Chapter Five

Chapter Five

“Why are we doing this again?” Charlie got in

Aubrey’s car.

“Because it’ll be fun.”

Charlie was too tired to have fun. The fact was she was dead on her feet from working in the store all morning. Just buckling her seat belt was a chore and the bumpy ride out of the ranch was going to make her have to pee. Again.

And something about Aubrey’s story about going to town to look at some old furniture the sheriff’s department was giving away didn’t make sense. Charlie could work wonders with upcycling most furniture. She’d even been known to filch an old chair or table from the side of the road waiting for garbage pickup and make it look like a million bucks. But she had her limits. She drew the line at metal desks and swivel chairs.

“What kind of furniture?” Because if it was anything worth salvaging, Jace would have told her about it.

“Annabeth said it was stuff they had left over from years ago, back when they used good, hard woods.”

Charlie was dubious, but Aubrey seemed so excited, she didn’t want to burst her balloon. At least she could pop in on Jace. He’d been so tense when he left for work that she’d thought about him all morning.

“I still can’t believe Mitch is having a big wedding at his house,” Aubrey said. “After the debacle with Jill and then her family’s ranch, I would’ve figured he’d want to lay low. Or have his wedding in another county, where everyone didn’t hate him.”

“Maybe they don’t have anywhere else to have it.”

“Or he just wants to show off that ridiculous house of his. The one he built for me”—she put air quotes around “me”—“was bad enough. But at least it wasn’t any showier than Tiffany’s house, or any of the new builds in Dry Creek. But this new one . . . uh, can you say Medici Palace? What a tool.”

Charlie laughed because the house, a fake-looking Italian villa, really was ostentatious. Like Tuscany threw up. He’d even planted a small vineyard to give it that wine country feel.

Mitch, a successful developer, had sold the old house—the one he and Aubrey shared before the breakup, before she’d married Cash—at a hefty profit to a tech guy from Silicon Valley who could telecommute and wanted his kids to grow up in the country. And he’d built the Italian one. Charlie suspected it was Mitch’s way of waving his middle finger at the good citizens of Dry Creek, who’d disowned him.

“It’s actually kind of sad,” she said.

“Nah, not sad. Douchey.” Aubrey turned off on Main Street, heading for the Civic Center “I hope the bride has a large family, otherwise it’s going to be a tiny reception. Just his assistant, Mercedes, and Mitch’s mom.”

Aubrey pulled into City Hall lot and found a parking spot close to the sheriff’s headquarters, which Charlie was eternally grateful for. There was only so far her aching feet would take her.

Aubrey flipped down the passenger seat’s visor and pointed to the mirror. “You want to put on some lipstick?”

“Why?” It wasn’t as if they were going nightclubbing. For the next hour they’d be rooting through a bunch of dusty furniture in the bowels of the sheriff’s department. “Are you trying to tell me that I look awful?”

“No, of course not.” Aubrey pinched Charlie’s cheeks. “You’re just a little pale. Put on some lipstick, Charlotte. You’ll thank me for it later.”

Charlie was starting to get the sense they weren’t really here for furniture.

That suspicion was confirmed eight minutes later when two dozen deputies, support staff members, and county workers yelled, “Surprise!” at the top of their lungs as she and Jace simultaneously entered the conference room. The usually drab space had been decorated in pink streamers, yellow balloons, a baby shower banner, and a sheet cake topped with a fondant pair of tiny pink cowboy boots.

A smile spread across Jace’s face that took Charlie’s breath away. He loved his staff and this community so much that it warmed her heart to see how much it loved him back. Even Tiffany was here. Although she didn’t work for the sheriff’s department, she was Jace’s campaign manager and had her hands in every Dry Creek cause, charity, and ad hoc committee.

“Did you know about this?” Charlie asked him when they had a moment alone.

“Not a clue. You?”

“Not until a few minutes before we walked in, when Aubrey made me put on lipstick. This is so sweet. I can’t believe they went to all this trouble.”

“You two. Pose by the cake. I want to take a picture.” Tiffany herded them to the cake table, where she proceeded to snap photos of them with her phone.

Charlie cornered Annabeth, who she presumed was the architect of the party. “This was enormously kind of you to organize. It’s just so . . .” Charlie choked up, waving her hands over her teary eyes. “Don’t mind me and my pregnancy hormones.”

Annabeth gave her a hug. “It was a group effort. Everyone wanted in on it. Now go open your presents and then we’ll have cake.”

A folding table was piled high with gifts wrapped in lots of pink paper and frilly bows. She and Jace were having a girl, which was public knowledge. They had chosen the name Keely but weren’t broadcasting it because Charlie was superstitious and didn’t want to jinx anything. The name, though, had been Grady’s idea. He had a classmate named Keely, and Charlie and Jace adored the girl as much as they did her name.

It took a good hour to tear through the packages of adorable onesies, receiving blankets, toys, books, and even a high-tech high chair, a group gift from Jace’s top command. But Charlie’s favorite present was a handmade quilt made of vintage Western fabrics that Annabeth had no doubt spent weeks sewing.

If Charlie felt weepy before, she was only seconds away from a monsoon of tears. There was no way to describe the gratitude and joy she was feeling. She’d come to this beautiful town almost four years ago, running from a monster. The people of Dry Creek had not only taken her in and given her their protection but they’d also helped her heal. And now these very same people would be there for her child.

Keely would not only have a big, loving family, she’d have the adoration of a whole community that would watch her grow.

Jace and Cash loaded the gifts into the back of Aubrey’s car.

“I’ll be home in a few hours.” Jace brushed a stray hair away from Charlie’s face. “How about I bring home dinner from the coffee shop—fried chicken and Jimmy Ray’s smashed sweet potatoes?”

“That sounds heavenly.”

“I don’t want to ruin the day, but I’ve got news.”

Charlie braced herself. “She’s here, isn’t she?”

“Yeah. She’s renting the Stoddard cottage.”

“Oh boy, here we go. How’d you find out?”

“From of all people, Mitch.”

“What? When did you talk to Mitch?”

“That’s a whole other story that’s too long to get into right now.” Aubrey was waiting patiently in the driver’s seat. But she needed to get home before Ellie got out of school. And little Carson was probably throwing a fit by now. Cash and Aubrey’s toddler had a bad case of separation anxiety.

“Can’t wait to hear it. To hear everything. Sounds like you had quite an interesting day.”

“Yep. But this was nice.” He was talking about the shower.

“The party was beautiful. Tell Tiffany to send me her pictures. And come home soon.” She started for the passenger door when Jace called her back.

“Are you forgetting something?” His lips curved up and then he kissed her.

On the ride home Charlie couldn’t hold back any longer and told Aubrey about Mary Ann.

“All I want to do is bask in the afterglow of that wonderful shower, yet all I can do is think about her and how she’s going to come in here and screw everything up. And then I feel guilty about it because as much as I want it to be otherwise, Travis and Grady are hers.”

“Travis and Grady love you, Charlie. Those boys worship the ground you walk on. And Mary Ann is awful. I’ve only seen Jace cry twice. The day Brett Tucker came home from Afghanistan a paraplegic and the day Mary Ann failed to show up for Grady’s sixth birthday party. She’s that awful. But the one thing you can count on with her is she can’t commit, not even to her own children. So whatever the hell she’s doing here, she’ll take off again as soon as something better comes along. And this time the boys won’t be brokenhearted because they’ll have you.”

Charlie doubted it would be that easy. No matter how much Travis and Grady loved her, being abandoned by their birth mother not once but twice would leave lasting scars. She didn’t have to be a child psychologist to know that.

“Jace doesn’t want to tell them. But I think that’s a mistake. If she’s rented a house here, it tells me she’s intent on seeing them. And no child custody order is going to stop her.”

“Jace needs to tell them,” Aubrey agreed. “Should I talk to Cash? He’ll talk some sense into him. Maybe at the barbecue.”

“No, don’t say anything yet. When Jace gets home tonight we’ll discuss it. Now that he found out she’s staying here, he might be more inclined to talk to the kids. Before, he thought, or hoped, that she was just passing through and if we ignored it long enough, she’d go away. But it’s clear now that’s not happening.”

When they got to the ranch house Travis was waiting on the front porch.

“Oh good, he can help us unload the gifts,” Charlie said. She barely had enough energy left to make it from the car to the house, let alone carry in all the packages from the shower, including leftover cake.

Travis met them in the driveway, scowling. Charlie could tell instantly that something was wrong.

“When’s Dad getting home?”

“A couple of hours. Why? What’s going on?”

“My mother called. She’s here in Dry Creek and she wants to see us.”

Well, that hadn’t taken long.