Just This Once (The Kings)

The next day at work, irritation still dogged me. Emily had spent the majority of the day with her mom and looking for local teaching jobs. She had returned, quiet and with sadness lurking around her edges, but we both ignored it.

I hated that I couldn’t make things right for her.

At the station, the click of the door drew my attention. My eyes whipped up to see Lee saunter into the break room. Over his shoulder, I watched as Chief entered the station and walked down the hall toward his office with our battalion chief. His expression was unreadable, the duo deep in conversation. My stomach somersaulted as I straightened. I still needed to clear the air with him about everything that had happened. HR had confirmed that the lieutenant position was mine, but the chief still hadn’t spoken to me about it.

As they walked, Chief glanced at me, offering only a small nod of acknowledgment, but relief washed over me. At least for the moment, he wasn’t throwing me out on my ass and giving me what I undoubtedly deserved.

Lee sidled up beside me, a smirk playing on his lips. “Dodged a bullet there. Chief didn’t look too happy this morning, but he’s too busy to chew your ass.”

A growing knot of worry tightened in my chest. What if Chief hadn’t been as understanding as Emily had made it seem? Would he want me to stop seeing her now that I would be stepping into the lieutenant’s role? What if my recklessness had cost me the one thing that finally felt right in my life?

I could feel myself spiraling, but Lee’s low whistle caught my attention. “Man.” He chuckled and shook his head as he grabbed a clean coffee mug from the cabinet. “The boss’s daughter . . . you’ve got brass balls, Bill.”

My jaw flexed. “Not today, Sullivan.”

I wanted to punch the cocky smirk off his face, but the station was one place we’d drawn the line—it was an unspoken expectation that we left the rivalry outside its walls.

Lee’s voice cut through my thoughts, sharp and mocking. “You should know, people are talking.”

I glared at him, my patience hanging by a thread. “Talking about what?”

His jaw flexed. “Word is you have a hard-on for the boss’s daughter, but that you’re only using her.”

Instinct took over and I pushed him against the counter. “The fuck did you say to me? Are you running your mouth?”

Lee shoved me hard in the chest, moving me back a few inches, and glared at me. Lee leaned in, his tone low but sincere. “I’m just trying to help you out, asshole. They’re saying you’re only with her because she’s the chief’s daughter. Rumor is that you were trying to get some special treatment in your bid for lieutenant. I thought you should know.”

The words hit me like a sucker punch. Fury surged through my veins, a red-hot rage that threatened to consume me. I clenched my fists, struggling to keep my composure. “It’s not like that. Don’t twist it.”

He laughed, a grating sound that fueled the fire within me, and raised his hands. “I’m not twisting anything. All I am telling you is that’s what people are saying. I was giving you a heads-up. You just better hope Chief doesn’t find out.”

A flicker of doubt mingled with my anger. “He already knows about us.”

What if Emily had heard the rumors? What if she believed them?

The need to set things straight overpowered my instinct to keep a low profile. I couldn’t let these lies poison what we had, especially when it already felt like we were on shaky ground.

Anger crept in at the edges of my vision, and Lee was the only person around to catch my wrath. I stepped forward with a finger in his face, fury blazing in my eyes. “You listen to me, Sullivan. My relationship with Emily is none of your damn business. You spread these lies, and I swear, I’ll make you regret it.”

His hands went up as he rolled his eyes, seemingly unaffected by my outburst. “I told you as a friend, dipshit. This town is well meaning, but damn if they don’t stick their noses in everyone’s business. If I hear the rumors, I’ll set it straight, but you might want to watch your back.”

With that, he grabbed his coffee and sauntered out of the break room, leaving me seething with frustration and feeling like a total dick. The station’s familiar camaraderie now felt like a facade, a thin veil covering the hostility simmering beneath the surface. Lee hadn’t deserved my anger but had taken the brunt end of its force.

As Lee walked away, I took a deep breath and tried to regain control of my temper. Chief was too busy at the moment to interrupt with my meaningless excuses and half-hearted apologies. I needed to find Emily and set things right before these rumors spread beyond repair.

The drive home felt longer than usual, the weight of Chief’s impending conversation and Lee’s goading pressing on my shoulders. As I stepped into my house, I half expected to find Emily waiting for me, ready to talk and ease my troubled mind. But the living room was empty, the air heavy with an absence that sent annoyance running down my spine.

“Prim?” I called out, my voice echoing through the quiet house. No response. Anxiety churned in my gut as I checked the kitchen, the bedroom, each room a reminder of her absence.noveldrama

I reached for my phone, fingers fumbling like a teenager as I dialed her number. The call went straight to voicemail, and frustration simmered beneath my skin. Where was she? Why hadn’t she come home?

The feeble excuse she gave through a text only added to my unease.

Something about her message felt off, the tone too vague, too distant. I typed a quick response, my worry bleeding into the words.

Minutes ticked by, each one stretching into an agonizing eternity. The phone remained silent, Emily’s reply elusive. I paced the living room, the tension building with each unanswered text.

Just as my frustration reached its peak, my phone buzzed. I eagerly grabbed it, hoping for an explanation. Emily’s response, however, only deepened the knot in my stomach.

The vague reassurance did little to ease my concerns. Family stuff? Job search? What could be so pressing that she couldn’t confide in me? Doubt gnawed at the edges of my thoughts, a growing fear that something heavier lurked beneath the surface.

Just as I debated whether to push for more information, my phone rang, and Abel’s name flashed on the screen. I answered, a mix of frustration and curiosity in my voice. “What’s up, Abel?”

His voice, usually gruff and impatient, held an unusual stillness. “Hey, we need to talk. It’s about Mom.”

My breath caught in my throat, the mention of our mother stirring up memories better left buried. “What about her?”

“You might want to sit down,” Abel urged, and I sank into a chair. “I got in touch with a private investigator, courtesy of my parole officer. The guy did some digging, and there’s nothing—no record, no trace of Mom after she left all those years ago. None. She’s a ghost.”

The words hung in the air, a heavy silence settling between us. My mind raced, grappling with the implications of what Abel was saying. Our mother had vanished without a trace. The uncertainty, the mystery surrounding her absence, sent a chill down my spine.

“Are you saying she’s . . . dead?” The word caught in my throat, a bitter taste on my tongue.

Abel sighed, the weight of the revelation evident in his voice. “Honestly, we don’t know. The odd thing is, the investigator couldn’t find a death record either. She’s just . . . gone. He’s going to look into whether or not she could have changed her name or anything like that. He plans to keep digging, and I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but thought you should know.”

A heavy silence enveloped the conversation, the implications sinking in. The revelation about our mother, coupled with the unspoken tension with Emily, created a riot of emotions within me. The ground beneath my feet felt unsteady, and the shadows of the past cast long, haunting tendrils into the present.

As I absorbed the shocking news, Abel’s stern voice broke through the haze. “We’ll figure this out. We can’t keep living in the dark. We’ll talk more later.”

The call ended, leaving me in a state of turmoil. This newfound information about my mother weighed heavily on my shoulders. The air in the room felt charged with an unsettling energy, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the answers I sought were just beyond reach.

I forced myself out of my house and walked toward my workshop. Maybe a few grueling hours creating something would ease the gnawing dread in my stomach.

I had loved my mother. She had loved us too. Of all the things I had forgotten, that I remembered.

I glanced up. Ominous clouds gathered on the horizon as I strode toward the barn and grappled with the shadows of my past that were seeping into my present. I may have been only a child when she disappeared, but in her wake she’d left the most important lesson I’d ever learned: no matter how much I loved someone, I wasn’t worth sticking around for.