Serving Pride (5 page)

Her dad had had
life insurance and since the house had been paid off in the
seventies, her mother’s bills were quite low. As for her, she still
had car payments she had to make and two credit cards she needed to
pay off, but that was all.

Her mother had been
so excited when she’d told her she was moving back, she’d told
everyone she could. Since her eyesight had started to fail, she’d
hardly left the house. Her mother had really relied on her father
to take care of her. He’d done all the shopping, but she’d still
done all the cooking and cleaning around the house. She may not
have been able to see very well, but she could still fight dust and
make a mean meat loaf.

When Amelia pulled
into the driveway, she noticed the cruiser was back. Quickly
checking her reflection in the mirror, she cringed at the image
that stared back at her. Her red hair had frizzed and was falling
out of the bandana she’d tied it up with. She hadn’t worn any
makeup that day, because she’d spent her entire morning packing and
loading boxes.

She fixed her hair
quickly and hoped she didn’t look too ragged in her faded jeans and
oversized sweatshirt. She stepped out of her car and watched the
movers pull into her mother’s drive. She motioned for them to back
into the garage where she would store all her stuff until she
decided what she was going to do.

Looking back to the
house, she saw her mother and Robert walk out the front door. He
had a smile on his face as he helped her mother to the chair on the
deck. She walked over to them and couldn’t help but smile when she
noticed the new badge on his lapel.

“Hello, Sheriff
Brogan.”

He nodded and
smiled. “They made it official this afternoon. I can’t believe they
trust me to run this town, at least temporarily until election
time. Then I’ll have to run officially.”

“Well, of course
they made him sheriff,” Her mother chimed in. “You deserve it, too.
After all, you saved our Amelia from the thugs back in school.”
Leave it to her mother to bring that up again. After that incident,
her parents had idolized him. She’d heard so often what a great
young man Robert was, she’d almost gotten sick of it.
Almost.

Her dad had always
told her that she needed to find someone like him to settle down
with. She supposed when Robert moved back into town, her dad had
jumped at the chance to make him a deputy. That’s probably how he’d
gotten the job, anyway.

Looking at him now,
she realized he did look mighty fine in the
uniform.

R
obert couldn’t
stop smiling at Amelia. He watched her boss the moving men around
like they were her minions. She looked very sexy in her torn jeans
and faded sweatshirt. He kept telling himself he should leave, but
just couldn’t seem to pull himself away.

He’d stopped by
originally because he wanted Mrs. Blake to find out from him
personally that he’d been voted by the city council to take over
for her husband. He thought it best to tell her himself and had
asked the board members not to call her. He knew some of the town
women had quietly, and disappointingly, put down their
phones.

He’d been nervous
driving over here, not knowing how she’d take it. But she’d hugged
him and told him how proud she was. Then, Amelia had driven up and
he’d found another reason to stay. Looking at her was a
delight.

As he sat on her
mother’s porch and watched her coordinate the movers, he remembered
being pleased when he’d first moved back into town and had found
out that she was unmarried. He knew she lived out of town, but
hearing from her father how her life had turned out had been
wonderful. David had always been proud of his little girl and he
had shown it every day that they had worked
together.

“You know, David
and I always hoped you would come back into town. We knew that your
aunt has missed you since you left.”

He looked at the
older woman and remembered that she and his aunt had been very
close. Since his aunt’s last stroke, she hadn’t been able to drive.
One of her friends, Martha, had moved in and taken care of her,
which was one of the main reasons he’d quickly moved into the
apartment above the store.

“I know my aunt is
happy that I’m staying. It just tickles her to think that I’m
sheriff now. Her words, not mine,” he said as she
laughed.

An hour later, as
he walked into his apartment for the night, he couldn’t get Amelia
out of his mind, the way she’d smiled at him, the way she walked,
and how she smelled of flowers.

He’d always known
he was attracted to her. Hell, he had been for years. But he hadn’t
expected the pull of desire he’d had when she’d smiled at him
tonight.

His new job was
going to be a lot more demanding and he knew he needed to focus. He
still had two deputies to hire, not a small task in a town of
eighteen hundred people, especially with the budget the town
council had given him.

Tossing his belt
off, he took his service weapon and put it in the small safe he had
installed the day he’d gotten the job. His own 9 mm sat in there as
well. He’d been fascinated with weapons, ever since he was a young
child, and he enjoyed carrying his gun around. He could remember
his father showing him his service weapon. He’d been a policeman on
the force in New Mexico, and Robert wondered if that’s what had
called him to the force.

Whatever it was, he
wasn’t about to give it up. He had every intention of running for
sheriff next year. He had even started looking for a house of his
own. He couldn’t stay in the small apartment for much longer. He
would never really have any privacy with Patty O’Neil
downstairs.

By the end of the
next day he was seriously questioning his sanity, as the small town
was flooded with reporters from all over the
world.

George and Iian
Jordan were missing somewhere off the coast of Oregon. They’d left
yesterday for Iian’s birthday sail and had gotten into trouble. The
last message from them had been received earlier that day when
they’d relayed a distress call to the coast
guard.

George Jordan was
head of Jordan Shipping, a large international company, so of
course reporters from all over had gotten a hold of the story and
flocked to the small town.

Since Robert hadn’t
had time to hire anyone yet, he’d quickly called in two school
friends to help him take care of the growing crowd that was hell
bent on disobeying his orders.

He shook his head
as he noticed a few cars were double parked on Main Street,
blocking traffic. After getting them to move, he made sure to block
off the small road leading to the Jordan house so the rest of the
family could have some privacy.

When he swung by
the Golden Oar, the family’s restaurant, he noticed it had been
closed for the day. That didn’t stop a few reporters from trying to
camp out there. Since it was private property, he told them to move
on.

But for the most
part, everyone spent the day waiting down at the docks, knowing the
first word of what was happening would be from
there.

Later that next
evening, he received a call from the office that Iian had been
found alive and had been flown by helicopter to the hospital in
Edgeview. The search for Mr. Jordan had been called off due to bad
weather.

Robert stood in
front of a group of reporters and relayed the information. They had
all shouted questions after his statement, none of which he knew
the answers to.

Finally, after
leaving there, he went into Edgeview to see if there was anything
he could do for the family. Todd had been in the same grade as him
in school and had always been a close friend.

When he arrived, he
saw Amelia hugging Lacey, Todd and Iian’s sister. Todd’s wife,
Sara, was sitting next to Amelia, looking very pale. He’d forgotten
how small Lacey was. Her short dark hair made her look even more
petite next to Amelia’s vibrant, long red tresses. He wondered how
Amelia had made it there so quickly.

When he approached,
the three of them looked up. “How is he?”

Amelia answered,
“He’s banged up. He hasn’t woken yet, but they say he’s going to
make it. He has a mild case of hypothermia and quite a concussion,
not to mention a few broken ribs.”

Lacey just sat
there, staring off into space. He felt bad for her so he sat next
to her and took her hand in his. It was so much smaller, almost
childlike.

“Lacey, if there is
anything I can do, just let me know.” She nodded her head and a
tear slipped down her cheek.

He looked up in
time to see Todd walking across the room towards
them.

“Has he woken yet?”
Lacey asked, eagerly jumping up from the chair. When Todd shook his
head no, she slumped back. Sara stood and walked over to hug Todd
quickly. Robert stood as Todd walked over and shook his hand.
“Thanks for handling all the press.”

Robert looked at
him questioningly.

“You were all over
the news here.” Todd motioned towards the television set and sure
enough, Robert could see his own face on the screen as the news
station replayed his statement.

“I only wish they’d
leave. It’s my second official day on the job and I haven’t even
made it into the office yet. I’m sorry they called off the search
for your dad temporarily.”

“If he was still
alive, he would have been with Iian.” Todd looked at Lacey, and
Robert could tell they had both accepted the fact that their father
was gone.

Just then a few
more townspeople rushed in and headed towards the
family.

“If you want to be
alone, I can corral everyone out of here.” He asked
Todd.

“No, it’ll be good
for us, I think.” He pulled his sister up and into a hug. “We’ll
deal with this, with our family by our side.”

He sat down next to
Amelia and looked at her. He noticed the short black skirt she was
wearing. The tight silver shirt hadn’t escaped his notice either.
Her hair was curled and pulled up so that small ringlets dropped
down around her face. How could he not be distracted with how she
looked? “How did you get here so fast?”

“I was visiting
Lacey at the restaurant and decided to come along for support.
Lacey and I used to be really close in school.” She turned and
looked at him. “Actually, I drove her car over here since she was
too upset to drive. When you leave, if you can give me a ride back
home…?”

“Sure, as long as
you don’t mind riding in the back.” She smiled at
him.