In Too Deep: A Romantic Suspense Novel (6 page)

M
y whistle shrieked
across the gym, getting everyone's attention. "All right guys, on the baseline!"

According to state rules, I wasn’t allowed to run any sort of 'mandatory drill or practice' until well after the school year started. However, voluntary non-skill based conditioning workouts were just fine. So, while there was a rack of basketballs the guys could use after my conditioning session was finished, first they had to get through me.

Most of the kids, the ones who'd worked with me the year before or heard about me coming up from the junior high school, jogged to the line, regardless of if they were tired or not. While these summer sessions weren't done in a blood n' guts style, they did have an element of pushing, developing as much of the mental strength necessary for making it in our small school environment. It was a smaller group than what I wanted, but I understood. Football practice was in session as well, and we had a good half dozen players who tried to do both sports, including the starting center on the varsity team. Small schools like ours had to make do with the players we had. Most of my players understood that and replaced talent and personnel with hard work.

The door to the gym opened, and all sound stopped as heads turned to see who’d come in.

"You're late, practice began . . .” I started to say before the words cut off in my throat. Ignoring the looks from the players, I crossed the court and pulled the woman who had entered into an embrace before kissing her tenderly. There were a few hoots from the players, but I didn't care. "Melina."

"Cam," my she said, smiling. "I went by your place, but it was locked up. Your neighbor said you'd be here, and the front office was nice enough to let me go through the school to watch. My car's out front."

"Where do you want to go?" I asked, still stunned. Sure, we'd talked on the phone since I got back, she'd been the first person I'd called once my phone had reception again. But to see her now, just a few days after getting back? I was, as the British say, gobsmacked. I turned to the players. "All right guys, practice . . .”

"Is going to continue," she said next to me quietly, jabbing her elbow into my side.

I grinned sheepishly and nodded. "Thanks," I whispered, then took my arm off her shoulders. "Practice will continue in two minutes. Grab some water, and get to the baseline. We're starting with side shuffles, baseline to baseline, three-quarters speed."

With the players turned away, she gave me another peck on the cheek and patted my cheek. "Go do your thing, Coach. I'll sit in the stands and watch, we’ll talk afterward."

I went back into practice, focusing but at the same time feeling the constant presence of Melina behind me. All of the players worked hard, and by the end, not a single one of them wasn’t tired out. I called everyone around and led final stretches myself. "All right guys, good work. Tomorrow we're doing strength work, so make sure you guys come ready to lift. See you tomorrow.”

I couldn't hold it back any longer as I went over to Melina. Reaching out, I took her hands and pulled her closer. The step allowed her to easily wrap her arms around my neck and I spun her around, her legs bent as I swung her in circles. I carried her that way all the way to the door of the gym before setting her down. "Can't carry you through the whole school, that wouldn’t be professional."

Melina laughed and let me set her on her feet, the two of us holding hands as we walked through the empty halls that would soon be filled with students. "I didn't expect you until this evening," I said as we turned the corner and headed towards the main office. It was school policy, if Melina had checked in through the front office she needed to check out that way too. "How'd you shave so much time off?"

She blushed and looked down. She looked cute when she did that. "I kind of threw everything into my car as soon as I could when I got back to Lima and left the very next day. I took care of a lot of the stuff I had to do by phone on the way back to Lima from the airport. Just had to sign some paperwork and be willing to give up getting back my damage deposit on my rental. It was only two hundred bucks anyway. So I was able to leave Lima that night, and got a hundred and fifty miles down before I went to sleep at a truck stop on I-40."

"Don't tell me you slept in truck stops the whole time," I said. I took a sniff of her. “You definitely don’t smell like it.”

"Why thank you, I guess, but no, I didn't. Just that first night, and that was actually because none of the motels in the area had a vacancy for less than eighty bucks. I was able to find cheap places on the rest of the trip, and limited my costs to just gas and two trips to the grocery store."

"Well then, when we get home I'm going to let you shower up, change clothes if you want, and then when you're ready, I'm taking you out for dinner."

Melina's blush deepened. "It should sound weird, but it doesn't."

"What's that?"

"Home."

I
woke
up the next morning to the missed feeling of Cam's arms holding me close while his mostly naked body was pressed against my back. "Ah, that's what I needed," I whispered while wrapping my arms around his. "What time is it?"

“6:45,” Cam said softly in my ear. “I’d normally be up and out the door by now, but it's still summer vacation. I thought this was more important than getting a jump start on prepping my classroom for next semester."

“Sorry about falling asleep on you last night,” I said. “I was pooped."

“Don’t even mention it. I wouldn’t feel like doing anything but passing out after driving that much.”

I looked back at Cam, who looked like an invitation to sex with his hard upper body stretched out on the bed with the wine colored sheet bunched at his waist suggestively. He cocked his head and rested it in his hand, his bicep flexing in the position. I'm not normally a woman for morning sex, but he made it easy to break the habit. “When do you have to leave?”

“In about an hour or so," he said. "I've got a staff meeting at ten, then another conditioning practice with the basketball team at two. What's your plan?"

"Well first I'm going to give your hot water heater a rigorous test," I said with a grin, "then while you shower I'm going to do the whole domestic goddess thing and try and make you breakfast. Then give Mr. Winters a call, see if we can arrange a chance to talk today or tomorrow. You did mention me to him, right?"

"I stopped by yesterday before going to school and told him about you. He said he didn't have a pharmacy tech job at his place open, but he'd check around. Worse comes to worse, he said he had a register position open, but that probably wasn't what you had in mind."

I shrugged and headed towards the bathroom. "Cam, I figured things wouldn't be ideal getting here, but I didn't move here for the job market."

He laughed and laid back. "Okay, okay. So what's for breakfast?"

B
reakfast ended
up being a simple bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and butter. "What is this, anyway?"

Cam took a look at the sausage in my hand and laughed. "Chorizo. A lot of the New Mexican foods are spicy, so you might need to work on your palate for spice. By the way, if you're ever in a restaurant and the waiter asks you red or green, they're talking about chili sauce. The locals will drown nearly anything with it."

"Good to know. So . . . oatmeal I guess, then I can figure out what the rest of this is tonight."

After he changed clothes and went into work, I looked around the house. It was bigger than my place in Lima, but the difference was in the size of the rooms themselves. Cam had already cleared out half of his closet for me, although I suspected that he just shoved his things over to the side, he didn't have a lot of hanging clothes. There was a dresser in the spare bedroom that Cam promised I could use. I think he wanted to help me move it himself, but I found that by taking out the drawers, I could maneuver it without a problem.

I took it into the main bedroom and set it down next to Cam's before uncertainty swept through me. What if he didn't want us to share the room? Sure, he'd invited me to stay with him, but what if it was just a short term thing until I found my own apartment, or something similar to let him keep his space? I mean, we hadn't known each other that long, after all.

I reached for my phone and was going to call him before I saw the time. It was already nine fifty, and he'd have his meeting in just a few minutes. Instead, I tapped out a text message.
You mind if I bring the spare dresser into the bedroom?

Of course not. And take all the space you want in the closet. It's your home now too.

My fears were eased somewhat, but what exactly did I expect him to say after putting him on the spot? Sometimes I have a problem of not thinking before I speak.

I finished up my arrangement and then called Jay Winters, sitting down on the couch and waiting for him to pick up. "Jay Winters.”

"Hi, Mr. Winters? My name is Melina Browder, I think Cam told you yesterday that I'd be giving you a call?"

"Yes, Miss Browder, I remember. Cam seemed quite anxious that we talk. He said you've got pharmacy and management experience, right?"

"Yes I do," I said, feeling more at ease. "Uhm, if you have a spare moment this afternoon I'd love to bring you my resume and maybe we can discuss things? Cam told me you didn't have a pharmacy tech position open right now, but I figure it can't hurt to just talk."

"Not at all," Winters replied. "All right, I've got some spare time about three o'clock on my schedule, it's usually a pretty dead time in the day. Can you bring me a hard copy of your resume?"

"I sure can. I’ll see you at three.”

"Okay, see you then. Do you have my address?"

He gave it to me and we said our goodbyes, leaving me with a few hours on my hands. I thought about taking my car and driving around to check out the city but decided instead to get a better idea of my new living arrangements.

I shouldn't have been disappointed, but for some reason, as I looked around the plain house with simple furnishings and average decor, I felt like I wasn't really seeing Cam. It felt like the Cam I knew, the fun loving, tender man who’d shown me the best time of my life was nowhere to be seen. Instead, what I saw was a plain, rather boring house that you couldn't tell if it belonged to a twenty-eight-year-old or a forty-eight-year-old. There was no photos and nothing that spoke of his personality. It was weird.

He did say he's only lived here a few years,
I said to myself as I changed clothes for my meeting.
Maybe he just doesn't have much of a decorating touch
.

I checked out where Winter's pharmacy was on my phone and saw the drive wasn't too bad. In fact, Truth or Consequences had a very logically laid out street plan, the complete opposite of what I'd expected. Getting there was easy, and I pulled up at five minutes to three o'clock. The pharmacy was very similar to what I'd just left in Lima, with aisles of over the counter drugs, beauty treatments, some snacks and other stuff like that, and what you'd find in most typical non-hospital pharmacies. There were two customers inside at the time, an old lady who was looking through the hair coloring aisle, and a young man who was checking out medicated shampoos, most likely for the horrendous case of dandruff on his shoulders.

I found the clerk at the front counter. "Hi, I'm Melina Browder. Mr. Winters said I should drop by?"

"Sure, he's in the back," the clerk said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "Just knock before you go in."

"Thanks." I went in the direction the clerk had pointed, down a short hallway to a door that was marked
Office
. I knocked and heard a voice from inside.

"Come in."

I opened the door and stuck my head inside. "Mr. Winters? Hi, I'm Melina Browder."

Jay Winters was maybe about fifty, with a pot belly that showed well past his belt line, but a lean face and forearms that said he probably did a decent amount of outdoor work or something along those lines. He was wearing a nondescript white button down shirt, and I was beginning to wonder if the entire town of Truth or Consequences did their shopping at the Walmart Supercenter I saw the day before. The land of no name brands. "Come in, Miss Browder. How're you doing today?"

"Adjusting to the weather," I said with a chuckle. "Even the Virgin Islands weren't this hot. I think I'm going to spend most of the rest of the summer getting used to it."

"If you can survive to October, you'll find a few months that are very nice," Jay said with a laugh. He stood up and offered me his hand and we shook. He had a good handshake, not too firm, and certainly not limp-wristed. "So you're the lady that has got everyone talking for the past three days?"

"It couldn't have been that big a deal, was it?" I asked, blushing again. "I mean, it's a good story for cocktail parties or backyard barbecues, but hardly worth calling home about.”

Jay laughed. "This is a small town, Miss Browder, and pretty quiet. When someone like Cam suddenly comes back into town from vacation and not only has some good stories, but calls me and asks if I have any jobs open for a pharmacy tech, and then your appearance at the high school yesterday? It's quiet, but the grapevine around here works pretty well at the same time."

I’m not sure what the part about
someone like Cam
meant, but I nodded in understanding. "Lima was the same way, even if the city was a bit larger. I'm surprised that people would find Cam a person of interest for the rumor mill, though."

Jay sat back and shrugged, smiling. "He's been a bit of a mystery since he came into town just over two years ago. I mean, here we are, a tiny little podunk town with no real reason for moving to a town like this. He's young, handsome, multi-lingual, a talented teacher and coach by everyone's account. Yet for two years, other than his work and going around town, he's been kind of a mystery man. It seems like he tries to appear average when he most certainly is not, as if he’s hiding from someone. Either way, he’s a good man.”

I nodded. "In any case, I'm glad to be here, even if there is a bit of questioning."

“All right, let me take a look at your resume."

I handed it over, and he read the document quickly. "Not bad. You certainly are qualified, more than my current employees even.”

"I wouldn't want to horn in on anyone's territory," I said. "I understand I'm the new face in town, and that’s not the way to smooth my integration."

"So you're that serious about him, huh?" Jay asked, turning the conversation back to Cam. "That must have been one hell of a two-week vacation."

"Week, actually. There were a few days on each end he was on the island by himself," I corrected him, "but yes, it was. Magical, if you can believe in that."

"I don't, but there's a couple of Indians around the area who'd take that word more seriously. Either way Miss Browder, you can see why I have a conundrum. In the classical business sense, you're overqualified for anything I have open. The best I have is a part time register job that might lead to a pharmacy position later on if one of my current crew decides to leave. I'll be honest, though, the earliest might be a year or more, there's one girl who's got a boyfriend in the Marine Corps. She says that once he's through his training and then gets a permanent posting she's going to move to wherever he is, but I've seen too many relationships like that through the years in this town."

"Lima had it's fair share too," I replied. "Half caused by the person in the military, the other half by the person left at home. Someone can't quite keep it in their pants any longer, and stuff happens. I'll be honest with you Mr. Winters, I would have been surprised if you'd said you had anything, all things being considered. You don't know me, I'm not answering a help wanted ad, and I'm new in a small town. I’m grateful that you’re willing to even have me part-time."

Winters nodded. “I can make a few calls on your behalf. Let me ask you, how fired up are you about staying in the pharmacy game?"

"Well, I'd like to stay in the medical field area, but that's just because I can talk the language. Management is fine, but field experience is helpful."

"Okay. They might have a slot up at the hospital, maybe something better for you pay wise if that's important. I'll warn you though, a lot of folks don't like working there. This part of the country's got a hell of a problem with meth.
Breaking Bad
only made it seem more glamorous, but the hospital's the place they drag those OD'd screwups. You add that in with the alcoholism, and it's not a great place to work. But do you want me to give them a call?”

I nodded in appreciation. "While your offer is great, of course, full time is better. If you can make those calls or even just give me the numbers, I'd appreciate it."

Jay nodded. "Okay. Give me until the end of the week, and if I don't give you a call, come on back in Friday right about this time. That should give you some time to get settled in around T or C."

I smiled in relief. "Thank you, Mr. Winters."

"It's Jay. You mind if I call you Melina?"

I shook my head. "Not at all. Thanks again."

I stood up to leave and shook Jay's hand before going to the door. As I opened it, Jay spoke up again. "Oh, and Melina?"

"Yes?"

Jay set his elbows on his desk and folded his hands in front of him. "I know this is just part of the rumor mill, but keep your eyes open. The past year or so, strange stuff keeps happening around town, most of it somehow having a connection to the High School or Cam. Now, I'm not saying he's involved in anything, he's a good guy for sure, but just weird stuff keeps happening. You'll hear most of the stories as you stay around, but don't freak out. I'd trust Cam with the keys to this place and the registers stuffed full of flu season cash, but he seems to be a magnet for things going wrong.”