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EIGHT

Meredith walked to the bookshelf in Gray’s office. She couldn’t deny the way her confession had lifted a burden from her. A weight she hadn’t noticed until it was gone.

It was nice, having someone else understand. But why did it have to be Gray who shared the load?

“You’re good at that.” She touched a small rock that sat on the shelf, shiny and smooth like it had come from a river. Or maybe it had been handled so often it had worn down.

“I’m going to need you to be more specific.”

The teasing tone had her turning to face him. “Are you messing with me?”

He widened his eyes at her, and there was a grin tugging at his lips. “I would never.”

“Fine. Since you’re good at so many things, I’ll clarify. You’re good at getting people to talk to you. To open up. To spill their darkest secrets.”

“Have you spilled your darkest secret?”

Oh. He was good. She had a secret. It wasn’t dark, but it was private. And somehow she suspected that he knew. “I think I’ve gone as far as I’m willing to go.” For tonight, anyway.

“Fair enough.” He went from teasing, or was it flirting? Maybe? No. It must have been teasing. Regardless, he went from whatever it was to business in a nanosecond. “You’re right. Trace Ledbetter is a scary man. He’s second in command to Marvin Johnstone and definitely the one in line to take over the criminal enterprise when Johnstone steps down. I don’t suppose you can avoid them?”

She dropped her head. “No.”

“Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this story?”

“No. I mean, yes. I mean. Not exactly.”

He picked up the pen and held it over the notepad. “I’m ready. Hit me.”

It was going to hit the fan, but better now than six weeks from now. “It’s about the wedding.”

“The wedding you’re doing the flowers for? The wedding where I’m going as your plus-one?”

“What other wedding would it be?”

“Meredith, right now, if you told me you’d left out the part where you’d seen a mountain troll in a cave and you were sure he was terrorizing the town, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She didn’t have to fake her outrage.

“It means you dribble out information in no particular order. I’m waiting for you to tell me you’ve committed to giving Marvin Johnstone a root canal or something.”

It annoyed her that he wasn’t wrong. Or that she had more to say. “He could use a dentist. His teeth.” She shuddered. “It’s the meth. I see a lot of it.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Gray waited.

“Fine. The thing about the wedding is that the girl getting married—”

Gray closed his eyes like he was facing a firing squad. No. That wasn’t right. If he faced a firing squad, she guessed he would do it with his eyes wide open.

“Why are you closing your eyes?”

“I’m praying for God to give me strength to handle whatever you’re about to say.”

“Fine. The bride is the niece of Johnstone. I didn’t know it when I agreed. Her last name is Finley. And the groom is Officer Nichols.”

Gray dropped his head to his desk and lightly tapped it on the surface. Repeatedly. She let him vent his frustration.

“Is this the same Nichols you overheard Ledbetter and Hardaway talking about?”

“I assume so. He’s young. Moved to Neeson about eighteen months ago. Met Lydia Finley the first week he was here. Lydia’s in her early twenties. Precious. She has four younger sisters, all of whom will be bridesmaids. I didn’t know they had any connection to Johnstone until a few weeks ago when they gave me a list of people who needed bouquets and boutonnieres. Lydia’s mother, Mrs. Finley, is Marvin Johnstone’s youngest sister.”

Meredith gave up on her roaming around his office and took a seat again. “The bride is lovely, and unless I’m very much mistaken, the wedding is a love match. I don’t get any sense that she’s being coerced. They’re adorable together. They’re poor and probably always will be, but he came to me and asked if there was any way I could do the flowers for the wedding because Lydia’s a big fan of my work. It was a surprise for her. I couldn’t say no.”

“Because they’re young and in love?” Did Gray sound bitter? Or sad?

“What better reason? She’s found her person. She loves him, and he loves her back. They’re young, but they’ll grow up together. She wants to travel, and he wants to take her places. She hasn’t lived a fairy-tale life. But in this one area, I can help make her dreams come true. At least, I think I can.”

“Besides the obvious possibility that Marvin Johnstone is going to show up at the wedding, what has you worried?”

“What if the bad guys are planning on using this? The wedding. Their love. Her. What if she’s the way they’re going to turn Nichols to the dark side? Am I aiding and abetting?”

“You’re doing the flowers. You aren’t complicit in any criminal act.”

“You know what I mean.”

Gray looked at her. “As much as you might want to, you can’t fix everyone. Some situations can’t be resolved. Some people can’t be made whole. It isn’t your responsibility to make it happen.”

A buzz coming from the phone on Gray’s desk interrupted whatever else he might have said. Gray pushed a button and spoke. “Ward.”

“Chief.” A voice she didn’t recognize came through the speaker. “Your pizza’s here.”

“Thanks. I’ll come get it.” He turned to her. “Just a minute.”

When he left the room, she dropped her face into her hands and took several slow breaths. She’d told him everything he needed to know. She should leave. Maybe take a few slices for the road. She didn’t need to stay.

But he’d ordered pizza for her. And it would be rude to leave. Wouldn’t it?

She had no idea what was happening tonight. Were they flirting? Was he telling her to stay away? Or was she making this more than it was and it was all about the work and she should just focus on doing what she could?

“You okay?” Gray startled her from her mental rambling.

“Yeah. Why?”

He set the pizza on the small table in the corner of the room and beckoned her to join him. “Because you were moaning?”

Crud. “Sorry.”

“Care to share?”

“Nope.” Decidedly not. No sharing. No way. No how.

He opened the pizza box, and the scent of garlic and tomatoes filled the room. She inhaled deeply. “I love pizza.”

“I know.” His smile was small but real. “I ordered the margherita. Hope that’s okay.”

“Perfect.”

For the next few minutes, they ate and talked about random stuff. Despite her tension, it was easy to talk to Gray. He was interesting and had this way of focusing on her that made her feel like her words were important.

She’d been hungrier than she’d realized, and the pizza was exactly what she needed to settle down. She finished off her second slice and took a sip of water. “So, Gray, I feel like you know everything there is to know about me. But I don’t really know a lot about you before you showed up in Gossamer Falls. Fill me in?”

Why had she said that? She was sliding into date territory with questions like that. But once she voiced it, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. She wanted to know. Needed to know. Maybe the secret to Grayson Ward was locked in his past.

Gray took a bite of pizza to give him a few moments to order his thoughts. She wanted to know about him, about his past and his family. How could he have this conversation with her?

“I was born in Chicago.”

Meredith took a bite and nodded.

“Never knew my dad. Not even sure if my mom knew my dad.”

“That’s tough.” Meredith said the words as fact, with sympathy but not pity. He had no idea how she managed it, but he appreciated it.

“My mom was ... well ... she tried. She tried hard. She loved me. Loved my sister.”

“You have a sister?” Meredith’s eyes glowed with interest.

“No. I had a sister.” His words extinguished the delight on Meredith’s face.

“I’m so sorry.”

He was too. The radio on his desk squawked an alert.

Meredith sat up straighter. “Do you need to get that?”

“Not yet. I don’t respond to every call. My men are good at what they do, for the most part.”

“But?” Meredith prompted him with a smile.

“But there are only so many of them. I wait for them to decide if they can handle it, and they know I’m here tonight. If they need another set of hands, they’ll message me.”

Meredith wiped her hands on a napkin. “You’re a good boss.”

“I don’t know about that. I try to be the kind of boss I would want to have. Give them the support they need but not get all up in their business. It’s a fine line. I’m not always successful.”

“That’s not how I hear it.”

The blare of voices coming through the radio pulled him away from the question he wanted to ask in response. As he listened to his officers explain the situation, he couldn’t stop the mix of relief and regret that flooded through him as he realized he was going to have to cut his evening with Meredith short and wouldn’t need to continue the conversation about his past.

Being with her was agonizing, and yet, he craved it. He didn’t want to think about what a psychologist would do with that.

“You have to go.” Meredith stood and put the lid down on the pizza box. Then she gathered the plates and napkins.

“I do. But don’t clean up. It will be here when I get back.”

“Oh no it won’t. Your office would smell like stale pizza. Stale pizza smell is revolting. You don’t need revolting when you return from a call. Go. I’ve got this. I’ll clean up and head home. We’ll talk more later.”

She looked at him then, her hands full of trash, and caught him staring. “Go! Fix the problem. I’ll be praying for the family.” She gestured toward his radio. “I got the gist of that. Car in the ditch. Crying kids. Kids love you. They’ll settle down when you get there and charm them.”

He blinked a few times. There’d been nothing but honesty and maybe even a little bit of respect in her words. She wasn’t teasing. She believed what she said.

Her confidence warmed him more than the heavy jacket he pulled on, and he held onto that as he walked into the night.

An hour later, he was sitting in Meredith’s office with a sobbing eight-year-old. The little girl had latched onto him and refused to let go, so now he was sitting in a dental chair as Meredith prepped her instruments.

She’d had time to go home and change, but she hadn’t been in bed when he called and asked her if she could come back to see what could be done about sweet Lisa’s teeth.

“Okay, Lisa.” Meredith said he could charm kids, but he had nothing on her ability. “Dr. Shaw told me that except for these broken teeth, you’re good to go. Once we get you fixed up, you’ll be able to head home with your family.”

Lisa’s mother was on her way to the hospital in Asheville with what Dr. Shaw suspected were shattered tibias. Lisa’s father was still at Dr. Shaw’s office with her younger brother, Caleb.

The car came around a curve, an animal ran out across the road. The dad swerved. Lost control. Slammed into the side of the mountain, which was bad, but not as bad as if he’d gone off the other side of the road and slid down the mountain.

Airbags deployed all over the car. Lisa’s mom had her feet propped up on the dash at the time of the wreck, and the resulting tibial fractures were why Gray never allowed anyone to put their feet up in any vehicle he was driving.

Lisa had been buckled in, but she’d been taking a drink from a cup. At some point during the swerving, hitting the side of the mountain, and the side airbags deploying, the cup met her mouth and broke two teeth off.

There’d been a lot of blood and Lisa had been full-on hysterical. Understandably so. But when Dr. Shaw got to her, she looked her over, told one of Gray’s men to call Meredith, and assured everyone that Lisa would be fine.

Meredith, for her part, had never failed to respond to an emergency request in Gossamer Falls since she’d moved back to the area and set up her practice. Her aunt, Carol Shaw, was the only doctor in town. Meredith was the only dentist. If Carol said Meredith was needed, Meredith came.

That was the kind of person she was.

Gray brushed Lisa’s hair from her face. “I know your mouth and face hurt, sweetheart, but I need you to sit in this chair and lean your head back so Dr. Quinn can take a look.”

Lisa grabbed him with more strength than an eight-year-old should possess. Gray looked to Meredith for guidance.

“Lisa, I get it, baby. I do. You’ve landed the biggest catch in the county, and you don’t want to let go. I don’t blame you. But he’s too big to sit in the chair with you.”

Gray had been focused on Lisa but found himself unable to look away from Meredith as she continued to coax Lisa to relinquish her hold on him. Did Meredith really think that? That he was the biggest catch in the county?

He couldn’t allow himself to be caught. Yet the idea of being Meredith’s had his heart doing its best to overrule his brain.

But his brain was in work mode and insisted on staying present, and he caught Meredith’s next words to Lisa. “How about if you sit in the chair, and he comes around to the other side and holds your hand? Would that work?”

Lisa didn’t seem to like it, but she didn’t fight him as he eased her into the dental chair.

“Excellent.” Meredith pointed to the seat where the hygienist usually sat, and he took it. “Gray, go ahead and hold Lisa’s hand. In fact, why don’t you hold both of them.”

Gray leaned forward and grabbed both of Lisa’s hands. He rested all four of their hands on her tiny stomach. Meredith gave him a nod and he understood that one part of his job was to comfort Lisa. The other part was to make sure Lisa didn’t move.

Smart Meredith.

Meredith cajoled and sang and teased until she was able to see the problem teeth. Then she assured, confided, and joked until the teeth in question were no longer jagged and Lisa’s mouth was no longer bleeding.

About halfway through, Lisa’s dad and brother had walked in. The poor man looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to his nose. By tomorrow, he would look like he’d gone a few rounds in the octagon with a mean MMA fighter.

But he gave Gray an appreciative smile, cooed to the son in his arms, and stroked a finger down the cheek of his daughter. There was so much love in this man. He was a big guy. Beard. Kind of rough looking but clearly a marshmallow on the inside. At least where his family was concerned.

Gray had seen it before. This man could hold his own in a fight, but his wife and kids were his whole world.

“Landon Jefferson.” Gray had blanked on his name until he’d introduced himself to Meredith. “Can’t thank you enough, ma’am.” His voice quavered a bit at the end.

“Lisa’s going to need more dental work,” Meredith said. “I’m sure you have a dentist at home. You need an appointment with him or her as soon as you can.” She handed Landon her card. “Feel free to have them call me. I’ll send over my notes.”

The car was a total loss, but Doug Quinn had volunteered to drive the family to the hospital in Asheville. They had family meeting them there who could take care of the kids and get them what they needed.

When they drove off, Meredith let out a satisfied sigh. “I love my job.”