Prince Charming Wears A Badge

Callie was quiet as conversations continued around her. Poppy suddenly grabbed her arm and said, “I want to introduce the two of you.” She guided Callie over to a handsome man, close to Poppy’s age, with a healthy tan and thick salt-and-pepper hair. “This is Gino Borelli. He’s moving in next weekend.” Poppy and Gino made eye contact and Callie could have sworn there was a spark between them. “And this is Callie James,” Poppy told Gino. “She moved in yesterday.”

“Hello there, neighbor,” Gino said as he and Callie shook hands.

“Are you new in town?” Callie asked before he could ask her anything.

He shrugged. “Not new. I lived here a long time ago. Now my business has brought me back and I can once again be in the company of this lovely lady.” He gestured to Poppy. His words would have sounded silly if not for his faint Italian accent.

Poppy must have thought so, too, because she was blushing like an adolescent.

“Let’s get going,” someone finally said, and the gathering moved out of the building and onto the sidewalk. Back at the community center, they’d been given reflective vests to wear. There was nowhere to hide when you were wearing bright orange.

In all the discussion going on, Callie didn’t hear where they were going to do this cleanup. So she just followed along with the group of about a dozen people.

They walked quite a ways before stopping. “This is our street,” a woman announced. Callie couldn’t remember her name, but did recall the woman seemed overly excited to be doing this task. “Let’s divide into two groups and each take one side of the road. I have extra garbage bags when you need them.” Along with the reflective vests, they’d been given two orange trash bags each. “When a bag is full, tie it carefully and leave it on the shoulder. A county trash truck will pick them up later.”

That was a relief. At least they didn’t have to haul other people’s garbage back to where they’d started.

As the group divided into two, Callie found herself with Poppy and Gino, as well as three others. Callie donned her rubber gloves and noticed she wasn’t the only one who’d brought them. Then they fanned out on their side of the street and began the arduous task of picking up garbage.

Callie was amazed at the stuff she found. She had a difficult time deciding what was worse—the used condoms that she’d covered with dead leaves before picking them up, or the used diapers that had been neatly balled up and tossed on the side of the road.

On second thought, that clear plastic container with a half-eaten sandwich covered with maggots was definitely the worst thing she’d had to deal with.

She could only imagine what Tyler had in store for her tomorrow since, after today, she would still have ninety-two of her one hundred service hours to complete.

* * *

WHEN SHE RETURNED to Poppy’s, the first thing Callie did was strip down and shower until she felt clean again. Between the heat and the disgusting trash, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to wash it all off.

Before leaving the community center, Callie had told Poppy that she wouldn’t be around for dinner. She was sure Poppy wondered what was going on with her, but she only said there would be leftovers in the fridge if Callie changed her mind.

In truth, when Callie smelled dinner cooking after she’d showered, she realized she was starving. Maybe she could bring her dinner up to her room. That would satisfy her hunger and Tyler wouldn’t be upset about her being around his daughters.

There was a knock on her door.

“Come in.” She’d been reclining on the love seat by the window when Tyler opened her door and entered. She immediately sat up, her feet touching the floor.

“Hi.” He stood right inside her doorway, his hand on the doorknob. He wore his work uniform that somehow still looked fresh. It was black pants and a short-sleeved white shirt with epaulets, a gold badge on his breast pocket and an embroidered patch on one sleeve. His tan made him look even better in that short-sleeved, white dress shirt. Although not a look you’d find in GQ.

“Hi.” She clenched and unclenched her fists, not wanting to reveal how she felt about him not wanting her around his girls. Although, maybe he’d changed his mind and that was why he was here.

“I wanted to let you know that, for the next two days, your service hours will be at the community center. Poppy said everyone enjoyed having you today and they are spending the next two days doing a deep clean on the building.”

Great.

When she just looked at him, not saying a word, he continued. “Then on Friday, they open the center to serve dinner to those in need. So you’ll be cooking or doing whatever they need you to do.”

She still didn’t speak.

“Any questions?”

She shook her head.

“Is there something wrong?”

Should she ask him the question burning in her gut? She spoke before thinking it through. “Why don’t want me around your girls? What are you afraid of?”

He stepped farther into her room and turned away to shut the door for privacy. When he turned back to face her, his expression was serious.

“My girls have been through a lot before we came back to Whittler’s Creek. I don’t know the details of your arrest, but I know it had to do with malicious destruction of property.”

“That’s the charge, but I didn’t do it. I just have no way to prove my innocence.”

“That might be true,” he said, “but I can’t forget that you had quite a reputation for being a hothead when you were growing up here.”

Callie straightened. “A hothead?” What was he talking about? Her hands clenched so tight that her short nails dug into her palms. As a young child, she’d vented her frustration, but she’d soon learned that behavior only made matters worse. “Who told you that?”

“It doesn’t matter. Besides, I saw your temper for myself.”

“Are you talking about the night before I left for college?” Was he kidding?

“Yes. The night I walked you home after that party and you yelled at your stepmother.”

He was basing his opinion of her on that one night?

She spoke as calmly and deliberately as she was able. “First of all, that was eleven years ago. Second, I finally yelled back at my stepmother because I’d had enough over the years and I knew I was leaving the next morning.”

“What about the chair you threw?”

She narrowed her eyes. “What chair?”

“I stood outside your house to make sure you were okay when I heard all the commotion. That’s how I heard the argument between you and your stepmother. At one point, I heard a crash.”

“Why would you think I threw a chair?”

“After the crash, I heard your stepmother yell that you would have to pay for the chair you broke.”

“But you didn’t see me break it, did you?” She reminded herself to breathe, in and out, in and out.

“No, but you can’t deny what I heard.”

“That’s true. Those were my stepmother’s exact words.” Callie swallowed before admitting more to Tyler than she had to even her therapist. Like how her stepmother had blamed Callie for the broken chair because she’d claimed Callie had made her angry enough to throw it.

Luckily for Callie, she’d learned as a young child how to duck from flying objects when her stepmother became enraged.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_9f84a941-7037-5bc1-a990-85f92abe5f0f)

“FROM YOUR RESPONSE, there’s obviously more to the story,” Tyler said to Callie. “Why don’t you tell me what actually took place?”