Chapter 1 #2
“Fix up your house? Use it on the fire tower?”
Ever since he moved back to Hearts Bend from Colorado, his boss, Travis Vermeer—who hired him, by the way—scrutinized everything he did.
Almost as if he suspected Ryder of sabotage.
Initially, Travis had been angry when Ryder submitted a request to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to repair the fire tower.
He claimed Ryder had gone over his head.
Made him look bad. Apparently, the tower should’ve been repaired years ago.
“Thanks, Rick. I’m coming in.”
Ryder returned to the station, nodding to Travis’s secretary when he entered. “Is he around?” Might as well get it over with.
“Yep.” Cheryl tipped her head toward the office door and winked at him, her eyes heavy with false eyelashes. “And he’s in a mood.”
“So I’ve heard.” Ryder knocked on the director’s door. “You wanted to see me?”
Travis looked up, the skin under his chin jiggling, and tossed a piece of paper to the other side of his desk. “What’s the meaning of this?”
She wasn’t going to make it. She’d die right here on First Avenue, mere blocks from Ella’s Diner.
Water…water…
Why didn’t she call for help? If Granny knew she got out of her car and ran down the side of River Road to First Avenue and the center of town, she’d give her a piece of her mind. And then some.
You’ll wear yourself out! she’d say, worried. Yet it’d been two years since—
A siren blip startled Elizabeth off the sidewalk. When she turned around, a Hearts Bend police car eased along the curb.
“Hey, Beth.” The officer leaned over the passenger seat to peer up at her. “That your car on River Road?”
“Yes, and what’s the big idea of scaring me half to death?” The police officer, her cousin Jeff Simmons, had been one of her best friends as a kid during her summers-in-the-South days.
Jeff pushed open the door. “Get in. I’ll drop you at Ella’s.”
“And have people think you arrested me? I don’t need that rumor landing in the Wharton admin office.”
“No one will think I’ve arrested you. And it was people who called me to say your car was on the side of the road.”
“Who’s calling you?”
“People who know you’re the Dorsey who drives a classic red VW Bug.”
“Fine.” Elizabeth tossed in her backpack and dropped into the passenger seat. “I’m not sure I like people knowing my business.”
In the world of social media, all it took was a person tagging her on some post about riding in a cop car and Wharton would find out. However, she was tired. And late. Tina’s grandkids meant the world to her, and Elizabeth didn’t want her to miss the party.
Jeff headed east toward the center of downtown Hearts Bend, past Angelo’s Pizza, Cooper’s Grocery, Gardenia Park, and the historic Wedding Shop. “What’s your plan for the flat?”
“Fix it. But Jeff, you’re not obligated.”
Growing up in Boston, Elizabeth was the Dorsey cousin from the city. Hearts Bend Dorseys were the country cousins. And country cousins pitched in to help, fix, and counsel.
“Okay,” Jeff said in his lighthearted way. “But I do feel obligated to impound it.”
“Jeff Simmons, you’d better not.”
“It’s Officer Simmons to you.”
“Whatever.” Elizabeth glanced over at him, laughing. “I was going to look up a service truck when I got to work. And if you haul off my car, I’ll tell Granny.”
“Ooo, ladies and gents, she pulls out the big guns. But knowing Granny”—Jeff reached for his radio and, with a couple of clicks and code words, ordered her a tow truck—“she’d be on my side. Also, your car will be at Marty’s Garage. You can pick it up after work.”
“At eleven o’clock? He’ll be closed. How will I pay?”
Jeff waved off her question. “Ah, no worry. Marty will find you. Or one of us.”
“You’re not paying for my new tire. What is with this family and—”
“A little overwhelming, is it?” Jeff turned onto Gardenia Circle, slowly cruising around the park while responding to a radio call. “Having so much family around when you’re used to living in Boston, away from us most of your life.”
“Everywhere I turn, there’s a Dorsey family member, or worse, a Dorsey friend.
Some lady walked up to me at Cooper’s last week, asked how I was doing.
Was I feeling better? Said her nephew had Epstein–Barr, and it really knocked him for a loop.
Never saw the lady before in my life. Never mind all the people who remember me from when I was a teenager, working at Ella’s. It’s like living on a reality show.”
“Welcome to Southern hospitality.”
“You’ve become more hospitable since I was last here,” Elizabeth said, though she really didn’t mind Hearts Bend’s Southern ways.
“We’ve missed you, Beth. And for a long time, we didn’t even know what was going on with you. And the lady in the grocery store was probably in Granny and Pops’s prayer group.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know.” There’s no shame in being sick. She just didn’t want any labels. To be the girl with the virus that never really went away.
“So we heard.” Jeff pulled into one of the angled parking spots in front of Ella’s. “You like your privacy, don’t you?”
“Yeah, a little.” She’d always been protective about her thoughts and feelings, even more so after being sick. But lately, being private felt more like a burden.
“I’m the opposite. During college, I struggled with that alone-in-a-crowd feeling and hated those first few months on campus, not knowing anyone. I kept it to myself, but eventually told Granny.”
Elizabeth tried to imagine her handsome, gregarious, teddy bear of a cousin wandering a college campus alone. “My guess is you weren’t lonely for long.”
“I made friends, found a place to fit, but none of it ever felt like home, like being with the family in a town where everyone knew me. Or so it seemed.”
“Is that why, after four years of education, you chose to be a police officer?”
“I tried corporate life. Moved to Dallas for two years. Then took a stint at Dorsey Furniture. It wasn’t for me. Being a cop makes me feel like I’m giving back. Besides, I have politics in mind for the future. I’ll use that ole Vanderbilt degree one day. So, you’re still Wharton-bound?”
“Naturally.” She’d not told anyone she was in Hearts Bend because she was wait-listed. Only that she wanted more real-world experience before starting school. The pre-term exercises would be about her work experience.
“How do you like working for Dorsey Furniture?”
“I like it. Will’s a good boss. The atmosphere is fun yet professional.
” Will was another Dorsey cousin and now the CEO of the family business.
“Seeing things from the inside puts reality to all the stories we heard as kids. Sometimes I think Dad wishes he’d stayed here, worked with his siblings.
But his opportunities came in Boston.” Elizabeth reached for her backpack.
Now she was really running late. “I like to think I inherited the Dorsey ingenuity and vision.”
“I’m sure you did, Miss MIT-with-Honors grad. Granny was popping her buttons when she told us you were coming down for the summer. Called it a miracle.”
“Thanks for the ride, Officer Simmons.” Elizabeth popped open the car door.
“Hey, give me your keys. We’ll have someone bring your car around when it’s ready.”
“My keys? I see your master plan. To steal my car. I saw you eyeing it the other day at Granny’s.” Nevertheless, she dug the keys from her backpack and tossed them over. “No donuts in empty parking lots.”
“Really? Not even one?”
Elizabeth hurried into the diner. Jeff was her favorite cousin. But so was Will. And Ethan. Truly, she loved them all. They made her laugh. Treated her like year-round family.
Nevertheless, she had to get used to all the family togetherness.
She grew up with just her parents and brother, Jonathan.
Dad and Mom raised them to be independent.
She never asked for help with menial tasks.
Until she contracted Epstein–Barr. Now that she was better, she wanted to be strong. A woman who stood on her own.
“Tina, I’m here. You can go.” Elizabeth made her way through the kitchen toward the bank of lockers. She tossed in her backpack and grabbed her Ella’s ball cap. “I’d still be running if Jeff hadn’t picked me up.”
“I was about to send Cade after you.” Tina pointed to the young, skinny high school kid mopping the back of the kitchen.
“Then you came in.” She handed Elizabeth the controls to the server’s pagers and the window checklist. “I called Marty. Told him to give you four of their best new tires, keep an old one for a spare, and send the bill to me.”
“What? Tina, you’re not paying for my tires. It’s my car.”
Tina loaded a plate with hot fries and shoved it under a heat lamp, then paged the server.
“Friends take care of friends in this town. Besides, you’ve worked a lot of extra shifts for me, and you’ve only been here a month.
” She squeezed Elizabeth’s shoulder. “And you’ll need money for grad school.
I am doing this.” She turned toward the service window.
“Hey, Lucy, did you see your plate is up? Are you wearing your pager? I didn’t give it to you for decoration.
” Tina freed her long, silver hair from under her cap and motioned for Elizabeth to follow.
“And in the South, when someone does something nice for you, it’s customary to say ‘Thank you.’”
“I am grateful. It’s undeserved, but thank you.
” Elizabeth leaned against the metal doorframe of Tina’s office.
In her mid-sixties, Tina was pretty and round with curves in all the right places.
She carried the robust air of a woman who worked hard and loved well. “Go, have fun with your grandkids.”
“I’ll text you some pictures. Cole and Haley have been planning this birthday party, for a five-year-old, mind you, for months. GiGi cannot miss. And Beth, a gift doesn’t depend on merit.”