Gideon took a sip of coffee. “Most likely they’re looking for a place to smoke weed or vape without being seen.”
“You don’t know that,” Sean said. His grey hair was thinning on top and he smoothed it down with quick agitated movements. “They’re hooligans and I’m not having my store robbed just because you think they’re good boys. They ain’t. They come in the store all the time and give Shelly nothing but trouble. You know she don’t got good nerves, Sheriff. She cries at the damn drop of a hat.”
“I’ll ask Darryl to drive by again before midnight,” Gideon said.
“Does it have to be him? Can’t we get that other deputy, oh, what’s his name? He’s got those twin girls.”
“Ian,” Gideon said.
“Yeah, Ian. I’d prefer if it was him. Darryl’s about as useful as a fart in the wind.”
Grace covered her mouth to hide her grin. The guy wasn’t wrong. She’d met Darryl once or twice and he didn’t exactly give off a competent vibe. Gideon’s predecessor was a big, barrel chested man named Walter Sorren and Darryl was Walter’s nephew. Kira had told her that Gideon knew how incompetent Darryl was, but the deputy hadn’t actually done anything that warranted being fired.
“You know Ian doesn’t work the night shift,” Gideon said. “He can’t with his twins.”
Sean muttered something under his breath. “You need to hire another deputy. Twelve just ain’t enough with this town getting bigger by the year. I’m gonna set up a meeting with the mayor. The Harmony Falls downtown business association has been talking for months about how the crime downtown is steadily increasing. In another month, it’ll only be worse when the tourists arrive.”
Gideon took another sip of coffee as Sean sat back in the booth. “You’ll get that idiot Darryl to do another drive-by then?”
“Yes, I’ll talk to him,” Gideon said. “As well, I know who the group of teens are you’re talking about. I’ll have a talk with them about respecting your property.”
“Thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate that.” Sean’s nervous energy relaxed a fraction more. “You know I just care about this town and the people. Anyway, I’d better run. Brenda’s shift doesn’t start for another half hour and it’s dangerous to leave Shelly alone at the till. Swear to God, that woman loses me more money through till mistakes during a shift than what I pay her.”
“Before you go,” Gideon said, “you heard that Wanda’s doing a silent auction and dinner for a cancer fundraiser, right?”
“Ayuh, I heard,” Sean said.
“Good. We’re looking for donations for the silent auction from local businesses. You can donate a product, or you can make a cash donation. Which would you like to do?”
Sean scratched at his smooth jaw. “I dunno, sales have been down as of late.”
“You can write it off as a business expense,” Grace said.
Sean eyed her before nodding. “I guess I could do a donation. You take cheques?”
“We do,” Gideon said.
Sean reached into his wallet and produced a single cheque. “You got a pen?”
Gideon handed him a pen and Sean wrote out the cheque before handing it over. “I gotta go. Good-bye, Sheriff. Nice to meetcha’, Grace Larken.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Grace said as Sean slid out of the booth.
He walked away and Grace stared in surprise at Gideon.
“What?” he said.
“That was… unexpected.”
He smiled again at her and her breath caught in her throat. Two smiles from Gideon in less than an hour? What Twilight Zone episode had she fallen into?
“Trust me,” he said as Georgia arrived with their food, “you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Chapter Nine
“You have no idea how impressed I am right now,” Grace said.
Gideon grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at her before downing half the water in his glass. Grace figured his throat had to be bone dry after all the talking he’d done in the last two hours.
Scratch that, she decided. It was less talking and more listening to the over a dozen people who had joined them in their booth.
“At least now I know how you can eat at Nan’s every morning and not gain weight.” Grace pointed to Gideon’s half-eaten plate of now cold food.
She sat back in the booth. “Does this happen every morning?”
“Yes.” Georgia arrived and cleared their plates. “Every single damn morning. Sheriff sits down, and anywhere from a dozen to two dozen people join him and air their complaints. Even when he’s not in uniform, they want to talk about their problems to him.”
“It’s not all complaints,” Gideon said.
“It’s mostly complaints mixed in with a stupid amount of gossip. God, the people in this town are worse than a bunch of preteen girls with their gossip. Such is the life of a small town, am I right?” Georgia grabbed Grace’s plate. “You want a refill on your coffee?”
“Sure,” Grace said. “Thanks, Georgia.”
“No problem.” Georgia walked away.
“Now I know why Wanda got you to volunteer for donation solicitations.” Grace stared at the neat stack of cheques and cash on the table between them. “You got, I don’t know how many cash donations, plus a dozen items donated for the silent auction. And not just from local businesses.”
Georgia poured more coffee in both their cups before disappearing again. Gideon shrugged. “It’s for a good cause.”
She studied him as he sipped at his fresh coffee. Over the last hour or so, she’d seen a side of Gideon that she hadn’t seen in a long time. Three years to be exact. Since the night of his parents’ funeral, he’d been slowly but steadily pushing her away, distancing himself until she no longer saw his true self.
She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed the real Gideon until now. She’d sat back and watched him talk to the others. She soaked in his laughter, his smile, the way he gently teased some of the folks who joined them.
Soaked it in like she was a thirsty flower and he was the rain.
“Why do you do it?” she said. “Why do you show up at Nan’s every morning knowing that you’ll be hit with a barrage of complaints and gossip and people just looking to talk?”
“It’s a part of my job,” he said. “A big part of it. People want a sheriff who is accessible to them, who knows who they are, and what they need. I won’t know what’s happening in my community if I’m not a part of the community.”
She hadn’t thought about it that way. Hadn’t really sat down and realized how much of Gideon’s job was about showing the folks of Harmony Falls that they could trust him to keep them safe.
“You’re really good at your job,” she said.
He shrugged. “I love my job. That makes it easier to be good at it.”
“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “You never get a break.”
“Sure, I do. I have a good team of people working with me – although Sean is right in that we do need more deputies – and they work just as hard as I do.”