Til The Dawn [Midnights #1] ✓

chapter 44

Sheriff Stilinski sauntered into the police station, still full from his lunch and hoping he might be able to zone out for the rest of the day. Very rarely was Noah that lucky, especially when he made a point to do something as foolish as wish for things, but he stopped by the front desk to check in with Amalia, their very green receptionist.

He leaned against the counter she called a desk and waved at the recent college graduate, whose mother worked in a separate department. And he'd never been more glad that this hadn't been a nepotism situation as he was with her.

Amalia Rivers had earned her place here, garnering his respect quickly in the very short amount of time she'd been around. And Noah was glad he hadn't listened to the oppositions, some from even himself.

"Welcome back, Sheriff Stilinski," she offered, beaming brightly at him.

She barely tore her eyes from the screen, her typing never faltering as she barrelled ahead to finish her report.

"Amalia, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Noah?"

She blushed shyly, obviously uncomfortable with the invitation, like she had all the other times he'd requested the name change.

"I'm sorry, sir. I don't think I can do that," she admitted softly. "It's like when a professor asks you to call them by their first name, you know?"

Noah chuckled and shook his head. "All right, all right," he conceded. "Anything exciting happen while I was gone? Earthquake? Fire? Riot?" He paused, chewing on the inside of his cheek, hoping to find something that would get her to stop. "Sharknado?"

She giggled and folded her hands delicately over her keyboard. "No, Sheriff. No calls. But there is a special package for you on your desk. I put it on top of the regular mail."

"Special package, huh? Sounds like a bad joke," he quipped.

Amalia giggled again, much more high-pitched than before, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "I didn't mean it like that, sir, I promise."

"I know," he grinned wide, nodding along with her clarification. "I'm fairly certain your head would explode if you even tried to make a dirty joke."

She shook her head and started to type again as he smacked the desk and straightened up, heading to his own office. "Good work, Amalia!"

She blushed once more, and beamed again, jumping slightly as the phone rang, while he made his way to his own space.

He left the door open, as he always did, and picked up the stack of mail on his desk, right where Amalia had told him it would be. Sure enough, there was a thick Manila envelope on top, but he made sure to at least flip through everything else first.

Whatever was inside that package had the distinct opportunity of distracting him for the rest of the day, and since he still had bills to pay, he knew he should at least pretend to care about the rest too. He had to keep the lights on. And Stiles had gotten his ADHD from somewhere.

Definitely not his mother.

But as he finally allowed himself to focus on it, he frowned deeply, taking note of several things at once as his eyes scanned the front.

Without opening it, he walked back to the front desk. "Was that call important?"

Amalia looked back at him expectantly as she replaced the receiver in its holder, clearly ready to tackle whatever task he might give her.

She shook her head. "No, it was just Mrs. Forrester. She keeps swearing that someone is secretly trimming her hedges at night while she's asleep. She, uh, wants us to send deputies out to patrol her neighborhood. You know... just in case."