17. Tripp
Chapter 17
Tripp
“ I sn’t it going to be bad if the criminal knows specifically where the law enforcement is located?” someone asks.
I stifle a scoff. I’m stuck in here, answering ridiculous questions, while Ivy is out there, flustered by something. Fitzy had called me back up to map out where the emergency stations will be around the festival, a diagram stretched out between him and Chuck at this moment.
“It would be worse if a citizen in need of help can’t locate said help,” I reply curtly. These town meetings are easily my least favorite part of the job.
Pointing at five street corners on the map, I turn back to face my audience. “These locations are equidistant apart, easily accessible, and near all the activities you’re planning. That’s where they’ll be.”
“Thank you, Sheriff,” Fitzy offers. It’s my cue that I am free to leave the stage once again. “Alright, last thing on the agenda is voting on the final activity list.”
And that means I won’t be needed again tonight. I keep walking past my deputies and slide out the door. My boots click as I make my way down the hall. I can’t be sure where they ran off to, but it’s a safe bet that they exited the annex.
I reach the town hall lobby and catch the faint hint of laughter. It’s a familiar, sweet melody that fills the air. Ivy. I follow the sound to the main entry.
Pressing through the front doors, I stumble upon the woman I was looking for. Seated on the front steps, Ivy and Millie are huddled together in a fit of laughter.
“He did not!” Ivy giggles.
“He did, right on his face,” Millie nods in confirmation.
I have the faintest suspicion that they are talking about me. Clearing my throat, I crouch down behind them. Ivy turns at the sound, the smile on her face stretching wider as she takes me in.
“Millie was just informing me of the time you had to get stitches on your chin after a battle with a rouge alpaca,” she says, reaching out and dragging her fingers faintly along my jaw.
Her gentle caress sends a shiver running through me as I lean closer. I’m desperate for any scrap of contact she is willing to give me, drawn to her magnetic pull.
“Thanks, Mill,” I mutter, unwilling to look away from Ivy’s shining eyes.
“Anytime!” My chipper deputy jumps up from her spot. “I’ll give you two some space.”
“Millie,” Ivy starts, “thank you. Really.”
“My pleasure, I’d love to get that coffee soon.”
“Definitely,” Ivy agrees.
Dropping down onto the step, I give her a nudge with my knee. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“I should be asking you that.”
“I’m pretty good right now,” I grin.
“And you’re fine with how they treated you in there?” she asks, her eyes wide in concern. “Because I was sitting there disappointed to be a part of the crowd.”
Something like hope stirs within me. I put an arm around her shoulder and curl her in. I need to clearly see the look on her face when I ask my next question. “Why did you leave the meeting?”
She sighs, settling her gaze on me. “I left because I’m absolutely not fine with how they were acting towards you.”
“Do you agree with anything they said?”
“No, not in the slightest. I didn’t call you during the break in because you’re in charge, I called you because you’re… you.” She presses her fingers to her forehead. “That didn’t sound like I wanted it to.”
I remove her hand from her head and hold it against my chest. I know that like this, she can feel how rapid my heart rate is. How her words have affected me.
“It sounded exactly like what I needed to hear. I don’t care what the whole town thinks. I care about what you think.”
Voices are approaching from inside; the meeting must be over. I pull her up, pressing an urgent kiss to her forehead before the town descends upon us.
And I hate it, having to worry about hiding my feelings. Having to steal little moments. I want to take her in my arms and kiss her right atop these stairs, in the open for anyone to see.
“Let’s get out of here?” I suggest, taking a step back to ensure that I’m a safe distance from her now.
“There you are, Nessa is going to open the café for us. Coming?” Poppy asks as she steps outside.
Ivy looks at me before responding, her eyes holding a question. But I don’t have the answer. I don’t know how to make this work other than just giving in and trying to shield her from the fall out.
With a tight smile, I don’t make her try to choose. It’s an easy way to safeguard her tonight. “I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight, ladies.”
“What are you doing with that?” Ivy leans in the doorway of her shop, studying me with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Planting the ladder in my hands at the far corner of the store, I pass by her to get the security system from my passenger seat. “Weren’t you getting your inventory set back up?” I ask over my shoulder.
The patter of her steps follows behind me. When I reach the curb, I spin, coming face to face with her. She points a finger against my chest, fierce as a kitten.
“That’s not an answer.”
A chuckle escapes me as I wrap my hand around hers and lower her accusing finger. “Then let me show you.”
I turn back around and collect a cardboard box. “This is what I need the ladder for,” I explain, holding up the package.
Her eyes scan it and I watch the realization pass over her delicate features. “Is that… is that for here?”
“Hence the ladder,” I point out.
“You can’t just get me a security camera. That’s too much.”
Tucking the box under my arm, I grab my tool bag as well and step around her. Ivy follows me back inside, close on my heels.
“Wait, you don’t need to do this,” she argues again, this time placing her hand on my arm to stop me.
“I do. I need to. So could you please just let me?”
She curls her hand tighter around my arm. “If this is about the town meeting yesterday…”
I drop the contents in my hands and cup her face. “It’s not about this town, it’s not about doing my job. It’s about you, Ivy. I can’t sleep when I think about that night. It replays in my mind, your message needing help, the way you looked sitting amongst the chaos after. I keep seeing these constant reminders that he stood inches from where you were hiding and it makes me completely sick. So let me do this.”
Before the last words have left my mouth, she wraps herself around me. She’s up on her toes with her arms tight around my neck. Her hair is straight today, like silken raven wings shining in the sunlight. It cascades down her back, and I take the opportunity to bury my face against her exposed neck, inhaling her sweet jasmine scent.
“Is that a yes?” I whisper, walking her back into the book stacks behind us.
She lifts her head to look at me, confusion in her eyes. “A yes?”
Those beautiful, copper eyes. I turn, pressing her back against a stack and bracing my hands on the shelf at either side of her head. She lets her hands slip down to my chest and looks up at me expectantly.
“To the security camera. Are you going to let me take care of you, for my sake?”
“If it’s for you, how can I say no?” she whispers.
I kept it at bay, all those years. The ember of desire for her. But no longer. It’s like an all-consuming fire within me. And I’m prepared to embrace the burn that seems inevitable.
With one hand I angle her face up to mine, the other slides down to her hip and pulls her against me. “Tell me to stop,” I murmur.
“No,” she replies swiftly. “No, don’t stop.”
I tilt closer still, driven by the need in her voice. My fingers slowly scrunch the material of her skirt, tugging it upward until I have a fistful of fabric.
And then the sound of the door opening stops me in my tracks. Neither of us make the first move to step apart. Waiting, hoping, that maybe no one is here after all.
“Ivy?”
Wes’s voice is like a bucket of cold water, a clarifying chill running over me. I fall back against the bookshelf behind me and shoot her a pained look.
Smoothing her hands down her little plaid skirt, Ivy takes a deep breath, equally frustrated. With a sad smile, she steps out into the open space at the front of the store.
“Hi dear,” I hear their mother say. “I found the perfect piece of furniture for your new checkout counter. It is exactly what you described wanting!”
“Oh that’s great, Mom, thank you,” I hear Ivy reply.
“Wes, go on out and get it,” Ruth instructs.
At my feet, the bookstore cat weaves around my ankle and casts me a judgmental glare. I narrow my eyes back at him in challenge, imagining the cat calling me a coward for hiding like this. The door creaks open once again, and I step out from where we had been tucked away.
“I’ll go help him,” I tell Ruth, who I find standing before Ivy.
“Tripp, honey! What brings you around today?” Ruth claps her hands together and turns to face me as I come to a stop behind her daughter.
“I’m getting a security camera up,” I motion to the ladder in the corner of the room.
“That is so sweet of you, taking care of our girl despite how busy you must be right now. And such a good idea. Howard and I didn’t even think of that.”
“It’s nothing,” I assure her, trailing my hand across Ivy’s back. She shivers at my touch, and I revel in the small reaction. It’s reckless to do so with her mom standing right here watching me. Ivy might be blocking Ruth’s view, but that woman seems to notice everything.
I’ve thrown all common sense out the window. I want Ivy. And moments ago, she admitted to wanting me too.
I press my hand against the small of her back and shoot a smile back at Ruth. “I’d better get out there.”
Stepping outside, I find Wes at a familiar truck. It’s Chuck’s, which would make sense as he’s Ruth’s neighbor. Wes is undoing the straps on the new checkout counter as I approach.
“Hey man! I was wondering why the Defender was out front. What are you doing here?”
“Um, just putting in some security measures.”
I can feel his assessing look as I lean forward to undo the final strap on the counter. I’d question it too, if I was him.
“You’re taking this break-in personally,” Wes deadpans.
“It’s my job. If I would have caught the guy before, Ivy wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“I don’t blame you,” Ivy’s voice reaches us from her doorway.
“None of us do,” Ruth assures me, stepping outside as well. “Wes remember, we don’t have Chuck’s truck for much longer.”
Wes clears his throat and nods. “Right, well… thanks for looking out, man.”
Positioning ourselves on either side of the desk, we lift it and move inside. I try to shift my eyes as we pass by the bookshelves, convinced Wes will see it on my face—my memory of feeling up his sister just minutes earlier. He has plenty of things to blame me for lately. And I’m thinking he’s starting to catch on to that fact.