Crashing Into You

Chapter 3

Calder

Maggie. I smile asI watch her walk away. She’s gorgeous. Dark brown hair that curls around her shoulders. Big green eyes that sparkle like emeralds. Jeans that hug her shapely ass. She isn’t tall. I would put her at maybe five three in heels. At nearly six foot, I tower over her. The newcomer intrigues me. We get tourist when the turtles are in hatching season, but no one just moves to our small seasonal town who doesn’t already have ties here. I don’t know what she’s doing here but I look forward to learning all about her.

Walking into the station, I’m ready to get my final day of probation over. No more desk duty for me after this shift. “Calder, get your ass in my office,” Sheriff Big Jim Lennox booms from his doorway.

“Right away, sir.” His son, Little Jim gives me a dirty look as I pass by his desk. Only reason that prick has a job as deputy is because his daddy is sheriff. The bastard is mean and dumb as a box of rocks. Everyone dislikes him, especially me. He dated my sister when he was in high school. Never treated her too nice. If it weren’t for him, she might still be here. He wasn’t behind the wheel, but he might as well have been. Walking into Jim’s office I take a seat weary of the scowl on his face. The prominent vein in his neck is bulging out as he lights up a cigarette and takes a hard drag. Coffee stains mark the right side of his tan shirt.

“Calder, I’m going to be straight. If anyone else had pulled the shit you did, they’d be fired, but I like your family and you do a damn good job here. You earned these.” He opens up the bottom drawer of his desk, tosses my badge at me, and places my gun on the top of his desk.

I know I must look confused.

“Probation is over. Change into your uniform and get down to the garage and pick up your car. The repairs are done and you’re on your usual route.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.” I shake his weathered shaky hand and pick up my gun. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few months back. His condition is steadily deteriorating but that is privileged information that I overhead my parents discussing over Sunday dinner. My dad owns the only doctor’s office in town and my mother runs a non-profit. The nearest hospital is a thirty-minute drive. Crimson Cove is our own little slice of paradise away from the rest of the world. We don’t have fast food or big chain stores. Most of our residents don’t even have cell phones. People are set in their ways. All the town businesses are family owned and operated. Everyone knows one another. We only have one school. If Mayberry were real, the Cove is it.

Dressed in my uniform, I head over to Tuck’s garage to get my police cruiser. As I pass by the town library, I spot Maggie sitting on a bench. Her dark hair is now resting in a knot on the top of her head. A few flyaway strands wisp around her face as she chews on the end of an ink pen appearing dep in thought. I start to call out to her but think better of it. I don’t want her thinking that I am a stalker or something.

I walk into the garage and find Tuck under the hood of Mr. Palmer’s truck. The thing is older than dirt. He’s drove that truck longer than I’ve been breathing. I’ve threatened to write him a ticket for polluting the air with that hunk of junk. I banned him from driving it past the schoolhouse after I witnessed the kids gagging to death from the fumes while they were out on the playground. That old bastard is stubborn as hell though. I swear he drives it past there just to spite me.

“Hey, Tuck. I’m here to pick up my cruiser.”

He pokes his head around the hood and wipes his dirty hand on his coveralls. “Well she’s good as new. Can’t even tell you wrapped her around that curve and hit that guardrail.” He clamps a hand on my shoulder and gives me a squeeze before walking into the office. “You got real lucky. Someone was watching over you.”

I grimace. Luck had nothing to do with it. That guardrail saved my life. “Appreciate it, Tuck.” He drops the keys in my awaiting palm.

Pulling his hat off he wipes a towel over his bald spot. “Drive safe.”

“Will do.”  I leave through the bay of the garage to find my cruiser in the lot and climb inside the driver’s side seat happy to escape the smell of grease and oil. I pull out and go to my usual spot. It’s a speed trap but no one hardly exceeds the limit. Only out of towners and we rarely see them.

I see a total of six cars in two hours.

Lunch time rolls around and I make my way back into town to Luna’s Diner for a burger and a chocolate milkshake. The bell on the door chimes with my entrance. I can’t help but grin when I see Maggie dressed in a waitress uniform looking like she stepped out of the 1950s. Her hair is now in a low hanging ponytail and her hand touches her neck the moment she sees me. Wide eyed, dressed in a cotton blue dress that’s trimmed in white her lips part.

“You following me, officer?”

“Nope. I happen to eat at this fine establishment almost every day. Thank you very much.” I decide to sit at a booth by the window today instead of at the counter.

Maggie follows me, pulling a pen and a small pad of tickets from her white apron. “What can I get you?”