FF (February 2013) Erin Dutton - More Than Friends

Evelyn Fisher thinks she has the perfect role model for a long-term relationship, until her best friends, Kendall and Melanie, split up and all three women must reevaluate their lives and their relationships.

Determined to be a good friend to both, Evelyn supports Kendall and Melanie while they move forward, separately. But when she finds herself falling for one of them the delicate balance shifts. Will loyalty keep Evelyn from pursuing an unexpected chance at love?

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Sample

Chapter One

“215B, I’ve got one not stopping. Eastbound on Shelby, passing Sixth.” Evelyn Fisher nearly shouted into her radio in order to be heard over her siren. She split her attention between the red sedan in front of her and the upcoming intersections, always watching for any other vehicles pulling out in the middle of her pursuit.
Her sergeant acknowledged her transmission and gave his permission to continue the chase. She never lifted her foot off the accelerator. Two other patrol cars pulled up behind her as she allowed a quick glance in her rearview mirror before returning her attention to the red Nissan Altima in front of her.
As the suspect vehicle slowed to round a corner, the passenger-side door popped open and one of the occupants jumped out. He hit the ground, barely able to regain his footing, then took off.
“Passenger just bailed.” The voice of one of her fellow officers crackled over the radio. “Male, Hispanic, white T-shirt, blue jeans.” The description was succinct in order to not tie up valuable airtime on the channel.
As the lead car, she stayed behind the sedan, confident that one of the units behind her would pick up the passenger. The officer in the second car called out the street names as they wove through the neighborhoods just east of downtown Nashville.
The organized cadence of the vehicle pursuit dissolved into the transmissions from the officers chasing the passenger on foot.
“I lost sight of him, behind the houses over here.”
“Dispatch, see if we can get aviation.”
“The Altima just went in the park. Driver’s looking for a place to bail.”
“Somebody hold back and seal this entrance. Maybe we can trap him in the park.”
“The passenger is in custody.”
Evelyn could feel the barely contained energy as officers keyed up one after another, but despite the seeming chaos, every person, from the dispatcher to the officers in the field, played their part in the fluid choreography. She concentrated on the vehicle in front of her, tracking every turn and assessing the danger to innocent bystanders as they careened over the narrow roads.
“Almost there,” she muttered. “Just a little farther.”
The suspect was clearly familiar with the large park as he took another quick turn toward the softball fields. But staying inside the park allowed more time for her colleagues to seal off the limited exits. At these speeds, their sergeant had to be close to calling off the pursuit. If they didn’t contain this guy before then, they might have to let him escape.
As they rounded the next corner, she flicked her eyes up ahead and smiled. A patrol car sat waiting for them to approach. “Gotcha. Where are you going now?”
Almost as if reacting to her words, the driver wrenched the wheel to the left and tore through an open field. When she followed, her tires rebelled at the lack of asphalt, spinning and shredding the grass beneath them. Apparently having the same problem, the driver stopped abruptly and jumped out of the car. She slammed her car into Park and shoved her own door open. She shouted for the suspect to stop and get on the ground. Knowing he wouldn’t comply, she sprinted after him.
He was fast, but, even with the cumbersome gun belt jangling at her waist, she was faster. In seconds, she was within steps of catching him, as he raced toward a vacant softball field. She groaned when he vaulted the chain-link fence, but she flung herself over it, too. Chatter echoed from her shoulder mic as another officer called out their position. Backup was behind her somewhere, and if she could just catch this guy, her fellow officers would be with her in seconds.
The suspect cut left toward the woods, but the sudden move slowed him down just enough. She pushed a little harder, her thighs burning in response. With three long strides she was on him, tackling him. He grunted as she landed on top of him, but he didn’t stay stationary long. He flipped onto his back and threw her free. Before she had time to react, he landed a punch high on her cheek, and pain shot through the left side of her face. When he tried to scramble to his feet, she caught him. He swung at her again, but she avoided the blow and landed one of her own.
She’d managed to pin him to the ground and pull one of his arms behind his back when several other officers surrounded her. One of them grabbed his other arm, while another pressed a large hand against the back of his head, forcing his face into the grass. She secured the handcuffs with a satisfying series of clicks, then stepped back.
“215B, suspect is in custody,” she said into her radio between panting breaths. She bent at the waist and braced her hands on her knees.
Two officers hauled the suspect to his feet. She straightened and clapped one of the officers on the shoulder. “Thanks, Jeb.”
“Nice catch,” Jeb Riggs said, his eyes shining with the same adrenaline that sang through her body.
“You okay, Fisher?” Sergeant Eddie Stahlman asked as he reached her side.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“How’s your face? You need an x-ray?”
“No, sir.” She glanced at the suspect, knowing he was within earshot. “He doesn’t hit that hard.”
“Okay. Then you’re feeling well enough to write reports.” He smiled when she winced. Between the original traffic violations, the pursuit, and the charge for assaulting an officer, she’d be filling out reports for a couple of hours.
“Yes, sir.”
“Bring your car around to the ball-field entrance. Riggs will search him for you.”
She jogged back to the field where she’d left her car and smiled when she saw a familiar face. Kendall Jarvis rested against the quarter panel of Evelyn’s patrol car, her hip canted and her hands slung over the heavy gun belt at her waist.
“Hey there, hotshot.” Kendall swept her blue eyes over her now-dirty uniform. “Playing linebacker again?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Next to Kendall’s perfectly styled spiky blond hair and crisply pressed uniform, she felt even more disheveled.
“Are we still on for tonight?”
“Absolutely. I’ll definitely need a drink after this shift.” Every Friday night, she met Kendall and her girlfriend, Melanie, at a bar downtown to decompress from the work week. Sometimes she took a date, but more often, like tonight, she wouldn’t.
“Just make sure you clean up first. Melanie’s going to have a fit when she sees you.”
She swiped at the grass and mud smearing her navy-blue polyester pants, but those stains would require more than the brush of her palm. She shrugged. “I’ve got clothes in the car. I’ll shower at the station.”
“It’s not your clothes I’m worried about. It’s your face.”
She opened her car door and slid behind the wheel, then pulled the rearview mirror around and studied her already-swollen cheek. Her skin was bright red and would soon turn into a nasty bruise. “She’s seen worse.”
Over the years, Melanie had seen a number of bumps and bruises. Of the two, Kendall had a quicker temper, but neither of them shied away from getting physical when the job demanded it.
She rolled the window down and swung the door shut. “See you later,” she called as she maneuvered carefully back onto the asphalt.
When she stopped in front of the ball field, Jeb led the handcuffed suspect to her car. The guy glared at her, but Jeb caught the look and his big hand tightened visibly around the man’s upper arm. He winced and glanced nervously at Jeb. She smiled. She’d seen that expression on more than one suspect’s face. At six foot five inches, with a solid build, a natural scowl, and a military haircut, Jeb rarely had to get physical to gain submission.
“Hey, Fisher, I got you a present.” He held up a small-caliber handgun encased in a plastic evidence bag. A smile softened the hard lines of his face, and his thick black brows lifted.
“Where’d you find it?”
“Your buddy here had an ankle holster.”
“Thanks, man.” She nodded and took the bag.
Part of her assigned district contained an interesting mix of refurbished historic homes owned by artsy types. But more than half of her area was known for drug activity. She’d found guns on suspects before, but like every other time, she forced herself not to think for too long about what could have happened if he’d gotten his hands on that gun while they struggled on the ground. She chose not to concentrate on things she couldn’t control and, instead, focused on the training, strength, and instinct she’d accumulated in the past decade on the job.
*
Evelyn pushed through the door of the Third Street Bar and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim interior. She didn’t need to make out the faces around her to locate her friends. She wove through the tables in the center of the room to their usual booth in the back.
The waitress arrived at the same time she did, so she ordered a beer, then slid into the bench opposite Kendall and Melanie.
“Hey, guys.”
“What happened to your face?” Melanie asked.
She silently cursed the pendant light hanging over their table. A shower after her shift had eliminated the mud and grime, but scrubbing her face had only made the blossoming bruise stand out even more. “You didn’t tell her?”
Kendall shrugged.
“What happened?” Melanie repeated, moving from her side of the booth to Evelyn’s. When she didn’t make room, Melanie shoved against her shoulder until she relented. She turned away, but Melanie grasped her chin and forced her head around. Melanie’s green eyes raced over her face, assessing the damage.
“It’s just a black eye. No big deal.” She minimized the injury, despite the painkillers she’d downed after her shift. When Melanie pressed against her cheek, she flinched. Melanie’s eyes narrowed, but she lightened her touch.
“Did you get it looked at?”
She pulled her chin away. “Of course not.” She glanced at Kendall. “Would you tell her it’s nothing, please?”
“Mel, leave her alone,” Kendall said halfheartedly.
Melanie shook her head. She caught a wave of honey-brown hair as it fell in front of her face and swept it behind her ear. “You two are just alike.”
Evelyn forced a smile and leaned back in her seat. She and Kendall had been friends for five years, since being assigned to the same precinct, and she both admired and respected her. But she didn’t like being so dismissively compared to Kendall. From her tomboy adolescence to her years as a female police officer, she had grown used to people making assumptions about who she was. But she expected Kendall and Melanie to see her as an individual.
Melanie returned to her side of the booth, but before she could slide into the seat, Kendall exited.
“Gotta pee,” she said as she brushed past Melanie. “Order me another drink if she comes back around.”
“Just one more, okay? It’s been a long day. I’m ready to get home and crawl into bed.” Melanie had spent the entire day in the unusually warm fall sun trying to finish a big landscaping project. If she hadn’t been on such a tight deadline, she might have cut her crew loose early. Instead, she made sure they drank plenty of water and took adequate breaks under the nearest shade tree.
“Do you have your next job lined up?” Evelyn asked.
She nodded. “I start at the new site bright and early tomorrow.”
“Saturday?”
“It’s the only time the owner could meet with me to approve the final plans. We’ve been through several drafts trying to incorporate everything he wants.”
“We could have canceled tonight.”
“I’m okay. I squeezed in a nap while I waited for your shift to end.” As soon as she’d gotten home that evening, she’d jumped into the shower, dancing beneath an icy spray that brought up goose bumps. Then, since Kendall and Evelyn didn’t get off work until eleven, she lay down, intending to close her eyes for only a minute, and awoke an hour later.
“Do you ever wish you could turn down the pain-in-the-ass clients?”
“Any work is good work these days.” Her landscaping company had a loyal customer base, but she hadn’t totally escaped the effects of a bad economy. She had four crews that handled the regular maintenance that her current customers required. But the requests for elaborate new designs had fallen off enough that she and her guys could personally handle each one.
Tomorrow she would start installing a custom design at a home still under construction. The owner, a prominent local physician, wanted the grounds to appear finished and well-manicured before he moved in. Between trying to accommodate his design ideas and keep the feel of her own concept, she had also been coordinating with the building contractor in order to properly time the start of her work. She enjoyed beginning a new project and found satisfaction in seeing a raw piece of land and imagining how she would transform the space.
The waitress returned and Evelyn ordered another drink for each of them.
“Are you sure you should be drinking?” she asked after the waitress left.
“Why not?”
“Could you have a concussion?”
“Mel, it’s a black eye—not even the first one I’ve had. I don’t have a concussion.” Evelyn punctuated her words by lifting her bottle and draining it.
“Okay.” She raised her hands in surrender but let her irritation show in her voice. “I worry about you and Kendall. And I won’t stop just because you both want me to.”
“I don’t expect you to change. And I appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself. Believe me, this guy wasn’t that tough. And I had plenty of backup.” She smiled. “Then, when I put him in the cell at booking, I apologized for hitting him back, so all the guys in there with him now know that he got his shiner from a woman.”
Melanie’s nervousness over the injury eased as they laughed together. Evelyn’s black eye was minor, and fussing over her wouldn’t make her take it any more seriously.
Kendall had been on the force for three years already when they’d met. Kendall had expected her to understand what dating a cop would entail, but she’d been unprepared for the seed of fear every time Kendall came home a little late. Early in their relationship, she’d freaked out the day a client had casually mentioned that she’d just seen breaking news of a bank robbery where an officer had been hurt, even though the targeted bank was nowhere near Kendall’s sector.
Over the years, she’d learned to cope, or at least not to get her feelings hurt when Kendall dismissed her concern. Kendall’s commitment to her job helped make her the woman Melanie had fallen in love with. And she tried to remember that every time the fist of worry gripped her heart.
But she had also decided not to harden herself too much. If Kendall and Evelyn wanted to stay in such a dangerous profession, they would just have to put up with her occasional overbearing concern. Usually, her attention was wasted because they always sided with each other against her. Though they thought they were skilled at deceiving her, she often knew when they’d had a tough call. Kendall came home ready to fight after a bad shift. Evelyn hid her damage much more adeptly. Sometimes, she saw the stress of the job in the stiffness of Evelyn’s shoulders or the tight line of her mouth.
Tonight, Evelyn had let her long, dark hair fall in loose waves around her face, probably in an effort to conceal her bruise. And she had no doubt that Evelyn had rifled through her locker at the precinct searching for makeup that would cover the evidence. If she’d thought she could get away with it, she probably would have worn sunglasses into the bar as well.
Melanie had resigned herself to being on the outside of that part of their relationship. But she could admit to being jealous of the bond they shared. Sometimes she resented the fact that Kendall would always keep a part of herself from her—a part she shared only with Evelyn and her fellow officers.
*
“Football still on