Southern Chance (Southern 1)

“Well, for one, we have to eliminate that it isn’t her boyfriend looking for her,” Grady says, tapping his finger on the table.

“I’m single,” I say. “We can eliminate me from this.”

“Good to know,” Grady says and smiles shyly at me.

“Well, if we’re finished with the dating game,” Jacob says, and I still don’t look over at him. “Olivia, do you know how many people we are talking about?”

“The last count was eighty-nine people,” she says, and she shakes her head. “I had no idea that he used their money for his lifestyle.”

“I am going to reach out to the detective on the case,” Jacob says, and the guys around the table nod. None of them really says anything, and if I can say, they all look like badasses. Each one of them is muscled, wearing a white T-shirt, and I have to wonder if maybe it’s the uniform. They actually look like they can do calendars. “I want all eyes open,” Jacob says. “I also want one car parked at the Barnes’ residence overnight. We will have a rotation,” he says, and I wonder if he will be there one night. “Other than that, we should be on the lookout for anyone we don’t know coming through town.”

“That should be easy,” one of the guys says, laughing, “especially with summer coming.”

“It’ll be hard, but we can have a couple of feelers out. I’m going to touch base with the fire commander also,” Jacob says. “I’ll have more tomorrow.” When the guys all get up, I assume the meeting is over, so I move to get up. I put my hand down on the table, and our hands touch. Even though I snatch my hand back as fast as I can, I can’t stop the tingle that remains from his touch.

“Before you guys go,” Jacob says, “I want to see you in my office.” He looks over at Casey and Grady. “Grady, can you join us?”

“Are you okay?” I ask Olivia, who nods her head.

“I could ask you the same,” she mumbles. We walk out of the office, and I wait for Casey to walk in front of us into Jacob’s office. I look around and spot a picture of his father’s official portrait on the wall with the recommendations he got when he was sheriff. Beside him is a picture of Jacob smiling.

I cross my arms over my chest, and my eyes find the picture behind his desk. His arm is wrapped around Savannah with their son in front of him. I try not to let it hurt. The perfect smiles on the faces of his perfect family. “Excuse me,” I say, “I need the restroom.”

“I’ll take her,” Grady says, and I look at Olivia, who looks at me, knowing I saw the picture. “This way,” he says, putting his hand on my lower back and ushering me to the bathroom at the end of the hall.

“Thank you.” Looking at him, I know I should find him hot. He is hot—blond hair, blue eyes, nice body—but it’s just like all the others. Nothing makes my heart flutter.

“I’ll wait for you here,” he says, and I just smile at him. I enter the bathroom and close the door. My head falls on the cold door as the tears escape my eyes. I close my eyes and let the tears fall down my cheeks.

“One of these days, it won’t hurt,” I whisper to myself. “One of these days.” Turning, I walk over to the sink and turn on the cold water. Wetting one of the brown paper towels that they have, I dab at my cheeks. I try to make myself presentable, but it’s obvious I was crying. Tossing the paper in the garbage, I take a deep breath and open the door, and Grady turns to face me from the middle of the room. His phone is in his hand, and he looks at me.

“Are you okay?” he asks softly, coming to stand in front of me.

“Yeah,” I say, looking down and trying to think of something that isn’t as depressing as pining after the man who broke your heart and had a family with someone else.

He puts his hand on my arm. “It’s going to be okay, Kallie.” I look up and smile at him. “I promise that nothing will happen to you.”

I’m about to thank him for being kind. “Grady, you think you can join us in a meeting?” Jacob says from the doorway, and I look over at him. He stands there, and I want him to look horrible, but he doesn’t.

“I was waiting for Kallie,” Grady says. “We’re coming now.”

We walk back into the office, and I ignore the leers coming from Jacob. I also ignore looking at anything but my feet. I don’t know what is discussed. I can’t even tell you anything. The only thing I know is that the longer I stay in this room, the more I feel my skin crawling. “Let’s get out of here.” I hear Casey, and I’m the first one to turn and walk out of the room but not before I spot one more photograph.