Love a Little Sideways Read online

Paige emerged from the office, and Liz could tell by the rosy glow she’d been on the phone with Mitch. “Sorry to disappear, Liz. Everything going okay out here?”

  “Except for the part where she harasses customers about their food choices,” Drew said in a dry tone.

  Paige’s eyes got big for a few seconds before she relaxed with a shaky laugh. “It’s funny, but because I only met you at our wedding and you just moved back, sometimes I forget everybody knows you. Here I am worried about how you’re treating our police chief, when you guys already have this whole history together.”

  Drew choked and ended up downing half his soda before he could talk again. “Sorry, went down the wrong pipe.”

  Liz left Paige to fuss over him, but she gave him an eye roll behind her sister-in-law’s back. Hopefully Paige would never know just how much of a shared history they had.

  Chapter Five

  Business meetings at the Trailside Diner were the norm for Drew. At least a few times per month, somebody would suggest they talk over lunch to save time.

  Today he was sharing a booth with Dave Camden, who served as the school resource officer, as well as the school principal. With another academic year behind them, Drew liked to look back at the department’s relationship with the school to see what they’d done right and what they could do better in the fall. Since Dave was fairly young and it had been his first year as SRO, it was even more important than usual.

  He managed to keep his mind on topic when the topic was school safety, but as the others digressed, so did his thoughts.

  Liz had greeted them all warmly when they’d sat down, setting them up with menus and drinks, but he thought there had been a little extra warmth in the smile she gave him. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but he didn’t think so.

  She looked totally natural in the diner, he thought as he watched her work. It was only her third day, but she was obviously comfortable with the work and the customers. And she looked like she enjoyed it, too. With one ear on the conversation, in case it turned back to something important, he watched her clean up as most of the customers left and then turn to prep for dinner.

  When his meeting finally broke up, he shook hands with the principal and told Dave he’d meet him back at the station in a while. Then he took what was left of his soda and moved to a seat at the counter. Liz was in the process of restocking the salt and pepper shakers and the sugar bowls, but she stopped when she got to him.

  “I saw you walk in with that woman and thought maybe you were on a date,” she said with a small smile that looked a little tight.

  “I haven’t dated anybody since my divorce. Except, you know. Not that that was a date, I guess.” Rather than keep shoving his foot in his mouth, he shut up.

  “Really? I’m surprised the single women in Whitford didn’t jump all over you.”

  “We get a lot more baked goods dropped off at the station than we used to.” Since she’d brought up dating, he figured it was a good time to ask the question he’d been wondering about. “So everybody in Whitford knows why Mallory and I split. What happened with you and...what was his name? Darren?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing happened, which was a big part of the problem, I guess. I told him we were done and he said, ‘Bummer.’”

  “If that was his reaction to losing you, he didn’t deserve you.” It wasn’t an empty platitude. He meant it and he hoped she could hear the sincerity in his voice.

  “He was a good guy, really. We were friends, if nothing else, and he had a hard time taking care of himself. I believed in his art, so I did what I could to support him. He ended up with some minor success and I ended up...tired.”

  “What made you tell him it was over?”

  She smiled, fiddling with a sugar packet. “I blame Sean and Mitch.”

  “I know Mitch never liked him, but I also know you spent fifteen years ignoring his opinion. What changed?”

  “I talked to Rose on the phone a lot. We’ve always been close, even if I was too stubborn to give up on Darren and come home. She’d tell me stories about how Sean and Emma fell in love, with the whole fake fiancé thing, and then about Mitch and Paige. I wanted that. I wanted to turn a guy inside out. I didn’t know at the time I was going to come back to Maine, but I knew I wasn’t settling for just friendship anymore.”

  He nudged her arm with his elbow. “For the record, I’m glad you came back to Maine.”

  “I am, too.”

  She was smiling when she said it, but he thought he saw some reservation on her face. “Are you, really?”

  “I am.”

  “I guess it’s not the kind of thing you want to talk about at work. Sorry about that.”

  She laughed. “It’s fine. The place is about empty now, anyway. It’s just that sometimes I feel a little...underachieving. I came out here to be with my family while they were getting married and having babies and running their businesses. But now I’m here not doing much while they’re doing all that.”

  “What do you mean you’re not doing much?” He shook his head. “You’re setting up a new house and working a new job. Getting reacquainted with old friends and making new ones. I’d say you’re doing just fine.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Her eyes softened, which did things to his insides. “I guess I just see everything they have and feel like I don’t have enough.”

  “If you judge your life by what others have, you’ll probably always feel that way. I feel that way, sometimes. It seems like everybody’s got their shit together and here I am starting over, too. Like you.”

  “You’re a smart guy, Chief Miller. Before you know it, some lucky lady will snap you up and you’ll be putting that town seal on the door of a minivan.”

  He laughed at that visual. “I don’t know about that. I’d never hear the end of it if I had to call Butch to tow me out of a snowbank so I could answer an emergency call.”

  His phone beeped, and he checked it to see a text reminder from Barbara. He was supposed to head out to Posthole Road and mediate a dog versus chickens situation and there was a brief window of time when both residents were home.

  “No rest for the boys in blue?”

  He smiled up at her and shook his head. “Got a dog chasing chickens and if we don’t get it resolved, we’re going to have to hire somebody just to field the complaints the owners are filing against each other.”

  “Sounds exciting.”

  He downed the last of his soda and stood. “It’s not exactly LAPD exciting, but taking care of Whitford makes me happy. And that’s the thing. As long as you’re happy, who cares what everybody else is doing?”

  The warm smile told him she knew he was talking about her. “I’ll try to remember that. Have fun with those chickens.”

  “See you next time.”

  He walked out in a good mood, because the next time wouldn’t be too far away. As far as he was concerned, being able to see her just by stopping in to the diner was one of the best parts of her job.

  * * *

  After work, Liz dropped by the Northern Star to see Rose for a few minutes. She had a feeling it would become a regular thing, which was okay. They had a lot of face-to-face visit time to make up.

  Rose had just finished dusting in the living room, and it amused Liz that, instead of just sitting on one of the sofas, they still went into the kitchen to visit. It was just how family visits were done at the Northern Star.

  “How’s work going?” Rose asked as Liz rummaged in the fridge for some water and an apple. She was hoping to fend off Rose breaking out the baked goods because she was going to need new pants if she didn’t cut back.

  “It’s good. I haven’t had any problems.”

  “I hear Drew’s in there quite a bit.”

  Liz gave her an are you kidding me look. “This town is
too much. I’m pretty sure Drew ate lunch there long before I moved home from New Mexico.”

  “Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes. I can see by the blush on your cheeks that there’s still something going on with you two.”

  “There really isn’t.” And there couldn’t be.

  Rose pulled out a chair and sat across from her. “I think you should tell Mitch what happened.”

  “I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but I’m leaving that up to Drew.”

  “That’s not like you, to keep your mouth shut if you think something needs to be said.”

  Liz shrugged. “He has more at stake. I’m Mitch’s sister. No matter how mad at me he gets, he can’t push me out of his life. With Mitch and Drew, there’s this whole stupid guy code thing and Drew could get pushed out. So I’m leaving it up to him.”

  “You two can’t move forward until he knows,” Rose said, giving her a pointed look.

  “There’s no moving forward, anyway. I’m not ready to start popping out babies and everybody knows that’s what he wants.”

  “He doesn’t necessarily want them tomorrow. Mallory didn’t want them at all. You want kids someday, don’t you?”

  “Probably.” Liz shrugged, turning the uneaten apple over and over in her hands. “Not definitely, but probably. And not anytime soon.”

  “I bet he’d wait. You’re worth it, honey.”

  “Don’t you have anything else to talk about besides me and Drew?”

  “No, not really.”

  Of course not. Rose couldn’t be any more of a typical mother where Liz was concerned if she’d given birth to her herself. “Why don’t you tell me about you and Andy.”

  The warm bliss that flooded Rosie’s face made Liz both very happy for her and a little jealous, too. It was obvious the woman was very much in love.

  “We’re very happy,” Rose said. “We love each other and, not only do I get to keep taking care of this house and you kids, but he really enjoys helping Josh with the lodge. It couldn’t have worked out any more perfectly.”

  “Pretty strange considering how long you refused to let him on the property,” Liz said. “Are you ever going to tell me what he did to make you hate him for decades?”

  Rose tightened her mouth and shook her head. “That, young lady, is water under the bridge.”

  “Well, so is what happened between Drew and me. Just water under the bridge.”

  “I still think you should dive back in and see where the current takes you.”

  “Probably over a waterfall and onto the rocks,” Liz said, and then she took a bite of the apple.

  Rose shook her head. “You’re just as stubborn as your brothers.”

  Chapter Six

  After a few days of popping into the diner for lunch, Drew realized he really liked Liz. Not just liked thinking about the amazing sex they’d had or her amazing smile or how great her ass looked in jeans. He liked her.

  Because he liked to be in the office if Barbara wasn’t going to be, he ate lunch later than the norm, and the diner was fairly quiet whenever he went in. He’d chat with Liz while she restored order after the lunch rush and got the place ready for Ava to come in and do the supper shift, and he’d discovered there was nothing Liz couldn’t talk about.

  Politics, books, movies, history. It didn’t matter what random subject popped up, she’d talk about it. And if she didn’t know a lot about it, she’d listen and ask questions.

  The best part of his day was when Liz leaned her hip against the counter and talked to him.

  He wanted to take her on a date. A real date, with dinner somewhere other than the Trailside Diner. That would mean a long drive, but he wouldn’t mind because he liked her company.

  Part of him was starting to wonder how Mitch would take it. Maybe there was a way to beat around the bush and see how his friend would feel about Drew dating his sister without actually coming out and saying he was interested in her.

  It had the potential for disaster, though. And some logical part of his brain really wanted to know if it was worth risking his relationship with Mitch when that same part knew that before Liz came back to town, Drew had promised himself he was going to stop feeling sorry for himself and go out and find the mother of his children. Liz had never said she didn’t want kids, but that wasn’t something that came up in casual conversation. But he did know, or at least strongly suspected, that it wasn’t something she was thinking about now.

  That meant there was a possibility Drew could invest himself in a relationship with her, at great risk to his friendship, only to have her realize down the road she had other things she’d rather do than be a mother.

  It was a frustrating circle of what he wanted versus what he needed, and it was enough to keep his mouth shut.

  “You’re looking pretty serious today,” Liz said, breaking into his thoughts as she set his bowl of chicken soup in front of him. Drew never missed Gavin’s chicken soup days if he could help it. While it wasn’t quite as good as Rose’s, it ran a pretty damn close second and nothing beat a good bowl of chicken soup.

  “Lot on my mind.” Before she could open her mouth to push for more, he kept going. “You know, if you need to go into the city to stock up on more than what the Mustang can hold, just say the word. We can take the SUV. I just fill it on my personal card before I leave town and nobody complains.”

  It was almost a date. He wasn’t a big fan of shopping, but at least he’d get to spend some time with her away from her family and the rest of the town.

  “Thanks, but I stole Josh’s truck and made a run the other day after work. There are enough vehicles there so he didn’t miss it and, if he really needed a pickup, the gas mileage in the old plow truck doesn’t hurt as badly if he was just running around town.”

  Deflated, he tried to shrug off the missed opportunity. “Settling in okay?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t done a lot of shopping for the house yet. Mostly I needed to stock up on staples and fill the fridge and pantry. As much as I love Fran, that kind of shopping gets expensive at the market and it’s worth the trip to the city.”

  “I know you’ve got plenty of family, but you can still call me if you need anything.”

  She smiled, handing him a few extra packages of crackers for his soup. “Thanks. I appreciate it. Hey, did you see on the news they caught the guy that was breaking into the camps on the lake?”

  They talked about the news while he ate his soup and he would have lingered, but dispatch called him out for a possible bear in a backyard report.

  An hour later, he’d coaxed a massive black dog he hadn’t seen around town into his SUV, and radioed ahead to Barbara to let her know he was bringing her another stray and to give her a description. She’d start reaching out to see if he’d been reported missing anywhere local, then take the poor guy home with her. They didn’t have much in the way of animal control outside of the police department, and Barbara always fostered the rare displaced or lost pet. They almost always traced them back to a vacationing family.

  Because nothing popped immediately and the dog had obviously been wandering a while, Barbara left early. She’d make the half-hour drive to the vet, then take him home and get him fed and bathed. That left Drew as police chief-slash-office staff.

  As soon as he sat down at his desk, he remembered something he’d wanted to tell Liz. She’d probably left work and, after a little bit of hesitation, he decided to call her. He’d given her his cell number earlier in the week in case she needed anything, so it had been natural for her to give him hers at the same time.

  She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s Drew. Are you busy?”

  “Nope. I just left the diner. Still in the parking lot, actually. What’s up?”

  “I meant to tell
you when I stopped in for lunch, but I forgot. There’s an all-wheel-drive wagon for sale in the paper for short money.”

  “I saw that. I was thinking about calling them when I get home.”

  “Don’t bother. The guy selling it picked it up dirt-cheap at auction because its previous owner accidentally put it in a pond where it sat for two days before he finally confessed it hadn’t been stolen after all. I’ve had some issues with this guy selling questionable vehicles before and he might have managed to clean it up enough to sell it, but it’s going to have problems.”

  “Wow. I should have known the description and the price didn’t add up.”

  “Sorry to burst your bubble.”

  She laughed, the sound almost musical over the phone line. “I’d rather know now than after I gave him my money.”

  “If a deal doesn’t feel right to you, make sure you call me. And my dad’s got a knack for cars. You should take him with you if you go look at something. Not that you’re not capable of a test drive, but a second opinion never hurts.”

  He knew he was talking just to keep her on the phone, but he couldn’t help it. At the rate he was going, she was going to start thinking he was stalking her and wouldn’t that be an awkward complaint for his department to field.

  But then she mentioned she was on her way to see Rose and they talked about the lodge for a while, and then his dad and Rosie’s relationship, which seemed to have come out of nowhere. Before he knew it, almost twenty minutes had passed.

  “You’re not still sitting in the parking lot, are you?” he asked when she finished telling him how she had a very hazy memory of being hidden at the end of the couch the day Rose told Frank Kowalski that if Andy Miller was allowed to visit the Northern Star, she’d quit. The fact they were thinking about eloping to Vegas still boggled their minds.

  “Yeah, I am. I didn’t want to start the car because your engine’s a little loud, plus there’s the whole talking on the phone while driving thing. I’ve heard the local police frown on that.”

  “They’re real hard-asses,” Drew agreed. “I’ll let you go before Rose thinks you stood her up. I’ll probably see you tomorrow for lunch.”