Chapter 2
CROSSING THROUGH
“Morning, Sheriff.”
“Robby,” Ford Ridgeway said, nodding his head to the older man on the stool. Robby was a daily staple, getting his breakfast and meeting any of his friends that ventured into the diner.
“Here’s your coffee,” Colleen said. She placed his to-go cup on the counter. “Do you want anything else with it?”
He was surveying the place as he always did when he entered any room.
Did he need to stop into the local hot spot on his way to work? No, he didn’t, but he always made sure people saw his face.
That he’d be there for those he protected.
He took his job seriously as he had everything else in his life.
His eyes landed on a woman in a booth by herself, her head down, her back hunched, her plate almost clean.
She was eating as if she hadn’t had substance in days.
“How about a muffin,” he said. “Blueberry is good.”
Colleen lifted the glass dome off the silver tray, pulled out a muffin with the tongs and put it on a plate for him, setting it on the counter.
He took a seat, making sure his back was to a wall and he could see all the entrances and exits. The people in the diner eating.
Which weren’t many at seven thirty in the morning.
He sipped the black coffee, then picked up his muffin for a bite. Not as good as his mother’s, but he wasn’t foolish enough to voice those thoughts.
Missy Baker and Beth Stone were sitting in a booth. Both lifted their hands and waved. He returned it and took another bite of his muffin.
He’d gone to school with them and knew they were teachers in Lake George. The neighboring town he grew up in. His office was located here and it was where he spent most of his time delegating his deputies to cover the large county.
“Did you catch the Yankees game last night, Sheriff?”
“I did, Corbin.” Corbin Richards worked construction at his family business. Ford’s youngest brother, Ash, played softball with Corbin in a league.
“Looks like it’s going to be a good year if they keep up that kind of pitching.”
“I hope you’re right,” he said. Ford’s eyes landed on the woman again, cleaning the remaining crumbs on her plate. Holly, a waitress who was older than his mother, made her way over to top off the woman’s coffee, but she’d shaken her head.
Holly came back and punched in the tab, then printed it out. Those days when someone ripped a sheet of paper from a pad and laid it down were long gone.
He was sipping his coffee and scanning the room, his eyes staying on the stranger in the booth this time.
Probably just a tourist that was eager to get on her way.
But her head lifted, she made eye contact with him, and everything in his body crashed together as if the world suddenly slammed on the brakes.
Those big brown eyes still full of the same hurt and mistrust from twenty years ago barreled into him like a punch to the gut, the bitter coffee in his stomach churning, acid rising fast.
He showed no reaction to anyone in the room.
He could be wrong, but he knew he wasn’t.
Her head dropped quickly, her knee was shaking under the table, her fingers pulling money out of her wallet and putting it down before the bill came.
The minute Holly returned, the woman stood up and said she was set.
He heard the voice that had replayed so many times in his dreams.
One year with her. That was all he’d gotten. But he’d never forget a minute of the time they’d spent together.
She moved toward the door, he threw his money on the counter, left his half-eaten muffin and picked up his coffee to walk out too.
Ford didn’t show any rush or panic, just moved the way he always did with a cocky swagger, nodding to those he passed.
When he got to the parking lot, he noticed her speed-walking toward a car with Florida plates.
Nope, she wasn’t getting away. Not this time.
His long stride had him reaching her car before she could shut the door.
“Reenie?” he asked.
She looked up into his face and shook her head.
She was lying.
“I’m sorry, you’re confusing me with someone else.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. He shifted, his badge and gun, not to mention his uniform, clearly stating who he was.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked. “Am I being held or something?”
“No,” he said. “You looked a little lost in there.” He could play it this way if he had to. “Just passing through?”
“Yes,” she said. “I thought I’d get a good breakfast and be on my way. I’ve got a long trip.”
“Where are you heading?” he asked.
He looked in the back of the car. There didn’t seem to be any luggage that he could see. Just a bag with some electronics and a cooler within reach behind the passenger side.
“I’m not sure yet,” she said. “Just driving around enjoying the Adirondacks.”
“You’re a long way from home to be doing that,” he said. He noticed the registration said March on it. Brand new. It was only a week into April.
“It’s always been a dream of mine,” she said. Her long, thin fingers were plucking at the cuff of her shirt like she’d always done when she was nervous.
Her nails were almost perfect. He remembered that as a kid. That she could have modeled her hands.
When all the girls were getting their nails done, Reenie’s were bare of color or shine, but flawless just the same.
He’d never forgotten a thing about her. It had taken him over six months to earn her trust, slowly breaking through every wall she’d built, and then, without warning, she vanished like she was never there.
His eyes were staring into hers. He saw the recognition and didn’t know why she was hurting him this way. Again.
“You know who I am,” he said.
She blinked her doe-like eyes a few times. “I’ve got to go.”
He stood in front of the driver’s door, blocking her from closing it. She’d never be strong enough to move him out of the way.
“Don’t run from me again.”
“I didn’t run from you,” she said, her hand slapping in front of her mouth.
He crouched down to get eye level with her. She feared something. Just as he’d seen in her so many times their eighth grade year.
He wasn’t a kid that couldn’t carry weight behind a promise to keep her safe anymore.
He was the fucking sheriff here and if she was in trouble it was his job to take care of it.
“Talk to me, Reenie. We used to mean something to each other. I’ve thought of you for years. What happened to you. Where you landed. How you’ve been. And now, you’re just here crossing through? I don’t get it.”
She wasn’t from New York originally. He’d gotten that much out of her.
Her mother was Canadian and she’d moved around a lot in Vermont and upper New York by the time she landed in Warrensburg for that one year.
It took him months to find that out.
“I’m running behind and have to get on the road,” she said.
“You’re scared,” he said. “I can see it, there is no denying it. I can help. You wouldn’t let me do it before, but I can now. Let me help you.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t think you can. I need to help myself first. I’m doing that now.”
He drew in a slow breath. As proud as he was to see her finally standing up for herself, being told to stand down again settled in his gut like a stone.
“Let me be the judge of what I can and can’t do.”
She was shaking her head. “It’s better if I just leave.”
“Better for who? You? Not if you’ve got to be on the run the whole time.”
She’d packed lightly. Although the car was old, it appeared newly purchased. Shit, he was shocked that the car had made it from Florida, since it was easily fifteen years old.
“I won’t be once I get where I need to go,” she said.
He frowned. She was going to the border.
He hated to think she was running from the law and he couldn’t let her out of his sight if that was the case.
“We can play this two ways,” he said. “You can open up and talk to me or I can run your plates and license. It will come up with who the car is registered to.”
“It’s mine,” she said.
“Maureen Dupree?” he asked.
“Yes. But please don’t do it. Please.”
The same desperation he’d seen twenty years ago. “You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”
“Not like you think. I did nothing wrong. But I still need to leave.”
She wasn’t sobbing, but another tear escaped down her cheek. Her hands were shaking, her shoulders too.
It was chilly out, but he didn’t think the cold breeze was causing any of it.
“Does anyone know where you are? Your mother or anyone else?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t talked to my mother in years. I’m not sure where she lives anymore.”
That didn’t surprise him from what he’d picked up on about Reenie’s childhood. Not that he’d ever been to her apartment when they were friends.
And friends were all they got to be. He might have wanted more and even got one kiss out of her before she left, but nothing else. Nothing deeper, nothing memorable to her, it seemed.
He cherished their friendship and kept everyone away from her that year.
The months it’d taken her to open up felt like a decade. Every time he got one inch in the door, something happened that she’d never tell him about, and it’d be slammed shut again.
He had his suspicions though never voiced them.
“Did you stay in a hotel last night? Or drive through the night? You’ve got to be sleeping somewhere.”
He doubted it was in her car. She was clean as if she was showering.
Her hair was combed, her eyes awake, her clothes not wrinkled.
“Cash for a hotel,” she said.
She was volunteering more than he was asking.
“Let’s go somewhere and talk,” he said. “Give me an hour. Will an hour make that much of a difference in your destination?”
Her chest was rising and falling while she thought.
“No. But not where anyone can see us.”
Which was tricky. “If I let you pull away from here, you won’t try to leave, will you?”
She snorted. “Do I look stupid? You’ll just put your lights on and pull me over.”
He smirked. “That’s right.”
“Where can we go that won’t draw a lot of eyes?”
“My place,” he said. “It’s set back off the road between here and Warrensburg. No one will see your car.” But that meant she’d have to follow him and she could dodge him and take off. “Ride with me.”
“And people will see,” she said.
He stood up, his thighs burning from being in the crouch for so long.
He had to give her something to earn her trust. It was like she said, she couldn’t get far from him.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Do your parents still have the farm?”
“They do,” he said. She’d be in for a shock though when she got to the property. It’d changed significantly from twenty years ago.
“Can we go there?”
“Sure,” he said. “Do you remember the way?”
“I’ll never forget,” she whispered.