Chapter 8

Eight

Damon

After work, I was on my way back to my house, with two pizzas in the backseat including my favorite pizza, pepperoni and meat lover’s. McCrae was watching the boys, and then we were going to eat together.

My phone buzzed with a call from Kayla. I answered it. “What’s up?”

“Well, we were out meddling at Wendy Miller’s ranch today.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about. “O-kay?”

“Damon, this is Mom.” I heard something shifting as she took the phone. “Wendy Miller told me that Isla is staying at her parents’ old ranch house. We went out there to take her some supplies.”

My heart raced, and I shook my head. “Why are you telling me this?”

The phone shifted again. “Damon, this is Ella. I’m with them. For some reason, they think if I deliver the news, you won’t be so mad at me.”

I scoffed out a laugh and could only imagine what they must’ve said. “How come I’m already mad?”

They all laughed.

“Seriously,” said Ella. “We probably overstepped, Damon, but we took some food out and we were offering her different jobs. She said she still wanted to work at dispatch.”

“Did she?” It was interesting, because during my shift last night, she had been all I could think about. I didn’t know what to do about it.

“We were thinking you could go out there.”

My mind raced. “I have pizza for the boys.”

“Already on it,” said my mother. “We are going to go grab the boys and just bring them out to our place. In fact, keep the pizzas and we’ll get our own. I bet Isla might want to eat some pizza while you offer her the job.”

Adrenaline shot through me. It was a good idea. “Is she going to be upset if I just go out there?”

My mother laughed. “Damon, in Refuge Falls, everyone meddles. It’s how we love each other.”

I immediately turned onto the highway that led out to Wendy Miller’s ranch. “True. I don’t like it, but you’re right.”

I could hear Kayla squealing in the background.

“Kayla, I’m going to go out there and share pizza. Maybe I’m going to apologize for some things I need to apologize for, but that doesn’t mean she’ll take the job, and it doesn’t mean she’ll forgive me.”

“That’s true,” Kayla said. “I would be disappointed if you weren’t going to try.”

I shook my head and then laughed. “It seems I’m cursed with women who want to meddle in my life.”

That set the three of them laughing again.

“Thanks for taking the boys. I’ll see you ladies later.”

We all said goodbye, and I hung up.

A gas station came up on my right. I pulled in. It was time to buy a peace offering.

I pulled up to the old ranch house and took out the stack of pizzas. When I walked to the door, all I could hear was country music blasting. I knocked on the door but got no response. Feeling awkward, I glanced around at the property. The house looked just like it had years ago when I’d been a boy. I thought I remembered coming out here to buy a horse with my dad.

I knocked again and waited, my heart racing.

Finally, the door flew open, and there stood the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Today, Isla was wearing a tight T-shirt, spandex shorts, and tennis shoes. Her blonde hair was pulled up on top of her head in a bun. She had a paint smudge on the side of her face, and she was holding a paintbrush.

“Damon?” She didn’t sound happy when she said my name.

I flashed a grin. “Hey, I didn’t just bring the pizza. I brought these too.” I lifted up a bag of gummy bears.

She stared at the gummy bears like they were poison. Gummy bears used to be the way we’d apologized to each other while growing up. She shook her head. “No. I’m not taking a peace offering.” She stood there and didn’t back up to let me in or acknowledge my gesture of pizza.

I really didn’t have anything else to work with. “Isla, can we just talk?”

She shook her head. “You know, I’ve been thinking about how I could go back and get back that job all day. And you obviously know that your mom and sister and Ella came over today.”

I nodded. “They just told me.”

She sighed. “I don’t want to be the pity case. I don’t want to be the person everyone is offering things to. Yet here I am, painting Willow Harrington’s home because I need a break on my rent. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to cover the rent. But the more I thought about that dispatch job and working with you, the more I realized I couldn’t.”

I found myself focusing on the fact that she’d been thinking about me all day. “I don’t understand,” I said with a frown.

Her face hardened. “Damon, maybe it’s not fair to you, but you hurt me. I thought you were my best friend. I needed you.”

She couldn’t have said anything that would be more like a knife through my heart.

“It’s been a rough couple of years, and I don’t know why I came back to Refuge Falls.” She flung a hand into the air. “Actually, I do. Since you’re the police chief, I might as well just tell you.”

More adrenaline filled my veins. “What is it?”

“My ex, Kyle, is crazy. I feel threatened. I don’t think he knows where I am, because he wouldn’t think I would ever come back here, but he’ll probably figure it out. I might have to deal with you as the police, but I can’t deal with you as a friend. Because I needed you and you weren’t there. I can’t forget that. You hurt me.”

Every part of me felt blindsided, and suddenly I felt like I would drop the pizzas.

“Tell your mother and your sister and Ella thank you for the food, but I’m just going to have to figure something out. God has always shown up for me, so I will. But I don’t need Armstrong charity.” With that, she shut the door.

My heart pounded in my chest, and I didn’t know what to do. Slowly, I put the pizzas on the porch with the gummy bears on top. I wasn’t hungry anymore. I walked away from the house, wishing so many things in my life had been different, especially how I’d dealt with Isla when she’d told me she was pregnant and eloping.