Once he’s gone, Wren turns to Sarah looking apologetic. “I am so sorry, Sarah.”
“It’s a good thing you have three other brothers because I swear to God, I’m going to murder him some day,” she snarls and turns on her heels, the clicking of her shoes echoing off the floors. Wren and I share a wide-eyed look, not sure what’s gotten into her.
Luckily the rest of the day goes by without a hitch and the shop remains slow. To treat ourselves after such a busy morning, we decide to head over to the Brewery to sit out on the patio and share some finger foods and sip on drinks.
We get seated, ordering our drinks and a couple appetizers to share, when Wren turns to Sarah. “Okay, I need to know. What the heck happened with you and Hayes? I’ve tried to keep out of it but damn, that was some serious animosity earlier.”
Lips pursed, she lets out a long sigh. “I caught him cheating on me, okay? End of story.”
“No way,” Wren says in disbelief.
“Oh way,” Sarah says, taking a pull from her beer.
I always figured it was something like that, but my heart breaks for my friend.
“That’s not possible, Sarah. I remember him and Ma getting into a fight because he wanted to get married and she told him he was too young. Then two months later you guys broke up.”
Sarah shakes her head. “Well, I don’t know anything about him wanting to get married. I just know what I saw with my own two eyes.”
“Hmm.”
“Gosh, Sarah. I am so sorry you got hurt like that,” I say.
“Oh. It gets worse.” She laughs. “The woman was older, and I caught them together in Hadley the day after I gave him my virginity.”
Wren and I gasp.
“Oof. I’m sorry my brother is such an idiot. I just can’t believe that’s what happened. Here all these years, I thought it was you that broke his heart. I just thought you hated him because of something stupid”
“Well, now you know.”
We spend the rest of the evening talking about happier things and having a good time. After we finish all our food and are walking back towards the shop to the parking lot, my body goes still when I spot a figure in the distance. He’s wearing a dark hoodie with the hood pulled up so I can’t see his face, but the way he’s just standing there sends goosebumps along my skin and leaves me feeling unsettled.
“You okay?” Sarah asks, looking at me and then around the street, the mysterious man already gone, making me wonder if he was really there at all.
“Mhm. I’m fine,” I say, picking up my pace to Sarah’s vehicle, unable to relax until we are long gone.
Idon’t know what it is about Wednesday’s, but I hate them. It never fails that they are busy. Maybe it’s the midweek boredom that has everyone acting like a bunch of idiots.
This morning we had a frantic 911 call that was indistinguishable, so we traced the call and sent multiple officers to assist only to arrive on scene and discover a distressed lady worried about her missing dog.
Shortly after our officers got back, we had a call about a boat on the lake driving recklessly. Turned out to be a couple kids that stole their dad’s boat and decided to take it for a joy ride.
Don’t even get me started on the amount of speeding tickets my guys handed out today.
I’m deep in paperwork when Mrs. Ira calls in. I’m the only available officer in the building at the moment, so Beatrice transfers the call to me.
“Afternoon, Mrs. Ira, what can I do for you?”
“Hi, dearie. I didn’t know who else to call. My back is quite sore so I can’t make it into the bakery. Jade isn’t answering her phone and no one is picking up at the shop. It’s just going straight to voicemail.”
“Okay. What’s the problem, Mrs. Ira?” I know Jade is at the bakery because I gave her a ride this morning. It’s past noon, I note, looking at the time. Could they still be busy? I try not to worry.
“Well, you see, I was minding my own business just watching out the window in my rocking chair since my back is so sore, and the strangest thing happened.”
I roll my eyes because Mrs. Ira minding her own business is not likely. But I play along anyways. “Mhm. And what exactly was the strange thing?”
“A man!”
