Picking Up the Pieces: Rose Gardner Novella 5.5 (Volume 2) Read online

  “Joe.” She stood and met me in the center of the waiting room with a kiss on the cheek. “How was your afternoon?”

  “Cut the bullshit, Hilary. I’m here to see the proof of my indiscretion. Let’s not make it something it’s not.”

  She gave me a patient smile, one with which I was all too familiar. It meant she considered my behavior to be that of a petulant child and she’d wait me out.

  Mason Deveraux wasn’t the only patient person I knew.

  “Joseph. Language. There are children here.”

  I cast a glance at a toddler clinging to a waiting room chair while his mother studied her smart phone. “I think we’re good.”

  The waiting room door opened and a woman in pink scrubs stood in the doorway. “Ms. Wilder, we can see you now.”

  I followed Hilary through the door and down a hall to an exam room, the nurse following behind us. “I’m Gina, the tech who will be performing your exam. Since you’re wearing a dress, you’ll need to disrobe and put on the gown that’s on the exam table. You can leave on your bra, but be sure to remove your panties. I’ll be back to check on you and your husband in a few minutes.”

  I started to cough.

  “Are you okay, Mr. Wilder?” the nurse asked.

  “That’s Deputy Simmons,” I corrected, more short than I’d intended. I rubbed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Gina. Please forgive my rude behavior.” I flashed her a smile. “It’s been a crazy twenty-four hours at work. I’m running on a few hours of sleep.” Most of my sleeplessness was over Rose’s possible pregnancy, but she didn’t need to know that. “Hilary and I aren’t married. We’re not even a couple.”

  “Oh.” Gina’s eyes widened and I could feel Hilary’s daggers of hate bounce off my back.

  “In fact, I’m the new chief deputy sheriff in town and I’ve only lived here a few weeks. What do single people do in Fenton County?”

  Gina’s cheeks blushed and I felt bad about leading her on, but it was worth the discomfort Hilary was going through. I could tell she was furious by the low hmm in her throat.

  “There’s a single’s group at the new church—The New Living Hope Revival Church. It’s run by—”

  “Jonah Pruitt,” I finished, guilt mixing with my anger. That man was the very reason I was in this situation.

  “So you’ve heard of him? He has a TV show and everything.”

  “I’ve heard of him.”

  Gina left the room and Hilary grinned at me, looking like the Cheshire cat. “Jonah Pruitt…” she purred. “Isn’t he the man Rose slept with after you went on the campaign trail?”

  “They didn’t sleep together. My father had it wrong.”

  “Really?” she asked as she reached around and unzipped her dress, letting it drop to her waist so I was staring at her expensive, lacy pink bra. “He rarely gets things wrong.”

  “Could you give me a little warning?” I asked, turning my back to her.

  “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

  “Oh, really? The breasts looked new.”

  She laughed, a dainty sound I was sure she’d spent hours perfecting. “You’ve always loved my breasts, Joe.”

  “I used to love ketchup on my mashed potatoes when I was in preschool,” I said, staring at the wall. “But I outgrew it.”

  Hilary laughed again. “You can turn around now.”

  She was sitting on the exam table, the gown wrapped around her front.

  “How far along are you?”

  She shifted on the table, keeping her eyes on me. “Six weeks.”

  I did the math in my head.

  “It’s yours, Joe. You start figuring the gestation from my last period, so the timing still makes it yours.” She paused. “Not that I slept with anyone else while you’ve sowed your wild oats.”

  I didn’t answer. There was nothing to say.

  The door opened and Gina walked in. “Are you ready to see your baby?”

  “I’m already under a doctor’s care in Little Rock,” Hilary said, “but I wanted Joe to meet his baby too.”

  Gina’s smile faded. “Oh.”

  I stood to the side of the exam table, resisting the urge to tell her to hurry it along. Spending this much time with Hilary was making my skin crawl.

  Gina grabbed a wand with an attached cord and slathered it in a gel. “I’m just going to insert this into your vagina—”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “It’s the best way to see everything,” Gina volunteered, keeping her eyes on Hilary.

  Hilary flashed me her patient smile.

  I just wanted this nightmare to end.

  Within a minute, a black, white, and gray blob appeared on the screen.

  “There he is, Joe,” Hilary said, pointing her finger toward the screen. “There’s our boy.”

  “That blob?” I asked, turning to Gina. “You can tell it’s a boy?”

  “No,” she said, looking at the screen. “It’s much too early.”

  “I want Joe to see his heartbeat.”

  Gina moved the wand around for a good thirty seconds.

  Hilary pushed up on her elbows, fear in her eyes. “Where’s the baby’s heartbeat?”

  “I’m having trouble finding it.” Gina gave her a tight smile. “The date of your last period puts you at six weeks and two days. It’s still a bit early yet.”

  “No.” Hilary sounded panicked. “My doctor found it on Wednesday.”

  Gina looked slightly concerned.

  I glanced at Hilary, who was close to tears. I put my hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back. “Hil, let the tech do her job. I’m sure you moving around isn’t helping things. If the doctor found it on Wednesday, I’m sure everything is fine.”

  Hilary shook her head, her eyes wild. “No. I had some bleeding two weeks ago. It’s early enough that there could have been a heartbeat on Wednesday and if there’s not one now the baby could have died.”

  “Is that true?” I asked Gina in surprise.

  “It happens more often than you think. A lot of times the mother never even realizes she’s pregnant and thinks her period’s late,” she murmured. “Ah…here we go.”

  The black blob on the screen had a gray-pulsing spot. “That’s it?” I asked.

  “That’s it.” Gina sounded relieved.

  I tried to wrap my head around the fact that the blob on the screen was a baby—my baby—but I felt nothing but an overwhelming sadness. How I wished it was Rose on that table with my baby and not the witch who had done everything in her power to ruin my life.

  “How big is it?” I asked.

  “Teeny-tiny,” Gina said. “About the size of a pea.” She turned to Hilary. “I took some measurements as if this were a regular appointment, especially since you said you had bleeding.” She turned off the machine and removed the wand. “You can get dressed now.”

  Gina left the room and Hilary got dressed without comment while I stared at drawings of fetuses at various stages of development on the wall.

  Hilary laid the gown on the table. “Thanks for coming, Joe,” she said without her usual theatrics.

  “If it’s my baby, I suppose I should be here.”

  “It’s yours,” she said softly.

  “I know.” She had spent nearly every minute with me for weeks until I left her and the campaign to go save Rose from Daniel Crocker. I had to be the father. “I need some time to wrap my head around this, Hilary.”

  “I know.”

  Her complacency pissed me off. “You and my father set me up.”

  “I never forced you to sleep with me, Joe.”

  “But you sure waited until I was good and drunk to get the ball rolling.”

  “That wasn’t too hard considering you were spending most of the time drunk. I’m worried the baby will have some type of birth defect.”

  “You should have considered that before you had unprotected sex with me.”

  “You never asked about birth control,” she counte
red.

  “You’ve been on the pill since we were seventeen. Why would I?”

  “I don’t want to fight with you, Joe.”

  “And what did you think was going to happen when I found out that you pulled the oldest trick in the book on me?” I shook my head with a sneer. “Really, Hilary. I expected something much more original from you.”

  “I need to go lie down.” She picked up her purse and reached for the doorknob. “I’m staying at the B&B on Oak Street, close to downtown.”

  “You’re staying in Henryetta? For how long?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  Great. But I kept that to myself. I was tired of fighting her. What was done was done.

  Hilary opened the door and started to walk through, then stopped and turned around. “She’s moved on without you.”

  “What?”

  “Rose. She’s moved on without you. She’s with the ADA now and she seems happy, don’t you think?”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “I can’t do this right now.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  I waited a couple of minutes to make sure she was really gone before I headed to the waiting room.

  “Deputy Simmons,” Gina called after me. “I forgot to give you this.”

  I spun around and she handed me a small image of the ultrasound.

  “Your baby’s first picture.”

  I stared at the blob. It looked more like a slug than a baby. “Thanks.”

  I was off for the night, so I picked up an order of hot wings from Big Bill’s and a six-pack of beer. The tiny house I lived in while I was undercover didn’t feel right without Rose. I needed to move, but I hated to leave Ashley and Mikey. Despite what Rose thought, I truly loved those kids. They were the one bright spot of coming back here.

  No, my job was the biggest bright spot.

  I’d moved back to be close to Rose, but I liked the challenge of turning the sheriff’s department around after the corruption brought into it by my predecessor. Unlike my position with the state police, my dad had nothing to do with this job. It was all mine and it gave me a sense of pride, something with which I was fairly unfamiliar. The last time I’d felt pride was when I helped Rose and Violet set up the nursery. Violet had known exactly what she was doing when she let it ‘slip’ that the nursery was in dire straits. I jumped at the chance to help, even though I knew I was getting played. I went along with it first for Rose. She’d sunk her inheritance into the venture and she loved it. So, yes, part of the reason I made the investment is that I hoped to win her back. But I also felt a personal involvement in the Gardner Sisters Nursery. Now, though, everything had changed…

  I picked up the photo of the ultrasound, trying to figure out how that splotch could be a baby. How would Hilary and I handle this? I refused to marry her. I didn’t love her and I’d endured my parents’ loveless marriage my entire life. I’d never do that to my kid. But while we might not get married, we still had to figure out how to raise a baby together.

  The doorbell rang and I glanced at the time on my phone. It was almost eight o’clock. Hilary had lasted an hour longer than I’d expected. I opened the front door, surprised to see Mason Deveraux on my front porch.

  I groaned. “What the hell do you want, Deveraux? Because I’ve had one hell of a day.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  He’d used that same smug tone nearly a year ago when he’d ordered me to leave his sister alone. Some nights I lay awake, reliving that conversation, wishing I’d listened to him.

  “Are you here to hit me? Because I’m hitting back this time.”

  Anger flashed in his eyes. “I want you to leave Rose alone.”

  “Rose is a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions.”

  “You and I both know what you’re doing. If you care about her at all, you’ll stop making her life difficult.”

  “She doesn’t love you, Deveraux,” I spit out. “You’re her rebound until she’s ready to take me back.”

  “You’ve got your own baggage to take care of, Simmons. I heard your fiancée is pregnant.”

  “She was never my fiancée.”

  “Someone needs to inform the press who wrote all that coverage about your upcoming nuptials.”

  I stepped out onto the porch, leaving the door open behind me. Deveraux was gunning for a fight and I was in the mood to give it to him. “You know all about press coverage, don’t you?” I asked. “Whatever happened to the man you put into a coma?”

  “The man who killed my sister?” he shouted. “I sure as hell didn’t see you doing anything to avenge her death.”

  “Forgive me for leaving the matter to the wheels of justice.”

  “You made goddamn sure the wheels of justice didn’t do a thing to help save her!” Mason shouted, grabbing my shirt in his left fist.

  He was right. We both knew it, but his self-righteous attitude was pushing me over the edge. “At least I’ve never killed a man outside of the line of duty!”

  Mason shoved me against the side of the house, still clutching my shirt. “You know what you did to Savannah, you low-life piece of shit. How do you live with yourself?”

  “I used to live with myself just fine until you stole the woman I love.” I shoved him away from me and he stumbled with his leg brace. “I know what you’re doing, Deveraux. I know you’ve taken her to get back at me.”

  His eyes widened. “Are you insane? Has it even once occurred to you that I actually love her? Only I love her for her. You spent half your time with Rose trying to change her.”

  “Somebody needs to protect her, you son-of-a-bitch.” I gave him a hard shove and he stumbled on his injured leg again, his back slamming into a support post on the porch. “If anything happens to her, I’m coming for you. I’ll make sure you wish you’d never met her.”

  “Where was this protective streak when that man was stalking Savannah?”

  “I never loved Savannah!” I shouted.

  “But you sure didn’t have any trouble sleeping with her.”

  “I hate to break it to you, Deveraux, but you don’t need to love a woman to screw her.”

  He threw a punch, but I was prepared for it this time and I ducked, throwing one of my own and connecting with his upper lip.

  He got in a jab to my stomach, knocking the breath out of me as I scrambled backward.

  “Just like you keep screwing Hilary Wilder? All while declaring your love for Rose?” He sneered, wiping the blood off his lip with the back of his hand. “How many babies have you fathered across Arkansas, Simmons?”

  “One! I’ve made damned sure of it.”

  His eyes hardened. “Are you sure about that?”

  He uttered the question like a man holding a full house in a poker game. What did he know that I didn’t? Oh God. Rose.

  “Is Rose pregnant with my baby?” I choked out. “She said she wasn’t pregnant.”

  My question enraged him. “Rose? No, thank God for her and that poor unfortunate child if she had been. Having to endure your family?” He threw another punch, clipping my eyebrow this time. “Not Rose, you worthless piece of shit! Savannah!”

  My blood turned to sludge. “What?”

  Tears filled his eyes and some of his anger faded. “Savannah was four and a half months pregnant when she was murdered, Joe. She wasn’t the only one to die that night. Your baby died too.” He choked on a sob. “The autopsy report said it was a girl.”

  I shook my head, feeling like I was going to pass out. “No. No! I would have heard about it in the news! There’s no way something like that wouldn’t be plastered everywhere!”

  “We both know someone who had the power to cover that up,” Mason growled, his hatred returning. “Someone who manipulates people’s lives just for the fun of it.”

  My father.

  Part Three

  Chapter Nine

  Mason

  I’d never hated anyone like I hated Joe Simmons.


  Little Prince Simmons had spent his entire life screwing people and getting away with it. He’d make a mess and his daddy would send in a cleanup crew to tidy it up. He’d never accepted full responsibility for anything he’d done, Savannah included.

  I’d known Joe Simmons by reputation before he even met my sister. It was hard to understand why he was hired by the state police in the first place, but I believed the rumors that Daddy Simmons had a hand in that as well. Joe was brash, reckless, arrogant. He was known as a loose cannon. But while he flouted the rules, he was known for his high success rate closing his cases.

  I detested the man for that alone.

  He flew in the face of everything I believed in: hard work, consequences, and justice. Of course, it was because he was my polar opposite my sister was as drawn to him as a fly to honey.

  Savannah had been very close to our father, so when he died her sophomore year in high school, she didn’t take it well. Within six months of his death she began to act out—she missed curfews and came home drunk. Her grades plummeted.

  My mother was caught up in her own grief. Anyone who’d ever met my parents knew that theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime love. Mom tried to pull herself together for our sake, but she was rudderless without my father. And truth be told, I think part of her felt deserted by the man who had promised to love her forever.

  I loved my father too. I’d never met a greater man—either personally or professionally. I was finishing my sophomore year of college at Duke when it happened. I took his loss just as hard as my mother and my sister, but I didn’t have the luxury of being able to dwell on it. For all of my father’s positive traits, he was terrible with money. He was a partner in a law firm, so his estate should have been enough to support my family, but he’d mismanaged his investments and let his life insurance policy lapse. Add on to that the falling markets had wiped out over half of his retirement savings, and we were left with very little. Though we weren’t destitute, we had to change the way we lived.