Chapter 26
Biology Class
Day 50
I sat up straight as Dax made his way across the room toward our table. My limbs felt strangely disassociated from the rest of my body. My hands tried to find their natural place toying with my hair, then resting on the desk, before finally coming together clenched tightly in my lap.
He settled in beside me, dropping his bag on the ground and plopping his phone onto the desk with a sigh. We were careful not to touch. Our shoulders kept a respectful twelve-inch distance between them.
“Dax, I’m sorry for what I said the other day. I was just…mad.” I winced at the awkwardness of my speech. The apologetic words that had been burning in my head the past couple days were nowhere to be found when I finally had my chance.
Dax turned to me, his eyebrows raised appreciatively. “Wow. Did your dad’s PR manager help you come up with that? That was pretty good, Books.”
“Dax,” I began.
“It’s fine. We’re good.”
“Why do you look like we’re not?”
“We are. It’s not like we’re friends. We only have a couple days left until graduation. And then…you’re off to change the wo rld, so…we’re good. Just be sure to tell your fans who did all the heavy lifting in your high school biology class.”
Beau didn’t forget about us.
At promptly 8:30 am the next morning, the door to the jail flew open with a loud bang. Beau stepped inside, dressed in his full uniform, and flipped on the lights. Dax and I stretched and yawned. Him from his spot on the floor and me from the bed—which had been surprisingly comfortable as far as jail beds go. I hated to give up my Dax-scented shirt pillow, but I tossed it to him anyway.
Beau walked inside the room and plopped a humongous book on his desk. He then picked it up and plopped it down again before looking over at us.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you both?”
“Not at all,” Dax said, his dark eyes running over me in a way that made me jealous of whoever gets to wake up next to him for the rest of their life. I self-consciously tucked my wild and matted hair behind my ear.
“After I dropped you two off,” Beau said, looking at Dax, “I moved the car back to your secret storage room, like you told me. I hate you, by the way, in case I forget to tell you today.”
“I love you too, buddy,” Dax said, coming to stand by the entrance of the cell, his hand leaning on the door. “How’d she run for you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Beau pulled out his phone and held it out in front of him, pointing toward us. “But I am getting a fun little souvenir for myself. Say cheese.”
He pocketed the phone before coming to stand before us. I slid out of the bed, straightening my shirt and short overalls. I had been surprised at how well I’d slept after breaking the law. Even in my sleep-drunk state, the kiss scene from the car played in my head and dreams all night .
Jail sleep might be the best sleep. Who would have known?
“So, here’s the thing,” Beau began. “Judge Baylor’s beautiful wife, Nancy, was up taking the dog out last night and happened to see what looked like a car driving past her window. So, naturally, she woke up the judge. Guess who he called right away?
Dax pointed at Beau.
Beau nodded. “That’s right. Me. He called me at 2:30 in the morning to check it out. But guess what? I was already awake, taking calls.” He looked at Dax. “Pretty bold move to drive a car when you work next door to a retirement home with people who never sleep at night—and a girlfriend still on probation.”
See? This is the problem. Even now, as my stomach clenched and the bubble I’d been living in began to deflate, hearing Beau call me Dax’s girlfriend brought me right back to sunshine and butterflies.
“Was that your golf cart watching us last night on the square?” Dax asked, a smile hovering on his lips.
“Yup.”
“What does that mean for us?” I asked, trying to remind myself that I was in trouble.
“The judge wants to talk to you both in ten minutes.”
A thud landed in my stomach at that. It looked like I hadn’t completely gone off the rails. The thought of Judge Baylor looking at me in disappointment might be the thing that brings me back down to reality.
I looked down at my wrinkled clothes and touched my face, no doubt looking like a raccoon with mascara under my eyes. “In ten minutes?”
Beau sighed and strode to a cabinet located near his desk and rummaged around before he stood in front of us again and handed us each a flimsy, travel-sized toothbrush wrapped in plastic and a small tube of toothpaste to share.
“You guys have five minutes to brush your teeth, but that’s it. Your sink doesn’t work, so you’ll have to use the bathroom down the hall. Then we need to head to his office.”
He unlocked our cells, stepped aside, and motioned us toward a hallway.
Dax grabbed Beau’s arm, forcing his friend to look at him. “Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the car. I didn’t want you to have to hold onto that knowledge as a cop. Besides, I didn’t actually plan on driving it on the island. I just needed somewhere to work on it.”
“Wait.” Beau turned to me. “Was driving it really your idea?”
The look on my face must have said it all, because Beau only smiled and shook his head. “Maybe Dax wasn’t reaching too high after all.” He motioned down the hallway. “Bathroom is the first door on the left. You now have four minutes.”
The hallway had its own pulse as we walked together toward the unisex bathroom. Or maybe it was my mind that was thumping. The carefree night of driving a car with Dax would stay with me for a long time, no matter what happened. The feeling of being numb to all reason except wanting to be a little crazy. Having a little adventure. It all gave me life. A buzz of excitement. But…crazy had consequences. And now, I was headed to see the judge.
Again.
Dax opened the bathroom door for me, watching me as I brushed past him, my arm sweeping against his.
The door closed automatically, the click of the lock making me jump. He handed me the toothpaste. My trembling fingers dropped it immediately on the counter. Until that moment, I hadn’t been aware I was shaking. As I reached for it, Dax grabbed my hand and held it steady in his. We were so close. I could feel the heat from his chest vibrating out of his black t-shirt.
I could have stayed like that all day, but Beau’s loud thumping on the bathroom door, giving us a three-minute warning, did the trick. I pulled my hand from his grasp and began brushing my teeth.
He did the same.
I wasn’t going to look in the mirror. I didn’t need his disheveled brown hair and mischievous smile confusing me further before I discovered my fate. Our fate. But my body refused to care what I thought, and my eyes darted upward. It was a wild pitch, but he caught them perfectly, holding me hostage. He scrunched his nose at me until it became too much of a chore to hold back my smile.
We spit our water out and wiped our mouths with a paper towel.
I faced him, gulping down a breath of courage. “I’m so sorry, Dax. It was my idea, and now you're going to get in trouble.”
Dax had built a life here. He had a good job and was well-liked in the community. He had turned so much of his life around, and I hated the idea that he might be in trouble because of my wild night sowing oats.
Beau banged against the bathroom door. “One more minute. And for the love, you’d better just be brushing your teeth in there.”
Dax ignored Beau, and with a finger on my chin, he lifted my face up to meet his. He wore a small smile on his face, as though he found all of this funny, which immediately had my thoughts racing. Maybe I had started him on a path that would make him spiral. He’d been doing so well. His mom was going to kill me. What had I done?
I put my hands on his chest, trying to shake sense into him. “Dax, this could be bad. We’re going to see the judge. What if you get in trouble? What if I ruined your whole life?”
“Eh. I was just the accomplice.” He breathed out a laugh while I glared at him. Laughing was for five minutes ago. I tried to move around him, but he blocked me.
“Hold on, Books,” he whispered, his hands holding me in front of him. He held my gaze for a long moment, his humor apparent, but something else too. Something sweeter that wrapped around my insides and squeezed.
“There’s nobody else on this earth I’d rather share a jail cell with.” Warm brown eyes scattered across my face as he leaned closer and whispered, “I’d do it all over again if it brought me right back here.”
I shook my head at him, but the smile wouldn’t be repressed. Ever so slowly, I turned him to the side, peeling up the sleeve on his t-shirt. His shoulder displayed an impressive sunset on the beach, a palm tree, and his car. I had always been the most fascinated by the car, but there was something else underneath that looked familiar. Something I should have put together long before now. My face burned in secret delight as I looked up at him, my fingers splayed over the ink.
“A DNA strand? You used to hate those jokes.”
A soft smile touched his lips. “I was laughing on the inside.”
All of my tattoos mean something.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” he said, turning to face me once more, his hands on my shoulders. “Not really. But that time with you changed me for the better.”
“Alright, I’m coming in!” Beau yelled through the door.
Dax groaned before yanking open the door. “Can’t two people brush their teeth in peace?”
Beau escorted us to the judge’s door before leaving us alone to our fate. Dax’s tattoo revelation was currently squeezing my heart into a thousand pieces, but I had to put that aside for another day.
The judge was in session.
There were no attorneys or court reporters. It was just Judge Baylor seated at his desk. He motioned for us to sit down while I searched his face for clues and found none. Dax’s shoulder pressed into mine, his easy-going presence calming my jittery hands .
Judge Baylor looked at us both for a long moment, his hands clasped together on his desk. I sat up straighter in my chair, and I noticed Dax doing the same.
“Been out for a little joyride together, I hear?” His voice cracked as though he found humor in the escapade, but the comedy of it all wasn’t quite as evident on his face.
I was determined not to hang my head low, so I looked him in the eye and said, “It was my fault, Your Honor.”
“No, it wasn't,” Dax protested.
Judge Baylor leaned back in his chair, watching us. “Are you both aware it is against the law to drive and have in your possession a car or truck on this island?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Dax said.
“And you still did it?”
“I wanted to, and I insisted,” I said quickly. Dax lightly stepped on my foot.
“You’ve been doing quite a few things together around the island, if the gossip hit my ears correctly.” He looked at Dax. “Whenever I drove past your shop after work headed home, your lights were always on—oftentimes, well into the evening. You worked yourself to the bone. But ever since Ms. Brooks’s arrival, I’ve been seeing you in quite a few places—the cafe, the Fourth of July breakfast, the farmers’ market.” He motioned to the propeller clock on his wall. “I love my clock, by the way.” Dax and I both gaped at him. Judge Baylor chuckled at our reaction before continuing, “I even heard from my granddaughter that the two of you were playing volleyball on the beach the other night.”
Looking at Dax, he added, “I didn’t know you were the volleyball type.”
“Believe me, I’m not, Your Honor.”
A twinkle shown in Judge Baylor’s eyes. “There is a lightness about you now that wasn’t there before, and I like it.”
He leaned forward, straightening a handful of papers on his desk. “However, you were also hiding an illegal car in your garage. How did you even get it here without being seen?”
Dax cleared his throat. “I brought it over in parts, Your Honor.”
Judge Baylor stared at him, slightly dumbfounded. “In parts? You pieced together an entire car from parts?”
“Yes, sir.”
The judge blinked before chuckling and shaking his head slightly. “Well, whatever this town pays you for your services, it’s probably not enough. That’s impressive, son.”
Dax flushed slightly at these words while a feeling of pride on his behalf filled my entire body.
He pointed at Dax with his big paw. “However…illegal.”
He shifted his judicious eyes back to mine. “And you, Ms. Brooks. This is the second time in less than two months you’ve been in to see me. Before that, you were a perfect student, graduated college with honors, and went and made yourself into a doctor of mathematics.” He darted a glance to the fake tattoo peeking out from the bottom of my sleeve. “Since your time back on Sunset Harbor, you’ve been avoiding your service hours, if the empty window display in Mr. Miller’s shop tells me anything, and you willingly drove an illegal car on this island. Your father seems to think your time here hasn’t been a good influence on you.”
It took some work to school my expression at the mention of my dad.
“But let me tell you what I’ve observed.” This man, and his low Southern drawl, was beginning to give me whiplash. I wasn’t sure what to think or where any of this was going.
Dax’s leg bumped lightly into mine.
“You’re causing public disturbances now, but you feel more like a real person than you ever did before. There is a stiffness in perfection that’s difficult for people to relate to. There’s a loudness about you now and a spark of life in your eyes that wasn’t there before.”
I sensed more was coming, so I sucked in a breath while my heart pumped wildly.
“However, you also recklessly drove an illegal car on my island in the middle of the night.”
Reckless was debatable when our top speed was forty miles an hour, but there was no need to bring that up.
Judge Baylor sighed, his hand covering his mouth as he stared thoughtfully between the two of us.
“I still have one question, Ms. Brooks. I recall giving my permission to let you transfer the rest of your service hours to Nashville so your career wouldn’t have to suffer for your accidental DUI. You are set to leave in two days. You’re still on probation. My only question for you is, why?”
Dax sat up in his seat. “Your Honor, I told her she could bargain her hours down if she did it. I forced her hand.”
Judge Baylor raised his eyebrows. “Is that true, Ms. Brooks? Did he make you do it?”
I glanced at Dax before looking back to the judge. “No.”
Dax scoffed. “I gave her a list of bogus things to do to lessen her hours. It was my fault for putting the idea in her head.”
He looked interested at this. “What was on the list?”
A hint of a smile crossed Dax’s face. “Get a tattoo, tag a building, and drive a car on the island.”
Judge Baylor’s face grew serious as he looked back and forth from Dax to me. “Did either of you spray paint a building?”
“No,” I said at the same time Dax said, “She is much too chicken for something like that.”
His stare grew cold. “You had both better be too chicken for that.”
“We are,” I assured him, kicking Dax with my foot while he hid a smile behind his hand .
“I’ve never been one for convention,” Judge Baylor began. “In my courtroom, I want to serve the people how I see fit more than be someone’s executioner.”
Executioner. What a word.
I willed my hands to not fidget.
“It seems to have been a summer of both good and bad.”
Judge Baylor had a flair for the theatrics. We stood there, a captive audience, awaiting our fate.
“The good I see in both of you now far outweighs the bad. And that tells me that making noise about this or putting you in jail for a few nights”—he peered down hard at us both—“might not be the right decision. So, your punishment will be time already served along with a day of community service performed together. I’m thinking a beach cleanup would be just the thing.” He glanced up at the clock on his wall. “And Mr. Miller, your car better be on the 9:30 am ferry off this island.”
Turning to me, he said, “Ms. Brooks, since there was no harm done, and nobody got hurt, I will allow my initial decision to transfer your remaining hours to Nashville to stand. I don’t want this to set you back on a life where I assume you’ll do far more good than you did last night. This is all unofficially official, and if I see you back in my office anytime soon, I won’t be this nice.”
I blinked at his dismissal. His speech hovered in the air like a cloud before it rained over me.
Over my parade.
His punishment had been better than anything I could have dreamed up. He’d been kind and generous. He gave me the out I needed.
So why didn’t it feel right?
My entire life, I’d been afraid of mistakes. I’d made choices based on what others deemed fit for me. I created an entire life out of an illusion. My dad’s happiness wasn’t on me anymore. Nobody could make a man like him happy. It wasn’t about me. And it never had been.
Did I want to teach?
Yes.
Did I want to teach in Nashville?
No.
The word created such a visceral reaction the moment I allowed myself to think it. Relief poured from my body as I dared to let go of every expectation I’d put on myself. Every expectation I’d allowed others to place on me.
This summer with Dax had been about more than a court sentence. It had given me space to slowly reconstruct new dreams for myself. Dreams that involved more people and less studies. More time spent teaching and less behind a computer. A dream of raising children on the same island I loved as a child. And spending time with a brown-eyed man with a teasing smile who had become such a part of my life that I couldn’t let go if I wanted to.
And I didn’t.
Suddenly, my direction was clear.
Dax had stood and was shaking Judge Baylor’s hand.
“Your Honor.” My voice was strong and clear, cutting into their low voices, like a woman who knew exactly what she was doing. I didn’t have any clue what I was doing, actually, but I did know what I felt, and when a girl feels like that, she doesn’t go to Tennessee.
He and Dax looked at me.
“Yes?” Judge Baylor said.
I drew in a breath as I fought to find the words. “I’m not sure the punishment fits the crime.”
Dax gaped at me slightly as I realized how bold my statement was. Holy crap. The ways this could backfire on me were countless, but I wasn’t stopping now .
“What do you mean?” the judge asked, a perplexed expression drawn on his eyebrows.
“Well, Your Honor, I’ve been pretty bad.”
We could have heard a pin drop for how quiet the room became. A part of me wished I would have tagged a building so I could have had more things to add to my summer resume, in case he needed proof. An accidental DUI, violation of my probation, TPing my dad’s house, and an illegal driving spree felt like it needed one more thing.
But alas, I kept going. “And I think I need to stay here and deal with my consequences.”
Dax stood still, watching me with a knowing, bemused expression that melted me into a puddle.
Understanding lit the good judge’s face. He glanced back and forth between Dax and me and chuckled.
“I applaud your sense of conscience, Ms. Brooks. I can’t say I saw that coming, but…” He glanced at Dax. “Maybe I should have.”
“I revoke the initial sentence. I hereby sentence you to jail time already served. You must complete your service hours remaining to Dax Miller. You and Mr. Miller will do two beach cleanup days. And I’d like you to organize a community effort to get the Lego car up and running. I miss it, and I know the tourists miss it as well. Anything else I can add to your sentence, Ms. Brooks?”
I couldn’t hold back the smile if I tried. “No. Thank you, Your Honor. That’s perfect.”
He glanced at the clock. “Mr. Miller, you now have twenty-five minutes to get your car to the ferry. I suggest you run.”
Dax looked at me, but before I could stand, the judge said, “I’d like to talk to you alone for a minute, Ms. Brooks.” To Dax, he added, “She’s staying. Under no circumstances will there be kissing in my office. This will be the perfect punishment for you. Go get your car off my island. ”
Dax bit back a smile and gave me a look that told me he would definitely be seeing me later. He opened the door.
“And Dax?” the judge began.
“Yes, sir?”
“If you’re going to start having more of a life, why don’t you hire somebody to work for you so I don’t have to wait two weeks to get my lawnmower back.”
A grin crossed Dax’s face. “Will do, sir.”
Judge Baylor glanced at his watch and looked back up at Dax. “Your time starts now.”
With one last look at me, Dax bolted out of the judge’s office.
Once he was gone, I turned expectantly to the judge, bracing myself for whatever he might tell me.
He leaned forward at his desk, a big smile on his face. “I didn’t have anything to tell you. I just didn’t want that young man getting distracted when he only has twenty five minutes to move his car.”
I laughed, bringing my hand to my face, attempting to hide my flushed cheeks.
“Ms. Brooks.”
“Yes?” I dropped my hands in my lap.
This time, the expressive look on his face was filled more with wisdom than teasing. “As a judge on this island, there are always people who don’t approve of my decisions: neighbors, friends…politicians.”
My eyes flitted up to his.
He kept going. “That’s something we all have to learn to live with. But we still have to make decisions—we have to take charge of our own lives. Our freedom to choose is the most important thing we have in this country, even if it might hurt or anger somebody else. Part of life is knowing that there is going to be disappointment sometimes." He leaned forward, his chair squeaking. “But when it comes to matters of your life and your heart, it shouldn't be you that’s disappointed.”
I nodded, grateful for this man’s kindness toward me. “Thank you.”
“And off the record, Ms. Brooks—even teenage altercations included, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better man in the world than Dax Miller.”
Smiling, I stood up to go. “I definitely know that.”