Page 3 of Surly Sheriff
She heard June bark out orders, dispatching an ambulance and rescue squad.
And the sheriff.
A sharp pain pierced her heart.
Beau was the sheriff now, elected to office after Sheriff Holden’s untimely death. How she dreaded the coming confrontation.
He was going to be so angry with her.
And understandably so.
After all, shehaddeprived him of the first four years of their son’s life. But a dust-up on the side of the road had not featured in their imagined first encounter.
“Help is on the way,” June said, breaking into her troubled thoughts. “Sorry, hon, but I can’t place your voice?”
The sharp honk of a horn drew her attention to the road. A white sedan pulled up. She grabbed the excuse. “Gotta go. Another passerby stopped.” Pocketing the cellphone, she gave the unconscious driver another regretful look before making her way to the road. Within a minute, two more vehicles stopped, and she returned to Jack and Xena. They’d been on their own for too long.
She opened the back door, and Xena whined. “Potty break, huh?” Ithadbeen a while since their last stop. The dog thumped her tail and yipped, drawing a slight smile from Rae. She looked across at Jack. Unbuckled, he knelt on the booster, looking out the back windows. Her first response was to reprimand him, but she hadn’t specifically told himnotto look at the accident scene. At least the front of the truck was not visible, but she would make damn sure he wasn’t looking when they extracted poor Andy. “Do you need a pee, too?”
He nodded. “Uh-huh.”
She attached the leash to Xena and stepped aside. The dog jumped down, followed by Jack, and she moved them both away from the road.
“Look, Momma!” He tugged her hand and pointed. “Horses!”
She lifted her eyes and focused on the small herd, grateful something more suitable for a young kid caught his attention. “I see them. Can you tell Momma how many?”
He squinted and counted aloud. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five, Momma. Five,” he yelled, looking at her for confirmation, eyes gleaming.
Her heart swelled with love for her son, and she ruffled his dark blond hair. “That’s right.”
Jack beamed back at her, but Xena yipped again, drawing her attention. Rae prodded Jack’s shoulder. “Come. Let’s find a place for you and Xena to pee.” After a quick scan of the nearby area, she moved them to the shallow ditch running midway between the boundary fence and the road. Xena wasted no time sniffing out a spot, and Jack stopped a couple of steps away from the dog.
The sound of nearing sirens reached her ears, but her low position and the bulky minivan blocked her line of sight of the approaching vehicles.
It didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat.
Maybe Beau wasn’t one of the responders?
“Done, Momma,” Jack called out, pulling his shorts up. She helped him straighten his tee.
The sirens grew louder, and the ground shuddered as the heavy vehicles passed.
“Is that a firetruck, Momma? Can I watch?”
“I want you and Xena back in the van.”
“Momma! Wanna see.”
Xena barked, her powerful body quivering, straining on the leash.
“Xena. Heel.” The dog obeyed, but her head kept turning toward the accident where the emergency vehicles pulled to a stop.
An ambulance and firetruck, Rae noted, her view no longer blocked by the Odyssey. The sirens cut out, and a deep silence settled over the area.
More vehicles pulled up. A dark-blue SUV and a white truck, their emergency lights flashing. Both belonged to the sheriff’s department.
Dread fisted her insides, and her pulse sped up.
