The Day He Stopped In

Chapter 3

Adam had no idea what he’d said that was so darn funny. But Janey couldn’t stop laughing. Just when she started to quiet, she’d look at him again and dissolve into more giggles. After several seconds, Adam smiled, the infectious nature of her laughter too much to ignore.

Oh, how he loved the sound of her voice. He wished he could erase the stiffness in her shoulders and the worry from her eyes. If she’d ever given him any indication that his presence in her life as more than a friend would be welcome, he’d do it. But she’d been as closed off to men since Matt died as anyone he’d ever known.

“Nothing’s changed,” she finally said when she could stop laughing. “I have the same schedule I’ve had for five years, since I was promoted.” She added a smile to the statement that left Adam concentrating on what should be an involuntary function: breathing.

“And I’m not dating anyone.”

Do you want to start dating? He swallowed the thought and said, “Maybe it’s just the hormones,” instead.

Do you want to start dating?Janey moaned and swatted his bicep. Was that flirting? The sign he’d been hoping for? The touch was so light and so quick, he had no idea.

“Don’t tell me I have to deal with that already,” she said.

“He’s in seventh grade,” Adam said. “I guarantee his brain’s already fallen out of his head. It’s probably rollin’ around under his bed.”

She laughed again, and this time Adam joined his chuckle to hers. “He’s a good kid,” he said. “I told him he needs to be careful who he chooses to hang around with. Even if he’s not the one doin’ anything, people can get the wrong idea about him just by who he’s with.”

Janey cut him a nervous look. “Who was he with?”

“A couple of older boys I couldn’t see as they ran off. The Fenniman twins, who are also in seventh grade and not bad kids.” Adam shrugged, not wanting to alarm Janey too badly. He knew she was a huge worrywart already, and while he would like to thump Jess on the noggin for causing worry for his mom, the boy hadn’t actually done anything yet.

“Will you keep an eye on him?” Janey asked, peering at him now with those intoxicating eyes. He was a sucker for those big brown eyes of hers, and he found himself nodding. While technically, it was his job to keep an eye on everything, he could spare a few minutes every day for Jess. For Janey.

“So are you excited about the planning weekend?” she asked.

Adam blinked at her. “The what?”

She gazed right back at him. “You’re the best man for Drew and Gretchen’s wedding, right?”

Adam’s mind whirred, trying to find the missing piece of the puzzle for this line of questioning. “Yes,” he said slowly.

“I’m the matron of honor. Gretchen and Drew are taking everyone in the wedding party for a weekend at the beach, but we all know it’s just to help them plan.” She flashed one of her brilliant smiles. In her tan face, the contrast of her white teeth really stood out. “I’m thinking I won’t even bring my bathing suit. Gretchen will have me poring over magazines and then patterns to find her perfect dress.”

Adam got stuck on “bathing suit” and what that might entail for Janey. “When is this weekend?”

“End of September. Cutting it really close, if you ask me.” She stood like she’d go inside and see what Jess had gotten up to. “I mean, if they want a Christmas wedding, that only leaves three months for all the preparations.”

“As I recall, you and Matt got married after a short engagement.” He stood too, not quite sure why he’d said anything about Matt. Though it had been almost twelve years since his death, the way Janey’s face blanked, and the way she swallowed, meant his fantasies of asking her out would remain exactly that: a figment of his imagination.

“Just three months from him asking to you saying ‘I do’, same as Gretchen, right?” Why was he still talking? And who would remember that? He cleared his throat. “I’ll keep an eye out for Jess.” He started to walk away, unable to look at Janey’s beautiful, horrified face for another moment.

He flipped his sunglasses back into place, a shield between him and the rest of the world. Once behind the safety of his tinted windows, and with the air conditioner running, he dared to glance back to Janey’s porch. She still stood there, watching him, a peculiar look on her face. He couldn’t place what it was, but he stared at her too, memorizing the confusion and the...hope? Was that hope?

She turned and climbed the stairs, and Adam headed back to his office at the police station. He pulled down the current Rubix cube he worked whenever his thoughts got too wrinkled and he needed to iron them flat.

While his fingers worked the rows and columns, and his mind sorted through the colors and what needed to go where, he freed up other important brain waves that could focus on the things that eluded him.

He had nineteen solved Rubix cubes in a variety of sizes and colorations, all in a row on the shelf behind his desk. Ten of them had been solved while he worked on particularly difficult cases as a beat cop and then a detective. A few while he debated whether he should leave Hawthorne Harbor and complete the FBI training—which he’d ultimately done. And a few more over the four years he’d been Chief of Police.

One after Anita had left him and he didn’t leave the office for days on end. This one, he suspected, would be devoted to Janey and his rotating thoughts as he tried to figure out what to do about her.

And a beach weekend? How in the world had he missed that?

All the green squares lined up and he turned the Rubix cube over to find the other side a complete array of colors. He set the puzzle down and picked up his phone to call his brother.

“Adam,” Tony said, and Adam missed his youngest brother powerfully. “What’s up, bro?”

Adam did smile, though it didn’t stay long. “Are you coming to this beach planning weekend for Drew and Gretchen?” Adam didn’t even want to imagine how he’d feel with Tony and Cat along with Drew and Gretchen.

He suddenly felt so alone.

“We can’t,” Tony said, and he rarely said anything with “I” anymore. “We’ll be there for the wedding is all.”

“Okay,” Adam said, mostly relieved, with a little bit of guilt running through him too. “Well, I’ll miss you.”

“We need to get home,” Tony said. “We’re working on it.”

“You’re doing great,” Adam said, turning in his chair so he wasn’t facing the door. “Give Cat a hug from me.”

The call ended, and Adam pushed out a sigh. He called Drew next, because he needed to figure out the details of this beach wedding weekend.

“Drew,” he said when his brother answered. “I just talked to Janey and she mentioned something about a beach weekend? How come I don’t know anything about this?”

His brother started laughing, and Adam didn’t appreciate the gesture for the second time that day. “I told you about this weeks ago,” Drew said. “You said you’d clear your schedule.”

Adam looked down at his desk calendar. He flipped the calendar from August to September, and sure enough, he’d reserved the third weekend in September for “personal vacation.”

He sighed. “I swear I don’t remember talking about it.”

“That’s because I brought over a half dozen of those cookies you like. You’d have agreed to anything.”

Adam scoffed while Drew chuckled. “I do remember the cookies.” And the four miles he’d put on the beach the next morning to get rid of the cookies. At least he still enjoyed running to the sound of the ocean waves coming ashore.

“Has something come up?” Drew asked. “You can make it, can’t you?”

“Janey made it sound like you guys had disguised a weekend of work by taking us to the beach.”

The silence on the other end of the line confirmed it, and Adam glanced up as his lieutenant poked his head into the office. “I have to go.” He hung up before Drew could say anything else and asked, “What’s up, Jason?”

Lieutenant Zimmerman came in and sat on the couch in front of Adam’s windows. “Kaitlyn wants you to come for dinner on Friday night.” He wore a placid look, but Adam knew what a dinner invitation at the Zimmerman’s house meant. On the weekend, no less.

“Who else did she invite?” he asked.

“She wouldn’t say.”

Adam swiped the Rubix cube from his desk and started twisting like he could wring Jason’s neck the same way. “I don’t need to be set up.”

“It’s been months since Anita.”

He gave Jason a dark look. “I know how long it’s been.”

“You’re grouchy when you’re not dating.”

Adam didn’t know what to say to that, especially since Jason probably took the most flack from Adam’s bad moods. He minded the least though, if the twinkle in his eyes was any indication.

“So just come.” He stood and knocked twice on the doorjamb. “She’s making that Brazilian steak you like.” He walked out of the office, and Adam decided he couldn’t spend the next hour doing paperwork or sitting at his desk. He rarely could contain himself behind walls if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, which was why he’d been driving by the skate park at the exact right moment that afternoon.

He stopped at his secretary’s desk when she lifted her hand to get his attention. Sarah held the phone receiver to her ear and said, “Yes, thank you, Beth.”

Adam’s heart skipped a beat. Beth Yardley was the director of the Fall Festival, and he’d been after her to find out the topic for this year’s cook-off. “It better not be chili again,” he said, the anticipation of what the culinary topic would be making his muscles tight.

Sarah sighed as she replaced the receiver and met Adam’s glare head-on. She’d been a familiar face at the station for two decades—longer than him—and he appreciated her candor when he needed it, the fresh flowers on her desk in the summer, and the poinsettias at Christmastime.

She brought pastries for birthdays, and kept everything in the department running.

“Soups,” she finally said.

Adam growled and smashed his hat on his head. “I’m going to patrol something.” He stalked out, his mind ping-ponging from Janey and the upcoming beach weekend and the half-dozen soup recipes he could try before entering the Fall Festival with something that could win.

After last year’s chili debacle, he needed something to re-establish his street cred as the tough, no-nonsense Chief of Police—who also happened to be a genius in the kitchen.