She attempted a menacing glare I never would have thought someone as sweet and shy as Eden capable of, but truthfully, it only made her that much cuter. Seeing that, it was easy to understand just what Linc saw in her. “Don’t you start with me. I was shot weeks ago, and I’m healing up just fine.”
“You were shot in the damn gut and thigh. Healing up or not, you need to take it easy.”
Her eyes shot lasers in my direction as she declared, “Lincoln’s driving me crazy. If I didn’t get away from him, I was gonna be locked up for beating him senseless with one of my crutches!”
I tried and failed miserably to hide my smirk. “At least tell me you didn’t drive yourself here. Linc’ll lose his goddamn mind.”
She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Of course I didn’t drive myself. That bullet to the thigh you mentioned kinda put a damper on my driving skills. Lincoln had to go into the office for a few hours and dragged me along with him. I made my escape with Rox’s help and walked down here.”
My brows raised toward my hairline. “Walked?”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “I hobbled.”
“Shit, Eden. What were you thinking?”
“It was only a couple blocks!” she defended insolently.
“And I needed a break from Lincoln and his constant hovering. I love him, I swear, but I’m this close to stealing his dog and making a run to the mountains just for a bit of solitude.
Now, you can either tattle on me to your bestie or join me for lunch. It’s up to you.”
The corner of my mouth kicked up in a smirk as I stepped out of her way so she could precede me. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you some grub. Maybe it’ll brighten your disposition.”
“Careful,” she warned as we made our way back to my booth. “Cop or no cop, I’m not above pummeling you too.”
I let out a laugh and helped her into the bench across from mine, then resumed my seat. “So, how are you feelin’?”
The frustration from a second ago fled her expression and she gave me a gentle smile. “I’m a lot better. Thanks for asking.”
I studied Eden closely, trying to see if I could read anything on her face that would contradict what she’d just said.
She’d been through one hell of a trauma, and something like that could stay with a person.
“You sure, honey? ’Cause there’s nothin’ wrong with not bein’ okay.
What you went through was intense. What you went through can mess with a person’s head.
You ever need to talk that shit out and don’t feel like you can with Linc, you have my number. ”
Her face grew even warmer, giving way to that beauty that had Lincoln so enamored. “You’re a good guy, Detective Hayes Walker.”
I returned her smile with one of my own. “Thanks, darlin’.”
The sound of a throat clearing cut into our conversation, and our attention shot to the end of the table where Temperance stood, her pale eyes pointed directly at Eden, an emotion I couldn’t place making them cloudy and dull as her cheeks grew pink.
Eden, oblivious to the weird tension radiating from Temperance, beamed up at her. “Oh, hi. I’m Eden.”
“Uh….” Temperance’s gaze bounced between mine and Eden’s before she hesitantly reached out and took the woman’s hand. “Temperance.”
“Temperance. That’s a pretty name. It’s really nice to meet you.”
The uncertainty slowly melted from her expression and a tiny smile took its place in the face of Eden’s undeniable charm, but there was still a shadow in her eyes that made my gut twist uncomfortably. “Yeah, you too.”
“You know, I just have to say, you have the prettiest eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blue quite like that before.”
Temperance’s cheeks flushed pinker, and that smile stretched a bit more before she said, “Well, thanks. I appreciate that.” Then she got back down to business. “Would you like a menu to look over?”
“No need. I’ll take the country fried steak sandwich and—” Eden leaned to the side of the booth to yell, “Hey, Ralph! What do you have for today’s sides?”
“Creamed corn and my special seasoned fries, sugar!”
Eden looked back to Tempie. “The sandwich and fries. And just a water, please.”
“Got it,” Temperance said in return. “Is that to go or…?” Her peculiar gaze darted back to me as she trailed off, and my brow wrinkled in confusion.
“No, for here, thanks.”
The droop of her shoulders was so minuscule that anyone else would have missed it, but I didn’t, and that tightening in my gut grew more acute in response to it.
“I’ll get right on that.” Then she turned and disappeared into the kitchen once again, leaving me wondering what the hell that was all about.
Temperance
Shit, that hurt.
It shouldn’t have. It had been twenty-one years, and we’d only been a couple throughout high school, for Christ’s sake.
It shouldn’t have hurt, seeing him with another woman like that, happy and sweet, shooting her those gorgeous smiles that used to light up my entire world….
But god it did.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before, seeing him with another woman. As some kind of self-imposed defense mechanism, I hadn’t allowed myself to think about him in a relationship. As ridiculous as it was, I just knew thoughts like those would have done me in.
But here I was, back in this goddamn town with something I’d been avoiding more than half my life being shoved right down my throat.
And to make matters worse, after just one meeting, a handful of seconds, I could already tell that Eden was probably one of the sweetest women I’d ever met, the kind of woman it was impossible to hate, no matter how much a person may want to.
“Yo. Darlin’.” Ralph’s voice startled me back into the present, and I spun around to where he was standing at the huge industrial griddle, flipping burger patties with a skill born from years at that stove.
“Sorry, what?”
His brows furrowed in concern. “You okay, sweetheart? Been tryin’ to get your attention for two minutes straight, and you’ve been staring at that wall like it’s the most fascinatin’ thing since that Brad Pitt tossed aside that homewrecker with those big duck lips.”
I let out a giggle and shook my head. “I see those trashy gossip magazines are still your guilty pleasure.”
“A man’s guilty pleasures keep him mysterious, and Sal likes my particular brand of mystery.”
That earned him a full-blown laugh. “No, Sally likes your particular brand of crazy,” I corrected. “It keeps her entertained.”
His lips quirked up in a pleased grin beneath his bushy beard. “My woman,” he started, his voice holding an air of appreciation at the thought of his wife. “She lives to be entertained.”
“And you live to give her that,” I confirmed.
Ralph nodded. “You know it, darlin’.”
I really freaking loved that. For both him and Sally. And although my chest grew warm with the knowledge that two deserving people such as them had it so damn good, I couldn’t stop that pang of envy from shooting into my heart and embedding its thorns in deep.
Did Hayes have that with Eden? I could totally see a woman like that, kind and open, giving him reason to wear the same lovestruck expression Ralph was wearing right then.
“So…,” I hedged nervously. I knew I shouldn’t, but my curiosity was just too strong to ignore. “I just met a woman named Eden. She seems really nice.”
Ralph chuckled and went back to flipping beef patties. “That’s an understatement. Girl’s sweet as pie, and wily as all get-out. It’s a damn cryin’ shame she had to go through all that hubbub ’cause of that brother of hers.”
“Wait.” I shook my head, my eyebrows dipping into a deep V. “That was her? The girl who was kidnapped and—”
“It was,” he cut in, his face going hard at the memory of what happened to the girl out front.
I could understand that look after having only just met her.
No person should ever have to go through something like that, but someone so sweet?
Well that was downright despicable, and I hoped those men suffered before they died.
“We all worried she wouldn’t come back from what happened to her, but she’s got a solid head on her shoulders.
Tough as nails, that one. Thankful for that, and proud as hell of her. ”
Hearing Ralph speak in such high esteem of Eden only solidified what I already knew. She was a good woman. And knowing Ralph held such respect for her meant she was nothing but deserving of it.
“That was a dark day. Been seein’ quite a few of those lately, and something nasty in my gut tells me we got a few more to come.”
“Because of….” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Bile slithered up my throat, leaving an acidic burn in its wake.
Those pictures I’d seen in Hayes’s file were burned into my brain and on the backs of my eyelids.
I thought I’d shaken off the initial shock of seeing them, but I’d been wrong.
My hand began to tremble again, and a cold, clammy sweat broke out along my skin.
“Have they…?” I had to swallow to dislodge the lump that had suddenly taken up residence in my throat. “Have they caught who killed Martin?”
Reading the tremor in my voice and seeing the pallor of my skin, Ralph was quick to answer, “Don’t you worry yourself over that, girl. Hayes is on it, and that boy won’t stop diggin’ ’til that asshole is behind bars for the rest of his miserable life.”
“I know, it’s just….” I couldn’t finish that thought, not that I needed to.
Ralph understood. Hell, all of Hope Valley would probably understand.
Before my parents, there hadn’t been a murder in the small mountain town in more than fifty years.
Sure, there was crime, but most of it of was of the petty variety caused by bored teenagers or drunken assholes.
What happened to my mom and dad had rocked everybody.
“Get it outta your head, sweetheart,” Ralph ordered. “No point in going down that road. It’ll only cause you pain.”
He was right, I was a reasonable enough person to admit that. But easier said than done. However, I’d gotten really good at one thing in particular over the years.
Faking a happiness I hadn’t felt for more than half my life.
Pasting a smile on my face, I looked back to Ralph and declared, “You’re right. Consider it out of my head.”
His pearly white teeth showed through his beard as he grinned at me, and I knew he bought my act. “Good deal, darlin’. Now, table seven’s order is up, so get back out there and charm some customers.”
Table seven. Hayes and Eden’s table.
God, this is gonna sting.