"You said what?!"
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a tub of a ice cream from the freezer. "I told him I was sorry Leah."
She shook her head at me as I plopped down beside her and grabbed a spoon from me. After we left the lake, we decided to come back to my place for movies and junk food. Alyssa couldn't stay, seeing as she had a whole child to care for, but promised to hang with us another night.
"You're too nice for your own good. I mean the guy was a grade A douchebag, but you decide to apologize. Someone please make it make sense."
The more we hung out, the more I realized that Leah could turn her southern drawl on and off like a switch.
"Honestly I'm just not one for conflict." I informed her with a mouth full of cookies n' cream ice cream. "Not like it matters though, he clearly hates me now."
Before she could give me the "men are trash speech", her phone rang. She flashed me the caller id and I groaned out loud. It was Agent Rover.
"What butt breath?"
Stifling my laugh, I continued to eat ice cream as she filled Agent Rover in on everything that had been going on with me. Thankfully she left out my dinner with the towns Sheriff. I'd gone over the events in my head a million times and realized that I still didn't know what I could've done differently. I just wasn't prepared to kiss him!
"Okay I'll make sure not to tell her." I heard Leah say.
I turn back to her, frowning at her words.
Leah gets off the phone a few minutes late, her expression is serious and somehow it doesn't look right on her.
"Rover just have me an update on Rory."
My eyes grew wide as I felt a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Fear.
"W-what about him?"
"Hey listen, you're okay Darling." She reaches out and grabbed my hand. "He hasn't found you or anything, he just went by your old school and asked around to some of the teachers. He wasn't exactly thrilled to hear that you hadn't worked there for like six months. Rover didn't want me to tell you, but we've talked about this. The only way you're getting over it is through it. And you will."
I offered her a weak smile. Leah was right, but that didn't stop the helpless feeling that washed over me as she informed me that my murderous ex-fiancé was out looking for me. Obviously, she meant well, but part of me wished she'd listened to Agent Rover and kept that bit of information to herself.
If she had, I wouldn't have woken up that same night from the worst nightmare I'd had in a while.
~*~
"Theo, please don't interrupt someone when they're speaking." I scolded him.
We'd been going at it since the bell rang this morning. Normally I would've just ignored him, but between the news that Rory was asking around for me and the nightmare I had, my mood was rather sour on this Monday. I wasn't stupid, I knew he'd been looking into me, but Rory never came by the school. Never met any of my colleagues, my boss, heck he barely remembered the name of the school I worked for! Leah said he probably wasn't getting anywhere with his own leads or PI, so he decided to check with schools. It felt good to know that he was coming up with dead ends, but that little fact did not help me sleep at night. If anything, it kept me up knowing that he would never stop until he found me.
"But she was lying! I didn't hit her!" He yelled at me.
His blue eyes were lit with rage as he bawled his little fists. I'd volunteered to watch over the car riders today since Mrs. Fieldman had a dentist appointment this afternoon. Megan, another one of my students, had come over to tell me that Theo had pinched her arm and knocked her out of her chair.
The kid was a nightmare.
"Theodore Sebastian Lee Cresten, have you lost your mind?" A bell like voice rang out in the classroom.
Looking at the door, I'm greeted by a breathtakingly beautiful woman whose midnight black hair was well past her butt. She looked Native American with her sun-kissed skin, high cheekbones and slanted eyed, but that definitely wasn't the first thing you noticed when you looked at her.
"Mom!" cried Theo as he ran over to the mesmerizing woman. I could see the resemblance since they both had black hair, but Theo's skin wasn't as dark and his mother had hazel eyes.
"Don't you Mom me, Theodore. We'll talk about this later." She stated before turning to me, hand extended. I took it. "So nice to finally meet ya! Sorry we couldn't be here for your first day."
Looking over Theo's mom, a small part of me understood why he'd been in such a mood ever since I met him.
"It's so nice to meet you as well Mrs.Cresten. How far along are you?" I asked politely.
Theo rolled his eyes.
"I'll be five months in October. My husband and brother don't like for me to go out much, but they know they can't stop me." She laughed.
I smiled at her at her words. Although she looked as sweet as a cupcake, I'm sure she kept her family on their toes. "You can't blame them for wanting to protect you and this precious baby."
"Oh of course not! I can't complain with having Silas wait on me hand and foot." We shared a laugh as I walked with her and Theo to the door. "However, my brother is an entirely different story. He thinks just 'cause he's Sheriff of this town he can run my life."
I froze.
.......did she just say Sheriff?
"Y-You're Ember?"
She nodded. "Yeah that's right. I can't say I'm surprised, this being a small town and all. Just about everyone here's a gossip."
"Oh no it's nothing like that! I invited Sheriff Jericho over for dinner one night and he mentioned you." Ember gave me a weird stare and my eyes widened as I realized what I said. "As a thank you! He uhm, saved me some from some local bullies."
"Well that definitely sounds like Lassie. If nothin' else he's reliable. Everyone here just adores that nutcase." She laughed.
"I believe I met your other son, Preston, at the lake on Saturday." I said quickly, changing the subject.
"That's my boy alright. Hope he didn't give ya any trouble."
"None at all! He seems like a bright kid."
Ember snorted. "When he wants to be. Wants to spend most of his time following behind his daddy and his uncle. But since you and Lassie are such good friends, why don't you come down to our barbecue this weekend? It'll just be some family and close friends, just bring whatever dish you'd like."
I offered her a shy smile. "I wouldn't say we're friends per say-"
"I won't take no for an answer. Now get a pen and paper and write this down."
After being given some very detailed directions on where to find the ranch, along with the number and also her cell, I waved goodbye to a grinning Ember and an extremely annoyed Theo. He looked almost sick to his stomach at the thought of me being at his home but didn't dare speak his feelings out to his very pregnant mother. Later on that evening, I was on three way with Leah and Alyssa giving them all the details of my encounter with the southern beauty that was Ember Cresten. All I wanted to do was get home and down a large glass of wine, but Alyssa had called about a chicken recipe that I'd done a few nights ago, followed by Leah who'd heard from the librarian, who heard from Mrs. Fieldman, who heard from her sister, who heard from the janitor (they're sleeping together btw) who saw me talking with Ember after school.
"Do any of you people have lives?" I groaned, throwing myself on my bed.
"Nothing gets juicer than the Jericho/Cresten Family. Now tell us what happened already." whined Alyssa.
Rolling my eyes, I put the phone on speaker and proceeded to change into some shorts and a t-shirt. "There's really nothing to tell. We talked a little about Theo, she invited me to their family barbecue this weekend, I asked her how far along she was. That was it."
The line was dead for a solid two minutes.
"Uhm....hello?"
"YOU GOT INVITED TO A JERICHO FAMILY BARBECUE?!!" Alyssa screamed.
Michael could be heard in the background telling his wife to hush before she wakes up the whole county.
"Sorry honey! Back to you Aubrey, girl, ya need to go a-and, and takes A LOT of pictures. Do ya understand what you've just been invited to? Imagine if Quinton Valley had a social calendar, this would be THE event of the season!"
"Put a sock in it already! Aubrey doesn't have to go if she doesn't want to. And besides, that poophead of a sheriff might be there."
Leah and Alyssa spent the next hour bickering on whether or not I should go to the barbecue. In that time, I had eaten some leftovers, watched a bit of news and even graded some papers. Any other time I would've find it amusing, but I was sporting a major migraine after listening to them and just wanted to curl into bed.
"Well?! You going to sit quiet on the phone all night or are you going to tell us if you're going?" cried Alyssa.
"Honestly you guys, I don't know. But what I do know is that I'm tired, I had a long day, and my bed is calling me. That being said, we'll talk about this later."
Before either of them could protest, I hung up the phone and threw myself into my bed, sleep finding me immediately.