“Terrific!”she said and gave his hand a flirtatious squeeze.
Then she turned on her heel and lifted a silver whistle to her lips.She blew with enough force to make his ears bleed.One of the workers startled, spilling first aid supplies everywhere.
Stacy introduced Wade to the rest of the team, who came scurrying.He listened with half an ear while she outlined the plan for the day.Mary helped pick up the spilled supplies before joining them.Tendrils of dark hair escaped from the edge of her baseball cap.Wade felt the strange urge to remove the hat, to touch his lips to her forehead.
“Sheriff Hendricks,” Stacy gushed.“I have terrific news.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re going to couple up.”
This announcement got his attention.He moved his gaze to Stacy.She reminded him of Barbie, with her perfect teeth and golden hair.She was a ten, but his interest level was zero.“We’re going to do what now?”
“I’m free to do home visits, so I can couple with you.Isn’t that terrific?”
“Terrific,” he said.
Stacy gestured to the other workers, pairing them up in twos.She pointed at Mary and the guy who’d spilled all of his supplies.An expression of alarm crossed over Mary’s face.It occurred to Wade that she was wary of all men, not just him.She didn’t want to spend the day with a stranger.Wade wasn’t eager to hang out with Stacy, either.She’d saidterrificat least a dozen times in the past two minutes.
“I’ll couple up with Mary,” he said.“We actually came here together.”
Stacy made a moue of disappointment.“Oh.I didn’t realize.”
He gestured for Stacy to give him the clipboard she was carrying.She handed it over.
“Terrific,” he said and escorted Mary across the street.
He led her to the Suburban and unlocked the passenger door.
“Are you sure you don’t want tocouplewith Stacy?”she asked.
He smirked at the question.“I’m sure.”
Mary smiled as she climbed into the truck.She had an alluring smile, with one prominent incisor that an orthodontist might have considered an imperfection.Wade found it appealing.Like her freckles, the feature added to her charm.The overall effect was mesmerizing, perhaps because he’d caused it.He’d made her lovely face light up.He lingered over the sight with one hand resting on the door frame.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“Saying we came together.”
“We did come together.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I was saving myself, not you,” he said with a wince.“Did you hear that whistle?She almost broke my eardrum.”
“I think she was trying to impress you.”
“Well, she blew it.”
She threw back her head and laughed, to his delight.The combination of her pretty smile and husky laughter was a one-two punch.She laughed like a woman who hadn’t indulged herself in a long time, which made the moment even more satisfying.He laughed with her, watching her nose crinkle and eyes dance.It felt good to share the joke, to find humor and lightness in each other.Wade realized he was staring, so he tore his gaze from her, shut the door, and walked around to the driver’s side.It wasn’t just her appearance that he found attractive.Something about the simple pleasure of her laugh seemed to fill an empty space inside him.It made him want to keep her laughing and pull her close.
Wade was startled by this revelation, because he wasn’t the type of man who caught feelings for a woman he’d just met.He hardly knew her.He’d told her he wouldn’t touch her, and he meant it.She worked for his mother, and she had trouble written all over her.He wasn’t interested in risking his heart again, regardless.The past few years had brought a series of losses and disappointments.He pictured Natalie’s face at his brother’s funeral, her eyes shining with tears while his remained cold and dry.
Cursing fate, he took a deep breath and pushed the memory aside.Then he got behind the wheel and drove out of the parking lot in silence.
Chapter Six
