The Deputies: 3 Novella Box Set (23 page)

Would she want that?

Tabby didn’t seem all that thrilled that she was leaving. Both of them had clung to one another most of the night as if trying to keep the next day from beginning. But it had and here they were facing what they’d always known would happen. Somehow they’d managed to live in their own reality if only for a few days.

Breakfast had been a somber affair, each of them trying to act as if nothing was different than the previous mornings they’d made scrambled eggs and bacon. Their stilted conversation had been almost painful and it had only become worse as the time ticked away.

“Do you have a full tank?” Sam asked, knowing it was a lame question but trying to keep her with him as long as he could. Now that the moment was here, he wasn’t sure he could watch her drive away.

“I filled up yesterday.” Tabby nodded, her features set, her lips pressed together. She tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you on duty all day?”

“I am,” he replied, relieved that she didn’t seem anxious to get on the road. “I’ve got three days straight of twelve hour shifts. Maloney is taking some time off.”

Normally Sam wouldn’t be looking forward to a schedule like that but working so much would hopefully help him keep his mind off of Tabby.

Missing her.

“I hope you get a few days off after that.” Tabby’s eyes looked bright as if she might tear up. He was feeling pretty ragged himself.

“I will. Maybe I’ll go camping or something for a few days.”

If he were away from everything it might keep him from phoning or texting her several times a day.

She shuddered and the first smile of the day appeared, making his heart ache in his chest. In just a few short days, he’d come to look forward to that smile. “Too cold. You’ll freeze to death.”

“I promise I won’t,” he assured her. He reached out and ran his fingers along her jaw. “Will you text me when you get to your destination? I want to know that you’re safe.”

“I’ll text you every day.” Tabby nodded and then shook her head. “Unless you don’t want me to.”

Her unsure expression almost shattered his controlled facade. How could she think he wasn’t serious?

“I want you to,” he assured her, pulling her into his arms. “At least once a day. Okay? I was serious about us keeping in touch. I was thinking maybe I could take a few days off and meet you somewhere.”

Tabby’s beautiful face lit up and she smiled tremulously. “Really? I’d like that. Do you think you can get the time? What about Tink?”

“I’ve got some days coming. I’ll talk to Tanner about it. As for Tink, there’s never a shortage of people willing to take care of her. She’s got quite a fan club around here.”

She looked down, her forehead resting on his chest. “I’ll miss you, Sam.”

Her voice was soft but he heard her easily. His own throat tightened at the bare honesty of those few simple words.

“I’ll miss you too, honey. You don’t know how much.”

She looked up at him, a few tears sliding down her pink cheeks. “I think I do. This time has been…special.”

“It has.” Sam had trouble getting the words out. He wasn’t an emotional man, but saying goodbye to this woman was hurting more than anything in his recent memory. Even leaving Los Angeles hadn’t felt like this.

He didn’t have the words any longer so he tipped her face up and lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her slowly and thoroughly, taking his time. He didn’t care that they were standing on the sidewalk in front of his house. He only cared about making this last as long as possible.

The kiss was tender and sweet and it didn’t go on nearly long enough. He could taste the salt of her tears on his lips as they broke apart, her blue eyes damp and her lips trembling. He reached up and swiped at her wet cheeks with his fingers.

“Don’t cry, honey. You’ll see me before you know it. I promise you.”

She nodded and sniffled. “I’m sorry about this. I’m a crier, I guess.”

He’d already known that. She’d shed a few tears over a movie they’d watched with a rather cute dog that had been in danger.

“Stop apologizing.” His voice was rough with his own emotion. “I would have been more upset if you hadn’t cried, I think.”

She gave him a watery smile and pulled away. “I guess I should be getting on the road.”

They walked around to the driver’s side of the car and he held the door for her while she got in. She started up the engine and rolled down the window.

“Drive carefully. Text me when you get to Butte.”

“I will. Bye, Sam.”

“Bye, Tabby.”

The window rose smoothly and her car pulled away from the curb and headed down the street. A pit at the bottom of Sam’s stomach gnawed away at his guts and he had to fight the urge to jump in his truck and race after her.

It was his own damn fault. They’d thought they were so clever. That they could simply play house for a few days and then blithely go back to their separate lives. Reality had given them both a sucker punch. He was older and should have known better but he’d closed his eyes to the cold hard facts.

They were two very different people, living very different lives.

He scraped his fingers through his hair and strode over to his own truck, swinging into the driver’s seat. He had work to do and the sooner he did it, the sooner he could start getting over Tabitha Bartlett.

Tabby held herself together all the way to a rest stop about sixty miles out of town. She’d pulled into an out of the way area, put the car in park, and let the sobs wrack her body. Drained and worn out, she’d wiped the tears away, repaired her makeup, and pulled back onto the highway.

“You have Wi-Fi, right?” Tabby asked the man at the front desk of the hotel in Butte. She’d already sent Sam a text but she wanted to send him a longer email tonight and ask him about his day. Even if she couldn’t be there with him, she wanted to picture him going about his work. It made her feel closer to him.

“Sure do,” the clerk replied cheerily. Tabby was already feeling tears welling up again. She needed to get to her room as quickly as possible. Crying in front of this stranger was simply not going to happen. He put a map of the hotel on the counter between them and drew an “X”. “Now here’s your room. Go right up that set of elevators and turn left. There’s a restaurant on the main floor and an indoor pool. Every floor has its own set of vending machines. Are you sure you don’t need help with your bags?”

“I’m on wheels. I’m all good. Thank you.” Tabby hurried away, practically sprinting to the elevator and then to her room. By the time she thankfully closed the hotel room door and leaned back against it, tears were spilling over and running down her cheeks. The day had been too emotional. She really needed to check the mini-bar for some of those small bottles of booze. A drink sounded good right about now.

Dropping her small case on the floor next to the larger one, she walked into the bathroom and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were watery and red, her cheeks blotchy.

“You big crybaby. Pull yourself together. You did this to yourself.”

That was the thing. She only had herself to blame for the miserable situation she was in. She’d always known she had to leave but she couldn’t stop herself from tempting fate. She was paying the price now.

Tabby took a shower and pulled on a track suit before flipping open the room service menu. She ordered some dinner and then fired up her laptop. In addition to writing to Sam, she needed to check her email. There were a few from her girlfriends about a birthday party in a few weeks back in Baltimore. She made a note to try and juggle her schedule so she could fly out and attend even if only for the day.

There were two emails from her mother which was strange. Wendy Bartlett preferred communicating via the phone, calling email and texts “impersonal”. Reading the contents, Tabby frowned. Her mother wanted Tabby to call her as soon as possible, needing information about the Heartbroken Cowboy.

Tabby pressed a few buttons on her cell and her mother answered quickly. “Tabby, sweetheart! You got my messages.”

Tabby stacked up the pillows on the bed and lounged back, letting herself relax for the first time today. “Hi, Mom. What’s going on? You said you needed info about the Heartbroken Cowboy. Didn’t you get my report?”

Tabby had emailed it the morning after the night she and Sam had spent in the cemetery. She had reported that the location was unsuitable and not haunted in the least.

“I did.” Wendy Bartlett paused for a moment. “Are you sure it’s not haunted? The preliminary stuff you sent looked really good.”

“It’s not,” Tabby confirmed. “Just some stories about a spooky cemetery. You know, the usual stuff.”

Most of the locations were a bust, honestly. Tabby wasn’t sure why her mother was calling about this one specifically.

“I think we need to consider putting this location on the show,” her mother replied. “It has all the markings of a haunting and a good story behind it.”

“But it’s not,” Tabby said carefully, not sure where this conversation was going.

Her mother sighed. “Serena isn’t having much luck finding anything for the show. So far we only have enough material for six episodes. We have to fill twelve, Tabby.”

Serena was Tabby’s sister and seemed to find twice the hauntings that Tabby did. She’d often wanted to know her sister’s secret.

“Mom, I’m confused. Springwood Cemetery isn’t haunted.”

“That doesn’t matter. We need enough stories for twelve episodes.” Her mother was annoyed with Tabby and she didn’t know why. She wasn’t being deliberately obtuse. She was genuinely confused.

“Well, okay.” Tabby wasn’t going to complain about spending time in Springwood. She would get to see Sam. “We won’t find anything, but I guess the story is compelling.”

“Tabby,” her mother began, her tone soft. “That’s not going to be an issue. We can take care of that.”

Tabby blinked as the full import of her mother’s words penetrated her travel fogged brain. “Are you saying you’re going to…fake it?”

She could barely say the word out loud. Were her parents pretending to find instances of the paranormal?

“I wouldn’t call it that,” her mother protested. “We just don’t know what to do.” Wendy Bartlett’s tone had turned pleading. “We’re under so much pressure from the network. You wouldn’t believe it. They’re constantly on us about building viewership. It’s so stressful.”

“So you haven’t done it yet?” asked Tabby incredulously. “But you’re thinking about it. What about Grandma and Grandpa’s life work? The search for the paranormal is everything to them. To you.”

“I don’t want to do it but I feel like we’re backed into a corner.” Tabby could hear the tears in her mother’s voice. “This whole television show thing is out of control, honestly.”

Tabby sat with the revelation for a moment. “Does Serena know?” she finally asked.

“It was Serena’s idea,” her mother revealed. Tabby’s mind reeled, wondering if her brother knew as well. “It’s the only thing that will save the show.”

Tabby couldn’t talk about this any longer so she made up an excuse. “Listen, my dinner’s here and I need to go. We can talk more about this later, okay? I need to think about everything we’ve said.”

She hung up with her mother and rubbed the back of her neck, groaning at the headache already beginning to form at the base of her skull. She sat up and opened a new empty email, typing in Sam’s address. He was still on duty so she couldn’t call him, but he’d become her confidant in a very short time. She needed to talk to him about what had happened with her mother. She only wished he was here so he could hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

She was starting to wish she’d never left Springwood.

Chapter Ten

“Y
ou’re like a bear with a sore head,” groused Tanner, leaning forward so his elbows rested on his desk. He had pulled Sam into his office after Austin Dobbs complained about his conduct during a traffic stop. “Is this your permanent disposition now?”

Sam tamped down the frustration that always seemed to be inside of him lately. His boss had a valid point. Sam was acting like a jerk to everyone these days, snapping at co-workers and writing twice the amount of speeding tickets as last month. People were giving him a wide berth if at all possible.