Chapter 10

Ten

Damon

I sat at my desk the next morning, filling out a stack of paperwork about stupid things, reading incident reports, and signing off on officer statements. When I’d taken the job as Chief of Police, I’d thought it would be a lot better than this. I found myself constantly buried in paperwork and doing stuff that I didn’t want to do. Managing people and my image led me away from the heart of police work: helping people.

There was a knock on my door. I said, “Come in.”

I was surprised to see Mrs. Friendly at the door. She raised an eyebrow. “Sir, Isla is back. I told her you probably wouldn’t want to see her, but she insisted that I?—”

I stood and cut her off. “I’ll see her.” I moved around my desk.

Mrs. Friendly looked surprised. “Okay.”

I felt a tad nervous. “You said you were ready to retire, Mrs. Friendly, right? I’m just trying to make that happen.” Which was true, but not the reason I wanted to see Isla.

Mrs. Friendly shrugged, and then I heard her call out, “I guess he will see you.”

I moved to my office door and waited.

Isla walked toward me. Today she wore jeans and a fancier shirt. She was also in those heels from the other day. The paint she had been covered in yesterday was gone, and those dazzling curls of her hair fell all the way down her back. Her makeup was in place, and dang, the woman was beautiful. She’d always been beautiful in a “girl next door” way, but now she was truly stunning. The baby face was gone, replaced by a mature woman. I remembered taking her to prom in our junior year. She’d been beautiful then too.

She met my gaze and then hesitated. “Thank you for seeing me.”

Jolted out of all the memories of us, I stepped aside and let her in. “Of course.” I shut the door behind me. She took a seat on the couch, and I took a seat on the chair across from it. “I’m actually really glad you came in.”

She put her hand up. “I’m not here to have any talks about our past. I’m here to tell you why I should have this job.”

I leaned back and crossed my legs, putting my ankle on my knee. “Okay.” I could tell she was serious and had been thinking about this.

“You know my past, so you know what happened to me.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what any of that had to do with the job, but I did know her past. “Yes.”

She nodded. “When everything happened with my father and I was a bleeding mess in the hallway, I was scared to call 911. You know that my leg was broken, and I was pretty sure my shoulder was dislocated. You remember.” She looked down.

I did remember. Anger shot through me, but I smothered it and tried to focus. “You were brave.”

She shook her head and swallowed. When she looked up at me, I could see that she was barely holding back a sheen of tears. “I wasn’t brave. I was terrified. I’d been through so much with my dad. I remember calling, and the voice on the other side of the line steadied me. The voice walked me through everything. Mrs. Friendly was knowledgeable and …” She scoffed. “ Friendly .”

The corners of my lips quirked up when I heard the pun.

“She talked me through all of it. She patiently explained to me that the ambulance would be coming, the police would be coming, that I was doing the right thing. I bared my soul to her, and she told me that I was doing the right thing.” Her voice broke, and my heart broke with it. “She told me that it would be hard to come to the hospital and get fixed up. She told me that it would be hard to file a report against my father. She told me that it would be hard to press charges like my mother had always told me not to do. She told me I was worth it. She told me that my father shouldn’t get away with beating up a child.”

Tears were on her face. She blinked rapidly and stared at me. “You were there for me too. And I guess I should forgive you for what you said when I told you I was pregnant. Even though I don’t want to. You were there for me my whole life, besides that day.”

It was an opening, and I took it. “Please do forgive me, Isla. The truth is, I couldn’t believe you were pregnant. I couldn’t believe you were marrying Kyle. I didn’t say the right thing that day. I was angry and hurt, but I should have supported you.” I pushed a hand through my hair. “And I should have taken your phone calls. I guess I was mad at you.” I said the words before I could take them back.

She gave me a confused look. “What do you mean, you were mad at me? For what?”

How did I tell her that I loved her? I shrugged. “You were my best friend, but I had feelings for you.”

Her gaze focused entirely on me, and it stayed there for a long time. “What do you mean?” she eventually asked.

I waved a hand in dismissal. “Nothing.”

We were silent for a couple of seconds.

“I really needed you, Damon.” She sounded subdued. “It was really hard.”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all that you’ve gone through. And maybe you can’t forgive me. I do want you to work here. You are exactly the kind of person we need here: someone with compassion and strength. It’s vital to have someone who I can trust when vulnerable people call and need help. I do think you would be great.” That was the truth.

She blinked rapidly and then stood. “Really?”

I nodded. And then a darkness settled over me as I thought about what I had just learned earlier that day. “I need to tell you something, though, on a different topic. I don’t know if it will affect whether you want to work here or not.”

“What is it?”

I had to brace myself. I’d had a lot of practice handing out bad news since becoming a cop. I knew it was better to just rip it off like a Band-Aid. “Your father is up for parole. He has a hearing in two weeks. I don’t know if you knew that.”

“What?” she asked, and her voice was small. She grimaced.

I tried to be steady, to be the friend that I should’ve been to her all these years. “I don’t feel bad telling you about this, because you deserve to know, and you are his relation. Your mom is going to testify on his behalf. If things go well, he could get out.”

She shook her head. “It’s only been eight years.”

I nodded. “It is a twenty-year sentence. With good behavior, they could let him out. Especially if they believe he’s reformed .”

She looked like she would cry, like she would fall apart, and then her face turned hard. She stood up and smoothed out her shirt. “Well, I guess you have to take the good with the bad.” She let out a light laugh. “I came to Refuge Falls to get away from my abusive ex, and now my abusive father might be getting out of prison. Perfect.” She straightened her hair and moved toward the door.

I stood, confused. “Are you going to take the job?”

She turned to me and looked surprised. “Am I hired?”

The hope in her voice made me happy. “You’re hired. Can you start next week? Mrs. Friendly needs to train you for two weeks, but she’ll be happy about that, because as I said, she wants to retire.”

She blinked and then swallowed. “I’ll be here Monday. What time?”

“Six a.m. That’s when dispatch starts.”

“Okay. I’ll see you after the weekend. Thank you.” She paused. “And thank you for the pizza and gummy bears.”

I was more than happy that she was taking the job, but I still had to resolve something. “Wait. Can I get your number?”

Isla frowned. She had just opened the door, and through the doorway I could see Mrs. Friendly turn to look at me.

I didn’t care. “I want to be able to check on you. Plus, you kept the gummy bears. That means we’re friends again.” Since eighth grade, we’d give gummy bears in exchange for peace and forgiveness.

She looked uncertain.

I took a step toward her. “Please. I regret a lot of things in my life, and you’re in the top two.”

She looked confused, and then she nodded. “Here’s my number.”