“They’ll be, like, a year apart,” Chip says.
“Um, no. Weren’t you listening to my report? Sources say she’s about five months along. Which means the baby will be here right after the holidays.” The excitement in Nikki’s voice pulls a reluctant smile out of me.
A baby in only a few months.
“Why did she wait so long to tell him?” Chip asks the pointed question.
The question I wanted an answer to. The same question Allie had a good excuse for. I never returned her phone call. She was scared. Had she left me a voice mail and told me she was pregnant, I guarantee I would have called.
“Knowing Fisher, he dodged her after they slept together.”
Nikki’s words are a quick slash to the heart. Mostly because they ring true.
“He isn’t exactly marriage material.”
God, can Chip just shut the fuck up? I press harder on the accelerator.
“Let me just say, I’ve done the math, and I’m pretty sure that around the time Allie would’ve gotten pregnant, my grandma Ethel and her friend Dori were on their typical fix-up mission at our annual summer bash.”
“Ethel’s not actually your grandma,” Chip says.
I shake my head because one day Nikki is going to lose her shit and go ballistic on Chip in the studio, and no strings I can pull will help her. The entire town will have overheard her committing murder.
“She is my grandma. Maybe not by blood, but I love her like a grandma. Jeez, Chip, you’re awfully chatty this morning. If this keeps up, I’m taking away your coffee privileges at The Grind.”
“You can’t do that.” He sounds like a temperamental two-year-old.
“Zoe is a dear friend, and let’s remember she dates my husband’s trainer.”
“Former trainer,” Chip says.
I choke out a laugh as though Nikki’s in front of me and I’m in danger of catching her wrath if she sees me laughing.
“Chip!” she shouts. “My hormones still aren’t all back to normal.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I can strangle you to death and have an excuse.”
The phone in the studio starts ringing, and I shake my head, listening to the chaos of her morning show. She’ll probably be asking for a bottle of vodka in a minute. But I can’t feel too bad given that Nikki’s outed me before I’ve even had a chance to speak to anyone in my family, let alone figure shit out with Allie.
“Why are you patching a call through, Matt?” Nikki asks. There’s a pause and Nikki grunts. “Hi, Ethel.”
“Dori’s here too,” the other woman says.
“Hi, Dori,” Nikki says with a groan.
“I just want to say thank you. I’m all teary-eyed over here with your words about loving me like a grandma,” Grandma says.
Nikki sighs. “I do.”
“I do too.” Grandma sniffles.
What a shit show.
“Now, Chip, I’d be looking over your shoulder from now on. Where do you get off saying Nikki’s not my granddaughter?”
“Ethel… I—”
“No excuses. Watch yourself. We have canes and tennis balls under our walkers. You never know, one of us might just go a little crazy one of these days.” There’s no levity in her voice because Grandma is always on the defensive when it comes to her grandchildren, step included.
“Oh, come on,” Chip whines.
“You should be happy I don’t take you over my knee,” Ethel says, and Dori laughs in the background.
“I have to finish the show now,” Nikki interrupts Grandma’s threat.
“Okay, sweetie, good job on the news.”
“Fisher might be mad,” Nikki says, sounding concerned.
“Then he should have kept it zipped up.”
I feel a rush of heat to my cheeks. My grandma, thinking about me having sex, sends a shiver down my spine.
Nikki laughs. “Very true. Bye, ladies.”
They each say goodbye, and if there is a god, this means the segment is over.
“Now, what was I saying…” Nikki trails off. “Oh yes, so at the barbecue, Ethel and Dori brought Allie to try to fix her up with Jed or Cam.”
“Cameron Baker?” Chip asks with a laugh.
“I know, right? But they had good intentions. They didn’t know then that Jed was messing around with my BFF. But Fisher resembled a dog protecting his bowl the minute Allie showed up. He didn’t like the idea of her being fixed up with one of his brothers or his best friend.”
“Interesting. So you think Allie might be the one? But he didn’t answer her phone call for five months, right?”
“Rumor has it. But from what I know about Allie, I’m not sure she’d chase him down. Besides, she ran away too. She left the hospital and went to work in Lake Starlight, which I bet is no coincidence. It tells me that Fisher must’ve hurt her.”
Maybe Nikki should put her talents for digging up intel to work for the FBI.
“He’ll have to grovel,” Chip says.
I inhale deeply, hoping to relieve some of the guilt weighing heavy in my heart.
“Well, if Fisher wants Allie, he better put his ego aside.”
“Then again, he might not care.”
I sip the to-go cup of coffee Tad gave me. I’m going to need the extra dose of caffeine to get me through today because I slept like shit last night, even if Allie did let me sleep in.
“No man who doesn’t care waits until three in the morning to talk to a woman and takes her back to his place. Believe me, folks, I know a lot of you feel as though our sheriff doesn’t have it in him, but I call bullshit. I bet Fisher is married before year’s end.”
The coffee sprays out of my mouth all over the inside of my windshield. “Damn it!”
“I’ll take the bet,” Chip says, and now I want to strangle Chip again.
I shut off the radio, not wanting to know anything else they have to say.
Once I’m parked in the parking lot of the Sunrise Bay Sheriff’s Office, I open my glove compartment to grab some napkins to clean up the mess. All it does is smear all over the glass.
“Fucking hell.” I open up the truck door, grab my coffee, and slam it shut.
The second I open the door of the office, Lilian greets me with a smile and a blush that makes me think she spotted me through the window and just ran back to her desk after gossiping about me with our coworkers.
“Lilian,” I say, nodding and walking by her.
“Mornin’, Sheriff Greene.”
I walk past the few desks to my office, ignoring everyone murmuring hello because they’re too afraid to make eye contact with me. I’m not an idiot. I know Nikki’s radio station was just playing in here. It is every day.
By the time I reach my office, I want to hurl my coffee at the damn door. I flop down in my chair as my cell phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket and see Cade’s name on the screen. Of course my older brother wants to check up on me. The poor guy’s been trying to make sure we’re all okay since our mom died.
A knock on the door stops me from answering the call.
“Come in,” I say in the gruff tone most are used to with me.
“Good mornin’.” Mato comes into my office and sits in the chair across from my desk.