“I was informed about an hour before this meeting of something amazing.” She sounds like Emmett when he’s forced to study for school, bored and half asleep. “We have a fairly new citizen to Whitsborough, but her family name goes all the way back to the founding. She would like to donate one hundred thousand dollars to the Fire Hall restoration project and another one hundred thousand for a new truck.”
The crowd begins to clap and I watch as many faces look around the hall curiously. The Mayor looks out at the crowd and I want to roll my eyes in utter disdain. Her uselessness knows no fucking bounds. I stand up and give my best impression of the Queen’s wave.
“There she is.” The bitch’s robotic tone begins to grate on my frayed last nerve. “Amber Craven.”
“Ember!” Vin yells out, obviously annoyed to shit.
“Sorry, yes. Ember Craven.” She waves off her error. I kind of want to watch her bleed for that.
“Craven?” McKay's eyebrows shoot up. I want to do a happy dance with the recognition in his eyes. “Thank you, Miss Craven.” Aw, whataya know, the perv has manners.
I nod my head and sit back in my seat. “It’s really great what you’re doing Ember.” Sharla pats my knee.
She’s been eyeing the ring the whole time we’ve been here and I know she’s not one hundred percent on board. Yes, I love the woman, she birthed my soul and raised him until I found him but she wants us to wait. A long time. Vin won’t hear it and I don’t entertain it. If this is what him and I want then there’s nothing on this planet that will stop us.
Once the hall begins to clear out and everyone moves outside for refreshments, I make my way over to McKay. When he sees me up close, his eyes widen further.
“You look a lot like her.” He shakes his head in awe. “Hello, Sharla.”
“Hey Will.” She smiles at him. “Ember is planning to build a family here with my son Vincent. So making it safe is her number one priority.” She doesn’t know how accurate her words are.
“I believe I’ve heard about Ember around town.” Yep, I bet him and Moore have talked at great lengths.
“I’m sure you did.” I smile at him. “My aunt and uncle were also big contributors so I wanted to continue that in their names.”
“Yes, Debra and Scott.” His turkey neck moves as he nods. “They were good people.”
“How are the restorations going?” I ask him, sounding extremely interested.
“Great.”
“I would love to come by and see the progress.” I blink at him innocently. “Oh! And when the truck comes. Right, Baby?” I look at Vin.
“Yep.” Vin pops his ‘p’.
“Uh, yeah sure, come by anytime.” McKay nods.
“Great!” I clap. “We should get home. Helping clean up this town is exhausting.” I grin at him.
His thick swallow gives me all the information I need, McKay does indeed know who I am.
“It was nice seeing you again, Will.” Sharla smiles.
“Yes, brings back some old memories.” His eyes haven’t left mine. Eyes that belonged to the girl he dated so long ago.
I nod at him and slowly walk away between Sharla and Vin. I glance back when we get to the hall’s entrance and see him already on his cell phone. That's right, tell Moore I was here.
Vin and I drop Sharla back home and we watch as she walks up to the front door. I don’t like that she lives alone but she won’t hear anything about it. She refuses to move and refuses to date anyone. I mean, I get it. Robert fucked her over but come on, I would be looking at that as a fucking blessing.
“You want to stay with her tonight?” I ask Vin.
“She’s fine.” He replies but I can see the worry in his eyes. “McKay tomorrow night?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “McKay will be on duty.”
“So Marlana’s now?” He asks me.
“Andrew’s first. I just want to put this in the mailbox.” I hold up a thick envelope.
“That’s good of you, Em.” He smiles as he drives us to Andrew’s house.
“His family didn’t deserve to lose him this way and made to believe it was a suicide.” I have another one hundred thousand dollars for Andrew’s family, without his income I fear they may lose the house.
When we pull up outside of his house, I can see a few lights on upstairs and I hope they don’t see me placing this in their mailbox. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to explain what the fuck I’m doing.
Vin waits in the Hummer while I walk up Andrew’s driveway. He was a piece of shit, the things he did in life were deplorable but I want to believe he was changing and his family doesn’t deserve his fallout.
I drop the unmarked envelope in the mailbox and hurry back to Vin. When I get back in the Hummer and do up my seat belt, I look up to the second story. There’s a lady standing there in the window watching us.
“Sorry.” I whisper as we pull away.
Marlana’s house looks deserted but I know different. She just hasn’t left the house in days and fuck who knows, maybe she’s gotten into her mama’s stash of narcs. As much as I wanted to kill the purple headed toad, I think she can serve a purpose and really I'm hoping she can change her life around.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" I hold my fist out to Vin.
"We're both going in, Em."
"Fine, I'll let you try for best two out of three." I flutter my eyelashes at him.
"C'mon." He chuckles while getting out of the Hummer.
I grumble about his brutish ways as I follow him up the path to Anal Ram's house. He tries the front door and unsurprisingly it swings open unlocked. Maybe she's become the town escort now.
"It smells
