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I practically sprint through the square. Eyes are on me from the people milling the sidewalks and it makes my skin crawl — the feeling of being watched. Have they read the article? Do they think that Harlan isn’t fit to be sheriff anymore? The questions fly through my head the closer I get to the station until I’m standing in front of the glass doors breathing hard. Audra starts to cry in my arms, probably picking up on my tension and stress, and I work to slow my breathing as I try to calm her down.
Fear has me in a chokehold as I reach for the handle to the door. I haven’t set foot in a police station or come anywhere near one for as long as I can remember. Sean killed the hope that there would be help for me from the first time he hit me. Swearing up and down that he had more than enough friends on the force to hide whatever he did to me, and that if I opened my mouth, it would be so much worse for me.
Harlan isn’t Sean. He’ll never be Sean. The people who work with him — for him — won’t be like that.
I make myself reach for the handle and pull the door open. The interior is quiet, and there’s a woman behind the front desk, her hair a bright shimmering purple. She looks like a grandma, one who sneaks cookies to her kids and their kids.
She smiles at me. “You must be Maisie… and this must be Audra. I’m Betty. It’s so nice to meet you.” Her smile is friendly, warm, and welcoming. All of the things that I’ve come to love about this little town and that makes the fear at being in a police station ease off a little.
“Maisie? What are you doing here?” I glance behind the desk, to the sectioned off area where there are desks set up. Cassie’s looking at me in confusion, and I wonder if she’s seen the article yet — and if she has, does she agree with it?
“Nice to meet you,” I say to Betty. “Is Harlan available? I need to talk to him,” I say to Cassie. I know he’s in the building, but what if he’s in a meeting or something and can’t be disturbed.
Betty smiles at me. “Sure he is. Cassie, why don’t you take her back?”
I follow Cassie behind the desk and through the station until we come to a stop at a closed door. There’s a plaque on the wall with Harlan’s name and title on it. How long is he going to hold that title with me messing up his life?
Will being with me remove any chance he has at reelection? I don’t know anything about his competition other than the stray bits of commentary I’ve picked up from the Calhouns, but I know that he’s been stressed about it. I know it’s a concern for him, not to mention the way he shies away from the topic when it comes up into conversation with his brothers.
Cassie raps her knuckles against the door and creeps the door open. “Harlan, you have a visitor.”
Harlan looks up from behind the desk, his eyes locked on me and Audra, and I can see it in his eyes. He knows. He knows about the article, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking, or feeling.
“Thanks, Cass.”
Cassie retreats, and I step into the office closing the door behind me. His desk is covered in files, and there’s two visitor chairs stationed in front of the desk. I step around them and set the paper on his desk.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think… I never thought that…” I trail off unable to get the apology out through stuttering breaths.
“Maisie. Sunshine. I need you to take a breath. It’s okay. Everything is okay.”
I shake my head. “It’s not. They’re saying really ugly things about you. Did you read it?”
Harlan nods. “I did. And it’s all bullshit. Stacey — the journalist — can write whatever she likes, it doesn’t matter.” He reaches out and curls his hand around mine, his hazel eyes steady.
“It does matter. This is your job. Your life … you love being the sheriff. What if this — what if you and me ruin that?”
“Baby, take a breath. Here, let me hold Audra, sit down.” He twists and opens a small fridge behind his desk, pulling out a bottle of water before handing it to me. “Take a sip. Take a second to calm down and we’ll talk about it.” He takes Audra from me and settles her on his lap. She plops backward and her lips spread in a gummy smile at Harlan, completely comfortable with him.
Instead of sitting down, I prop a hip against his desk and take the bottle from him and sip until the riot of emotions threatening to swallow me whole chill out.
“First up. You, me and you. That’s between us. Whatever the town wants to speculate or read in the paper doesn’t have any bearing on us. Agreed?”
I shake my head. “How can you be so calm about this?” I wave a hand in the direction of the newspaper.
“Maisie. Stacey dated Cormac in high school. For all I know, she wrote that as a favor to him, to skew the town toward his favor. I put in a call to the paper, and James, the editor, didn’t even know that it ran until this morning after it printed since he’s been out of the office all week with a summer flu. She slipped it in without him knowing, and if the anger from James is any indication, then she and the managing editor are in a world of trouble. I’ve called the mayor, they know where I stand on the article and I set the record straight on why you’re staying at my place. They understand. If anything, this little stunt has hurt Cormac’s standing in the town council’s eyes.”
“But Harlan, what about everyone else?” His family, this town, the people he serves. What is he going to do when they turn and side eye us when we’re in town together?
“They don’t matter. I love this town and the people in it, but if they think that I’m not fit for the job based off who I’m seeing, then that’s their problem. The only thing that matters to me right now is you. Everything else — everybody else can wait. Are you okay?”
He lifts and shifts Audra to settle her against his chest and my baby girl’s head drops to his shoulder as she snuggles in for cuddles. That more than anything softens the anxiety and tension that hit me in the café.
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. But you have to promise me, you won’t let this — us — derail your career.”
“It won’t. I promise.” There’s a glint of something in his eyes. Something that I can’t pinpoint, but if I had to guess, Harlan’s got his own plans for Cormac.
Chapter 29
