“Evening, Sheriff,” Lois said as she met me at the door. She had her purse on her shoulder and was holding a stack of messages for me.
“Evening.” I took the messages and waved her off for the day, then headed for my office. Flipping through the pile, I took note of the complaints, sorting through which ones I should handleand which I could hand off to Sofia. I sat at my desk to review the endless paperwork that came with every single thing we did around here, but my thoughts kept returning to Caitlin.
Seeing Eli and Fiona together today and knowing some of Josh and Zoe’s history, I had to push down the spike of envy that they’d found their happily-ever-after together. They looked so blissfully happy, and my thoughts were filled with a series of “what ifs.” What if Caitlin and I had stayed together? Would we be as happy as they are?
The streetlights blinked on, making me aware of how late it was. I’d been sitting here for more than an hour thinking about Caitlin and not getting anywhere. Tossing the files back into my inbox, I decided to call it a day. Pining over Caitlin was counterproductive. Nothing was going to happen, so I needed to stop wishing for it.
My life was here in Polar Springs and hers was in Austin. With a thousand miles between us, nothing was ever going to come of us.
FIVE
CAITLIN
Two weeks after returning to Austin, I parked behind Bite and Brew in Poplar Springs. If this was a movie, the skies would be gray and overcast and creepy music would be playing as I returned to the town I despised. But this was real life, so the day was pleasant and sunny and the only soundtrack was the birds in the trees that lined Main Street.
From the exterior, not much about the diner had changed since I’d worked there as a teenager alongside the owner’s daughter and my best friend, Aurora West, now West-Diaz. Having sworn that she would never marry, Aurora had met Marc while celebrating her twenty-first birthday in Vegas and the two had come together about as well as oil and water. But that didn’t deter Marc. He’d tracked her down and played the long game—by befriending her parents first and working in this very diner. Today, the couple ran the diner together and somehow managed to balance raising twin toddlers with all their responsibilities.
If anyone could do it, Aurora could, I thought, as she came out the backdoor of the diner to greet me.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you,” Aurora said, hugging me tight. “And I can’t thank you enough for helping me out. I’m in such a jam.”
“I appreciate the work,” I said, smiling. You couldn’t help but smile around her. Aurora was optimistic and bossy, a strange combination, but it worked for her the same way that her cut-off denim shorts and funky sneakers did. Aurora was an original, and I had been grateful when she reached out to me with the offer of a job.
Returning to Poplar Springs hadn’t been my first choice, but I’d had no luck recovering the money my piece-of-shit ex had stolen from me. And the truth was that I was flat broke. I’d quit my job at the tattoo parlor because I’d thought I’d be opening my own place. When that fell through, Kieran, the owner of the old shop—and Seamus’s brother—had refused to hire me back, nor had I had any luck finding another place to take me on.
I was sure Kieran had spread the word that I was toxic, which was why I wasn’t getting any bites despite my portfolio and client list.The ass.He was pissed that I quit and got even madder when he found out I planned on opening my own shop. He was doing his damnedest to push me out of Austin.
With no money in my account and rent coming due, Aurora’s offer had been a lifeline. It had meant I could sublet my apartment—charging higher than my monthly rent since the place was coming furnished—andbring in extra money waitressing. Some of that money would go toward renting Aurora’s basement, but prices were so much lower here that it felt like a steal. This was my chance to reboot my life. So I’d sublet my apartment in Austin and headed back to my hometown.
“How’s Sue doing?” I asked about the waitress that I’d be replacing temporarily.
“The doctor says everything’ll be fine if she stays on bedrest until the baby is born,” Aurora said. “When I saw your post that you were between jobs, it was kismet.”
“For me, too,” I said. “I need to get back on my feet again.”
“It’s a win-win, then. Let me show you the ropes while it’s quiet, although I bet you still remember. While the menu is new, most of the processes are still the same, although we did get a spiffy new dishwasher.” Aurora led me into the kitchen where I met Aurora’s husband, the chef and co-owner. Aurora swatted Marc playfully on the butt while he was working the grill. He grabbed his wife with one arm and gave her a smacking kiss.
“Welcome aboard,” he said to me before turning back to the grill and flipping the pancakes with a flick of his wrist.
“Out here things are about the same as always.” Aurora went through the swinging door from the kitchen to the counter area. “We have three servers on the floor during breakfast and lunch. It can be a rush, but manageable. It’ll quiet down midafternoon, which is a good time to refill everything and prep for dinner. Depending on the day of the week or if Marc decides to put together a tasting menu, we could have as many as four servers working until close at eight.”
“Do you work all those hours?” I couldn’t imagine raising a family with diner hours.
“Oh no. Marc gets here before we open to prep, and I drop the kids off at my parents before coming in for the breakfast rush. We have another cook who mostly handles dinner unless Marc wants to try out some new recipes.” Aurora said with a shrug.“My folks watch the kids during the day, but I miss them every minute I’m here.” Aurora pulled out her phone to show me pictures of the adorable toddlers, a girl named Lily and a boy named Nico, who both had their father’s darker coloring.
“So sweet,” I said, admiring them. “They’re beautiful.”
“Aren’t they?” Aurora smiled at the images on her phone. “I tell everyone that I have the perfect children, but I suppose a lot of parents think that.”
Not mine, I wanted to say. I’d never been much of anything other than an inconvenient afterthought and a disappointment to my parents.
Aurora swiped her finger and accidentally brought up a picture showing a room with several inches of water in it. “Oh, shoot. I didn’t tell you. The basement apartment I said you could use flooded yesterday. Some problem with a drainage line. A few of our neighbors are also having problems. Unfortunately, it’s going to take time to repair and then the apartment will have to be completely gutted and redone because of all the water damage and mold.”
I felt stricken. Part of my rationalization for taking the job, even though it meant coming back, was that it came with a place to live, because no way was I returning to my parents’ home. Oh, God, where was I going to go? I couldn’t go back to Texas. My apartment already had a tenant. The only close friend I had in Austin was Mel, who was still angry enough with me about the stolen money that I didn’t think I could ask to crash on her couch while I looked for work. I was stuck. No, worse, I was homeless.
“But don’t worry.” I focused back on what Aurora was saying. “I’ve worked it out. Brian Thorne—you know, the sheriff—hasa spare room at his house. He heard me talking about the apartment and that I needed a place for my friend to stay and he volunteered his place. He was good friends with your brother, so I figured you’d be cool with that.”
Panic now rose in me. I hadn’t kept up with Aurora after high school, and we’d only found each other on social media recently, so Aurora didn’t know I’d dated Brian and broken up with him five years ago. And no one knew that we’d hooked up two weeks earlier. But I was plenty sure that Brian wouldn’t want me to stay with him.
