Chapter 34
Why the fuck had he brought up Maggie? Jesus Christ. He’d been twenty-two when she’d broken up with him. That was eleven fucking years ago.
Ethan Moore took a hard right.
Not only had they not dated in eleven years, but he hadn’t seen her for just as long.
So why had hearing her voice one time—one fucking time—caused him to stop seeing Nel, a woman he’d taken on two dates?
Good dates. But suddenly the thought of going on a third felt…
hell, he didn’t even have words. Wrong? Dishonest?
He blew out a breath as he turned onto the highway, driving toward Deep River, forcing Maggie out of his head.
But the second he stopped thinking about her, he started thinking about Ward.
His fingers tightened around the wheel. In the year he’d been home from the military, he’d realized the sheriff had gotten even worse. Become lazier. Just a general not-giving-a-shit attitude.
It was pissing Ethan the fuck off, because he loved his town.
He loved The Pancake Bar, which had been awarded the “best pancakes in the world” in 1990 by some small magazine, yet Basil still advertised it like it was yesterday.
He loved the black-and-white theater that had missed the memo that color was introduced to film in the early nineteen hundreds.
He even loved the eighties-themed bar with the old-school TV.
So Ward failing to do his job to keep the town safe, while also refusing to give up the badge, was making Ethan mad as hell. There were still three years left on Ward’s term as sheriff, and it felt too long.
He pulled into a gas station to fill the truck. When he got back in, a text came up on his phone.
His mouth stretched into a smile. It was the group chat with his old team.
Joel: The neighbor’s dog ate my glacier lilies.
What was a glacier lily? But Ryan got the text in first.
Ryan: What the hell’s a glacier lily?
Joel: It’s a flower, jackass.
Connor: I just Googled it. Glacier lilies can be toxic for dogs. Is your neighbor’s dog dead?
Joel: Going by the vomit on my front porch this morning, I’d say no.
Ethan’s lips twitched. He fucking loved his friends. He’d loved them when they’d become a SEAL team, and nothing had changed. Although, living across the country from one another was fucking hard. Five of them were out, three still in.
Ethan typed out a reply.
Ethan: There you go, the dog got sick so they paid the price.
Joel: The mutt ate my flower and threw it up on my porch. I paid the price.
Ryan: Your neighbor obviously hates you. What did you do?
Joel: Existed. I just existed.
Ethan: Obviously, you’re in the wrong town. You should come to Deep River.
Joel: Any dogs there?
Ethan: We’ll find you a dog-free street.
Joel: Don’t tempt me.
Zack: Hey, do I get an invite?
Ethan: You can all get your asses here. But I’ll put you to work. God knows we need the help.
Connor: Still no luck on the missing tourist?
Ethan: None. It’s a mess. But you’re right, your dog problem’s bad too.
Joel: Hey. It’s a flower problem. I grew those babies with my bare hands.
Connor: You’re calling flowers your babies?
Ryan: You start knitting hats and we’re calling an intervention.
The smile remained on Ethan’s face as he pulled out of the station.
Damn, he missed the guys. They’d gone from seeing one another every day, saving each other from goddamn bullets, to being scattered across the country.
They’d only gotten together once in the last year, and Tate, Lincoln, and Kolbe, the three who were still active-duty SEALs, hadn’t been able to make it.
The phone kept lighting up with texts. It would probably do that for a while.
As he drove, his mind went back to Maggie again. To the soft sound of her voice. Her lyrical laugh over the line as she talked to Polly.
The beats of his heart did that thing where they sped up and stumbled over one another.
Once upon a time, he’d been so sure he was going to marry the woman. That was before she’ll pulled the floor from beneath his feet and broken up with him.
He gritted his teeth and turned the radio on loud, trying to fill his head with anything but her. He was an hour into the drive when his phone rang, the town mayor’s name on the screen.
Ethan frowned before hitting the Bluetooth on his wheel to answer the call. “Ferris. I’m an hour out. Everything okay?”
“Okay? Son, I just had the least-productive call I’ve ever had with our sheriff about the crime rate in this town.”
“Is a talk with Ward ever productive?”
“No. And it’s making me angry as hell. But not five minutes after the meeting, I got a call from someone who turned my day around.”
Ethan lifted his brows. “Sounds intriguing. Care to share?”
“Actually, I’m calling a town meeting next week. Wednesday evening at six thirty. I need you there, son.”
“You need me, specifically?”
“Yes. Can you make it?”
“Can you tell me what the meeting will be about?”
“I can do better. I’ll tell you everything at our meeting later today. I think we’ll both benefit from this. Your SEAL friends too.”
What the hell did his team have to do with anything?
Ferris was being cryptic. But that wasn’t a surprise. The mayor liked to keep his cards close to his chest, but unlike their sheriff, Ferris actually cared about the town and was good at his job.
“I’ll see you in an hour then.”
“Great. Talk soon, son. I’m going to turn this town around. And you’re going to help me.”