Justine Davis - The Coltons - Fisher, Ryder & Quinn

Neither Fisher nor he seemed to have any problem with their appetites since they ordered the blue plate specials, which included not only the soup of the day, but chicken-fried steak with white gravy, squash and cheese casserole, green beans and a choice of dessert.

After taking their orders, the waitress brought over tall glasses of iced tea, a dish of summer slaw and a basket heaped with warm corn bread and sweet cream butter.

The enticing smell of the corn bread made her stomach growl. She placed a hand above her belly, but Fisher picked up the basket and offered it to her. “Would you like some?”

She smiled and thanked him. After buttering the corn bread, she took a bite and sighed as the dulcet flavors of the corn and butter filled her mouth.

“This is good,” she said, but then quickly added, “but not as good as that jalapeño corn bread you used to make for us when we were kids, Buck.”

“That was really tasty with your five alarm chili, Pa,” Fisher said, but then stuffed a big piece of buttered corn bread in his mouth.

Buck laughed and forked some of the summer slaw onto his bread dish. “The four of you could sure eat,” he said with a chuckle.

Fisher nodded, recalling the many nights that Macy and Tim had joined his family for a meal. “Those were good times.”

“Yes, they were,” Macy said. A sad sigh followed, however.

“It’ll be okay, darlin’. Don’t worry about T.J.,” Buck offered, but Macy dipped her head down until her chin was nearly burrowing a hole in her chest.

Upset by her dismay, Fisher reached beneath the table and laid his hand over hers. “It will be okay,” he also reassured.

With a long inhale and a sniffle, Macy nodded. “Yes, it will be okay. I’ll make it okay.”

He had no doubt of her sincerity, but worried about whether she could make good on it. T.J. seemed to be bringing her nothing but trouble and possibly the boy needed a man’s influence in his life. A man who would be there for him.

When the waitress brought their meals, he withdrew his hand from hers and they all dug into their dinners, hunger bringing a long stretch of quiet to the table.

Macy finished her meal quickly, but he and his dad had quite a lot to eat. While he ate, he offered Macy a small piece of his steak and she tried it, murmured her approval. Slowly he and his father finished their meals and by the time dessert came, they convinced Macy to get some peach cobbler.

When they were finally finished, Macy offered to pay to thank them for their company, but his father insisted it was their treat and that they should do it more often.

“I’d like that, Buck,” she said.

Then something inside of him—something Fisher didn’t understand and didn’t want to acknowledge—had him saying, “I’ll go with you to the sheriff’s office.”

Her mouth opened as she prepared to refuse him, but then she abruptly snapped it shut. “I’d appreciate that,” she said instead.

In front of the restaurant she hugged Buck and thanked him again before the two of them silently walked side by side to the sheriff’s office.

Inside the police station, one of the other deputies manned the front desk. As he realized who had entered, he sheepishly glanced down at the papers on his desk, but Fisher wasn’t about to be dissuaded.

“You know me better than that, Bill. Where’s Deputy Rawlings?”

Bill shuffled the papers into order before addressing them. “Deputy Rawlings is still with the suspect.”

“The suspect?” Macy nearly croaked. “When did he become a suspect?”

Before the other man could answer, Deputy Rawlings stepped from one of the back rooms. He grimaced when he noticed them standing by the front desk, but swaggered over, his shoulders thrown back. Hands cocked on his hips.

“Macy. Fisher,” he said with a curt nod.

“Evening, Adam. I came to see when I could take T.J. home,” she said, bracing her hands along the edge of the front desk.

Adam looped his thumbs through his belt loops and swayed side to side on his feet for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I’ve decided to keep T.J. overnight while we continue our investigations.”

The other deputy rose from the desk, wisely making himself absent for the discussion that would follow.

“Excuse me,” Macy said, her voice rising with each syllable, prompting Fisher to reach over and place his hand on her shoulder to try to calm her.

“We need to be sure there’s no foul play,” the deputy said and beneath his hand, the tension escalated in Macy’s body.

“Come on now, Adam. There’s no reason—”

“A young girl is missing. We have a witness who claims to have seen your son with her on the night she disappeared.”

Macy inched up on her toes, ready to erupt, but he applied gentle pressure to keep her in control. Macy didn’t normally have a temper, but when it involved her family, he didn’t doubt that she would tenaciously defend her son.

“You know Jericho wouldn’t do this,” she urged and he had no doubt about that. Jericho would not be handling this situation as badly as Deputy Rawlings, but he could see that the man was not responding well to being challenged.

He opted for a different approach, hoping that he could calm the deputy until his brother returned in a day or two. “No one doubts your concerns, Deputy, but wouldn’t it be possible to release T.J. into his mother’s custody? I’m sure she can—”

“Handle him?” The deputy chuckled harshly and shook his head. “Mrs. Ward hasn’t done a very good job of controlling T.J. so far. Until we know that there’s been no foul play, I’m going to hold him overnight. Maybe even longer.”

Macy’s body trembled beneath his hand, but she somehow kept her cool. “Please don’t do this, Adam. I promise to bring T.J. back in the morning—”

“I don’t think so,” the deputy said and Fisher was about to jump in and offer his assurances, but bit the words back. He knew little about T.J. other than that both his brother and dad believed he was good, but confused. Worse yet, he knew nothing about how to deal with the boy and even if he did…

He would be gone in another couple of weeks.

Becoming involved in their lives not only made little sense, it would be cruel since he could promise nothing of permanence. But he needed to help Macy now.

“Let’s go, Macy. We’ll come back in the morning.”

Macy shot a worried look at him and while glancing her way, he said, “The deputy knows what he needs to do. He’ll take good care of T.J.”

He faced the other man and left no doubt about his words. “You will take good care, right?”

Adam stalked the remaining distance to the front desk and leaned over the barrier toward him. “That’s not a threat, is it?”

“Just a reminder,” he said, dipped his head and smiled, making sure that the other man understood it was a promise of what might happen if T.J. wasn’t cared for. Then he urged Macy back from the desk. “We’ll see you bright and early, Adam. Have a nice night.”

Slipping his arm completely around Macy’s shoulders, he steered her out the door of the station and onto the steps, where she shrugged off his touch and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Jericho wouldn’t do this. He would know that T.J. could never hurt that girl,” she said.

“But is T.J. involved in her disappearance?” Fisher asked, but as Macy’s face paled at his words, he cursed beneath his breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said and took her into his arms.

She was tense at first, but then she slowly relaxed and embraced him. Laying the side of her face on his chest, she said, “Thank you. I was a little tired of going it alone.”

He suspected that up until her cockamamie idea to marry Jericho, she had been going it alone ever since Tim’s death nearly six years earlier.