Live Love Rewind: The Three Lives of Leah Preston (17 page)

“A cute hooker,” Astrid agreed.

“Tanner’s a lucky guy,” Mary Ellen said.

Tanner
, Leah thought. She’d never forget what he looked like when they first met, all those years ago. Strong and virile in those days, he oozed sex appeal.

She felt herself grow damp at the memory of him.

Astrid pushed a paper bag between the seats. “Want a drink?”

Inside the bag, there were three shot glasses and a bottle of vodka. Although the bottle was capped, it was half-empty.

“You have an open bottle in a vehicle?” Leah considered their surroundings. “Are you wanting to get arrested? We’re parked outside a jailhouse!”

It’s time to start over,
a friendly voice sounded inside her head.

“You only live once,” Astrid said. Removing the lid, she poured herself a splash of the clear liquid.

Leah held out her hand. “That’s one way to look at it.”

Astrid passed her the shot glass. Tilting her head back, Leah swallowed its contents.

It was the last thing she remembered.

# # #

“You need to see a doctor,” Mary Ellen said as Leah climbed from the car.

“Don’t sound so worried. I’m fine.”

“You passed out for a second time.” Astrid took Leah’s place in the passenger seat.

“What are you talking about?” Leaning into the open side window, she wiggled her fingers at her friends. “Now go.”

“That’s the roofie talking,” Astrid declared.

“Look, I’m standing in front of the sheriff’s office. Is there any safer place for me to be?”

Leah couldn’t remember having ever passed out, not once in her entire life. She’d been tired earlier in the day, certainly, but that was to be expected. She’d stayed up all night, editing hours of video, and she should have called it quits when she finished. Instead of going to bed and getting some rest before she met Tanner, she’d gone to
After Hours
with her friends.

But that was one of the joys of youth. After just a short nap in Mary Ellen’s Chevy, she felt remarkably better.

Mary Ellen started the car. “I’ll call later.”

“Me, too,” Astrid promised.

“On Monday,” Leah insisted. “I have plans for the weekend.”

Alone at last, Leah walked up the stairs to the brick building that claimed the center of the block.

What’s the proper etiquette when you go to jail?
she wondered.
Should I have worn my ruby earrings?

Should I put on underwear?

It wasn’t as if she’d never seen a jail cell before. Her boyfriend, Tanner, had spent his entire working life in law enforcement, exclusively with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. But this single story edifice in his home town was a far cry from the challenges he’d faced in the big city. Dotted with areas of moss, the structure almost seemed quaint.

The front entrance led into a circular room featuring a few modest decorations and a single, large, unmanned wooden desk. Behind the desk, a pair of double doors marked
Caution! Authorized Personnel Only!!
opened into the back of the structure.

Passing through the barrier, Leah found a small office on her left and a metal door on her right. The metal door had a small glass window at eye height. Above the window, there was a sign warning visitors that this led into the DETENTION AREA.

The detention area consisted of three small jail cells, each of them open and empty of prisoners. As far as she could tell, the entire building was devoid of human life.

The third cell was slightly larger than the others. It was tucked into its own corner and visible primarily through a large silver mirror mounted overhead at the center of the room.

“Ah, the Presidential Suite,” Leah said. Her words echoed around her.

Draping her jacket over the mirror, she went into the third cell. Sitting on its only piece of furniture, a cot, she folded her hands in her lap.

I’m way overdressed for this
, she admitted to herself. Her Krista Stanos dress, her Robert Gorgi stiletto heels, and her way-too-expensive, way-too-fragile stockings were never meant to be seen in lockup.

The last time she’d dressed this nicely, she was being escorted into the nicest restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi.
Ristorante Florini
was a far cry from a holding tank in Stanton Grove.

From the outer room, she heard the double doors creak noisily. Footsteps sounded across the concrete floor and the metal door swung open. Seconds later, a tall, muscular man with a lightly crooked nose stood in the jail cell’s opening.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Who let you in?”

Leah winked at him.

The man scowled. He was dressed in the dark blue uniform of a police officer. The lettering on his gold badge read
Tilton County
along its top arch. At the bottom were the words,
Sheriff
.

“I came here to see the sheriff,” Leah said. “An older man. Gray hair, big stomach.”

“William Carpenter retired.” The police officer frowned at her, his dark eyes narrowing in concentration. “Wait a minute. I think I know you.”

“I don’t see how. I’m not from around here.”

“You’re Leah Preston. You go by Lee-Lee.”

“Never Lee-Lee. I should never have shared that name with you.”

“Word is, you’re a real troublemaker.”

“You have me at a disadvantage, officer. You know my name but I don’t know yours.”

“Tanner Boyd,” he said. “Newly elected sheriff of Tilton County.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be sheriff?”

“The voters didn’t think so.”

“Isn’t that interesting.” Leaning back on the cot, she rested on her elbows. “So you’re not just a cop. You’re the top cop.”

“I guess that’s right.”

“I’ve always been attracted to men in uniform.”

Tanner had the thumb of one hand hooked inside the large black belt around his waist. In his other hand, a set of handcuffs were held in one fist.

Are you thinking of something kinky?
Leah wondered. Tanner had never been one for bondage games before but, then, he’d never been sheriff before, either.

She thought it might be fun, playing with handcuffs.

He said, “Won’t do you any good to flirt with me, miss. I’m a dedicated public official. I always get my woman.”

“I’ll bet you do.” Leaning back on the cot, Leah hooked her heels onto its support bar. Her dress slid up her thighs. “Tell me, Sheriff Boyd. Am I wanted?”

Chapter Two

“Jesus, Leah,” Tanner said, his professional demeanor crumbling. “You’re not wearing any panties.”

“So observant, too.”

“We can’t –” He looked over his shoulder, checking to see if anyone was in the building. “I mean, not right now. Not here.”

“Why not? I’ve been a bad girl, Sheriff Boyd,” she confessed, reaching for his zipper. “A very bad girl, at least whenever you’re around. I shouldn’t have trespassed.”

“What happens if Donna McNaught comes back early?”

“She’s on vacation,” Leah said. “Besides, I’m a miscreant. I’ve broken the law and I have to be punished.”

“Honey.”

“I promise I won’t resist arrest. You can do whatever you want to me.”

“You don’t understand.” Catching her hand, Tanner pulled her into a seated position.

A little confused, she brought her feet to the concrete flooring. “You asked me to meet you here.”

“Not for this,” he said. “If somebody walked in on me with my pants down, my career would be over. It would be the fastest recall in political history.”

Leah pulled at her dress, smoothing it over her legs. “Then why?”

To her surprise, Tanner dropped to one knee in front of her. Reaching into his shirt pocket, he removed a small, square box.

Oh, Tanner,
she thought.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too.”

He opened the box. A gold band nestled in a cushion of black velvet. Small diamonds sparkled under the overhead light.

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

“You like it?”

“It’s perfect.”

“Won’t be big enough to satisfy Mother Marlene.”

She knew he was right. Her mother disliked Tanner, not because of who he was but because of his family. Without having ever met them, she detested his parents, his siblings, and his cousins. She hated every single member of the Boyd family.

That’s because the Boyds of Stanton Grove were poor. Born into poverty, most of them had embraced their economic state. They saw little value in education or gainful employment. Even when presented with the opportunity to do better, they simply didn’t.

Marlene Preston refused to believe that the Boyd’s middle son, Tanner, might be the exception to his family’s rule. If he wasn’t yet a failure, she was certain he would be in the future. She wanted a better fate than that for her only daughter.

Removing the ring, Tanner slid it over Leah’s finger. “The day I met you, I knew you were the one. I knew it. I just had to wait until the right time.”

“Now is the right time?”

“Yes.”

Leah turned her hand, examining the ring. “Is it ‘the right time’ because you’re sheriff?”

Tanner didn’t answer.

“You said you wanted to run for office because this is where you were born. Your way of giving back to our community. A way to honor Bill Carpenter’s legacy. Was that true?”

“Most of it, yeah.” He mumbled the sentence, as if he was trying to swallow his words.

“You ran for office because of me?” Leah said, disbelievingly. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Not for you, for us. I was due for a change. I’m over CSI: Mississippi. Now, it’s time to try Sherlock Holmes of Stanton Grove.”

“Arthur Conan Doyle wouldn’t have been caught dead here.”

“This is a good job, steady and dependable. It’s a career. Sheriff Carpenter was here for thirty years.”

Thirty years.
It sounded like an eternity to Leah.

She said, “That’s who Bill Carpenter was, Tanner. Steady and dependable. He enjoyed the pace here, he was comfortable with it. He wasn’t you. Over in Albee, you worked Metro. A lot of action, even some danger, almost every day of the week. You liked it.”

“People change.”

“They don’t, not often. Not at heart.”

“Then I’ll be the exception to the rule.”

“You’ll get bored here.”

“Not with you at my side.” He took her hand in his. “You should be smiling.”

Leah couldn’t even try. Her sense of elation was gone.

“Do I have to say the words?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

It was Tanner’s turn to appear puzzled. “What?”

“If you’re going to propose, don’t,” Leah said. “I’m not ready to get married.”

He appeared stunned. Involuntarily, his hand tightened around her fingers.

“What do you expect me to do, Tanner? Find a house with a white picket fence, start growing babies?”

“Not right away.” Releasing her, he climbed to his feet. “But, yeah, that was the general idea. In time.”

“I’m just graduating from film school. I took a full-time job to pay for it while I went to classes. I’m going to Los Angeles; I’m going to be a movie producer. Or have you somehow forgotten everything we’ve talked about for the last eighteen months?”

“Oh, that.” He stayed in front of her, the empty ring box in his hand. “I always thought that was just, y’know, Marlene talking.”

“What are you telling me?”

“Nothing.”

The tone in his voice scratched at her. “You think I went to school to please my mother?”

“A little. The smallest part of it, maybe.”

“At least Marlene was supportive of me.” She knew it had been more than that. Marlene had been thrilled with the idea of film school, hoping Leah would move to California and far from the Boyd clan.

“I thought the movie stuff was a little far-fetched, that’s all.”

“You think the whole film school experience is – is some kind of ego thing?”

“Did I say that, ever?” Tanner shook his head. “You can be a firecracker, you know? The least little thing sets you off.”

Leah slid from the cot. She poked her finger against his chest. “Tell me I’m wrong about you. Tell me you think I can do it.”

“You can do it.”

“Liar.”

“There’s a television station not forty miles from here. I expect, in time, you could get a job there. I think you’d be good at it.”

“KCrap over in Guthrie?”

“Leah, honey, life is what it is. Film school graduates from the middle of nowhere aren’t exactly in high demand. They’re lucky to find any work at all.”