A Family For The Sheriff. Elyssa Henry
the inevitable.
But she’d finish what she started. She pulled the truck into the tire store parking lot and waited while Sam opened the truck door.
“He can put the tire in the back, can’t he, Mom?” Sam turned to her.
“Sure,” she answered curtly.
She didn’t look at Joe as he closed the truck door behind him. Nothing that had happened was his fault. She had put herself in an awkward position by picking him up in the first place.
But she was mad anyway. He seemed like a decent person, but there was no way to win this fight. The best he could do was to change his tire and go on with his life.
Joe and Sam kept a quick-paced conversation going while the truck took them out of town. They talked about games and science, wondering about virtual reality, a favorite concept of Sam’s.
“You have a computer with a CD ROM?” Sam whistled. “I’d really like to see that.”
“Anytime,” Joe promised easily.
Maria seethed and tried to coax a little more speed out of the old truck. She didn’t like to think of Sam being let down, but once they let him off at his car, they wouldn’t be seeing Joe Roberts again.
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the exotic red car in the headlight beams.
“Here we are,” she said, pulling the truck up behind the car on the shoulder.
“I appreciate this,” Joe said, climbing out of the truck. “I know it won’t be easy for you to explain.”
“I can take care of it,” she announced stiffly, wishing he would go.
“Can’t we wait until the tire is fixed and I can ride back with him?” Sam interrupted.
“I don’t think—”
“I’d like that.” Joe agreed hopefully. “It shouldn’t take long.”
“Sam,” Maria groaned. “You’re not riding in that car.”
“Mom! He said himself he’s trading it! It might be the last chance I have to ride in a car like that!”
“No, Sam,” she said.
“It’s no problem,” Joe assured her. “And I promise to go the speed limit.”
“Please, Mom!”
“I’ll just be out here changing this tire.” Joe backed out of the argument.
“Mom!” Sam pleaded. “We’re just a few miles from home, and you’ll be behind us. Can’t I go with him? Just this once?”
Maria decided later that her headache had brought about insanity and that was why she’d agreed to the request. Nothing else could account for it.
“All right.” She shook her head. “All right. You can ride home with him and then you can get in the shower and go to bed.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Sam whooped and jumped out of the truck.
Maria leaned her head against the cool window and closed her eyes. A light rap on the glass brought her head up with a start.
“Sorry it took so long,” Joe apologized. “We’re ready when you are.”
“I’m ready,” she replied. “You won’t—”
“Go a hundred and sixty?” He chuckled, his face nearly invisible in the darkness. “I promised a sedate fifty. You can track me.”
“I will,” she vowed, rolling up the truck window.
Sam waved to her from the lighted interior of the expensive car, then Joe started the engine.
True to his word, Joe drove the car carefully down the highway, the old truck a dark shadow on the car’s bumper.
There were no streetlights, so she couldn’t see into the car, but she felt sure her son was making conversation lively for Joe.
Maria trailed them to her driveway. Sam and Joe were already out of the car by the time she’d parked the truck.
“I just want to show Joe my award,” Sam said.
“No.” Maria was adamant “We had an agreement, remember? You wanted to ride in the car, but in turn you had to go straight in, take a shower and go to bed.”
“Mom,” he groaned.
“Another time,” Joe promised. “It’s getting late.”
“All right.” Sam glanced at his newfound friend in the halo of the porch light. “I’ll see you later.”
“I think my place is the next one up from here,” Joe told him cheerfully. “We’re neighbors. We’re bound to run into each other.”
Maria’s heart sank. It was true. The old Hannon farm was the next place up the road, about a mile away. However, they wouldn’t be all that likely to see one another.
“I appreciate your help, Maria,” Joe told her when Sam had gone inside the house.
“I did what anyone would have done. But I don’t see what good it will do for you to stay here.”
He laughed lightly. The sound sent a shiver up her spine, which she attributed to the late hour and the cool breeze that had picked up after the rain.
“I don’t give up so easily,” he told her bluntly.
“No one wants you here,” she replied in as blunt a fashion. “How can you get anything accomplished like that?”
“Sometimes people have to swallow the medicine even if it doesn’t taste like cherries,” he replied in a cheerful tone. “I guess I’m that medicine.”
Maria thought about the state of the old Hannon place but bit her tongue. She didn’t have the nerve or the heart to tell him the home he was looking for wasn’t to be found there.
“I guess everyone has to do what they think is best,” she said, and turned to the door. “I don’t envy you.”
And you wish I’d go to hell and get it over with, he thought. He wondered if he’d actually consigned himself to that hot spot by staying when his every instinct was telling him to leave.
“Good night, then,” she said, her voice a whisper in the darkness as the rain began to fall again.
“Good night,” he told her quietly. He added, “I’ve seen the house, Maria.”
After she’d closed the door, she thought she might have imagined the last part. How could he have seen the old house without his car? It didn’t make sense. Had he walked there from town?
Probably her guilty conscience putting words in his mouth. She had been part of the scheme. Or if not actively part, then at least she didn’t raise any protest.
But then she had never been one to purposely stand out or get people upset over anything.
She sighed when she saw the number of messages on her answering machine, having a good idea what those messages might be.
She stared at the little black box for a long moment, her head still pounding. Then she turned off the light without listening to the calls and slowly walked up the stairs to bed.
The rain was gone the next morning. Bright September sunlight flooded the changing leaves of the big oak trees around the farmhouse.
Maria got Sam off to school then went out to her garden. The sun was warm on her head as she worked, beginning what would probably be the last harvest of herbs for the year.
It had been a good year, a profitable year. The first since Josh’s death. With any luck and a mild winter, she might be able to afford a new truck by next year.
After selling off the