Denise McDonald - Baker's Law

She’d gone to school with Jax Carlisle. He’d been two grades ahead of her, but everyone had known who he was. The captain of everything. Football, baseball, even the class president his senior year. The most popular guy at Oak Hollow High. Last she’d heard, he’d gone off to college and hadn’t come back since.

“You’re the new chief? Your mom must be…” She wanted to say pissed. Bunny Carlisle was nothing if not the epitome of upper-crust exclusivity. Her husband owned the country club across town and came from a long line of oilmen. Men who didn’t work for a living. “Does your mom know you’re the chief?”

He gave a quick nod and frowned at her. “Do I know you?”

“I doubt it.” She and Jax hadn’t run in any of the same circles. She hadn’t run in any circles. She’d done her best to blend into the walls once everyone hit puberty. She had escaped high school with nothing more than a horrible nickname. “I just can’t believe…” She shook herself, then waved him into the shop. “Sorry. I caught this young man—” She turned to the table where she’d left the teen. The seat was empty.

“Where’d he go?” She ran to the back of the store. The delivery door was closed but the empty crates next to it sat slightly askew.

Marissa stroked her hand through her bangs and turned to run smack-dab into Jax. “Sorry.” Damn, he was big. All hard muscles and sexy. She fought the urge to fan herself. He’d improved since high school. If that was even possible. Or fair.

“Stand back.” He pushed her behind him and drew his gun. He searched the stockroom, her office and the restroom. He came back to her side as he holstered his gun. “He’s gone.”

His comment almost pulled her from her hormone-laced assessment. Almost. She couldn’t stop staring. He would knock the wind out of someone with one lip-lock. Her nipples hardened under her T-shirt and thin bra. Rubbed uncomfortably as she shifted.

Marissa tore her gaze from Jax’s broad shoulders to find him staring at her breasts.

He cleared his throat. “Any signs of forced entry?”

She scrunched up her nose. “No.”

“Tell me what he looked like.” He removed a little notepad from his pocket.

Marissa described everything she could remember about the teen, right down to his bright backpack. “That’s all I can remember.” She shook her head and shrugged. “He…” She stifled a yawn and motioned for Jax to follow her back into the front of the shop. “He was here.” She walked over to the table. “I left him sitting right here.” She touched the tabletop.

“Did he hurt you?”

“Hurt me?” She shifted her gaze to her former classmate. “No.” She frowned. “I think he was doing his homework.”

“Homework? You called in a burglary.” He didn’t quite roll his eyes, but he might as well have. “Walk me through what happened.”

Marissa gave Jax—she couldn’t think of him as the new chief, not quite yet—a rundown of the recent break-ins to her shop, and why she’d stayed the night, up to when she found the young man sitting there.

Jax looked up from the notebook. “Do you know who he was?”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen him, but no.”

“Was anything missing?”

This was going to sound ridiculous. Why did she have to say it in front of Jax Carlisle? She bit her lip for a moment, then just blurted it out. “A cupcake.”

“A single cupcake?” Jax looked like he had better things to do than search for her cupcake thief.

“I don’t know where he went.” A huge yawn escaped before she could stop it. “What time is it?”

He glanced at his watch. “A little after three.”

Marissa groaned. Normally, she’d come in to the shop at eight to start baking for the 10:00 a.m. opening. She would get next to no sleep tonight if she drove home all the way across town to then turn right back around and do it all over again a couple of hours later. “I’m sorry you had to come out this late for nothing.” Marissa started to wave him back toward the front of the shop but then stopped. “Hang on a sec,” she said before he pushed out the door.

She hurried back to the kitchen and boxed up a few day-old cupcakes. She usually took them over to her sister or their dad once Kya showed up for her shift. She found Jax standing where she’d left him near the front door. “Here.” She offered him the box when she reached him. “For coming out so late.” She frowned for a second. “Or early.”

He stared at the box. “I’m just doing my job.”

“Then as a welcome home.” She jiggled the box and gave him a tentative smile.

He took the box and stared at her for a long moment. “I do know you. We went to high school together. You’re Lulu.”

Her first instinct was to run and hide. It had been years since anyone had called her that. Lulu. The nickname had started when she was in the seventh grade and a little pudgy. Moo-Moo Llewellyn had stuck for a few months, then been shortened to simply Lulu. By her senior year, some of the kids hadn’t even known her actual name. Thankfully, after graduation it had died away. She’d never have guessed Jax Carlisle knew it or would remember it.

She wasn’t that awkward teen any longer, and she wasn’t going to let Chief McHottypants get to her. “My name is Marissa. And if there’s nothing else…” She pushed him out the door. “Good night.”

Jax moved aside to avoid getting hit by the door. Once Marissa locked it, she turned, headed back through the small shop and never looked back. The lights went out, leaving the bakery barely lit, and all the while he stood in front of the shop holding a box of desserts.

What had he said that had made her so mad, so quickly? And there was no doubt he’d upset her. He frowned. She had been one of the few students who hadn’t fallen over themselves to be near him. At the time he’d soaked up the attention, taken advantage of his godlike status.

It had made him cocky back then. Now he hoped no one remembered.

When the call had come in to the station, her name hadn’t immediately registered. He’d known several Llewellyns growing up. Two boys, both older than him, and two younger twin girls. They’d lived on the other side of the tracks. Literally. The railroad separated the tax brackets in Oak Hollow. His mom had never out-and-out forbade him to hang out with someone from “the other side,” but as they didn’t spin in her circle—and couldn’t pay the ridiculous annual club dues—she didn’t acknowledge them.

It was his mother’s narrow-mindedness that had kept him away for so many years. Partly because of how wrong it was and partly because his senior year of high school he’d started to buy into it all. When he’d gone off to the University of Texas he’d been a nobody. The school was huge and he’d melted into the crowd like every other freshman. At first it had grated on his over-inflated ego. Then he’d realized how hard it’d been to keep up the pretenses the Carlisles were “obligated” to foster.

Once he’d gotten out of school, Austin was as good as place as any to put down roots. He’d gotten a basic degree and wasn’t entirely sure where he wanted to go with his life once he graduated, but law enforcement ran in his blood. It was too blue-collar for his mother to ever acknowledge, but in the back of his mind he’d always entertained the idea of joining the force, so he decided to give it a try. Once he got out of the academy, he’d known it was a great fit for him and he’d settled into his job and his adopted town.

As the years went on, though, there were days when he longed for the familiarity of his hometown, his friends and, even if it was hard to admit, his family. He had stayed in touch with several of his true friends, the ones who had stuck around when his mother cut him off for not following in the long Carlisle steps.