Taken With You (4 page)

Her living room wasn’t quite as bright as the kitchen, with pale mint walls and beige leather loveseats, and the master bedroom was more neutral with soft blues and peach tones, but overall her home was decorated in colors that made her happy. Most of the accent furnishings were white rather than wood, and she kept redecorating limited to a slight throw pillow fetish. Some women bought shoes. She bought colorful throw pillows.

Throwing herself onto a loveseat, Hailey sent a text to Paige Kowalski. Paige had only been in Whitford a few years, but they’d become almost immediate friends and she was still the person Hailey went to when she had something on her mind.

Are you busy/sleeping/covered in baby poop?

Within seconds, the cell phone rang in her hand and Paige’s name flashed on the screen. Hailey swallowed some iced tea and answered it. “Hey, new mommy. How’s it going?”

“Right now, it’s quiet. Which means right now is the greatest moment of my life.”

Hailey laughed. “Oh, come on. Sarah’s almost seven weeks old now. You don’t have the hang of it yet?”

“What I
have
figured out is that little Sarah Rose loves to sleep on her daddy’s chest. Poor Mitch has been trying to signal to me he has to pee for a half hour now, so I’m avoiding eye contact.”

“Didn’t you tell me he has to start traveling again next week?”

Paige’s sigh was loud over the phone. “He’s trying to keep it to a minimum but yeah, he has to go out of town next week.”

“Maybe you could get one of those man dolls people use to cheat their way into carpool lanes.”

“Mitch would probably like to think it wouldn’t be the same. Hey, aren’t you supposed to be paddling around in a canoe or something right now? I remember something about Liz covering for Tori because Tori and you were going on some kind of adventure hike. Then I was wondering if I hallucinated that because I only sleep five minutes a day now and I’d never heard your name and hiking used in the same sentence before, but I know Liz worked today.”

“Let’s pretend it was a postpartum hallucination.”

“Ooh, that good? Tell me. And tell me every single detail very, very slowly because Mitch won’t interrupt me while I’m on the phone. As soon as I hang up, quiet time’s over.”

Hailey told her every detail she remembered, pausing every once in a while so Paige could laugh at her or lecture her about new boots and trusting homemade concoctions from internet sites.

“Wait, tell me again about the guy that found you? Do you think he lived in the woods?”

Hailey realized she might have overplayed the poor guy’s
Deliverance
factor a little. Or a lot. “He said it was a camp, I think. And he said his family goes there.”

“So he wasn’t a weird hermit guy, then?”

“He had a satellite phone.”

“Oh, well then. There you go.”

“That’s what Tori said. I have no idea if hermits have satellite phones. But he heard me call him Jeremiah Johnson.”

“Jeremiah Johnson was kind of hot.”

Hailey rolled her eyes, even though Paige couldn’t see her. “No. Robert Redford, playing him in the movie, was kind of hot. In real life, I think Jeremiah Johnson was probably pretty gross.”

“In the movies, the guy who comes to the rescue is never pretty gross.”

Gross was a bit harsh. So the guy needed to be reacquainted with hot, soapy water and a razor blade. And laundry detergent. Those were all things that could be fixed. Underneath all that, he’d had a great body, a voice she could imagine would make reading the phone book out loud sexy, and there was something about his eyes. He had really pretty eyes. Brown, but lighter than hers, and thick eyelashes.

In the background, Hailey could hear Sarah start winding up to a full shriek and Paige sighed. “I bet he woke her up on purpose.”

“Go kiss Sarah for me and let your husband pee. Call me if you get bored or you need a break while Mitch is on the road, okay?”

They hung up and Hailey finished the rest of her iced tea. Next up was a long soak in a hot bubble bath.

And she’d put on an audiobook, too, to keep her mind from straying yet again to how jealous she was of her best friend. All of her friends, actually. They were all living happily ever after, while she was still waiting for her prince to come.

She wished she could be more like Tori. Tori had no interest in being anybody’s wife and intended to live the rest of her life having torrid and temporary love affairs with any guy who tickled her fancy, and then moving on before the fancy-tickling turned sour.

While Hailey figured Tori just hadn’t met the guy who’d change her mind yet, she admired the principle. Even a torrid and temporary love affair would be enough at this point in her life.

But it had been so long since a man tickled her fancy, she was starting to wonder if her fancy simply wasn’t ticklish anymore.

* * *

I
T
WAS
STILL
dark enough for the truck’s headlights to be on when Matt drove into town on Saturday morning. It had taken him over an hour the previous evening to clean himself up, but now he was in uniform, fairly well caffeinated, and ready to start the day.

As small towns went, Whitford was pretty typical of many in Maine. Tourists drove through on their way to the lakes or to a ski resort or the mountains, but rarely stopped. The town had some appeal, but it existed more out of habit than anything else.

Until recently. In an attempt to save their snowmobile lodge, the Kowalski family had worked with a nearby ATV club and the state to get access from the trail system to the lodge. From there, riders had access to Whitford, and business had definitely picked up for places that offered food, lodging and gas. That trickled into the rest of the town’s economy and the residents went out of their way to welcome the four-wheeling crowd.

It had been more successful than even Josh Kowalski—the youngest brother, who ran the Northern Star Lodge and had spearheaded the effort—had imagined, and that was where Matt came in. Even with a department ATV that Whitford police chief Drew Miller had managed to finagle a grant for, the local law enforcement couldn’t keep up with the increase in off-road traffic.

His first job in Whitford would be leading an ATV safety course. Once kids reached ten years old, they could take the course and hit the trails. In the past, Whitford parents had had to travel to the nearest class they could find, but Josh had pushed to have one right in town to serve the surrounding area.

Thanks to the early hour, Matt had no trouble finding a parking spot in front of the police station and he could smell the coffee as soon as he walked inside. A guy about his own age stepped through an office door and extended his hand.

“Drew Miller,” he said as they shook.

“Matt Barnett. Nice to meet you.”

“Help yourself to some coffee if you want.”

After he’d made himself a cup, he followed the chief into his office and took a seat. “I have a feeling running this safety class today’s going to require a lot of coffee.”

“I’d be right there with you, but I’m having Dave Camden do it. He’s the school resource officer, so he knows the kids.” Miller smiled. “Plus, I’m the chief, so I don’t have to do it if I don’t want to.”

Matt had a feeling he’d like this guy. “I appreciate you coming in early on a Saturday so we could meet. This will be a crazy week with a lot of driving time. I can’t move into the house I rented until next Saturday, so I’ll be commuting from my current apartment.”

“Wasn’t a problem. My wife works the early shift at the diner, so I use the time to catch up on paperwork. Or to chase it, anyway. I never seem to actually catch up.”

“I know what you mean.” Paperwork was the bane of any law enforcement officer’s existence. “I’m looking forward to making Whitford home.”

“I think it’s a great town, but I’m biased, of course. Got a nice small-town feel to it.”

“Hell, on my way in, I saw the barber shop has one of those old-fashioned poles. Brings to mind old men and hot lather shaves and listening to the ballgame on the radio.”

“Good chance a game will be on, but Katie Davis isn’t old or a man. Gives a mean hot lather shave, but a word of advice. No matter where you’re from or who you root for, when you walk into the barber shop in Whitford, you’re a New England sports fan. Don’t piss off the woman with the electric trimmer in one hand and scissors in the other.”

A woman who loved sports and knew her way around hot lather? “Is she single?”

Drew gave him an amused look. “She’s engaged to Josh Kowalski.”

Toes Matt wouldn’t step on even if he were the type to poach another guy’s woman, which he wasn’t. “Lucky guy. Looking forward to meeting him.”

They’d be working together a lot. Once the ATV club that oversaw the original trail system helped connect to Whitford and a neighboring town and a system on the far side, they realized they didn’t have the manpower to run the entire thing. Over the winter, word had spread on the internet there would be great riding in the area come spring, and it was clear they’d need more volunteers.

The people of Whitford, obviously seeing the financial benefit, had heeded Josh’s call, and the Northern Star ATV Club was born. Since Josh Kowalski was the president and Matt would be the game warden, they’d be getting to know each other well. Along with a guy named Andy Miller, who was the trail administrator.

“Hey, Andy Miller,” Matt said. “Any relation to you?”

“He’s my dad. And he lives at the lodge with Rose Davis, who’s the housekeeper, Katie’s mom, and the woman who basically raised the Kowalskis after their mom died.”

Matt rocked back in his chair, trying to absorb that info and sort it into some kind of mental visual. “Well, that’s...close-knit. Hopefully a little more Mayberry than
Flowers in the Attic.
”

“
Flowers in the Attic,
huh? I remember that title from when I was a kid and
all
the girls were reading it.”

Ouch. “Hey, my sisters were always bringing books home from the library, but if my old man saw me reading, it meant he hadn’t given me enough to do. I had to sneak-read whatever books I could.”

“Since you’re doing the safety class at the library today, I should warn you if Hailey Genest finds out you’re moving to town, she won’t let you leave without a library card. Budget committee gets really hung up on the number of patrons, so it’s not really optional where she’s concerned.”

“Good to know.” The name popped out at him, but he wrote it off as a coincidence. Hailey wasn’t exactly a rare name, and what were the chances a woman he’d stumbled across in the woods was the librarian in his new town?

They talked about the town for a while, and the chief shared some of his concerns about the new ATV trails. And Matt did his best to pay attention, but his mind kept wandering back to the Hailey he’d met in the woods. It had been doing that a lot since he’d watched them drive away, which made no sense to him.

He could never date a woman who wore makeup to go on a hike in the woods. The new boots were simply a rookie mistake, but the makeup and the fact she’d sacrificed effectiveness for a pretty smell in her insect repellant told him she probably didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors. Matt practically lived outside.

Hell, she’d probably never even baited her own hook. A man like him had no business thinking about a woman like her.

THREE

T
HE
W
HITFORD
P
UBLIC
Library was usually open from ten in the morning until five o’clock on Mondays through Fridays—the board having recently agreed it no longer made sense to be open until eight on Fridays—and three hours every other Saturday afternoon, but on this particular Saturday Hailey was there at seven-thirty to unlock the door and turn the lights on.

When Drew Miller had stopped by and asked her if they could hold the six-hour ATV safety class at the library, she hadn’t hesitated even a second before saying yes. She was all for anything that brought kids through those doors.

They had the two computers, as well as board games and jigsaw puzzles, and she allowed the kids to hang out and use the Wi-Fi without giving them sideways glances. Whitford didn’t offer a lot for children, so she made sure the library was a relaxed place with heat in the winter, air-conditioning in the summer and lots of comfortable places to sit. She built her displays carefully and every time a kid paused to look at a book, she mentally high-fived herself. When the book was actually checked out and brought home, she did a butt-wiggle dance in her chair.

Her predecessor had been one of those scary women who peered at people over her reading glasses and shushed them for breathing. When she’d retired, Hailey had been given the job because she’d been the only applicant, and she’d thrown herself into turning the library’s reputation around.

She’d gotten to know her patrons’ tastes and built the collection around what they wanted to read, but always kept her eye out for a book that might surprise them. In a long battle with the trustees, she’d fought to build the audiobook collection. A lot of people had to make long commutes to find jobs and she could barely keep the popular titles on the shelves. She hadn’t won the digital book battle yet, but she’d educated herself and was able to offer tech help to her patrons. Even with more and more residents turning to ebooks, the library remained valuable to them because Hailey worked her ass off to make sure it did.

She’d knocked on every single door in Whitford until she got the donations and volunteers she needed to rehab the interior. Not a lot. She had a strong respect for the history of the building. But she’d brightened the paint and replaced the ancient, dark carpet with colorful tile and rugs.

Sometimes it was discouraging, all the battling against video games and the budget committee. But in Whitford, the library was a cool place to hang out and reading was a cool thing to do. As far as Hailey was concerned, she was winning the war.

She went into the oversized closet masquerading as her break room and started a pot of coffee. Josh was supposed to show up, since he was the president of the new Northern Star ATV Club, and she hoped he’d be carrying a basket of baked goods from Rose. Rosie Davis may have been the housekeeper for the Northern Star Lodge for as long as any of them could remember, but she’d managed to spoil the entire town with her cooking.