Sheriff Davis ignored me as he walked over, reaching for something in his back pocket. I was lying on a bed against the wall, away from the bars, so I figured—I hoped—I had enough distance from the cop to avoid getting tasered or beaten. Then again, what could I really do if Sheriff Davis wanted to hurt me?
I tensed. His hand presented…a key?
And it was going into the lock?
“Today is one of your rare lucky days, boy,” Sheriff Davis said. “Some beautiful woman just came by and posted bail for you. Guess it’s nice to be a bad boy sometimes, huh?”
Sheriff Davis snickered. The girl from last night? The curly-haired one? I tried to remember what her name was, but nothing definitive came to mind. Jackie? Betsy? I think it ended in an “e” sound, but that only narrowed the possibilities down to about five thousand different options. I could ask for her ID as a joke.
It didn’t matter. I was fucking free. I would not tempt fate by trying to understand it. If I had to eat out a girl whose name I couldn’t remember, I’d gladly pay that price.
“What did you do with my bike?” I asked.
“I didn’t do shit,” the sheriff said. “I’m sure someone else has done something by now, though.”
I pursed my lips and stuffed my hands into my pockets. The last thing I needed was for the cop to see my hands balling up, readying to strike in anger.
If only I were a Bandit. Then I could get away with it. After all, it’s not what you do in this town. It’s who you are when you do it.
I walked past the sheriff, taking a left turn, then a right, out to the lobby of the police station. I already knew the route with ease; this wasn’t my first rodeo, though it was the most aggressive charge that I’d faced from him. We usually got thrown in the brig for public intoxication, suspicion of DUI, or disturbing the peace, but, “strangely,” all the charges got dropped later.
Almost like corruption had its limits on what it could do.
I walked through one more door and got outside. I had lost track of time, but the searing summer sun was now right overhead, providing sunburn to anyone foolish enough not to wear clothing or a baseball hat. I turned my gaze down and saw a woman with long, flowing brown hair in a black dress and heels, her back turned to me. When I heard her speak, I recognized who had bailed me out.
Tara Rogers.
My best bud’s ex-girlfriend, the one he was sure he would marry, only to have it all crumble under him because he “wouldn’t grow up.” The one whom I had always thought was too good for Steele, but the one I’d always treated as a friend, almost like a little sister. The one whom, in private moments to myself, if I said I could only pick one woman for the rest of my life…
This was…
What the fuck was going on?
I hadn’t seen Tara in months. Steele had reached out to her here and there, but she hadn’t come back to Santa Maria since one especially bad night for the two of them. As far as I was aware, she’d just remained in Albuquerque, working for her father’s energy company with her fraternal twin sister.
For her to have come all the way out here to Santa Maria, a drive that could never have happened by accident…
I was wading into dangerous territory.
“I’ll call you back, OK? OK, thanks, Elizabeth. Bye.”
She turned around, and I had to say, without Steele there, without having to handicap how I felt…she looked stunningly hot.
While my friends and I had seemed to age every year, she had maintained that youthful vigor of hers. She had striking blue eyes, a gentle smile, and a presence of authority to her. In some respects, it was a miracle that she and Steele had ever dated; though she was not “loud and proud,” she also took no shit, probably a function of who her parents were, and Steele was not exactly someone that stayed within the bounds of civilized society.
“Hey,” she said.
Her eyes glanced up at me, but then they looked down, almost like she was afraid to stare at me. But it didn’t feel like she was ashamed to see me. It felt like she was scared of what would happen if she looked at me too long.
“You came all the way out here to bail me out?” I said.
“Steele asked me to.”
“And he’s not with you?”
That got her to stare up.
“I came here for you, not for him.”
