Patricia Johns - Safe In The Lawman's Arms

A warm summer breeze pushed across the plains, carrying the scent of ripening wheat from the surrounding fields. Hot prairie sunshine beat down on the dusty streets, and as Mike pulled open the police-station door, he waved to an older woman walking her dog along the sidewalk.

“Hi there,” she called.

“Hi, Mrs. Hyatt,” he called back, then headed in. He knew almost everyone in this town. He’d been raised in Hope and now served on the police force. That meant that most of the people he protected remembered him as a gangly kid, and he doubted that he’d ever completely grown up in their eyes. He’d matured into a muscular man, over six feet tall, but for the older ladies around town, he’d never stop being “that Cruise boy.”

Mike blinked as his eyes adjusted from the afternoon sunlight. He pulled off his hat and held it under one arm as he headed inside.

“I thought you had the day off, Mike,” Corporal Tuck Leavitt commented, looking up from his desk. He had a phone pinched between his cheek and his shoulder, the hold music playing loud enough for Mike to hear it clearly. Tuck had a big brush of a blond mustache and gentle, soulful eyes.

“I do.” Mike tossed his hat onto his desk and sank into the creaky office chair.

“Then what are you doing here?” Tuck took a sip of coffee.

“Getting away. The nanny started today.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tuck put up a finger and turned his attention to the phone as someone picked up. “Hi, this is Corporal Leavitt from the Hope Sheriff’s Department...”

Mike turned away as Tuck went about verifying the alibi for a suspect. Like any other law-enforcement officer, Mike procrastinated his paperwork until either it was due to be submitted or he needed to avoid feeling something. As an escape, work always seemed better than a bar. At least he could get something productive done, and nothing was quite so numbing as filing a report in triplicate.

He turned on his computer and flipped through some forms in his inbox. But his mind kept going back to Malory. She’d been there only a few hours, but she already had Katy relaxed and happy, the chaos of the past couple of days evaporating in her calm cheerfulness. There was something about that scene—so domestic and sweet. He couldn’t quite forget the solemn look on Katy’s face, her hands clutching Malory’s fingers as she lay on her bed.

“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.” Tuck hung up the phone and tossed a folder onto Mike’s desk. “Alibi is rock solid.”

“Figured.” Mike shuffled the folder into his pile of waiting paperwork, then turned back to his computer.

“So, you hired a nanny,” Tuck said with a grin. “And how is Katherine liking her?”

“She’s Katy now. Malory shortened it, and Katy seemed to like it better.”

“Huh. Sounds like it’s going well, then.”

Mike glanced up from the computer. “Can’t complain.”

“So what’s she like?”

“Too pretty,” Mike replied with a shrug. “I was hoping for a cross between Mrs. Doubtfire and Mary Poppins.”

“A spoonful of sugar with masculine shoulders?” Tuck laughed.

“Too much to ask?” he said, grinning. “Instead, I got—” He stopped, not wanting to finish his thought—he’d only sound like a lout. She really was too pretty for comfort.

“So what are you doing here at the station?” Tuck asked.

“I don’t know. I feel like a third wheel back at the house. In a matter of days, my calm, relaxing home has turned into...” He shook his head, searching for the word.

“Family space? Toys everywhere, snacks, crumbs, noise.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” He chuckled. “At least you know what I’m talking about.”

Tuck had a wife and four kids of his own.

“It’s not so bad,” Tuck replied. “You’ll never sleep in again, or stay up late, for that matter, but it has its payoffs, too.”

“This isn’t long-term,” Mike said. “I’ll sleep in again. Don’t worry about that. Anyway, Malory seems to have everything under control.”

“Yeah?” Tuck didn’t look convinced. “You still think you can say goodbye to that little sweetheart?”

“I’m just helping out until we can find a permanent solution,” Mike replied. “I told you that before. She’s better off away from the Cruise clan completely. This isn’t about how cute she is. This is about what’s best for her. You know what my family is like.”

Tuck shrugged. “Your call, buddy.”

The best decisions weren’t always the easiest. Mike came from a long line of career criminals—Crystal was falling pretty close to the tree with her jail time. For as long as Mike could remember, he’d been hearing about drug busts, arrests and attempts to escape the law—none of it from the side of the “good guys.” The best thing for little Katy was to have a fresh start with a new family, far from the Cruises—as he had. He’d walked away and started a new life for himself, fighting the crime that had left indelible marks upon his childhood.

Mike pulled up his email and scanned the latest police notices. At work he felt as though he had some control—maybe not as much as he’d like, but at least he had procedures to follow. There would always be crime, and there would always be paperwork, but at least there were laws to protect the innocent.

“Speaking of your family,” Tuck said. “Your dad is in town.”

“What?” Mike’s attention snapped back to his friend. “How do you know?”

“He started a scuffle of some sort in the Honky Tonk.”

Mike sighed. That sounded about right. “Where is he now?”

Tuck shook his head. “I don’t know. But I thought you might want a heads-up. He looks just the same—a bit older, maybe.”

Tuck would know. He and Mike had gone to high school together and joined the sheriff’s department in the same year. He was well aware of Mike’s family, especially his father.

Mike didn’t answer, forcing the anger back down. His father had been a real piece of work when Mike was growing up. He was a mean drunk and he was drunk a lot of the time. Mike didn’t have many happy family memories after his mother died. The day his father skipped the county was a good day in his books.

“He told me to give you a message.”

Mike raised his eyebrows inquiringly. “Oh?”

“He said to tell you that he’s home. That’s all.”

“For good?” Mike frowned.

“He didn’t say. I couldn’t hold him. He hadn’t done anything. In fact, he pulled an underage kid out of the bar when a fight broke out.”

Mike sighed. He hated it when his father did something honorable. It made it harder to mentally file him away.

“He hasn’t contacted you?” Tuck pressed.

“Nope. This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Do you think he heard about your cousin’s daughter?”

Mike shrugged. “I have no idea, but my dad hasn’t had any use for me in ten years, so I highly doubt he’s back for a heartwarming reunion.”

Tuck shrugged. “Just passing along the message.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

He pushed his rising discomfort down and focused on the paperwork in front of him. This was precisely why he was at the station—to bury himself in work. He had a feeling that whether he wanted it to or not, his life was about to tip upside down.

* * *

MALORY PUT THE LAST of the dishes into the dishwasher and closed it. Upstairs, Katy was already in bed for the night, her hair damp from her bath and her bear clutched in her arms. She’d refused to have her hair combed, and Malory hadn’t pressed the point. She’d fallen asleep almost immediately after Malory kissed her good-night, the exhaustion of the past few days catching up with her.

Outside the kitchen window, the evening sunlight slanted low and golden across the backyard. The oak tree cast a long shadow, leaves rustling in the warm summer wind. This was the kind of backyard that begged for a tire swing or sandbox.