An Unknown Place (14 page)

We finished in the store about fifteen minutes later, because Kellan had no idea where the spices were. He also refused to ask anyone in the store where the spices were located. I followed him around, I wasn’t going to ask. He was the one that wanted to show me where everything I needed in the store was so I let him – even if it did take us an extra ten minutes of just wandering around the store. When we finally found the spices, he was damn near glowing with accomplishment. I almost laughed but didn’t want to burst his bubble.

After we loaded the trunk with the groceries, which he had plastic bags in the trunk to put under the groceries so nothing got on the interior, he grabbed the keys to the car out of my hand.

“I thought I got to drive?”

“I had a momentary lapse in judgment. I get to drive home. For public safety.”

I knew I drove like a bat out of hell, but what did he expect when he’d literally given me my dream car to drive?

We pulled up to his house only to find a police car parked out front. Kellan pulled up slowly behind the car, avoiding pulling the car into the driveway. Probably a smart move. The police officer was already out of the car when Kellan got out. I felt instant relief when the officer that got out of the car wasn’t the face that haunted me.

“Stay in the car,” Kellan spit out without looking back.

Gladly. I had a particular aversion to police officers. The guy in uniform seemed like a nice guy, but so did the last one I’d encountered in Baltimore. He greeted Kellan with a man-hug, so they must’ve known each other. I couldn’t see Kellan’s face or if he was talking, but the officer’s happy demeanor vanished and he looked over Kellan’s shoulder at me, nodding his head. Kellan turned around and it was the first time I could see his mob resemblance. A shiver ran through me and right at that moment, I didn’t want to know what they were talking about.

Kellan motioned for me to get out of the car. I shook my head slightly, hoping he understood that I didn’t want to get out and get close to the uniform. Kellan motioned to me again, softening his face and smiling. I wondered if he was trying to encourage me or punish me for something. My hand shook as I reached for the door handle. Kellan walked over to my door and pulled it the rest of the way open. He took my hand and caringly dragged me toward the officer.

“Mackayla, this is Ethan Bean. He and I went to college together. Ethan, this is Mackayla.”

I noticed that Kellan hadn’t introduced him as Officer Bean, I knew most officer’s didn’t like that when they were in uniform. At least Richard hadn’t. Officer Bean stuck his hand out to me. My hands were clammy with sweat but I took his hand anyway.

“Nice to meet you Mackayla.”

“You too, Officer Bean.”

“Please, call me Ethan.”

“Mac.”

“I wanted to ask you a couple of questions off the record.”

“Ethan, later. Are you blind? She’s upset,” Kellan chimed in.

I didn’t want this guy to come back, though. I thought, though, if Officer Bean came back to Kellan’s out of a uniform it might be for the best.

“Dinner. I’m cooking. 8:00.”

I knew I was being curt and had just tromped all over Kellan’s authority in his own house, but I needed away from that uniform.

“Sounds great. I’ll see you all then.”

I didn’t look up to see if Officer Bean was still there. I had gone to the back of the car where the groceries were getting warm, and waited for Kellan. I heard a few murmurs and then a louder goodbye from Kellan, a door shut and the cruiser pulled away.

I was staring at the back of the car when Kellan came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. I jumped. But he still held on and didn’t let me go. I leaned my head back on his shoulder.

“Do we have enough food for everyone? I know all three of us can eat quite a bit of food.”

I appreciated the fact he was changing the subject.

“I may have to send you back out with a list.”

“No problem.”

If only everything were so easy. But hey, I had gotten through my interaction with a police officer who had, or still was, working with Richard. I also allowed Kellan to comfort me after the incident without freaking out. I was proud of myself. Improvement, no matter how small – which that definitely had not been – made a difference.

Kellan

I had struggled on whether or not I should ask Ethan to look into one of the other officers on the force but, in the end, decided it was the best way to get the information I needed. When I’d asked Ethan to look into that asshole’s record and what internal investigations there were, I never thought he’d show up on my doorstep so soon. When he told me there had been several complaints against Richard and the most recent reason for him being
on leave
, I knew the guy needed to be stopped. Now, it was just a matter of how.

The look on Mac’s face had nearly undone me. She was nervous by the sight of Ethan. I knew she wasn’t really seeing Ethan Bean, she was seeing Officer Bean. He had introduced himself as Ethan and she’d called him officer. I understood she was just seeing the uniform, because if she knew Ethan she would’ve known that he was the officer that went on the call of an old lady whose cat was stuck up a tree and the call of a good friend, late at night, to ease his friend’s daughter’s mind.

One of our good friends from college, Tommy, had a little girl, Cora. He was raising her on his own because his wife was a heroin addict. Tommy had tried his best to keep his family together, but knew, in the end, that if he didn’t get his little girl away from his wife, then the few good memories Cora and even Tommy, had of her mom would be ruined by the addict that now stood in her place.

One night, Tommy couldn’t calm Cora down. He had let her watch Arachnophobia before bed and she, only being six, woke up in a fit of crying and general upsetness. She kept asking over and over again if the police could come make sure the house didn’t have giant spiders in it. Tommy, being at wits end, had finally called Ethan at 3:00 a.m. Ethan hadn’t even blinked an eye. He got up, got his uniform on, belt and all, and went over to clear Tommy’s house. Tommy nor Ethan had told me the story. It had been Cora.

They were both good friends of mine. Ones I should’ve been modeling myself after, instead of living the same life I’d been living since college. I had been the hero in college with the amount of attention I got from women. But now, I felt the need for change. None of my friends had settled down, with the exception of Tommy who had
tried
to settle down and now was a single parent. I was waiting for the right women to come along for my friends though. They had their white flags out and were ready to surrender to good women. I had learned firsthand that sometimes the white flag is put up for you.

“Did you hear a word I just said?” Mac asked.

“Sorry, just thinking.”

She didn’t ask about what I was thinking about. I appreciated she let some thoughts be for me alone.

“I just said, that it’s almost eight, so if you want to set the table now you can.”

I had been sitting in the kitchen feeling useless, as I watched Mac cook dinner. She had asked me to chop some of the dill up for the burgers, but that was all she asked me to do. I noticed she had gone back and chopped it more finely. She never called me out on my crap cooking skills. There was no way she missed my lack of them, though.

I got up and collected the placemats, napkins, napkin holders and utensils to set the table. I may have been a bachelor but that didn’t mean I hadn’t conducted business meetings out of my home. Of course, those meetings had always been catered. I didn’t want to give any of my business associates food poisoning.

I heard a knock at the front door and, after I finished placing the last setting, answered it. I peeked out the peephole and saw Jake, standing there with flowers and a bottle of wine. Okay, that was weird. I swung the door open.

“What’s up, man? Come on in.” I ignored the items in his hands.

“Thanks. Where’s Mackayla?”

“In the kitchen cooking.”

“Thank God. I was going to suggest we go out if you cooked.”

“Asshole.”

I hit him on the back as he passed me. I followed him into the kitchen and he stopped dead in his tracks. I walked around him and Mac turned around wiping her hands after having just washed them.

“Mackayla, this is Jacob Rilato, Jake, Mackayla Montgomery.”

Jake finally walked forward with his hand out. Mac extended her hand and shook his.

“It’s very nice to meet you Mr. Rilato. Please call me Mac.”

“I brought this for dinner.” He held out the flowers and put the bottle of wine down on the island.

“Thank you, that’s very kind.”

I loved her voice when she was in business mode. She had a polish to her always, but when I’d first met her she had a roughness I enjoyed seeing, too.

Jake sat down at the island, making himself at home which wasn’t that far of a stretch considering this had been his place too, at one time.

“So Mac, how do you like your new position?”

Damn. I knew he was going to be on her, but I didn’t think he’d crawl up and strike so quickly. I opened my mouth to tell him off when Mac beat me to it.

“What’s not to like? You all have become the front runners in the micro-brewing boom. You have top of the line equipment with the top master brewer in micro brewing – but I’ll deny that to Lynn.”

Jake leaned forward and then looked at me. He knew I wasn’t the type to feed someone the answers.

“Alright, hot shot. What kind of revenue do we make?”

“Last year you made 1.75 mil, which is unheard of for a microbrewery, just in revenue. Of course, you took almost half of that and poured it back into the brewery. And the revenue, in large part, was sponsorship blowback, increase in productivity, as well as pairing with west coast micro breweries.”

“I thought Logan was full of shit.”

“Logan and I have had extensive and long conversations,” Mac shot back at him.

“He told me you taught him how to read the spreadsheets on our revenue.”

“He’s a smart guy. Just needed a little push. And if you ever tell him I said he was the best master brewer, I will kill you. Can’t let his ego get too big.”

“No worries, we give him enough shit to keep his head out of the clouds,” I said.

“Jake, I heard you’re working on a new deal with a chain of bars in Pennsylvania,” Mac said.

“Yeah, it’s been rough. I can’t get them to see we’re a good option for them. They’ve been arguing we’re too small.”

“Have you brought them in for a tour of the cannery?”

“Tried, they won’t budge.”

Mac smiled.

“Would you mind if I tried talking to them? I’ve worked in dive bars most of my adult life, I know how to talk to a small company that doesn’t think you can put your money where your mouth is.”

There was a knock on the door, and I knew it had to be Ethan. I went and looked out the peephole. Son of a bitch. It was Ethan, Tommy and Cora. The bastards knew I couldn’t say no to Tommy’s daughter. I opened the door and looked down at Cora.

“I thought I already paid you for my Girl Scout cookies.”

“You did Uncle Kellan. We’re here for dinner. Uncle Ethan said we should come because you had a friend over, and I haven’t seen you since my birthday.”

The little woman standing in my doorway, with her hands on her hips, was going to be one hell of a handful for whoever ended up falling in love with her. She had just made it my fault for them being there. So I used the only thing I had left.

“I don’t know if you’ll like the food. It’s Greek.”

Audible sighs came from Ethan and Tommy as they both stood in various states of annoyance.

“I love Greek food!” Cora screeched.

“It’s literally all we’ve eaten for two weeks,” Tommy explained.

“I thought she hated ethnic foods.”

“She did until she got a boyfriend. He’s Greek.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Daddy. He’s just my good friend that likes to sit with me at lunch,” Cora clarified.

“Well, come on in then.”

At that point, I was praying that I wasn’t about to overwhelm Mac. Ethan was out of uniform, so that should help but I still feared that meeting all of the people who had been my family since I’d left home at eighteen would overwhelm her, especially Cora. She didn’t know or have boundaries since she was only seven. For the most part, she just didn’t know when to stop talking.

Cora stepped through the threshold and threw her arms around me. I crouched down and picked her up in a bear hug. Tommy was holding a dish in his hands.

“Greek Salad,” Tommy lifted the dish in his hands.

“Chips.” Ethan was an amazing cook, but only cooked when asked to or when he wanted to treat himself.

I put Cora down and she took my hand, leading me to the kitchen.

Mac

I had been expecting Jake to grill me. I could tell by the way Kellan had talked about him and the outright warning from Logan what to expect. I owed Logan big time for the information he had imparted to me. I could tell that Jake was impressed and that had been my goal. He didn’t pry into my personal life, even when Kellan had left the room which was what I’d been expecting. I heard talking from the front door and knew Ethan must have shown up. I had tucked away my worry, which had resurfaced with a vengeance.

I reminded myself that if Ethan was in Kellan’s circle he had to be trustworthy. Mentally, I reminded myself that not every cop was dirty or evil. I knew that, but some things just don’t compute into rationality. Some ideas and beliefs stay in the irrational zone because they’ve been there so long that changing them seems impossible. I kept my eyes on Jake, even when I saw movement behind him. I was trying to seem professional and focused, not like a bitch who was ignoring Kellan’s friend. Out of my peripheral view I saw a little girl walk over to me. I would never ignore a child.

She couldn’t have been more than eight, a pretty little girl with brown curls, blue eyes and a caramel complexion. She looked like she was probably mixed. She had the sweetest smile and was missing one of her front teeth. I wondered if she was Kellan’s.

“I’m Cora. Are you Uncle Kellan’s friend?” She definitely had a directness gene. She had called Kellan uncle, maybe she was Jake’s little girl.

“I am. My name is Mac.”

“Like a truck?!” Cora sounded outraged. I laughed.

“No. Like a Mackayla that goes by Mac.”

“Mackayla is pretty. Why don’t you go by that?”

She was definitely a no holds bar little girl; so unlike me when I was her age. If I stepped out of line with an ill placed question I was sent to my room without dinner.

“I started going by it when I was younger because if people thought I was a boy, I got things a little easier and with a lot less questions.”

I heard a groan from behind Cora and saw a very attractive man with that same caramel complexion and dark brown hair looking on. It had to be her father. Cora turned to him.

“Daddy. I want to go by Cor now.”

“You’re not going to get things easier by doing that,
Cora
. I will not call you Cor.”

“How about Cory?”

“Cory is still a girl’s name. If you want to go by Cory, that’s fine. But I will not call you anything but Cora and pumpkin.”

Cora turned back to me.

“Cora was my grandma’s name on my Daddy’s side. She’s dead, but
apparently
I’m a lot like her.”

“I swear I’m raising my mother,” He said.

I put my hand out to Cora’s father.

“I’m Mackayla, but you can call me Mac.”

“Tommy, this little one’s father and all these guys,” he motioned to all of the men in the room, including Jake, “friend.”

Ethan was standing quietly behind Tommy. I now understood why Tommy and Cora were there. I had almost forgotten that Ethan was there, let alone a cop. I had to remember that he had probably seen a lot of trauma victims over time. I had done a lot of research about how to soothe my own nerves. For children, it was normal to have a therapeutic companion dog around when they were giving a statement or testifying because it kept them calm. I had even tried getting a dog at one point. It didn’t work out because I had been working so many odd hours. But I gave a silent prop to Ethan for trying to help me stay calm by bringing Cora and Tommy.

“So you all went to college together?” I said dumbly.

“Yes we did.” Kellan came up next to me, sliding his arm around my waist. I felt warm and comforted there.

As we stood there, I realized it had suddenly gotten very quiet. Every one of the guy’s eyes was on us. Ethan moved first.

“So, what’s for dinner? We heard it’s Greek.”

Kellan kept his arm around me.

“It’s actually Greek burgers and Greek fries.”

“She makes manly food and I bring a Greek salad. I’m losing my touch,” Tommy said.

Ethan slapped Tommy on the shoulder.

“You lost your touch when you started wearing crowns to Cora’s tea parties.”

And at that moment I fell a little in love with Tommy. I could never get my parents to do anything with me. Not play, not watch me play, not have someone come over to play with me. The fact that Tommy so willingly gave over his man card for his little girl warmed a place in my heart I thought had been destroyed by my parents.