All I Need (Hearts of the South) (2 page)

“I’m sorry, hon.” Gail patted his hand, and his skin crawled. He extricated himself as graciously as he could.

“Good to see you, Mrs. Gail.” He didn’t release his deep breath until he and Clark had cleared the front room.

“Good job.” Clark clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“You know what pisses me off?” He thumped the floor with the cane a little harder than necessary on his next step. “I don’t even care what Lacey’s doing. I don’t really think about her anymore, but they all think I should be heartbroken and pining for her. What is the big deal?”

“Small town. They have to entertain themselves somehow.”

“Maybe they should try reading a damn book.” He scowled. “You know, there is a library downtown.”

Clark choked on a laugh, and Emmett stopped to glower at him.

“What?” He leaned on the cane.

“You. You’re like a crotchety old guy, with your cane and your library rant.” Clark gestured up and down, from Emmett’s feet to his cane to his head. “We should get you a cat or something. I bet there’s a couple hanging around the dumpster out back.”

An unwilling smile crept over his mouth. He’d had a cat, before, and somehow Barkley had ended up being Clark’s cat while Emmett was hospitalized. “Fuck you, man.”

“Hey, there’s Troy Lee and Bennett.” Unperturbed, Clark gestured at the back corner table. Troy Lee, bless him, had commandeered the only table turned sideways in the room so none of them had to sit with their backs to the door. Emmett still couldn’t do it, and he wouldn’t ask anyone else to do it, either.

They exchanged quick greetings while Emmett and Clark settled into the table’s empty seats. Bennett didn’t often join them on these Wednesday lunches, thus Emmett didn’t really know him as the other man had hired onto the sheriff’s department mere weeks before the shooting. He and Troy Lee seemed to get on like a house on fire, though—requesting to stay partnered even after Bennett’s initial training period with the department.

The waitress brought their drinks and tossed four straws in the middle of the table. Emmett squeezed lemon into his water and took a long sip.

Troy Lee jabbed a straw into his unsweetened tea. “You’re graduating this semester, right?”

“Yeah.” Emmett relaxed as much as he could in the straight chair. He stretched his leg out to the side so he didn’t crowd Bennett across from him. “In December.”

“Calvert posted the jail administrator job this morning.” Troy Lee spun his glass in a slow circle. “You should send your resume.”

“Yeah.”

“Dude, you’re cross-certified in corrections, you have your road experience, and you’re about to have your master’s in administration. You’re qualified.” Troy Lee pinned him with the steady look that brooked no argument. “You’ve got to take a step.”

“Easy for you to say.” He wouldn’t get pissed with Troy Lee. None of his problems were his friend’s fault, and he wasn’t going to fall prey to displaced anger. “After the wreck, you were out, what? A couple of months, then back on the road.”

“You’re right. It is easy for me to say. Even easier for Clark.” Troy Lee paused while the waitress arranged their plates on the table. Once she’d walked away, he clapped Bennett’s shoulder. “That’s why I brought him. He’s the one who had to start all over again.”

Emmett shifted his attention to Bennett and narrowed his eyes. “So what’s that first step like?”

“Oh, it’s a bitch.” Bennett grinned, tanned skin crinkling around his green gaze. “Worth it, but a bitch.”

“It’s a step, Em.” Clark’s quiet voice set him on edge. Man, he hated when they ganged up on him like this, even when it was for his own good. “Administration experience, which you need and don’t have.”

“I don’t have any jail experience either.” He resisted the urge to slam his fork down next to his basically untouched plate. He wasn’t a ten-year-old boy, and he was damn well going to act like a man.

“No, but you can learn. Everybody knows what kind of cop you were—
are—
and you’re hella smart.” Troy Lee continued to eye him steadily. “Singleton will give you a good reference and you know it. Go in and convince Calvert you can do the job. What do you have to lose?”

“My pride.” Which was still smarting at the word “were”. Past tense, like everything he’d worked so hard for was gone for good. He wanted back in a car, was working toward it every day—but he needed a realistic backup plan in case that never happened. Before, he’d have hashed out that plan with his sister and Clark, but Landra hadn’t talked to him in months. That left him with Clark and Troy Lee…and maybe Bennett.

“Pride is overrated.” Bennett trickled a stream of hot sauce over his pulled pork. “Trust me on that.”

“There’s also a 911 dispatch job open.” Clark bit into his smoked-turkey sandwich.

Emmett pinched the bridge of his nose, aware Bennett was watching him. Bennett rested an elbow on the table and leaned forward, voice low. “Starting over as something else, especially when you didn’t choose to start over, is hard. You can’t stay in one place, though. You get stagnant, and there’s no life in that.”

Mouth tight, Emmett glanced from Troy Lee to Clark. “I’ll polish up my resume.”

“Great.” Troy Lee reached for his tea glass. “And join us to play Saturday night.”

“No.” He hadn’t played since a week before the shooting. “I can’t stand up that long in one place. It still hurts if I try.”

“We’ll get you a stool.”

“I’m out of practice.”

“You have two weeks. We’ll do old favorites.” Troy Lee shrugged, a grin lurking at his mouth. “Be ready.”

Emmett stabbed his fork into his potato salad. “I really hate you sometimes.”

Bennett nodded, his face set in solemn lines. “Yeah, me too.”

“It’s unanimous.” Clark glanced at Troy Lee and chuckled. “I bet Chris would vote with us.”

“Some friends you guys are.” Shaking his head, Troy Lee flipped all of them the finger, and rich male laughter hovered over the table throughout the remainder of their meal.

* * * * *

Southwest Georgia’s summer heat lingered into late September. Leaves turned straight to brown and dropped to sidewalks that radiated the sun’s warmth even in early evening. Sweat trickled down Savannah’s spine and formed damp pools under each breast in her sports bra. She slanted a wry look at her sister, walking beside her. “Tell me again how this is better than yoga?”

“Maybe not better than yoga.” Amy brushed her damp bangs away from her forehead. Perspiration glistened on her upper lip, and she lifted her water bottle for a long swallow. “But you’re not supposed to talk during yoga. We can have a conversation while we do this.”

“How about next time we wait until the heat index isn’t so high?”

Amy laughed and bumped Savannah’s shoulder with her own. “You know you’ve missed walking with me.”

Savannah admitted no such thing. When they’d both lived in Valdosta, these evening walks had been a sisterly ritual, a time for chatting and laughing, sharing and weeping. She had missed this, but letting Amy know she was right could be a recipe for disaster.

“So, is this transfer as bad as you feared?” Amy glanced both ways at the intersection of Broad and Harney Streets, and they hustled to cross against the light.

Enjoying the momentary cooling shade of a magnolia tree, Savannah pondered the question. When Southwest Georgia Medical had bought out a set of small hospitals in the counties close to Lowndes, she’d dreaded being transferred away from the ER she’d served for three years. She’d thought being closer to her sister would be the only positive, but she had to admit Coney had its own charm.

“Not really, but I don’t want to stay here forever. The staff at the hospital is great, even though they really need to hire on some more nurses. Small towns are not my thing, but at least there’s a coffee shop and a decent grocery store. The parks are pretty.” She let a half-smile, half-smirk curve her mouth. “So’s my neighbor.”

“Really?” Amy’s bright pageant-princess smile lit her entire face. “That’s awesome.”

“I said he was pretty, not welcoming. He’s kind of grouchy, but that may be because he’s recuperating. You could tell he was in pain when I got to introduce myself last night, and he had a cane with him this morning. He has a nice smile, though.”

“Oooh, you could help him
recuperate
.” The pageant-princess smile took on a decidedly naughty note. “You know, give him the benefit of your vast knowledge of human anatomy.”

Amy’s enthusiasm could only be described as infectious, and Savannah laughed despite herself. She wouldn’t mind exploring Emmett’s anatomy at all. His rugged features—a square jaw, high cheekbones, and thin lips—kept him from being too pretty, and those blue eyes of his were gorgeous, contrasting with thick, tobacco-brown hair. He had lovely hands, too, long-fingered and capable-looking. And nice forearms, leanly muscled and dusted with brown hair. Lord, the possibilities. Plus, he seemed smart. Grad school and involved in reading? She loved nothing more than an intelligent, good-looking man.

He was younger than she was, probably midtwenties to her thirty-four, but what the hell? She wasn’t looking for a lifetime commitment.

Shaking her head, she grimaced. “You’re not helping. I miss sex, and he makes me think of it.”

Amy sketched an airy gesture with her water bottle. “So ask him out.”

“I did, very subtly, and he was not-so-subtly not interested.” Savannah sighed, indulged the disappointment a moment, then shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m sure there are other eligible men in this forsaken place.”

“A coffee shop and a decent grocery store, remember?” Amy’s brown eyes gleamed with a familiar teasing light. “Somewhere here there is one eligible man who’d be thrilled to date an independent professional woman who admits to liking sex.”

Savannah rolled her eyes.

“I could have Rob find you one.” The eagerness of having a new plan to execute suffused Amy’s voice. “There has to be
somebody
he works with that—”

“Uh, no.” As much as she loved her brother-in-law and actually respected his opinion, he owed her some major payback for the hell she’d given him over a certain ER visit a couple years back. She was not providing him that opportunity. “I’ll just look where most women do. You know, bars, grocery stores, and church.”

Well, maybe not church, since her idea of a relationship no longer involved happily ever after. She didn’t need to get tangled up with a guy who wanted vows and forever-and-always. Friendly companionship and a little hot sex—that was all she needed. Besides, to look for a man at church, one had to actually
go
to church, which she hadn’t done in well over two years. She didn’t intend to get tangled up with that either.

Their conversation shifted to other topics—work, their parents, Amy and Rob’s nearly yearlong adoption process—as they wrapped up the last block of their walk. Amy wrangled a promise for Savannah to come cook with her one night later in the week, and they parted with a hug despite being sticky and too warm. The Adirondack chair next to Emmett’s door sat empty, his curtains drawn, even though a now-familiar Ford truck sat in the spot assigned to his apartment.

Inside her still-new home, the blessed flow of air conditioning greeted Savannah. She glanced at the kitchen and headed straight for the shower. Cooking was
not
on her menu tonight. She stripped off her athletic wear while the water warmed. Pondering takeout versus trying a new restaurant, she stepped beneath the spray. The little retro diner a couple of blocks away looked cute and interesting. She’d try that, maybe pick up a movie from the rental kiosk outside the drugstore on her way home. No romantic comedies, no romantic tragedies…nothing romantic, period.

Shower over, she left her face bare except for moisturizer, a smudge of eyeliner, and a quick coat of mascara. She half-dried her hair and pulled it into the messy twist she preferred when in the ER. Dressed in cuffed boyfriend jeans and a black T-shirt, she considered sparkly flat sandals versus the sexy black pumps she’d bought on her last girls’ day with her mom and sister. She reached for the heels because, dammit, she’d been dying to wear them and it wasn’t like they were appropriate footwear for the ER. She snagged her pearl studs from her small jewelry box and let a fingertip trail for only a moment over the sparkling diamond solitaire nestled in the blue velvet. On a deep breath, she closed the lid before she slung her leather bag on her shoulder and headed out.

She swung the front door open to find herself face-to-face with Emmett. Her heart thudded hard with surprise, and her breath whooshed out. His blue eyes widened, and she laughed, a hand to her chest. “Oh, dear God, you startled me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Thought I’d take you up on that beer and getting to know one another but…” His voice died away, and his gaze trailed over her, a distinctly masculine visual inventory. “You’re going out.”

“By myself, to grab some dinner.” She still sounded a little breathless, but more from attraction and awareness now. His perusal skimmed back over her hips and breasts to her face. Okay, so maybe he was more interested than he originally let on. That could be a very good thing. She graced him with a wide smile. “You’re welcome to join me.”