If we hadn’t broken up, she’d have my ring on her finger and a few kids by now. I could imagine her belly round with my child.
My dick hardened at the idea of filling her with my cum and knocking her up. We’d have a little girl that had her fair hair. A few boys, too, to protect her. A brood of them.
But then I wouldn’t have Claire, who was too precious to me to consider what-ifs. She was mine, and I wouldn’t change a thing. But for some reason I’d been given a second chance with Sarah. Sure, it was totally fucked up. She hadn’t approached me because she wanted me back, but because she’d been pissed off.
I huffed out a laugh and turned onto the main road. The Manning boys sure knew how to pick ’em. Kelsey was a red-haired spitfire with a hellish temper. I’d laughed at Sawyer when he told us how she’d kneed him in the balls. I could only imagine how he’d laugh right back after he learned how I’d had to break my headboard to get free of what Sarah had done.
“Chief, we have a 10-16 in progress.” The voice through the radio was the daytime station manager. She’d been at the job for decades, knew the town inside and out. Knew the people in it in more detail than any gossiping busybody.
With one hand on the steering wheel, I ran the other over my face again.
“There a reason you’re telling me specifically about a domestic dispute, Noreen?” She could’ve sent any of the deputies on duty. Unless Bunky was still at the station filling out the police report for the fire, then Graham was most likely free.
“Affirmative, Chief. O’Banyons Auto Shop. Someone was walking by and heard shouting. Figured you might want to check it out.”
The location perked me up better than any cup of coffee. She knew my history with Sarah. Knew she’d bought me at the auction. I doubted Noreen had any idea I’d been handcuffed to my bed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did.
I appreciated her letting me know. I had a feeling Sarah had finally had that chat with her daddy. And that she’d had enough. If someone called it in, it had to be pretty heated. Sarah had stood up to me the other night, but I wasn’t sure how she’d do with Bill. Which meant it was finally time for me to step in.
“Copy that. On my way.”
11
SARAH
“Why are you so angry about me going to the accident?” I asked my dad, pretty upset myself. “You didn’t answer Graham’s call and neither did Roy.”
I’d finally gotten the totaled car off-loaded to the lot behind the shop, and I needed an IV of coffee. When Dad came in, I’d been in the service bay washing my hands at the industrial sink. He went over to the wall and slapped the button that opened one of the garage doors. It rose with a loud whir. The breeze came in and made my hair blow into my face. He was stalling.
“Where were you?” I asked. “And is Roy even alive?” After seeing the dead body earlier, I shouldn’t have asked the question, but really, where was the guy?
I’d sat in the cab until about six, dozing on and off, before I could winch the car out of the ditch. The sun had just peeked over the horizon. The coroner had come and gone by then, along with the dead body. I wasn’t going to forget that sight for a long time. From what Huck had said, it was assumed the driver had been the one to start the fire at the preschool. No one had been hurt, but the building was pretty damaged. A witness had seen him flee in the car that was flipped. By the scent of liquor wafting from the interior, he’d had too much to drink and got himself killed.
“I’m angry because I don’t want you going on calls,” he snapped. “How many times do I have to tell you the same thing?”
I was exhausted. Riled. Confused. Ever since I’d found out about Huck and Claire Manning, I’d been completely out of whack. My average, boring life had somehow changed. I saw things I hadn’t noticed before.
One became very obvious. He was stringing me along. “You’re never going to give me the shop, are you?” I asked, setting my damp hands on my hips.
It had been my assumption that I’d take over from him. He’d taught me the foundation for all I knew about fixing a car; then continued those skills in Bozeman while in college. I knew engines. I did the books. The ordering. I could handle the tow truck. I could do it all probably better than my dad. Hell, he couldn’t do it without me.
“Why can’t you be like your sister?” he shouted, glaring.
I crossed my arms over my chest, leaned against the sink. “You want me to marry an asshole who isn’t faithful?”
“This life isn’t for you.” He waved his arm through the air, indicating the shop where three cars sat waiting to be worked on.
“Why not? Because I should marry a guy with money? Who plays golf and gets me a fancy car?”
“Yes!”
“You think Lynn is happy?”
“Of course she’s happy,” he snapped back. His dark eyes sparked with anger, completely irrational in his thinking.
“Bunky can’t keep it in his pants, Dad,” I said. How did he not know that? “Why would you want a guy like that for me?”
The idea was insulting.
I thought of Huck. I’d assumed he’d dumped me and moved on to another woman within a month. That was the reason I’d never gone back to him. Never even approached him to ask what had happened. He’d had a baby. I’d thought he hadn’t been able to keep it in his pants like Bunky.
I’d thought about calling Huck so many times.
