Chapter 6
Kyle lay there, head resting on his bent arm, and glanced toward the window. He could tell from the light coming in around the curtains that it was sunny out. Then he turned to gaze at the other side of the bed.
Peaceful in slumber, Gina lay on her side facing him, a strand of hair draped across her face and her lips barely parted.
Everything in him screamed to reach out and touch her, stroke a finger down her cheek, feather a kiss onto her forehead, but he didn’t want to wake her.
He’d been watching her for a few minutes when she stirred, but instead of opening her eyes, she just scooted toward him and curled into his chest. Once she was wrapped in his arms, she sighed deeply, and he could feel her relax into him.
And then Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” blared from her phone. “Oh, fuuuuuuuck,” she groaned and reached for it.
“Do you have to answer it?”
“Yeah. It’s Hadley.” She touched the screen and said, “Hey, honey. What’s up?
” In a split second, she bolted straight up in the bed.
“You what? When? Where? Oh, no, young lady. You are in sooooo much trouble.” There was some excited noise on the other end of the phone that he could hear.
“You should know better than that. Do Jack and Darla know about this? You girls … I’ll be there shortly.
NO! I’m not getting in any hurry to get there.
You can just sit there until I do. I love you.
Bye.” She touched the screen again, then tossed her phone onto the nightstand, fell back in the bed, and covered her face with her hands.
“Uh-oh. I take it this isn’t good.”
“No. It’s not. Sometime last night, while Jack and Darla were asleep, two boys showed up at the lake house. Kara calls one of them her boyfriend.”
“Kara?”
“Yeah. Hadley’s friend. Jack and Darla are her parents.
Anyway, they climbed out the window with the boys and went to another cabin about a mile away.
Spent the night there. God only knows what all they did.
Anyway, the owner was out fishing and when he came back, he called the cops and had them taken in.
So now she’s in the Trigg County detention center and she wants me to come get her out. She can just sit there.”
“No. You should go get her and—”
“Oh, no. She got herself into this, she can sit and stew.” He could tell Gina was furious. “She knows better than that. And if she’s going to do this shit, I suppose I should put her on birth control. God knows I don’t need a baby to help raise.”
“But she’s bound to be scared, babe, and she hasn’t done anything like this before, right?”
She pulled her hands away from her face and glared at Kyle. “What’s your point?”
“I think my point is, this is a first-time kind of thing. She’s learned her lesson.”
“She’ll learn it better if I leave her sitting there for a while.” He started to say something else, but Gina interrupted. “No. These are my kids. I’ll do what’s best for them. I’ve raised them alone and I don’t need the opinions of others.”
Wow. Okay then. Kyle wasn’t sure what to say, so he just came out with, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
She rolled back toward him and curled into him again.
“No, I’m sorry for sounding like a bitch.
It’s just that I’ve had to raise them by myself, and when they screw up like this, I take it personally—very personally.
Plus with their dad’s history, I want to nip behavior like this in the bud.
I keep watching for one of them to have his tendencies and so far, Hadley’s more likely than Briley, it seems. Thing is, she doesn’t do things like this. This is extreme for her.”
“It’s okay. I’m not offended. I’d just like to think that at some point, you won’t have to raise them alone anymore, you know?”
She sighed against his skin. “Yeah, and that would be wonderful. And you’re a guy who’s got his head on straight. I appreciate that.”
The kiss he placed gently on her forehead was intended to calm her. “So do we go get breakfast, or do you want to go on and see about her?”
“Oh, no. I’m going to breakfast with you. We’d already made plans last night and decided we wanted to do this, and I’m not changing my plans because she decided to trespass on somebody else’s property. That’s not my fault, and I shouldn’t be punished for it.”
“True. So get dressed and we’ll go eat, and then you can go see about her. Do you want me to go with you?”
“No.” He was startled at how fast she answered until she added, “Not yet. We’re going to have to plan very carefully how we do our introductions. That is, if we want to introduce each other to the families.”
“I want my family to meet you,” he said and kissed her.
And when she kissed him back, he felt ten feet tall. “And I want my family to meet you,” she answered when she broke the kiss. “We just need to be smart about how we do it, that’s all.”
“I agree. So let’s go. All that screwing around last night has left me hungry!” Kyle said and laughed, then laughed some more when she slapped his chest.
But she was laughing when she said, “Guys are pigs!”
“Yeah, some of us are. Am I?”
“No. You’re a sweetheart. Kyle, I …” She stopped.
“Yeah?”
“I want to keep seeing you.”
He nodded. “Good, because I want to keep seeing you!”
“Good. Okay. Breakfast. Let’s go.”
After they’d eaten their waffles and eggs at the local waffle place, he walked her to her truck. “So I’ll talk to you later. Let me know how it goes with Hadley, please?”
“I will. And thanks for … everything. Talk to you soon, babe.”
“Yep. Bye, gorgeous.” He watched as she climbed into the cab and drove away but, just like before, when she pulled out onto the street, she gave the horn a few quick little toots.
I have a girlfriend, Kyle told himself with a grin. She was beautiful, smart, funny, and fierce.
She was damn near perfect.
As she drove, Gina daydreamed about the night before. God, he was good! Nate had never given a shit whether she was satisfied or not, just wanted to get off. Being with someone who really cared about her and her satisfaction was something she hadn’t had, and it wasn’t just great—it was welcome.
After practically running into the house, she showered quickly, got dressed, and took off again. The Trigg County courthouse. That’s where the detention center was, apparently. She wasn’t really sure how to get there, but she knew it couldn’t be too hard to find.
The main street in Cadiz was quiet, but it would be hopping later.
People loved to bring their antique and collector cars there and “drag the strip,” as they called driving up and down Main Street.
The courthouse was just up ahead, and she pulled into a parking space.
But a trip to the door told her there was no one there, and she wasn’t sure what to do.
As she went back to her car, she noticed a sign across the street: Sheriff’s Department. Through the glass of the door she could see movement, so she headed that direction. When she opened the door, three pairs of eyes turned her direction. “Um, I was wondering …”
A good-looking guy about her age walked directly up to her, and his name tag read Carter Melton. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Sheriff Melton. Can I help you?”
“I hope so. My teenage daughter got picked up for trespassing. She called me and said she was over in the detention center, but the door’s locked and—”
“Let me guess. Hadley Ivitts?”
Gina could feel her cheeks burning. “Yes, sir. That’s my daughter.”
“I’ll be glad to take you over there. Edwards, make copies of those so we can hand them out when I get back.”
A young, bulked-up man nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The sheriff held the door for her and they made their way across the street. “Ms. Ivitts?”
“No. Pritchard.”
“I was just checking. A lot of parents and kids have different last names. But I just wanted to say, it’s none of my business, but your daughter?
I don’t think she did anything wrong except for following the lead of her friends.
When we got there, the owner of the cabin admitted they weren’t really causing any problems, just shouldn’t have been there.
They didn’t tear up anything, and they weren’t loud or obnoxious.
And your daughter’s been nothing but respectful. She seems like a good kid.”
“She is. Or she has been.”
“She still is,” the sheriff said with a smile.
“Can you tell me one thing?”
“Sure.”
Gina steeled herself. “Was there any alcohol involved?”
“If there was, they did a great job of disposing of the containers, and they weren’t inebriated when we got there.” She let out a loud sigh. “Has she had a problem with alcohol?”
“No, no. But her dad is an alcoholic, and he’s in Eddyville right now.”
“Oh. Well, yeah, I can see why you’d be concerned, but I really think there’s no need.” He pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and unlocked the detention center facility door. “Morris? Heathcock? Who’s working today?” he called out.
“I am.” A man appeared from down the hallway. “Hey, Carter!”
“Hey, Morris. This is Ms. Pritchard. She’s here for Hadley Ivitts,” the sheriff said, and the man extended a hand.
“Good to meet you, ma’am. Come on back.”
The sheriff patted her shoulder. “I’ll leave you with Morris here. He’s a good guy. Take care, Ms. Pritchard, and don’t be too hard on her. We all make mistakes.”
“Sometimes they’re impossible to reverse,” she reminded him.
“Oh, that’s absolutely true. Well, gotta get back. We’ve got an elderly man who’s wandered off from home and his family’s worried about him.”
“Thank you, sheriff,” Gina called after him.
His grin was enormous. “You bet!” Wow. He’s a looker! Wonder if he’s married? Wait—I have a boyfriend. Stop it, Gina! she scolded herself.
Morris started up the hallway. “Right this way, Ms. Pritchard.” A door opened at the end of the hallway and the shriek was almost instantaneous.
“MOM!” Hadley flew into Gina’s arms and began to sob. When she pulled back, Gina could tell she’d been crying the whole time. Her eyes were almost swollen shut and snot was running down her face.