Page 29 of Due North
He didn’t hide his chuckle. “It’s all coming back to you now, right?” Nash asked, walking toward me, his boots thudding on the old hardwood floor. “You were sure out of it for having a blood alcohol content of just about nothing. Are you feeling okay?”
I wasn’t okay, but I couldn’t tell him that. I stood and tested out my leg, glad when it didn’t give out. Rather than answer his question, I asked one of my own. “How long have I been here?”
“Only a few hours. I figured I’d let you sleep and then call Blaze to pick you up.”
“No!” I exclaimed, his brow going up at my adamance. “I just mean I have my truck at the bar, so I’ll need to drive that back. Maybe one of the deputies can drop me back at The Wise Anchor?”
The sheriff unlocked the cell door and motioned me out, pointing to a chair in front of his desk. I sat, and he leaned his butt on the edge, his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m confused about last night. Alexandria said you were acting odd all night.”
Alexandria was the bartender at The Wise Anchor. She was three times my age and had three times my strength. She also had the eye of a momma bear. You didn’t get away with anything when Alexandria was tending the bar.
“Just let it go, Nash,” I said, rubbing my temple. Mostly, I was checking my eyelid. If that was drooping, I wasn’t going to get anything past Nash. “I just had an off night, okay? I’m fine now. I need to get back to the ranch to do chores.”
Nash turned and rested his palms on the edge of the desk. “Listen, Tex, you’re not fooling anyone, most especially me. I know what today is.”
“Well, who doesn’t, partner?” I asked in the worst Texan accent ever. “Are we having a party? Should we bob for apples?”
“No, but I would like you to be honest with me,” he said, moving behind the desk and sitting in the old wooden chair. It squeaked with his movement but in a calming way.
I tossed my hands up and let them fall. “Nash, please, I just want to go home and do my work. I don’t talk to people on this day. I do my work and go home.”
“I’m sure you do, but that’s not the healthy way to deal with the situation, Tex.”
I didn’t respond. I just stared Nash down, intending to wait him out until he found someone to drive me back to my truck at The Wise Anchor. Unfortunately, he was a seasoned law officer who had more experience waiting someone out than I did. So, we sat and listened to the clock ticking away our lives.
My gaze drifted out the window for a moment where the sky was dark, and the clouds were heavy with an impending storm. A storm brewed inside me this Halloween, too, and people better get out of my way. This was me, like it or not, and it seemed fewer and fewer people liked it. Oh well. I could always sell my part of the ranch back to Heaven and move on. Did I want to do that? No, but I also didn’t want anyone to know just how bad things had gotten. Cece knew I was coming apart at the seams, but she wasn’t going to say anything considering her place in life right now.
Get it together, Caleb.
I shook my shoulders out and tipped my head side to side. I couldn’t give up on our dream for Heavenly Lane. Doing that only gave my mother power over me, even in death. I had to push through or die trying. I would not let her, or anything she saddled me with, be the reason I failed. If I failed, it would be because I didn’t try hard enough.
“I read the reports,” Nash said, his thumbs tucked into his gun belt casually.
“What reports?” I asked, my head tipped to the side as I tried to get my exhausted brain to snap to attention.
“The reports on the fire.”
I leaned forward until I was touching the edge of his desk. “Why did you do that? Leave it alone, Nash!”
His brow went up, but he made no move other than that. “I have friends everywhere, Tex. It wasn’t hard to call up the sheriff in Lefton and ask him for the information on the fire on Halloween at the North Ranch. I had it in my inbox in thirty minutes.”
“Nash,” I said, my teeth clenched together. “None of that matters. Leave it alone.”
“I think it does matter, son. I think it matters a whole hell of a lot to you right now.”
I leaned back, deciding casual would be the only way to get out of this with my dignity intact. “Fine, whatever, do as you please. I can’t stop you. I’m going to walk over to The Wise Anchor and get my truck. Thanks for letting me sleep it off in the cell.”
I pushed myself up, but he didn’t move other than to stick his finger out at me and motion me back to the chair. Since he had my keys, I wasn’t going anywhere until he was good and ready to let me go. I lowered myself to the seat again, sitting on the edge so I could dart out into the dark morning if things got rough. If I had to walk back to the ranch, I would.Right, like you’d make it halfway there in the condition you’re in right now. You’re an idiot and a fool.
Nash leaned forward and folded his hands on the desk. “Let me start by saying I’m sorry. What happened that morning was something that has stayed with the firefighters and first responders to this day, so I can’t imagine how it’s affected you. Reading that report, I gained a whole new respect for you. If you didn’t love being a cowboy so much, I’d recruit you for this office. You’re extraordinary.”
“Oh, stop,” I demanded while my eyes rolled so hard in my head I got a headache. “I’m nothing but a coward who couldn’t manage to do one thing right that morning. Stop trying to blow smoke up my—”
“Caleb,” he said, interrupting my tirade.
Great, so he knew my name too. Of course, he does. He read the report.
Why am I so tired?
