Twilight's Encore by Jacquie Biggar

Author:Jacquie Biggar [Biggar, Jacquie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-06-25T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

By the time Jack processed the scene, broke the tragic news to Doc Johnson’s widow and wrote up page-after-blinking-page of reports, he was tired, depressed, and ready for a beer or three. Unfortunately he still needed to drop by his brother’s house and pick up his daughter from her job at The Craft Shack.

That was another issue he had to deal with. Even though it was no doubt a one-off, never to happen again occurrence, Jack didn’t want his baby girl working at the shop after the break-in. They’d argued about it this morning, not that that was anything new. Ever since puberty hit, an alien seemed to have inhabited his daughter’s body. One with big teeth. Jack never knew when he might get his head snapped off. Before that, he’d thought dealing with criminals was stressful.

The phone rang just as he finished straightening his files into neat orderly rows on the corner of his walnut desk. It rang again, and again. He swore and glared daggers through the closed door of his office. What was the sense of having a secretary if she couldn’t even answer the phones?

He heaved a tension-releasing breath and picked up the receiver. “Chief Garrett’s office, how can I help you?”

“Daddy?”

Jack smiled and relaxed, leaning back in his chair, and relieved the monster occupying his daughter’s body seemed to be sleeping for the moment.

“Tina. I was just thinking about coming to pick you up. Did you and Annie,” his heart pinged with regret, “get everything put back together okay?”

He’d enjoyed his dates with Annie the past couple of months. They had fun together. But he wasn’t blind. Now that Jared Martin had returned to town, Jack could see the writing on the wall. The two of them had a past they needed to get sorted. And he had Tina.

“Almost. I told you she would need a hand. We’ve worked our butts off all day.” There was a small I-need-courage-so-I-can-ask pause, “Dad…”

Uh, oh here it comes. He could almost feel the monster’s flames already. “Just spit it out, it’s easier that way.”

“Daddy.” Tina puffed out an annoyed breath.

“I know you’re probably going to say no, but Ted asked me to go for dinner with him,” she said in a rush of syllables, as if hoping the going out on a date thing would slide right by him.

Not. In. A. Million. Freaking. Years.

She was going to be the death of him, he just knew it. The gray was popping into his receding hairline as she spoke. “Ted, who?” he asked in what he thought was a fairly reasonable tone of voice. Considering.

Tina sighed the sigh of beleaguered teens everywhere. “Seriously? You know Ted, Dad. His father owns Duke’s, Mr. Farley?” She said, using a virtual cattle prod on his obviously ancient mind.

Jack would’ve smiled if this wasn’t so serious. When did his little girl grow up? She was supposed to be playing with dolls and dress-up, not boys and make-up.

Shit.

The crunch was, she was still his baby and he wanted her to be happy.

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