15. Jensen
15
JENSEN
“ S heriff, Miss Thelma is here to see you,” my receptionist, Amanda, says with barely disguised amusement over the intercom in my office. I do not have time for this woman today, but apparently, I conjured her after talkin’ with my parents last night.
And I always make time for Miss Thelma.
There isn’t a soul in this town—or hell, half of Tennessee—that wouldn’t.
“Send her in, Amanda, thank you.”
“Sure thing, Sheriff.”
The door opens with a flourish as the white-haired spitfire steps into my office with a sly grin and a basket full of baked goods she plans to bribe me with.
We are nothing if not predictable.
Standing, I give her my most winning smile as I round my desk and place a kiss on her cheek. The woman is practically like my grandmother and knows far more secrets than she should about me and this town.
Today she’s wearing a melon-colored sundress with her cat Louise’s picture in varying sizes sprinkled all over the fabric. It’s hideous.
And she knows it.
I’m confident nearly everything she owns has that cat’s damn face plastered on it.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” I ask, returning to my chair as she takes the one across from me and places the basket on my desk. Peeking under the cloth napkin are a half dozen banana nut muffins, and even without touching them, I know they’re still warm.
“I was just wonderin’ when I was going to be able to meet my great-grandbaby,” she says without pretense, pretending to examine her nails before staring at me pointedly.
Shit.
“I had my suspicions that you might know. Do I want to know how you found out?”
“Probably not,” she says with a shrug. “On the other hand,” she adds slowly, making sure to ratchet up my blood pressure a couple of notches, “you should probably know I started a rumor saying that your cousin and her baby are staying with you for a bit.”
“Why would you?—”
“Have I taught you nothing? Honestly, Jensen, I’m disappointed in you.” She tuts and I have the good grace to be chagrined. “You always control the narrative. And it’s workin’ for everyone who hasn’t realized she’s the one helpin’ at the university.”
“All right, all right. Tell me what happened.” I sigh, accepting defeat and slumping back in my chair.
“Well,” she says dramatically, “Jamison was talkin’ to Archer at The Kettle and Kiln and I happened to overhear?—”
“You were eavesdropping,” I correct, earning me a glare.
“I’ll tell my story the way I damn well please, thank you very much.”
“Apologies,” I manage straight-faced while holding my hands up in surrender. Not that she buys what I’m selling.
“Anyway, Jamison said that he’d seen a pretty blonde walkin’ into your house and isn’t it strange that her car was there overnight? Gone the next mornin’ but it’s been back the last few days. And wouldn’t ya know Jamison found that downright fascinating, and Archer, bless his heart, was redder than an apple pie at a barbeque.”
“So, what did you do?” I ask, finally settling into my role as her attentive audience.
“Obviously I waited to see if Archer was gonna do anything besides turn as red as his barn, and when he didn’t, I had to jump in.”
“Naturally.” Giving up all pretenses that she’ll be leaving in the next half hour, I pull a paper plate from my desk and select a muffin. She declines one of her own, and I wish I’d reheated my coffee before story time began.
“I told Jamison that you were hosting a cousin and her baby while they were in town and then proceeded to make sure that he knew that he’d still not been by to help Miss June with her roses after his cows got loose a while back and didn’t he think it was about time he went there so there weren’t any hard feelings. You know how she is about those roses.” The last part is directed at me, and I nod dutifully while wiping my hands on a napkin.
“Thank you.”
She waves me off. “What good is bein’ the town busybody if I can’t be the one in charge of what news gets around and what news stays private?”
“No one truly knows how terrifying you actually are.”
“It’s a gift,” she says with a shrug of one shoulder before her expression turns sly. “Besides, you know I’m more than trustworthy when it counts.”
I feel the tips of my ears heat as her words hit their mark. She doesn’t bring it up often, but she never quite lets me forget either.
“Listen, it’s been well over ten years, and I still show up every year for spring cleanin’.”
“It’s one of my favorite traditions.” The Cheshire cat has nothing on the woman sitting across from me. She witnessed me at my absolute worst and, instead of sharing it with the world, protected me fiercely. “I will say that my silence on that topic now comes with an expiration date.”
Blood chilling faster than an ice storm in Tennessee, I lean forward, my chair creaking. “Excuse me?”
“You have a daughter, Jensen. What kind of Grammy would I be if I didn’t share that particular time in your youth with her?”
“The kind that still likes me showin’ up for spring cleaning.”
“There are plenty of strapping young men in this town and the next one over who’d be more than happy to help an old lady like me.”
I snort because she’s right. “You just want everyone to think you’re old. I don’t think you’ve aged in the last ten years.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Jensen, but I won’t be takin’ that particular secret to the grave.”
“And here I thought you liked me.” I drag my hands down my face and she chuckles.
“Listen, you’re one of my favorites, but you know I’m tellin’ your daughter that her always-serious father got absolutely rip-roarin’ drunk on his twenty-first birthday, got separated from his friends, met a pretty girl named Leigh Ann who convinced him to get a rather inspired flaming ear of corn tattooed on his rear end, and then ? —”
“Do we have to relive this?”
“I’m old; stop trying to deny me the simple pleasures in the last few years I got left,” she says without missing a beat, and I roll my eyes because she’ll probably outlive all of us. “ Then gives Leigh Ann’s sober, driver friend my address, stumbles up the walk and starts peein’ on my hydrangeas, gets so startled when I open the door that he—you—gets tangled up in your britches and falls ass over teakettle into the yard, showing off the newly acquired corn masterpiece on your butt cheek.”
“It never gets less uncomfortable when you say butt cheek. ”
“Why do you think I do it?”
I chuckle and she winks. “Lord knows I don’t need any of the gray hair you’re giving me.”
“You’ll be a handsome silver fox,” Miss Thelma says, reaching forward to pat my hand.
“Why don’t you come by tomorrow and you can meet Nessa and Remi? I’ll be sure to warn Nessa that you’re…”
“Delightful?”
“Trouble.”
Cackling, she stands from her chair and I do the same. “I’ll do my best to keep this under wraps, but you’re gonna need to figure things out right quick before they get figured out for you.”
“I know. I told Mama yesterday.”
“Good boy.”
“I’m not hiding her, I just…
“It’s a lot,” she says softly and I nod. “I don’t know all the details, but what I do know is that you’re a fine man, Jensen, and that little girl is damn lucky to have you as her father.”
Tears well in my eyes, and I have to look up at the ceiling, blinking back the onslaught of emotion as the conviction in her words hits me square in the chest.
“Have another muffin and I’ll see y’all tomorrow. I’ll bring a peach pie.” She winks and then heads out the door with a wave.
A peach pie.
Because it’s my favorite.
And even though she threatened to tell my daughter about the absolute fuckery of my twenty-first birthday, there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for that woman. She might not be family, but I love her sure as the sun rises in the east, and I can only hope that my daughter gets to grow up loving her too.