Chapter 18 Tore At His Gut
TORE AT HIS GUT
Ford raced down the road and into downtown Lake George, his sirens blaring, his SUV swerving around cars to get closer to the water.
Backup was on the way and some might beat him there, but he’d be on scene just the same.
Daytime bank robberies weren’t the norm for this area and he didn’t know what they could be in store for.
When he came to a halt, he saw one of his deputies outside his vehicle with his gun drawn toward the doors and made his way over, staying out of the line of sight.
“Catch me up, Casey.”
Casey Coons was new to the department. Young and eager and looking a little scared. He remembered those days. They rarely saw action like this around here though.
“Someone hit the panic button. When I pulled up, I heard shots fired.”
“I know that much,” he said. Casey had been radioing it in.
“They haven’t come out. I’m not sure how many are inside. I don’t know if anyone is hurt, but one guy stuck his head out yelling and waving a gun around.”
When another sheriff’s car pulled in, they set up a perimeter, and he called the bank to see if he could get someone to answer or talk.
“Everyone can just take off,” a guy said when someone picked up the phone. “And no one will get hurt.”
“This is Sheriff Ridgeway with the Warren County Sheriff Department. No one will get hurt if you surrender now,” he said.
“I can’t,” the man said. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What’s your name?”
“The Easter Bunny,” the guy said and hung up the phone.
“Well?” another one of his deputies asked.
“Could be a long day. We need to get all the bystanders back.”
After a three-hour standoff, Logan Black came out with his hands in the air, was brought to the ground and cuffed.
The ten people in the bank had slowly been released during that time. No one got hurt and the local news got an earful for a small town.
More like he gave more interviews than he wanted to for a Saturday afternoon.
He went back to the station to take care of a few things, pulled his phone out and saw the text from Reenie.
He hated to rush out on her like that but knew Clay had it covered. He’d nodded his head toward Rod before he left for his brother to monitor that situation too.
But the doe in the headlight look Reenie sent him tore at his gut as he drove away.
Would he have loved for her to give him a kiss for luck?
Yeah. But they weren’t there.
Holding her in his arms and comforting her brought them closer mentally. Even emotionally.
Physical was something he had no intention of pushing.
She’d had enough things pushed on her in life.
But here she was saying she was sorry if she reacted wrong to him leaving and hoped he was okay. She’d have dinner ready for him if he was hungry later.
That was hours ago.
Ford replied he hoped to be done in two hours and would see her then.
Two hours later, he was still dealing with shit and let her know he might not make it.
She told him she’d wait, for him to text when he was on the way.
He’d never been with a woman willing to do that before.
Most times they were frantic if he was out, or annoyed if he didn’t return on time.
He pushed away from his desk, ready to call it a night, drove home and showered, then returned to the orchards.
The sun would set soon, and there was a bite to the air with it, but all he could think of was how hungry he was, not just for food but for time with Reenie.
He pulled in front of the cabin, the lights on inside, smoke coming out of the chimney.
The front door opened after he saw the curtain move.
“Hey,” he said. “Thanks for waiting and cooking dinner.”
“I planned on offering it anyway, but then you rushed out. Everything okay? I tried to follow on the news the best I could, but there aren’t any local channels here.”
She had internet for some apps and shows and that was it. She said she watched little TV anyway. It didn’t seem many people did. Or at least the local news, but he knew his parents would have been following it. The same as his siblings.
“You don’t need to worry about those things,” he said. “Is that a cake?”
His eyes went right to the plate with a layered chocolate concoction.
She laughed. “It is. Chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. I remembered you used to like that. I hope you still do.”
Her remembering that detail from their childhood had his nerve endings buzzing with joy. His mother had put the double chocolate cake on the table after Reenie came for dinner that day, and he’d bragged it was made for him. It was his favorite.
“I do,” he said. “I don’t get it often. Not like I need the weight on me.”
Her eyes went to his biceps. They were there earlier too. What guy didn’t love that a woman was checking him out?
But this wasn’t just any woman. She was the one etched into his very blood, impossible to forget, impossible to bleed out.
He’d have one drop left and she’d continue to multiply until she took over again.
He didn’t think he’d want it any other way.
“I made sauce and meatballs,” she said. “Easy. The pasta is almost done.”
“I appreciate you cooking. Was there a reason for it?”
She shrugged.
A shy move.
Reenie hung her head again, as if embarrassed. Her eyes shifting around at what she needed to do in the kitchen.
“Does there have to be a reason? You normally call or stop to see me. The least I could do is give you some food tonight.”
“I’m starving too,” he said. “And am glad you are doing it. You mentioned you wanted to go to the outlets this weekend. Does tomorrow work since you’re off?”
“We can if you want,” she said.
She poured the spaghetti out of the water into a strainer and he went to the cabinet to get plates out.
She had the pasta with sauce on it in a bowl, meatballs on the side. He got silverware out while she put that on the table and filled her glass with water.
He got a glass and did the same, and they sat and ate.
“Can I tell you how nice it is to sit at a table with the food there rather than always making it on the stove?”
It seemed no one sat at a family dinner anymore.
“That’s how I eat when I’m by myself,” she said. “It’s how I’ve eaten most of my life. Just make a plate and sit down. But here, it’s more like family. Something I’ve always wanted to feel. I find myself just emulating everything I see.”
Ford smiled at her. “I’m always going to have family in my soul. I’ll never want to kick it out. I can’t.”
“You shouldn’t. No one should. Why would you with as great of a family as you’ve got?”
“I never thought of it one way or another.” He just always knew that his family would be there whenever he needed them, giving him what he asked.
Just like he’d do the same for them.
“I wish I didn’t have to think of those things.”
“You don’t here,” he said.
They sat to eat, both of them filling their plates.
“This sounds silly, but I feel an ease here. As if I belong.”
He reached his hand over and laid it on hers. “It’s not silly. It always felt as if you belonged. Not just here but with me.”
That slow smile of hers lit up the dim cabin.
“I miss this,” she said, her hand still under his. “I always wondered if I made it up in my mind to be more than it was.”
“No.” He squeezed her fingers. “You didn’t. I felt it too. I feel it too.”
He wouldn’t be afraid to admit this to her. One of them had to.
That for years his dreams were blown out to be more than what had existed.
A young boy falling in love with a girl he wanted to save.
One he couldn’t and she vanished from his life.
They’d come this far, and if she was going to stay in his life, she needed to know he wouldn’t let her go. He wouldn’t trap her the way others had. He’d leave the door open, again and again, and hope she trusted him enough to keep walking through it.
It was the only way he could have her, by letting her know she had a choice. In his mind, she’d had few choices in her life.
Her hand slid out from under his and he wondered if he’d pushed too far, too fast.
But she only ate her dinner.
“The barn is just about ready,” she said.
He’d let her change the subject. It was for the best.
“Clay is doing a great thing there. For him, the family, the community. I hope for everyone’s sake it’s a tremendous success.”
“I bet anything he touches is. Even if he doesn’t care for me much.”
He looked at her sharply. “Don’t think that. Clay is... harder than the rest of us. It has nothing to do with not liking you.”
She shrugged. “If you say so. As long as he doesn’t hate me.”
“Never,” he said. Because none of his siblings would hate someone that he was falling in love with.
Someone that he never fell out of love with.
They continued to eat dinner, a few words said here and there.
She appeared nervous to him and he couldn’t pinpoint why.
They cleaned up dinner together, and he eyed the cake.
“How about some coffee and cake on the back patio? The sun is going to set and I’d love to watch it. I sit out there alone at night to see it. It’s so peaceful and calming. I’d like to not do it alone tonight.”
She was making the coffee as they talked.
“I’d like that too.”
She sliced the cake and put it on plates. They filled their coffee mugs and he watched her grab one of his sweatshirts to slip on before they went out back. He saw another hanging by the door and snagged that to put on.
He could smell the fresh scent of the soap she used on it. The material might fit him better than her, but it was hers now. Something going full circle they shared.
They ate their dessert in silence, her nerves radiating off the concrete patio and raising the soles of his sneakers.
When it was dark, she stood up and reached for his plate. He handed it over, grabbed her empty mug out of her hand and followed her back into the cabin.
“Are you going to tell me what is going through your mind?” he asked.
“Will you think horribly of me if I told you I just need to feel like a woman tonight? That I have to put everything in my past behind me and feel for a moment in time.”
“No,” he said. “Because I need it too.”
“Then take me to bed and don’t think. Don’t talk. Nothing. Regrets can come later.”
They’d never come for him.
He closed the distance between them, his hands going to her cheeks, his mouth dropping to hers.
It wasn’t slow like he intended because the minute their lips touched, the heat in the cabin flared up and he crushed her to him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and all but tried to blend into his body telling him in actions more than her words could ever express.