Midnight Sommelier - Anne Malcom Page 0,23

out of my sight.

That worry hadn’t dissipated. Not as the months passed and Ryder slowly started going out again. And only before checking with me to see if I wanted him to stay.

I’d wanted to say yes. Wanted to keep him inside the house, within my sight, close enough to touch. But that wasn’t how it worked. So he went out sporadically and I was a mess until he came home.

My beautiful Jax usually sensed the panic within me and invited Walt over to watch old movies and to distract me with whatever politically incorrect ramblings the old goat might have.

Tonight was Jax’s first sleepover since David died. He’d had some separation issues, and I’d been loath to try and work on them. Because, like with Ryder, I didn’t want to be separated from my youngest. So I was happy to keep him home. To host the odd sleepover when I felt up to it.

But Jax had brought this one up. Suggested it. And like his brother, he’d told me he could stay if I wanted him to. That mature worry for me on my son’s face broke my damn heart. It shouldn’t have been there. I was proud of him and disappointed in myself for the fact that look existed.

So he’d gone.

I’d tried to keep my shit together. And keep myself sober, just in case. Something in the pit of my stomach told me to stop at the second glass so I could drive. I couldn’t explain what it was because I didn’t totally understand it myself. A mom sense that I got sometimes.

Like in the middle of the night when Jax was a baby. I’d suddenly wake up in a panic, something visceral telling me to go and check on my son. When I’d gotten to his room, he was burning up with a temperature and the ER doctor later told us that he had meningitis which could have killed him if I hadn’t woken up when I did.

To this day I can’t pinpoint what jerked me out of my dead sleep.

It was the same thing that told me not to drink so I could drive when I got the phone call. The one every mother dreaded.

And I got it.

I broke land-speed records driving to the police station. Alexis had wanted to come but I told her to stay at home in case Jax wanted to come home from his sleepover.

The chief had been considerate enough to let me know that Ryder was safe and unharmed so at least I didn’t have visions of him in some horrific car wreck. But still, having to pick my son up from the police station didn’t exactly bring about the best mental images.

The station itself was small but impressive. It looked more like some boutique hotel or spa than it did a police station, thanks to the injections of funds from families like David’s.

Or mine, I guess, since David kept up the family tradition of donating to such things around town to keep up the good name of the family. Or to buy the discretion of the police for when your son needed to be picked up around midnight.

Dale Hardman was the police chief, and I’d met him many times at whatever function David and I had attended under expectation from his mother.

He was young for a chief—attractive too. All those classically handsome features. Strong jaw. Good hairline. Dark brown eyes. Broad shoulders.

I’d always gotten a good vibe from him, especially since he never seemed to enjoy the politics that came from being the chief of police in a small town like this.

“What happened?” I demanded, forgoing the pleasantries that we usually engaged in.

“From what I can gather, there was an incident at the party they were at—we had already been called on account of the noise. Ms. Carson was having some trouble with a boy at the party, and your son interceded on her behalf,” he said. He had a nice voice, authoritative yet comforting. Same with his eyes. They were as hard as you’d expect from a police officer but also soft enough to show there was a human in there.

“Now, I’m not charging anyone, as much as I’d like to keep Mr. Daniels overnight,” he continued. “His father has already been making calls. Senators, lawyers, all his contacts over my head. I hate to say this, but I honestly don’t have enough to hold him, even with the underage drinking.”

He looked truly troubled to be saying this. Furious