Hot as Heller (Aster Valley 3)

Her words were the typical roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. On the one hand, she was proud of me. Up. On the other, she saw me as Chip Clover. Down. She appreciated my acting chops. Up. But she thought it had led me to a place I really wanted to be. Down.

“Thank you. Did you need something? Otherwise, I’m going to grab breakfast and get to work.”

She waved her hand in the air. “Oh, no. I just stopped by to… see how you were. I’m going to head back home this afternoon, but I was hoping you might let me watch whatever shoot you have today. I already ran it past Nolan, and he said it was fine.”

My stomach dropped. “You… you already asked the director…” I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know. “How… how do you…” I bit my teeth together to fight sudden nausea. “Do you know Nolan Trainor?”

“Honey, everyone knows Nolan Trainor. Don’t be ridiculous.” She rummaged in her designer purse for something. “I happened to run into him this morning when I got to the set. He was very welcoming.”

“How welcoming?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

My mother’s blush and avoidance of eye contact told me all I needed to know about the truth of Kix’s words.

I was gutted.

“Mom,” I said, voice cracking. “Please tell me you didn’t—”

Her eyes snapped to mine. “What I do in private is none of your business, understand me? None. And if you think for one minute someone with Nolan Trainor’s reputation would ever cast someone who wasn’t the right choice for the role, well, then you don’t know Nolan Trainor.”

I thought of all the smack talk I’d heard over the years about Nolan. How he was a player with a giant ego. He loved to be known for being edgy and pushing boundaries. How he treated people like commodities.

And suddenly, I was simply done.

I nodded and smiled at my mother the best I could. “Thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me. I know it wasn’t easy being practically a child yourself when you were tasked with raising one. And I can’t imagine what it would have been like growing up gay in Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Because of you, I can live the life I want and make whatever choice I want for my future. Please don’t ever think I’m ungrateful for that, because I’m not. Because of you and this work, I’m able to follow my dreams.”

And my words were true. She just didn’t know what dreams I was referring to.

21

Declan

When I got to the office after dropping Finn off in town, I was whisked right into one situation after another. Mrs. Brainthwaite’s car had been stolen again, only this time she had the video doorbell. After figuring out how to retrieve the footage, we saw it was Mrs. Brainthwaite herself who’d driven off in the vehicle before being dropped back home an hour later by her sister.

We contacted Alicia to ask how she’d come to bring her sister home and discovered Mrs. Brainthwaite had been turning up at Alicia’s house mysteriously from time to time with no recollection of how she’d gotten there. Alicia lived within easy walking distance of all the locations the car had been abandoned in.

Unfortunately, Alicia was now tasked with making sure Mrs. Brainthwaite got the proper medical assessments, and I was tasked with recommending she voluntarily give up her driving license until and unless a doctor could approve her mental clarity.

It was a sad situation all around, but I was glad to at least not have to interrogate Solo’s friends. I hadn’t wanted to believe any of them would have used possible information from Solo’s job running errands to take advantage of the older woman, but I’d been at my wit’s end on finding the answer to the abandoned car mystery.

With that solved, I moved on to scheduling some additional training for Rolly and putting in a request for an additional part-time deputy now that tourism was picking back up in Aster Valley. Crime hadn’t increased at all, but other needs were. Patrol requests, motor vehicle incidents, noise and disorderly complaints, and trespass violations were up. We needed a part-timer now, and we’d need to add a couple more full-timers as soon as the ski resort opened. I made a note to contact Tiller and Mikey to discuss their plans.

The day went by in a blink the way it usually did. This job kept me on my toes, and I loved that part of it. Shawn came in for a late shift with a goofy grin on his face and confessed to having real feelings for Tessa. He poked his head in my office to say hello and told me he’d had lunch with her.

“I’m going on that annual fishing trip I told you about with my dad and my brother tomorrow, and I think I’m going to tell them about her. I know it’s quick, though. I don’t want to freak her out or anything, but she’s like… god, Declan. She’s everything. You know?”