Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
"We've got an hour before we have to be at the top-secret security clearance meeting for the diplomat who’s going to be making a campaign stop in our town.
" The police chief, Cade McLean, punched something into the iPad tablet he had in his hand.
"You're going to need your badge to get in, so make sure you've got it with you, and be sure to pay attention.
We told them that we won't need any help from the state, that our local guys can do it, and I want to make sure that we’re not sloppy with anything. "
"Yes, sir," Ben said, already having planned to attend the meeting, although it had been a rushed morning. After their late night getting the stitches in Mason's hand, their morning had been a little late, and Ben had had to shake Mason awake twice before he left for work.
The couple of times that Mason had missed the bus, Mason had called, and thankfully Ben's job was such that he could drive around and pick up his son and drop him off at the school.
Since Mason hadn't called that morning, Ben assumed that he'd made it out.
He felt a little bit guilty, which seemed to be his default emotion lately, that he wasn't there to get his kid on the bus every day.
But Mason was certainly old enough to do a few things for himself.
Maybe that's part of the reason why he hadn't had him doing too many chores either.
After all, the kid got his own breakfast, cleaned up after himself, and got himself off to school. That should count for something, right?
Regardless, Ben continued to listen as the police chief spoke.
"We have some resources we can devote to the Mistletoe Festival. I understand you're in charge of the security committee."
"That's right."
"Well, you can let me know what you need, and I can let you know what we can provide, and hopefully they're pretty close. I think that there will be some officers who are willing to donate their time if we can't afford all the overtime pay."
"You can count me as one of those." Ben didn't necessarily want to work for no pay, but he was willing to do what he needed to in order to make the Mistletoe Meadows Christmas Festival a success.
It brought in a lot of revenue for the shops in town, and he wanted to see everyone thrive, not just himself.
Plus, everyone in the town was donating time.
He could do that too. And security was his thing.
"You can count on me as well. Maybe someday we'll be big enough that we can afford triple time for officers who are working overtime during the festival, but right now, that's not happening.
" Cade lifted his shoulder. "With the new department store they're putting in at the edge of town and the revenue from that, things might just turn around a bit. "
"I heard that they were using the extra taxes to fund local businesses. I take it that includes the police force?"
"To some extent, yes. The state has also stepped in and matched some funds. So we might not have to have as many fundraisers as we normally do. Things are definitely looking up for the economy around here."
Ben nodded. He was happy to hear it. Ever since he'd moved back, he'd settled in and felt more at home than he had in a long time.
Although he regretted the demise of his marriage and knew that there were things that he could've done better, he'd been doing the best he could.
Although that didn't mean that he couldn't keep trying to be a better person.
He thought again about Hannah's offer to create a place along the river where he and Mason could fish in the spring.
Honestly, he didn't even know if Mason liked fishing.
Yeah. Maybe he'd been brought down by the divorce too.
Stabbed in the back and dealing with his own feelings of betrayal and not being good enough and trying to figure out what he had done wrong to cause his wife to need someone else.
It was time he got past that, and he and Mason started building something of their own.
A family.
Maybe... he thought again of Hannah. Maybe that would mean it was time for him to start thinking about inviting another woman into his life.
The idea wasn't as unpleasant as he thought it would be. After all, after Peyton left, he'd kind of attributed her attributes to the entire gender, but that wasn't right. Hannah had already proven that she was different. Maybe... maybe she would be a good place to start.
He had to stop thinking about that and focus on his job; he brought himself back to the present just in time to see a slender figure walking along the road.
It looked like a teenage boy.
He squinted and looked closer. Was that Mason?
Yeah. That was definitely Mason. He slowed down and pulled off across the road.
He'd no sooner put the patrol car in park than his phone rang.
He grabbed it as he was getting out of the car. He really didn't have time to stop. He was supposed to go to that high-security meeting, but he needed to deal with his son, and when he saw it was the school calling, he answered it as he got out.
"Hello?" he asked, his syllables clipped. And then he put his hand over the speaker and yelled, "Mason. Stop!"
His son turned around, his eyes got big, and he looked both ways as though he were going to take off.
Ben braced himself, because while he was a good bit older than his son, he was in pretty good physical shape, and he would at least give him a run for his money, although he had to tell himself that he could catch him if he needed to.
The first step in accomplishing whatever it was he wanted to do was to have the confidence that he could do it. Even if he didn't think he could.
His son stopped, and the voice in his ear said, "Mr. Tucker.
This is Henrietta Pliable, secretary at Mistletoe Meadows High School.
I was calling to say that we've had several people stop in the office and say that your son arrived at school on the school bus and then walked off the property.
I don't know if that's true or not. Was he supposed to be absent today? "
"No. He was supposed to be there. I'll get to the bottom of it and talk to someone in the office."
He wasn't going to say that his son was staring at him now, although he was. Ben had reached him and stopped right in front of him.
"That sounds good."
"Thanks," Ben said.
He swiped off and stared at his son.
"What's going on?" There was no anger in his voice, thankfully, although he felt it burning in his chest. Did his son understand that he was trying to do his job and be a father and a good citizen, and Mason was making his life exceptionally difficult?
But this wasn't about Ben. This was about Mason. He had to remember that. Because of Ben's bad choices, Mason's life had been exceptionally difficult.
"I'm skipping school. What does it look like?" Mason said with his typical sarcastic attitude.
"Get in the car," Ben said, turning and walking toward his patrol car. He'd forgotten until he was halfway there that he was headed toward the high-security meeting, and he wouldn't be able to take his son. What was he going to do?
He didn't quit walking toward the car and didn't turn around to see if Mason had followed.
His son had darn well better follow, or there was going to be some severe consequences.
The idea that his kid was supposed to go to school, knew it, and had chosen not to—although he probably should get some points for getting on the bus at least. And getting out of bed before that.
If he were going to skip school, the smarter thing to have done would've been just to sleep in.
Ben wouldn't have thought to look for him in his bed.
Not until he'd gotten the call from the school, and now he wouldn't have had time.
He opened his car door and saw Mason walking around to the other side, and he couldn't deny the relief he felt in his chest. At least the kid listened, and he didn't have to have a confrontation right now.
But what was he going to do with him?
He got in and put the car in drive, pulling out on the road after checking for traffic.
"Aren't you going to yell at me?" Mason asked, slouching in the seat.
"Put your seatbelt on," Ben said, still whirling around in his mind, trying to figure out what to do.
As he came to the outskirts of Mistletoe Meadows, he saw the medical clinic sitting back, the parking lot half full.
Hannah had said that he could ask her for help anytime.
Was this anytime?
This was going to be a big ask. But maybe he could sit in the office, at least until Ben was done with the meeting and could figure out what he was going to do. Of course he could take Ben back to school, but how was he to keep him from walking off again?
He put the turn signal on and pulled into the parking lot.
"What are you doing?" Mason asked. Apparently he hadn't expected to stop at the medical center.
"I could ask you that."
"I told you I was skipping school," Mason said with a laugh.
"And you knew I meant why are you doing that."
"I felt like it." Mason clicked his seatbelt and yanked on the door handle.
Ben didn't have time to grill him.
He got out of the car and told Mason to follow him.
Pulling open the door, he allowed Mason to walk in before he did.
He hadn't expected it, but Hannah happened to be out in the waiting room, talking to a family, holding her iPad with her blood pressure cuff poking out of her white lab coat pocket and her stethoscope hanging from her neck.
She looked like a doctor this morning, when she hadn't last night. She'd looked like a beautiful woman last night.
Ben closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts.
When he opened them, Hannah had looked up, surprise lifting her brows.
"I don't see any bloody bandages," she said, tilting her head to the side, questions in her eyes.
"Can I talk to you for a moment in private?" he asked, not bothering to greet her.
She must've caught something in his tone, because she tilted her head and nodded, before murmuring, "Excuse me," to the person she'd been talking to.
Ben nodded at Mr. Greenwald and his wife before following Hannah to the back.
She opened the door, and he grabbed it and held it for her to walk through and then Mason as well.
Once she got back, she turned around, glancing at Dr. Terry, who stood in front of one of the closed doors, reading a chart.
"Do I need to wait for Dr. Terry to leave?" Hannah asked as she stood beside the counter, her hands at her side.
"No. I suppose not. I can't keep this a secret forever, I guess."
"What's wrong?" she asked, glancing again at Dr. Terry, who lifted her eyes and watched the proceedings but didn’t say anything.
"Mason skipped school today. I have a meeting I need to be at, and I'm going to be late.
I don't have time to take him back and deal with it.
I... I was going to ask if he could stay here, but it's a terrible idea.
I'm sorry." He started to turn away. What had he been thinking?
She was trying to work. She didn't have time to babysit his teenager.
"No, it's fine. He can stay here. I mean, obviously we're limited in what we can do, but he can stay."
She didn't have to say that if he tried to leave, she wasn't going to be able to stop him. He was still bigger than his son, but Hannah was not.
"I wouldn't expect you to do anything extra or extraordinary. I just wanted him to sit here and not move until I get back. I'll deal with him from there."
"All right. I'm sure that'll be fine, right, Terry?" She glanced across the room at Dr. Terry, who nodded.
"Of course. He's more than welcome to stay. I think we can probably put him to work actually." She grinned, while Mason rolled his eyes, and then she opened the door to the exam room and disappeared inside.
"Go ahead. Put him to work. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do, but I'll have a plan by the time I get back."
"All right. That sounds fine," Hannah said. Then she grabbed a pen and a notepad that was sitting on the counter. "Do you mind giving me your number in case anything happens?"
"Of course not." He rattled it off to her, and she scribbled it down. Then he saw her write his name underneath it and underline it.
There was something about seeing her write his name. He wasn't sure why, but it sent an odd feeling seeping down his backbone.
"I really need to leave. I'm sorry to saddle you with this."
"You're not saddling me with anything. I noticed yesterday that Mason seemed to have an affinity for medical things. This might be a good opportunity to try it out. And you heard Dr. Terry. She's fine with it. You go on. We've got this, don't we, Mason?"
Mason looked surprised, and then he nodded.
"I'll stay," he said.
Mason leaving was what Ben had been afraid of, and the assurance that he was going to stay was what he needed to hear.
"I'll be back as soon as I'm done," Ben promised, and then he hurried off.
He'd taken a job in a smaller town hoping for less hours, knowing he needed to try to figure out a way to piece his family back together—to piece the relationship between him and his son back together.
He really needed to get on that. Or he was afraid that he was going to lose him completely.