“This is a small town, Jake. Everythin’ is on social media. What happens when your parole officer sees that you were ice fishin’ when you were supposed to be workin’, let alone, with a girl nearly half your age? The whole town is already talkin’ about it.”
My brows narrow. “What are you talking about? I haven’t been ice fishing in years. Hell, probably haven’t done it since my dad died.”
He pulls out his phone, types something in, and twists the screen toward me. “Then how do you explain this?”
Sure enough, there’s a photo of Charlotte and I ice fishing. It’s a cute photo, too. She’s bundled up in a furry pink coat and I’m holding up three decent sized pike on a string. I laugh as I say, “I see that just as well as you do but that ain’t me. I don’t know what the hell that is.”
“Right.” Daniels flicks the screen to another photo, this one of the two of us at the lake during the summer months with huge smiles and a picnic laid out before us, “and I suppose this ain’t you either?”
“It’s not me.” I laugh. “I went to work, and I checked in at the halfway house on time every night. They wouldn’t have released me if I hadn’t.”
“Is it possible they didn’t know you were sneakin’ off the worksite?” Daniels clears his throat. “Look, I’m not tryin’ to cause trouble, I’m just saying you should take this shit down before more people see it, and maybe… consider datin’ someone your own age.”
“She’s twenty-six, man. She’s not a baby, and I don’t know where these pictures came from, but they’re not real.”
“Right.” Daniels nods once and tucks his phone back into his pocket. “Well, I know how hard you’ve worked to gain back your reputation, and I thought maybe you could use a little reality check, given you’re parked on the side of the road makin’ out like a teenager. It’s not even dark, man.”
I’ve never had an issue with the guy before, but right now, the urge to knock him flat on his ass is pretty hard to resist.
Who the hell does he think he is?
“Thanks for the advice, man.” I shake my head and turn back toward my truck as he heads for his cop car.
“Everything okay?” Charlotte’s voice shakes as she speaks.
“Yeah, honey. Sorry about that.” I climb up and lean in, kissing her slowly, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world. “Everything is fine. Gotta love a small-town cop. He’s got nothing better to do on a Friday night than stick his nose where it doesn’t belong.” I start up the truck and back up out of the woods, my hand resting on Charlotte’s thigh as she snuggles in beside me.
“It’s my fault. I made you pull off. We should’ve just driven back to your place. You wouldn’t have had to talk to the weird cop,” she rubs her tiny hand against my thigh, “and you might be a little more satisfied right now.”
“No, I’m glad things happened the way they did. It was hot as hell.” I glance toward her for a second then back at the road. “You’rehot as hell.”
She smiles sweetly and tucks her head against my shoulder, and for a second, I let myself live in this moment where she’s mine. I let my mind wander to places it shouldn’t, places where she’s my wife, where we have a family, a home, traditions, a dog or two. A place where we live outside the norm and no one can say shit about it.
I’ve never wanted those things before. Hell, I’ve never really put much thought into them at all, but there’s something about Charlotte that has me wanting a life I never imagined. That said, deep down I know Daniels is right. A place like that doesn’t exist for me.
Charlotte is young. She’s just starting out. A life with me and my reputation will make everything harder for her. She won’t be able to go into town without hearing about some shit I used to do. She’d be lumped into the same rotten category I’m in, and she doesn’t deserve that. God forbid our kids were ever judged by my past.
“You okay?” she whispers low, tucking her small and soft hand into mine.
“Yeah, just a little taken aback by Daniels. He showed me this weird social media page where someone is posting pictures of us at the lake. They look real but obviously, they’re not. They could get me into trouble with my parole officer.”
She sits up straight and stares at me as I pull into the long stone driveway that leads to the cabin I’ve been modifying little by little since I was fully released from prison.
“I, ugh…” A visible lump travels down her throat as she opens her mouth to speak.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll figure out who did it and I’ll get them to take it all down.” I kill the engine and turn toward her,rubbing her bare leg gently as I say, “But… he did say something I should take a little more seriously.”
“Yeah?” She pinches her lips together. “What’s that?”
“This town. Gossip sticks to it like maple syrup on the tables at a pancake house. No matter how hard you try, they’re never not sticky again.”
“Okay,” she smiles and narrows her gaze at the same time, “what are you saying?”
“I’m saying it doesn’t look good for you to be hanging around me, and these pictures online are proof that someone is already trying to sabotage us. I can’t let you go down with me. You have your whole life to think about.”
She drags in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “The social media page is mine. I made the pictures of us with Photoshop.”
I stare toward her, my brows knit inward. I don’t know the first thing about what Photoshop is or what it does.
