Page 10 of Once Upon a Summer Night

Would she visit him while she was in town? Try to patch things up between them? Then, maybe over time, they could rebuild their relationship and Hannah would come home for good. Especially if her intention was to raise Noah now that Beth had passed. Chase knew as well as anyone that raising a child took a village—the town had sure stepped in to help raise him.

Darn it, there he went, already getting his hopes up. Until he talked more with her, it wasn’t a smart thing to do. For now, she was just here to visit. That’s all he should take it as.

An elbow planted in his side. On a grunt, Chase turned to find the others staring at him. “Sorry, what?”

“Joey’s asking for permission to make an ice cream run, sir,” said Cody Mitchell, their resident Mr. Fixit and mystery novel lover.

Sir. Ever since the chief had been off, the others had been addressing him as “sir” as a running joke. They thought he was nuts for wanting more responsibility, but to Chase, it seemed the next logical step. Before he could give Cody grief for calling him sir again, the others donned mock puppy-dog faces. Rather than tell them all no, he opted to take advantage of this unplanned distraction to help keep his mind off Hannah.

“Fine, Joey, you can swing us by Frosty Falls.”

“Thank ya, Cap’n.”

Unfortunately, their dessert distraction didn’t last nearly long enough. With no other runs coming in and the station already in tip-top shape, Chase was practically climbing the walls by nightfall.

“You expecting to hear you won the lottery, or still waiting for word on the chief?”

Chase looked up from checking his phone for the dozenth time duringJeopardy!, caught Joey’s watchful eye, and forced his knee to stop bouncing.

“Nah, didn’t you hear?” Dylan Campbell looked up from his and Cody’s never-ending chess match, a knowing grin on his face. “His girl’s back in town. Probably sending heart emoji back and forth or something.”

Damn, really? She’d been back half a day and already word had gotten out? “Okay, first? There’s been no emoji. And second, she’s not my girl. I don’t even have her number.”

A round ofoohs,ouches, andburnedrang out.

Chase threw a mock glare at the bunch. “Y’all know how to make a guy feel special.”

“They’re just bustin’ your chops, Redding,” Cody said, his gaze still fixed on the chess board. “None of them got a life, so they gotta pick on you and yours.”

The group’s attention shifted to refuting Cody’s accusation just as Chase’s phone buzzed with an incoming call. The room when stock still. The contact name on his screen was Del, but was it really?

“Yeah,” he answered.

“You got a minute?”

“Of course, Del, what’s up?”

His business partner and longtime friend’s musical laughter sounded from the other end. “Got the whole room listening in, huh?”

“Sure do.” He scowled at the others, who of course were doing precisely that. On a sigh, he rose from his seat and made for the hall. “Happens when rumors start flying.”

“You know as well as I do that they’re gonna get worse before they start to get better. Our town gossips haven’t had something this juicy to talk about since Hannah Banana left.”

He’d expected as much. As kids, he’d thrown everything into shielding her from the bullies and gossips who didn’t understand why she went about life doing things as she pleased. Harder to do when she was grown and brought things on herself. “So, what was her big news?”

“It’s about Noah. Beth named Hannah as his legal guardian in her will. Paternal grandparents just recently entered the picture, now they want to raise him as their own. She’s devastated.”

Noah’s little face flashed to the forefront of Chase’s mind. “How does Noah feel about all this?”

“He doesn’t know,” she said. “We all promised Hannah we wouldn’t spill the beans, either.”

Chase promised he would keep quiet on it as well, then asked the question that’d been lingering in his mind all day. “So, is she moving back or just here for a visit?”

“She’ll fill you in on all that soon enough.”

A frustrated growl escaped him. “Seriously? You’re gonna make me wait a whole other day?”

“Nope. She’s headed your way.”

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