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“I’m gonna walk back to the station.”
“Walk back?” I questioned. “It’s a hundred and five degrees out.”
“I gotta swing by and follow up on that suspicious person call last week.”
Last week, we’d gotten a call about a ‘suspicious person’ outside Molly Calhoun’s house. It turned out to be Gary from the gas company. There was no follow-up that needed to be done.
“Does Brady know you’re sniffin’ around his little sister?” As soon as the question came out of my mouth, I realized how hypocritical it was and wanted to kick my own ass.
“Who says I’m sniffin’ around?” Sam’s expression was the picture of innocence.
“Didn’t you date Olivia?”
Molly and Olivia Calhoun were twins. Although, that wouldn’t stop Sam, he’d dated two of the Turner triplets. And he probably would have dated all three if one of them wasn’t married to Bentley Calhoun, who happened to be Molly and Olivia’s older brother.
The dating pool in this town was seriously the size of a puddle.
Sam just waved and continued on down the street.
Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I climbed back into my SUV. I’d barely sat down when my phone rang. It was Remi. He never called; he always texted. I had a pretty good feeling I knew what or who this was about.
Remi had always been protective of Ruby. The whole town had always thought that Harmony Briggs had it bad because she was the youngest of nine with eight older brothers. But all of Harmony’s brothers combined weren’t as protective as Remington Rhodes was of Ruby.
He’d hated leaving her when he enlisted, but he hadn’t felt like he had a choice. Remi was a bright kid, but, like me, he’d fucked around in high school. Both of us were lucky just to graduate, never mind get into a good school. He never wanted to stay in Wishing Well, and he was scared that if he went to junior college, he’d be stuck. So, he’d enlisted as a Fireman recruit in the Navy and was guaranteed a slot in the Navy Damage Control School. He served eight years before getting out when he was twenty-six; after that, he was recruited by CalFire as a hotshot and moved to San Diego.
Over the years, he’d talked about moving to New York to be closer to his sister because he was worried about her being in such a big city alone. From what he told me, she’d always talked him out of it. She’d reassure him that she was safe, and everything was fine.
I always wondered if that was actually the case, or if she was just such a good actress that she convinced him it was.
“Hey, man!” I answered on the third ring.
“Hey, how ya been? How’s your grandad? Harper?”
“They’re good. How are?—"
“Good,” he cut me off. “Hey, I heard you helped Ruby out when she got into town.”
“It wasn’t a big deal.”
“My mom said it was all anyone was talking about at bingo.”
Fucking bingo. That’s where everyone in town had heard about my good deed, the one that had definitely not gone unpunished.
“She’s been having a tough time, you know, with everything that happened…” Remi’s words trailed off. We hadn’t spoken about the viral video because he’d been in training in Montana, but I knew it must be killing him to see his sister deal with that. “And she’s never really liked Wishing Well, so being home isn’t easy. Especially since she didn’t know my mom and Randall were married.”
“She didn’t know your mom got married?”
“No. I didn’t want to tell her because she was dealing with her own shit. And I had no idea she was going to come home before her next job. She found out when she got home, and he walked out in his tighty-whities.”
“Randall Carson wears tighty-whities?” That was an image I wish had never popped up in my mind, and I was desperately trying to do a mental control-alt-delete.
“Apparently. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for looking out for her. And I wanted to ask a favor.”
“Anything.”
“She hasn’t been home in a long time, and she’s, you know, dealing with a lot right now. So, if you could just keep an eye on her while she’s in town, I’d really appreciate it.”
Keeping an eye on Ruby Rhodes was not a hardship. She’d grown into the most stunningly beautiful woman I’d ever seen. The problem was, I didn’t think Remi wanted me drooling over his baby sister. I was sure he was asking me in a much more familial way. And my feelings were far from familial when it came to her.
