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But she has cracks.

Last week, I came over out of nowhere to see if the raccoon that got into her trash had somehow found a way to get in them. Adeline had called in frantically the evening before that someone was hitting the side of her house and trying to break in through the wall, not the door. It was a raccoon, and I put bricks on top of her trash bin so the damn thing couldn’t open it.

Then she said I was being mean to it.

However, if she keeps a damn family of raccoons coming around, I’m going to get more calls. So I came over to make sure she kept my damn bricks on.

But when she opened the door that night, she was in baggy sweatpants, a high ponytail, and a tight tank top that had my jaw almost dropping to my feet.

It’s not because she was dressed like a sexy little bum, but because she was something I wanted to toss over my shoulder and feel around her body for all her hidden curves.

Lack of sleep.

That’s what I told myself when my cock stirred inappropriately in my slacks.

Now, Adeline greets me with a relieved smile and moves away from the door to let me in. She’s in a light blue dress with flowers, not the sexy little ensemble from days before.

“Thank God you’re here, Dodger. I think one of the pipes is gonna explode.”

I frown.

Alright, so I know she likes to mess around with me all the time, and that’s fine. However, when I’m on duty, I’m not Dodger.

I’m Sheriff Henry Abbott.

“Put some respect on my name, Adeline,” I lightly chide as I step inside. “I’m the damn sheriff for Christ’s sake.”

“I do respect you,” she says to my back as I stop in the foyer. “I think you’re one of the finest officers we have in town.”

“There are only three of us.”

“Still the finest, Dodger,” she says in this tone that drops, and the only way I can describe it is sultry and on purpose. “I’d pick you over Bowen and Paxton any day of the week.”

“Why? Because they’re married?”

She rounds my body. Pretty dress that hugs her waist. Brown curls flawlessly cascading around her face.

Perfection in every shape of the word.

However, she hasn’t been this interested in me since she bought this house. And that’s because it’s my job to make sure she’s safe, so she’s biased with me.

“Bowen isn’t married.”

I shrug. “He may as well be.”

“Bowen isn’t interested in June McLourey,” she vouches with a sly smirk as if she knows something I don’t. “I think he has his eye on Bobbie Jo.”

My brows hike upward. “Bobbie Jo? She hates men.”

“She hates Magnolia men. But not Rigg Bowen.”

“Bobbie Jo ain’t gonna go for Bowen because he’s a family man.”

“And she has daddy issues.”

I make a face because Bobbie Jo gives every man in Magnolia Ridge a complex.

She’s mean.