CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Cole
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cole
“ T his isn’t a good look for any of you boys,” I say as I open the cell door and let out the three very hungover kids one of my deputies arrested last night for being drunk and disorderly. They’re all underage and were caught drunk and trying to piss into the sewer on Main Street.
“Will this go on my permanent record?” the youngest one asks, pushing his glasses up his nose. I can tell he’s never been in trouble a day in his life, which is a good thing. He won’t make the same mistake twice.
“No, the town isn’t pressing charges. You boys are lucky to be getting away with a warning,” I tell them.
His father, the principal of Laurel Creek High School, stands across from us, arms folded against his chest. You just know he’s going to give them an earful as soon as they leave.
I process them and send them on their way, but not before I clap the nervous principal’s son on his shoulder. I almost feel sorry for him.
“Just agree with everything he says.” I motion to his dad on the other side of the glass. I turn to all three of them. “And next time, for Chrissake find a bathroom.”
“Sorry, Sheriff Ashby,” the oldest one says, muttering to his buddy as he passes me: “My dad’s gonna kick my ass.”
A smile plays on my lips as I turn my back to them. “Be good, fellas.”
They aren’t even through the lobby before I can hear their parents giving them shit. I chuckle. Been there. Done that.
“What else do I have today?” I ask Bev when I’m back by her desk. All I want is to get home early before my swearing-in tonight.
“Well, you can either attend the two o’clock city council meeting, or take the transport to the county jail with the guy that tried to rob Menders Convenience last night.” Bev leans forward and looks at me over the top of her purple glasses. “I’d do the council meeting. Buddy in the cell relieved himself when he was coming off his high.”
I nod. “Council meeting it is. Send Brent to transport. He’ll love that.”
Bev grins without looking up.
“It would be good to show up and let the town know you’re there for them anyway,” she says.
“Sounds great.”
She glances back up at me again. “You have coffee on your shirt. Might want a fresh one before your first official appearance with council.”
I look down. And, sure as hell, see a coffee stain.
“Shit,” I mutter under my breath.
“Fresh ones are in the closet to the left of your desk. Just got your size delivered yesterday,” she says, her eyes back on the documents in front of her.
I tap the frame of the door as I leave her office.
“Thanks, Bev,” I say, grateful for her motherly care. One more meeting and I get to go home and see what Ginger has come up with to wear to the banquet tonight. I can hardly fucking wait.
By four o’clock, I’ve managed to make it home early. I play a quick game of Uno with Mabel before heading to my room to lay out my fancier, all-black uniform I wear for formal events. As I get out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist, and wipe down the mirror to shave, I hear Ginger and Mabel in the living room, chattering away about when to get Mabel into her dress and what hairstyle she wants Ginger to give her. I’ve thought about nothing but Ginger all day. No matter what I do, I can’t get her out of my head.
It’s the line I’ve always struggled with, but having her here makes it so much more difficult. At home I’m Dad, not Cole. Creating space to be a man in a dad’s home might be the hardest thing I’ve tried to do. But after last night, I don’t have a choice.
A light knock on the bathroom door pulls me from my thoughts.
“I think Mabel’s hairpins are in there. Can you pass them out?” Ginger asks from the other side of the door.
I open it wide, letting her in.
She stands in the doorway for a beat as I pump shaving cream into my palm. I feel her eyes roam my body and I relish being under her stare. I turn to face her.
“Come in and close the door. Stay a while,” I say with a grin.
She blinks, and I love that she looks at me the same way I look at her. As though she can’t tear her eyes away.
“So this is you not trying to entice me,” she says sarcastically, waving a hand over my towel-clad body.
“Working for ya?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Pffft. Not in the slightest,” she answers too quickly, but the creep of pink slinking across her cheeks tells me she’s lying. After a few seconds of silence, she blurts out awkwardly, “Mabes is watching Annie .”
“Of course she is,” I say calmly, letting her off the hook as I rub the foam along my jaw in small circles.
I pull my razor out from the bathroom drawer and give it a rinse in the sink, tapping it against the marble. I hear her huff out a breath and prepare myself for an earful.
“You know … last night was a moment of weakness for me and just because you know you’re hot doesn’t mean you can parade it around everywhere you go. I’m aware this is your house, but still …” Ginger says in a sort of angry whisper, her hand on her hip. “It’s … distracting. And you not being the least bit upset with me about what happened on the boat, and kissing me like that … why weren’t you more upset?”
I continue my shave as she rambles on. I know her well enough to let her finish before I try to get a word in edgewise.
“You trusted me with Mabel and I should’ve been more cautious.” She taps her nails on my bathroom counter. “And you still trust me with her after that? And another thing. You … you getting to me like that—”
“Making you come,” I say, cutting her off.
She narrows her eyes at me. It’s fucking adorable.
“Well, it’s like you’re messing with my head, Cole.”
I’ve had enough.
“Sit.” I nod toward the counter, taking a guess that she’s finally finished rambling. “Look, let’s get some things clear,” I say, keeping my eyes on the mirror as I start to shave again. She miraculously doesn’t argue for once and pops her perfect ass up onto the counter beside me. She’s wearing cutoffs and a tank, but her hair and makeup are styled for a formal night out. The contrast is perfect.
She looks up at me like she doesn’t know what to expect and I wonder if anyone has ever let her just shine on her own. I can tell it makes her nervous when I don’t doubt her, but she better get used to being treated right if she’s going to hang around here all summer.
I finish up the steady line I’m shaving, feeling the weight of her gaze on me, and breathe out a sigh. I give my razor a rinse before starting again.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on in that pretty head of yours, Ginger,” I say as I lean into the mirror beside her. Her freshly showered coconut scent overwhelms me as I tilt closer.
“And you can keep hiding behind that sassy, standoffish little attitude all you want. But you need to understand two things.” I turn my head, rinse, and work away at the other side of my face as I talk. Just having her in here makes the bathroom that much more humid.
“One. No one is perfect, and whoever made you feel like you had to be all the time was wrong for putting that kind of pressure on you. People make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of your trust.”
I know for a fact it is her father that constantly makes her feel this way, but I don’t point that out. I finish shaving and turn to look at her.
She gazes up at me, then breaks free from her trance and gives me the universal motion with her first finger for come here and a little grin. That tiny gesture instantly turns me on.
“You missed a spot,” she says softly. I immediately shift my body toward her, getting close enough to make her breathing speed up.
I look down at her and use my free hand to tap her knees. Like the good girl she is, she instantly opens her legs wide enough to accommodate me.
I sink between them, never taking my eyes off hers. The connection between us is crushing as I flip the razor over and hand it to her. Her eyes widen.
“Fix me up then,” I tell her.
She doesn’t say a word, but takes the razor from me, a look of concentration on her face.
“Two,” I continue, “I’m not messing with your head. I don’t fucking understand this any more than you do. But I do know that, even if you’re unsure about me, you wanted me to kiss you last night.”
Ginger makes a nervous sound that I know most people don’t hear from her. She’s always the picture of nothing phases me .
“Just stop talking or I’ll cut you and I won’t be to blame.” She smirks, intent in her eyes.
She does a little dance of trying to figure out where to anchor her free hand to stabilize herself before she begins.
I don’t give her more than ten seconds before I roll my eyes and take her hand into my own, placing it firmly on my bare shoulder. We look at each other and the room around us fades away when we lock eyes this close.
I see her lips part and her thrumming pulse in her throat.
I grin. “Shouldn’t be afraid to touch your husband, Vixen.”
Her eyes narrow and she uses her knuckles to raise my chin, rather roughly, which makes me laugh even more. Then, she places the razor at my throat and carefully drags it up, swiping the foam as she goes. She lets out a breath I know she was holding in when she finishes, and I eye up her handiwork in the mirror.
“I’m still alive, so that’s a plus,” I mutter.
“For now,” she retorts.
In truth, it’s a perfect shave. One that leaves me rock hard beneath my towel.
Turned on by shaving. Another first.
I look down at her at the precise moment she hands the razor back to me.
She hops down from the counter, inadvertently grazing my hardened cock. Her eyes move down when she feels it, then back up to mine.
“So happy to be of service.” She grins. “Better take some downtime before you get ready. But not too much. You can’t be late for your own party, Law Daddy.”
I look down at my hard-on, ready to bust through my towel. The fuck am I supposed to do with that now?
Not twenty minutes later, I stare at myself in my uniform. It’s a suit of sorts with a matching officer’s hat. The gold stars line my collar, and the sheriff badges sit flush on my upper arms. They feel heavy. I’m holding onto all of this by a thread. And now tonight, not only will my whole family be there, but Ginger will be too.
I check my watch and straighten my hat. It’s go time. I’ve already been the sheriff for weeks but, for some reason, today it feels real.
“Let’s go, ladies, times a wastin’ …” I say as I enter the living room.
Every thought in my head dies as I take in the sight of Ginger standing in the window, fixing Mabel’s hair.
My eyes trace her silhouette, from her pretty heel-clad feet to the mass of waves that dance atop her head and fall perfectly out of her carefully placed pins. The black silky dress she said Liv brought over today fits her like a satin glove, gliding over the hips that beg for my hands. The waist is cinched tight, and the top gives the illusion that one small movement would have her full breasts freed, and hopefully in my mouth.
The expanse of skin visible above the strapless bodice is dewy and smooth, and looks so fucking soft, just like it felt last night.
“How does this look?” she asks for both of them. I snap out of my trance as she turns her eyes to me for the first time since I entered the room. When she does, her eyes roam me the same way mine roamed her. Only she seems to get it together a lot faster than I did. A million thoughts run through my mind as to how to answer her.
Stunning, tempting, exquisite, sinful , mine.
I remind myself Mabel is in the room, looking up at me expectantly.
“You both look very beautiful,” I say coolly. They look at each other and then back to me.
“We match!” Mabel says. Her little black dress with white flowers all over has puffed sleeves and falls to her knees. She is adorable, and I couldn’t love her more if I tried.
“Of course you do,” I say with a smile.
They make their way out through the front door and, as I place my hand on Ginger’s back to guide her, the heat of the touch races up my forearm. I will myself to get through this night without making my first order of business as the sworn-in sheriff pulling her into the bathroom and hiking that dress up over her hips.
The ballroom at the Grand Oaks Country Club is filled with a few hundred people from town. This is always a formal event and one that is taken seriously. I’m not even in the door before people are shaking my hand and congratulating me, telling me how good a job they think I’ll do for the county.
Mabel finds my family and I get through the hordes of people, thinking about Ginger behind me, keeping her comfortable and making sure she isn’t alone.
I turn to guide her to our seats, but she isn’t even there when I turn around. I scan the crowd but don’t see her as the mayor posts up beside me for a photo opportunity with his media team. He congratulates me on my new position and we talk for a few moments about my upcoming plans. My eyes are anywhere but on him as I search for Ginger. The mayor’s publicist pulls him aside and it’s then that I see her, standing in a circle with four of my deputies and an officer I don’t know, maybe from out of county. She’s chatting away, smiling and laughing while each one of them takes in her body in that dress like they’ve never seen anyone like her. She either doesn’t notice or does but doesn’t mind. Both of which piss me off equally. I set my jaw and get sucked into yet another conversation while Ginger talks with the cop I don’t know. He’s leaning back against a table, like he’s about to pull her toward him.
“Do you think that will work with your schedule?” asks Daryl Buckner. He runs the community outreach program for the local Salvation Army. His question brings my attention back to the conversation at hand. I have no fucking clue what he’s talking about. What I do know is that Ginger just laughed and rested her arm on that cop’s chest like they’re BFFs.
“Uh … sure, call my office,” I say, patting him on the shoulder as the MC asks everyone to take their seats. The crowd thickens between me and Ginger and I make my way to my family’s table as someone starts playing a set of bagpipes to open the ceremony.
Everyone is here. Mama and Pop are on one side of the table. There are a few empty chairs between them, and then Nash and CeCe—who sits next to Mabel, playing tic-tac-toe with her on the back of a napkin. I’m perched beside Wade and Ivy because it was the only spot where there were two empty seats side by side.
Ginger finally makes her way over and sits across from me, at the coaxing of Mabel beside her, leaving the space beside me that I was saving for her glaringly empty. Her eyes meet mine across the table.
“Since when do you save Ginger a seat?” CeCe asks in front of everyone with a grin, assessing the look I’m giving Ginger that probably asks why aren’t you sitting here?
“He’s being weird today, maybe something to do with all that sheriff pressure.” Ginger smirks. “Anyway, Mabel and I already planned to sit next to each other. Gotta play hangman together.”
“Good, you take over,” CeCe commands. “I could use a break anyway. She’s killing me at tic-tac-toe.” Mabel smiles up at CeCe and I grimace, not liking this seating situation one bit.
“You alright? You look like you could use a cuddle, Cole. Is Brent here yet?” Ginger giggles as she normally would when she’s ribbing me, but her eyes tell me she isn’t having as much fun tormenting me tonight. After our conversation earlier, she seems almost nervous. Which she should be, because I’m ready to snap. I’m about thirty seconds away from pulling her into the nearest hallway and wiping that bratty little smirk right off her face with my cock down her throat.
“You can always cuddle Wade and your badge,” CeCe snickers to me.
“Not a chance, I’m not the good sheriff’s emotional support puppy,” Wade chides.
“And I won’t call you Sheriff at the dinner table, boy,” Pop says with a wink, taking a sip of his drink. “Just because you’re the boss at work, don’t expect us to treat you any different.”
I grin at him. He’s looking as spiffy as Pop gets, in a suit I think he’s had since the eighties. The whole if it ain’t broke don’t fix it sentiment goes hard with him.
“Careful, old man. If you start back-talking me, I’ll have to bring you in on account of burning all the brush in the back forty when it’s offseason.” I nod and raise my drink. Pop raises his hands in truce and grins.
“Seriously though, I’m proud of you, son,” he says, taking his tone from playful to mushy real quick.
“Thanks, Pop. Still might bring you in though.” I grin.
“My baby,” Mama says from across the table. “The youngest sheriff in the county’s history.”
Fucking hell.
“Aww, listen to all this sweetness.” Ginger grins, knowing it makes me uncomfortable when people center me like this.
The cop guy I don’t know sits down at the table behind her, and he taps her on the shoulder, interrupting my witty retort. She looks back as he speaks to her.
Wade leans over and whispers in an exaggerated manly voice, “Fancy meeting you here, Ginger, I really like the way your black dress looks. You’re single and I’m single, let’s mingle.”
Ginger and the cop both laugh like it’s exactly what he just said to her.
I nudge my brother with my elbow. “Fuck off,” I say, straightening out my silverware that is already perfectly straight.
Wade tips his head back and lets out a low chuckle. “You’re looking mighty jealous of that cop talking to your summer nanny.”
I huff like a child and look away just as I’m called on stage by Bev.
“It’s time,” she mouths. I nod as Ginger continues her conversation.
I’m sure I look like a grumpy motherfucker, but I don’t care. All I can think about is how Ginger was pinned up against a wall by me last night, and if she thinks she’s going to flirt with some other asshole …
Christ, she’s just talking to him. Calm the fuck down , I tell myself over and over, wondering if all my sanity has gone out the window.
Ginger turns to look at me when I hit the stage and line up beside my new deputies and Brent, who’s here tonight without Gemma. He stands beside me now.
“Looks like the whole family came out to support you and, huh … even CeCe’s friend too? Awful supportive, isn’t it?”
He sneers like a cocky son of a bitch. He knows Ginger’s name; he’s just being a dick. I’m about ready to put someone through a wall with the mix of sexual tension between Ginger and me coupled with what I can only assume is jealousy, something I don’t think I’ve ever truly felt before. The intensity of this emotional cocktail runs through my veins.
It may as well be Brent that takes the brunt of my frustration.
“Mabel asked for her to come. You know, since her mother is constantly fucking absent” I bite out, turning to him and smiling like we’re having a friendly chat. “I have to wonder what would make Gemma not want to come and see her daughter when she had the chance tonight. She hasn’t visited Mabel since the end of school by my calculations, which is over a month ago.”
“She’s not feeling well,” he mutters. In other words, she was out a little too late last night. Sounds about right.
“So who I bring to an event with Mabel and I would stand to be none of your goddamn business then?” I ask, clapping him on the shoulder. I nod toward center stage. “Looks like you’re up.”
The mayor announces Brent as the new deputy sheriff and I grit my molars. He makes his way to the spotlight as I join in the crowd’s applause. I can’t fucking stand this chump but I’ll clap for him nonetheless. The new deputies are called up one by one until it’s my turn. When the mayor calls my name, he talks about my time as an officer, how I’ve served with honor for this county, and that my plans for the future will take us through the next four years, before adding, “Please give a warm welcome to your new county sheriff, Cole Ashby.” The room explodes and the loudest table of all is my family, standing and yelling words of enthusiasm as I meet the mayor and raise my right hand to be officially sworn in. As he does so, it strikes me that the only eyes I want on me are Ginger’s. When I find them, she’s wearing the world’s biggest, most genuine smile as she cheers—and just like that, everything around me settles.