Page 82 of Peach Tree Family

Now he got it. "Oh." Seth lowered his head and frowned, turning serious. "I don't want you thinking you owe me."

Theo didn't know why that bothered him. "I owe a lot of people. Like Mrs. Del Rio. And speaking of... I can't believe Ace isn't back yet. How big is that kitchen?"

"It's a good size kitchen, but it doesn't stretch out for miles," Seth told him. "I bet Mrs. Del Rio took a liking to him."

Theo had a different theory about what Mrs. Del Rio was up to especially since she winked at him when she took Ace away.

When they were ready to leave, Ace did appear along with Mrs. Del Rio.

"Have you been hired to work here, Ace?" Seth asked him.

"No, but I got to watch the cooking. They're fast. And when I'm big, Mrs. Del Rio said I can be the boss of everybody."

"You think you can keep up?" Theo asked him.

"Yeah. Theo, I'm fast," Ace said then showed them by running in place.

"Look at him go," Mrs. Del Rio said.

"You made this quite an experience for Ace. Thank you," Theo told her.

"Ace is a delight, and I look forward to seeing you all here again soon."

They left the café with Ace still a little hyper. "We're doing laundry next," Theo said to Seth.

"I can keep you guys company," he offered.

"If you have nothing better to do," Theo told him.

As they went back to the truck to get the bag with the laundry, they ran into the sheriff. As they greeted her, Sheriff Jackson stopped and told Seth, "Mr. Brewer, I understand I'll be seeing more of you around town now that you took the room at Mr. Beatty's."

"Yes, Ma'am," Seth said and she moved on.

The laundromat had some arcade games, and Ace headed straight there. "He's all set," Theo said and went to load the washing machine.

Coming back he sat next to Seth and noticed he seemed a little off. "What's on your mind?" Theo asked as they sat on the plastic chairs. They were the only ones there though some of the other machines were going. Theo had already noticed that people didn't sit to guard their laundry but went off without worrying too much about it.

Seth still lowered his voice as he asked, "You think she was giving me a warning? The sheriff."

"What kind of warning?"

"Like letting me know I'm not welcome here," Seth said.

"No. I think she was just being a cop. We're new here." Theo had already told himself the same thing, but Seth seemed to be way more rattled.

"I didn't tell you everything about how things were back in Waterfield," Seth said.

"You can tell me now if you want," Theo said though he didn't want to push him.

"With my parents being criminals, I didn't know how to stay out of trouble at first. I did stop fighting with the kids at school, learned to always keep my head down and kept to myself. But I got stuck with a bad reputation, and it was like open season on me all the time. It didn't help that I didn't have anyone in my corner. My mom and dad didn't stay in touch. They didn't want to keep explaining why they didn't send for me and why they hardly ever sent any money. The whole time, my grandfather's health was getting worse. I couldn't go running to him with my problems. And since I wasn't telling him my side, he got the idea that I was bringing trouble on myself." Seth took a deep breath and continued. "The sheriff already had me in his sights. Then one night about a year ago, I caught his nephew breaking into my grandpa's house. He pulled a knife on me, and I beat the crap out of him. It was dark. I didn't know who it was. The nephew claimed he was just visiting, that I invited him to watch TV and then attacked him for no reason. The sheriff went with his version of things and hauled me in for assault. With my grandpa the way he was with his Alzheimer's, I was the only witness to what really happened. The sheriff wanted me to take the fall, but it turned out his nephew had other burglary charges against him. The D.A. saw through the whole thing and dropped the charges against me. After that the sheriff had it in for me worse than ever."

"That's why you had to leave your home town," Theo said. He hated that Seth had to go through all that, but he tried to set his feelings aside and started thinking it through. "OK. I don't think this sheriff has it in for you. But it is possible she checked up on you and got an earful from the sheriff in Waterfield."

"So I can expect trouble here too," Seth said looking forlorn.

Theo shook his head. "I can't be sure, but I didn't get that impression. Let me check something." Theo got out his phone and dialed. "Hi, Wyatt. Hope this isn't a bad time. What kind of person is Sheriff Jackson?"

Wyatt answered straight away. "She's smart, fair, good at her job." He didn't ask why Theo wanted to know.

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