Perfect Night (Mason Creek)

“Jack!” I flinched, putting my hand to my chest as if that could slow my racing heart. I glanced up to find him standing in the doorway. I hadn’t heard the tinkling bells chimes from my motion detector app to alert me of movement outside the side door to the parking lot. I’d been so engrossed with what I was doing.

“We need to talk,” he said. Not waiting for me to invite him in, he sat in the chair on the other side of the desk facing me. He hadn’t closed the office door. No one else was at the bar but us.

“Yes. I do have time to talk. Thanks for asking,” I said sardonically.

“Emma, I’m not your enemy unless I have to be.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, thanks for that. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.”

He clucked his tongue. “I love this bar as much as your father did. That’s why he asked me to take it over from him when the time came.”

“You act like I wasn’t here longer than you. I spent my days after school in this very office doing homework after my mother died. I don’t even think you were working here back then.”

“Doing homework is a far cry from running the bar. You always had one foot in and one foot out. That’s why your father asked me and not you to run the place after him.” His resentment rolled off him like waves.

“You want things to go back to the way they were before?” I accused.

“Yes.”

“You want to run things while I pop in and out like when Dad was around?”

“Yes.”

“Or preferably you want me to sell you the place and walk away?”

“Yes.” His sneer had grown with each response.

I clasped my hands and leaned on the desk in his direction. “I’m sorry to inform you, I haven’t made a decision as to what I’m going to do.”

He didn’t back down and leaned toward me as if we needed to whisper so we wouldn’t be overhead. “Have you even looked over his will?” When I blanched, he added, “Maybe you have and realized he made provisions for me to take over because he didn’t want your arrogant punk ass boyfriend to get his hands on it.”

Any smart alec remarks I could have made died in my throat. He got to his feet.

“I’m going to do inventory, Boss,” he said the title like it tasted bad. “If you don’t mind.”

I shook my head. Before he left, he turned back, and I waited for the next barb to leave his sharp-edged tongue. “I may not like your fiancé,” he snapped. “But your father would be disappointed over how you’re carrying on with the new chief deputy sheriff while you’re engaged.”

Gaping didn’t quite describe how I had to pick my jaw off the floor after he left. I thought too late to call out and tell him Aiden and I were just friends. The moment had passed, and the line between Jack and I was drawn.

However, what took my complete attention was the fact that I hadn’t thought about Dad’s will. I’d gotten through the funeral and requested Aiden’s help investigating my father’s death. However, it had never dawned on me that Dad might have left the bar to Jack to buy or to outright give it to him. I had made my intention of leaving Mason Creek for good one day clear to Dad. So, Jack could be right.

The will wasn’t here in the office from what I could see. Unless it had been, and Jack had gotten his hands on it. I would have to go home to check if it wasn’t there before making any more assumptions.

I grabbed the deposit bag and my purse. I closed the office door and didn’t bother to check in with Jack. He’d made it clear I didn’t need to babysit him, and I hadn’t found any reasons so far to dispute that.

I drove over to Brandford Bank to make the deposit. On the way inside, everyone I passed seemed to glance at me, then at the sheriff’s station next door as if waiting to see if that was my destination. I groaned, remembering Aiden’s jaw tightening when I told him about Hattie and Hazel seeing me in his shirt.

Had he been getting the same grief and scrutiny I had even though he hadn’t admitted it? Likely, and I felt awful. Last thing he needed would be labeled as a fiancée stealer even though no one in town would be loyal to Evan. I sighed and entered the bank. I hoped I didn’t get asked a dozen questions about my relationship status while I was there.

Lucky me, I was the only one inside. The teller was young, barely out of high school. Based on her face, I was sure I knew her parents though I didn’t bring it up. She seemed more interested in getting me out so she could go back to whatever she was doing on her phone.