Anna Stewart - Always The Hero

He leaned forward, set his jaw. How messed up did he have to be to give credence to anything his long-dead father would have thought, especially when it came to what constituted failure? It was time to make this final break and move on with his life. If he didn’t owe that to himself, he certainly owed it to Kyle Winters. What kind of example would he be setting for the kid if Matt couldn’t put his own past aside? Besides, there were bonuses to starting fresh.

Bonuses like Lori Bradley.

His lips curved as an image of the lush, generous, quiet brunette with eyes as green as spring grass appeared in his mind.

The tip of the pen hovered.

“You can stare at that piece of paper as long as you want.” Deputy Oswald “Ozzy” Lakeman’s voice drifted across the small station house. “Whatever it says, it’s not going to change.”

Matt clicked his pen shut, tossed it onto the desk. He sat back in his creaking spring-loaded chair and swore he heard his divorce papers laugh at him. He looked over and found Ozzy grinning at him before he snapped his teeth through one of those mini carrots he’d been munching on of late.

“I thought you were taking Fletch’s patrol this afternoon,” Matt said.

“I am.” Ozzy leaned back and looked up at the station clock. He clicked his tongue. “Still have a few minutes to bug you. How am I doing?”

“At bugging me? Stellar performance, as always.” The banter came easily, as it had when he was in the army. The soldiers he’d served with had been his friends, his family. At times, he had to shake off the guilt that he had a new family now, a new group of friends while his fellow grunts... He swallowed the bitterness and grief.

Chances were Ozzy appreciated the downtime as much as he did. With Butterfly Harbor’s annual Monarch Festival less than a month away, the entire township was flitting around, prettying up store windows, touching up paintwork, finalizing sponsorship plans and making certain the soon-to-arrive tourists were given the best show possible when it came to the Pacific Coast tourist town.

Everyone was too busy to get into much trouble save for the occasional parking and noise ordinance violations. That was just fine with Matt, but he’d lived long enough—and hard enough—to know the quiet wouldn’t last. “Do we have an ETA on when Luke’s back in the office?”

“Chief’s due back tomorrow morning according to Holly,” Ozzy said, referencing the owner of the Butterfly Diner and their boss’s wife. “We should have a full house again now that Fletch has returned from his honeymoon. Oh, hey, Jasper.” Ozzy glanced up at the teen hobbling out of the bathroom on crutches. “I unearthed a new box of files that need to be digitized. When you’re caught up.”

“On it.” Jasper O’Neill clicked his way over to the desk they’d given him last month and dropped into his chair. “Can’t wait to be off these things.” He leaned over and set the crutches against the wall before logging back on to his computer.

“It’s been almost six weeks.” Matt couldn’t believe that much time had passed since the teen had nearly gotten himself killed playing amateur detective. That Jasper had been the prime suspect in the string of increasingly disturbing break-ins and vandalism had been a driving factor. The kid hadn’t done himself any favors by dressing like death and taking pleasure in making people feel uncomfortable. But when the smoke cleared, the sheriff and his deputies had decided to take Jasper on. The boy’s determination and cleverness couldn’t be ignored. The part-time position with the police department allowed him to continue with his forensics studies, stay out of trouble and earn some serious résumé references.

“Only ten days to go.” Jasper swiped his hand over too-long bangs that covered dark eyes. “Then you guys will have to start taking me on patrol with you.”

Matt grinned. “We’ll see about that.” Personally, Matt was hoping Jasper would be up for renewing his friendship with Kyle. Jasper could be a good influence on him.

Matt pushed his chair back, stretched out his prosthetic leg and waited for the gentle click that, had he not left his actual leg on a dirt road in Iraq, would have felt like a muscle easing into place. “With Luke and Fletcher both out, I guess that means I’m on deck for the town council meeting tonight.” Matt barely resisted the urge to groan. What a way to spend a Friday night. He’d seen the setup coming for weeks; his coworkers’ planned absences that would ensure he’d be the one to make the final push for the sheriff’s department’s contribution to the Monarch Festival. The annual fall event was, at least until the new butterfly sanctuary was built, the town’s biggest claim to fame—and its biggest tourist draw. From the Butterfly Diner, to Harvey’s Hardware, to the Flutterby Inn, businesses were snapping up sponsorships and initiatives like nobody’s business.

While his boss and fellow deputies agreed they needed to participate, they’d also decided to focus on a job that would be of benefit beyond a week’s worth of events and activities. He pinned Ozzy with a determined, hopeful stare. “Unless you’d like to—”

“Not on your life.” Ozzy held up his hands as if shielding himself from a radiation blast. “Not on my life. Not on anyone’s life.”

Jasper chuckled as he tapped away on his keyboard.

“As long as you’re sure,” Matt mumbled. “You could at least come with me.” It made sense. Despite living in Butterfly Harbor for almost three years, Matt was still considered a newcomer. Before becoming a deputy, he’d mostly kept to himself having moved here alone after his separation. Not that he hadn’t piqued his neighbors’ curiosity, but he kept his private life private. As far as anyone in town knew, he was an unencumbered bachelor. Ozzy, on the other hand, had been born and raised here, which meant everyone knew his business. “I could use the backup.”

“No offense, but the only way I’d voluntarily attend the Mayor Hamilton show is if it was a direct order from my boss.” Ozzy visibly shuddered. “Lucky for me, that is not you.”

“But you’re good at throwing me under the bus,” Matt said.

“Yep. You don’t have a history with Gil.” Ozzy ducked his round face out of sight at the mention of the mayor. “And it’s not as if he’d take anything I have to say seriously anyway. I know what he thinks of me.”

Matt flicked his thumb across the stack of divorce papers as anger simmered low and hot. “And what’s that?”

“That I’m a drag on the department.” Ozzy flinched as if speaking the words out loud hurt. “Word is he’s planning on instituting physical fitness requirements for all of us in the department. Like what they do over in Durante.”

“I bet Luke will have a thing or two to say about that.” When Ozzy didn’t respond, Matt prodded deeper. “Is that what all this diet stuff’s been about, Oz? You worried about keeping your job?”

“No.”

“Oz.” Matt used the same tone with the younger deputy that he had with new recruits. Granted, Ozzy wasn’t about to walk into a war zone, but sometimes the same medicine worked on different ailments. “What’s going on?”

Oz shook his head. “It’s not a big deal, Matt. You know how Gil is.”

“Yes, I do.” One of the reasons Matt wasn’t overly fond of their mayor. If it wasn’t for Ozzy’s tech know-how and efficient computer skills, they’d still be typing on Selectric typewriters and stuffing the wooden filing cabinets to the point of overflowing. “I’ll tell you something right now, Oz. If you’re looking to lose weight to appease anyone other than yourself, it won’t work in the long run. Short term, maybe.”