“Don’t take it personally. Wait until he’s thirteen and tells you to hide your face when you drop him off for a school dance,” a weary-looking woman bouncing a toddler on her hip said.
“I can barely wait,” I replied, gave her a smile, and made my way back to my car.
Well, light truck, I guess. Whatever, it was a ride that got me from point A to point B. Today, point B was reached, so now I was onto point C, Timmy’s Garage, a small gray cinderblock place with one lift but twenty cars parked outside. Timmy, a cheery man with a mountain man beard who wore his tees with the sleeves chopped off, also ran in the demolition derby at the fair, so there were about five mangled old cars sitting among the cars to be worked on. The place smelled of motor oil and cigarette smoke since Timmy was not allowed to smoke at home, so he puffed like a fiend at the garage. Within twenty minutes, my taillight was fixed. I was out twenty bucks for the light and labor—quite the deal, I thought—and made my way back to town. Not wanting to forget, I made a fast run into the localgrocery store for flowers and a cold bottle of diet lemon-lime soda.
I pulled up behind that familiar Jeep with the gold star on the door. Hopefully that meant the sheriff was here. I’d not worn a good shirt and my best-fitting jeans for nothing. No one at home had commented on how nice I looked, so maybe I just thought I looked good. I took a moment on the sidewalk to drink in the small-town Americana all around me. The bookstore, sewing shop, hardware store, and outdoor outfitters were open for business even though traffic was light.
Entering the cool space of the local law, I removed my hat and gave the woman behind the desk my most polite nod. She was seated amongst some filing cabinets, a large box fan, and a stand with two coffee pots filled to the rims.
“Morning, I’m Dodge Bastian.”
“Monica Purcell,” the middle-aged brunette with the headset replied, her soft blue eyes moving over me like an alien probe. “You don’t look much like Baker.”
“No, ma’am, we’re half-brothers. I take after my mother’s side of the family. Most are from Ireland and Scotland, which explains my ginger hair.”
“That’s right. I did hear that about you.” She knew where my family was from? How was that even possible? Did she work for the CIA on the side? “I take it you’re here to have the sheriff verify that you made the requested repairs to your left taillight?”
Jesus. Did this woman know how many freckles I had on my ass too? “That’s right, ma’am. Is he here?”
“I am.” Ollie’s rich voice slid into my ears to create a bonfire in my lower belly. What it was about that man I didn’t know, but his voice made me salivate. Turning to find him leaning on the doorframe of a single office, I nearly blacked out. He was so damn stunning. “Glad to see you took my warning to heart. Shall we mosey on out and you can show me your rearend?”
Monica nearly choked on a sip of coffee. I felt my face flame, which was not an occurrence that a man with my bonnie skin tone could easily hide. Maybe I needed to grow a beard like Linc to help hide my flushes.
“You know what I meant, Monica,” Ollie tossed her way as he ambled past the American flag and the Oklahoma state flag standing on either side of his office doorway.
“I sure do, Sheriff.” She tittered into her mug. Ollie held the door open for me. I slipped past him, the rich smell of his cologne making my senses tingle. Outside, the heat slapped one in the face like a wet glove, which helped clear the lust from my mind.
I climbed into my SUV and cranked it over, showing him everything from brakes to turn signals to reverse lights.
“Okay, you can turn it off.” I did and then took a moment to enjoy his swagger as he walked from the rear of my Explorer. Jesus, those thighs encased in tight tan cotton were going to be the death of me. He came to stand in the space my open door allowed, filling it and my senses totally. “Thank you for attending to that so speedily.” His dark eyes darted to the flowers lying in the passenger seat. “Got a date?”
“Me? No, no, they’re for Linc. Bella had some ladies come to the boutique today, and he wants to surprise her. I’m not really dating right now.”
“Really? That’s a pity. I was going to ask you if you’d like to have some coffee with me at the Calico Diner.”
That floored me. And excited me. It wasn’t every day the sexiest man in the county asked you to have coffee. I wanted to leap at the offer but didn’t want to appear too eager. Sure, it had been over a year of celibacy, but I wasn’t a trollop. I mean, I at least wanted a donut before I went to my knees…
“Don’t you have two pots of coffee in your office?” I asked innocently and got a quirk of his lips.
“I do, yes, but the Calico Diner has the best blueberry muffins to go with their coffee,” he patiently explained as his deep brown eyes danced. It seemed like he wanted to give chase. Which was awesome. I longed to be caught. “And you look like you need a muffin.”
“Are you saying that I’m skinny? Because if you are, you haven’t looked close enough,” I countered as I patted my belly. It was still flat, but that was only due to the hard physical work at the ranch. Granny’s cooking would have added ten pounds to me easily if not for farm labor.
“Trust me, Dodge, I have looked plenty close.”
Oh shit. Right. To hell with coy. “Now that you mention it, I would enjoy some coffee and a muffin, but I do need to pick Dahn up at noon.”
“That’s plenty of time.” He checked the gold watch on his tanned wrist. “Over an hour. We’ll sit at the corner table with the pink calico tablecloth. You can see the oak tree at the rec center from that table. If you text him to meet you there, you’ll be able to see him.”
“He doesn’t have a cell phone. What?” I asked at his look of surprise.
“Nothing. I think that’s admirable.”
“Thanks. I took a lot of flak from my ex over my stance, but why expose him to all of that shit online at ten? He has a tablet that I supervise the content on, lots of parental controls, and a game system I also have parental controls set up on. When he’s a little older, he can get a phone, but at ten, why let him wade out into that cesspool of bullying?”
“Good call. So we’ll make sure we’re done by ten of twelve so you can be outside the rec center. How does that sound? Feel free to say no, obviously. No pressure.”
As if I were going to say no to this man. About anything. “Coffee and a muffin sound nice.” He stepped back, smilingwidely. I had to remind myself to get my keys out of the ignition—his aura was that strong.
