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A Family For The Sheriff
Elyssa Henry


FAMILYMATTERSI FOUGHT THE LAW…Joe Roberts was tenderhearted and incredibly sexy, but he was a lawman–just like the man who had broken Maria Lightner's heart in the past. Maria tried to ignore Joe, but her little boy had other ideas. He wanted a daddy and had chosen the new sheriff as his perfect father. What was a single mother to do?AND THEN I MARRIED HIM!A wife and child were the last thing on Joe's mind when he came to town. But Maria and her adorable son had shown him what he was missing. A home. A family. The kind of love a man couldn't walk away from. What was a marriage-shy lawman to do?Kisses, kids, cuddles and kin. The best things in life are found in families!







“I’d like to see you, Maria. (#uf6d716d8-39da-5f15-b038-65547919a4a5)Letter to Reader (#ua3b7e2cb-f1c4-5f0e-9015-6d30dbce7b46)Title Page (#udbe03a2f-ba7b-5503-b974-b32ee2b1840f)Dedication (#u97612dde-a63e-54d4-8b54-48f7b16778f5)About the Author (#uf47f1bbf-e898-5a6b-a1df-f583b32fe6eb)Letter to Reader (#u74e4055f-f9f5-5c26-a178-de307e39fafd)Chapter One (#ua8a790c8-5fbd-5992-b256-5fd71c9c68e8)Chapter Two (#uc274414d-ae19-581a-ae2f-908e4c1c82ca)Chapter Three (#u9677767d-6b75-572e-8697-94dbeb20e5e7)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)


“I’d like to see you, Maria.

“You can bring Sam, if you like. Maybe you could show me some of the sights, and I could buy you dinner.”

“I don’t date.” She gave Joe the standard answer she’d used many times. Her hands were trembling. She didn’t look at Joe as she spoke. She was afraid he might see the yearning that welled up in her suddenly at the idea of spending time with him. It might have been dark, but her imagination made that desire feel like a hot, golden glow inside her.

Joe touched her clasped hands, and suddenly the nights were too long and the years ahead stared back at her. “You’re shaking,” he observed softly. “Scared or cold?”

“Scared,” she admitted softly. Looking at Joe in the dim light, she knew he wasn’t the right one. She couldn’t get involved with Joe. She couldn’t get involved with any lawman.


Dear Reader,

Happy Valentine’s Day! What better way to celebrate than with a Silhouette Romance novel? We’re sweeter than chocolate—and less damaging to the hips! This month is filled with special treats just for you. LOVING THE BOSS, our six-book series about office romances that lead to happily ever after, continues with The Night Before Baby by Karen Rose Smith. In this sparkling story, an unforgettable one-night stand—during the company Christmas party!—leads to an unexpected pregnancy and a must-read marriage of convenience.

Teresa Southwick crafts an emotional BUNDLES OF JOY title, in which the forbidden man of her dreams becomes a pregnant woman’s stand-in groom. Don’t miss A Vow, a Ring, a Baby Swing. When a devil-may-care bachelor discovers he’s a daddy, he offers the prim heroine a chance to hold a Baby in Her Arms, as Judy Christenberry’s LUCKY CHARM SISTERS trilogy resumes.

Award-winning author Marie Ferrarella proves it’s Never Too Late for Love as the bride’s mother and the groom’s widower father discover their children’s wedding was just the beginning in this charming continuation of LIKE MOTHER. LIKE DAUGHTER. Beloved author Arlene James lends a traditional touch to Silhouette Romance’s ongoing HE’S MY HERO promotion with Mr. Right Next Door. And FAMILY MATTERS spotlights new talent Elyssa Henry with her heartwarming debut, A Family for the Sheriff.

Treat yourself to each and every offering this month. And in future months, look for more of the stories you love...and the authors you cherish.

Enjoy!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor Silhouette Romance

Please address questions and book requests to:

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A Family for the Sheriff

Elyssa Henry







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


For my mother,

who told me to dream big,

and Cathleen Treacy, my editor,

who helped me get there


ELYSSA HENRY

is the pseudonym of Joyce and James Lavene, a married writing team with over twenty-five years of experience in romance. They share their time with three children and one grandchild. When they aren’t writing, they prowl the roads looking for adventure and the next story that has to be told.


Dear Reader,

We’ve all experienced the loss of a loved one. The heartbreak and loneliness can only be healed by time and patience. The journey continues for those of us left behind, and our lives are changed forever.

Being part of a family is a lifelong bond. Our relationships with those we love give us strength and acceptance as we face the world. Even when a fragile thread of that link is broken, our memories sustain us. As a family, we gather closer, and we hold each other tightly.

And sometimes, a very special person happens our way, and, as a family, we embrace them. Learning to live and trust again, as Maria and Joe do, can be a challenge. Yet creating a new life, forged with love and understanding, is how families are born. We sigh a little for the past, then we move on, with hope, to the future.

Wishing all the best to you and your loved ones,







Chapter One

Maria sighed and stopped the truck.

It had been raining steadily for the past three days, making the landscape look like a French watercolor. Water washed in waves across the cracked window of the pickup truck she drove, and the worn windshield wipers did little to clear the glass.

It was the way he walked that stopped her. Rain ran in rivers down his jacket, his jeans already dark with it. His shoulders were hunched against the onslaught, and he waded through ankle-deep water at the side of the road.

Still, he wasn’t hitchhiking. She couldn’t be sure he needed or wanted a ride. He walked steadily, long legs eating up the distance. There was purpose in his stride.

But they were on a stretch of road that ran through ten miles of jack pine and very little else. The only spot there was a phone, or any type of human environment, was five miles away in Gold Springs, where she was headed.

She backed up carefully, the old truck shuddering, protesting the abuse. She rolled down the window, wondering what she was going to say, hoping he wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Hoping she wasn’t crazy for offering a stranger a ride on a deserted stretch of highway.

“Want a ride?” she yelled past the steady pounding of the rain.

“Yeah, thanks,” he replied simply. He grabbed hold of the door handle and opened the door.

When he swung his long form into the cab; closing the door quickly behind him, she had her first sense of panic.

He was bigger than she’d thought when she’d first seen him, and he looked tough.

“Sorry to get your seat wet,” he said as he rolled up the window. “My name’s Roberts—”

He held out his hand as she held up her tire iron, facing him squarely across the seat.

She didn’t know what she’d expected. Maybe shock, maybe anger, but there was only a mild amusement in his dark eyes.

His face was wet, water dripping from his hair and sun-darkened skin. He looked as though he lived outside. Black hair was slicked back from his high forehead by a careless hand, and his mouth was destined for laughter.

“Joe Roberts,” he concluded, not lowering his hand. His eyes locked on hers. “And I’ll be happy to get out the same way I came in if it’ll make you feel any better.”

“I just wanted you to know that I may be alone but I’m not helpless,” she replied evenly, holding the tire iron in both gloved hands.

“I appreciate that, ma’am.” He nodded slightly. “I was hoping you weren’t going to mug me.”

“I, uh—” She paused and cleared her throat then put the tire iron down beside the seat. “I’ve just never picked a man up before.” Her eyes flew across to his as she realized what she had said. “I mean, given a stranger a ride.”

“I guessed as much. You probably don’t have any business doing it now. But I appreciate it.”

“Maria Lightner.” She put her hand into his, feeling foolish. “I’m going to Gold Springs. It’s just up the road. I thought you could use a lift to a phone or something.”

“As a matter of fact,” he replied as she put the truck into gear, “I’m on my way to Gold Springs. My car broke down about three miles back.”

She glanced at him again. Historians spent time in Gold Springs, but he didn’t look like a historian. Yet, there was something familiar about his name. She was sure he wasn’t a local. Maria had lived in the small town since she’d been born. She knew everyone and their children and grandchildren.

“You could have Billy come out for your car,” she told him, still trying to identify his name. “He owns the only repair shop in town.”

“That’d be great,” he answered. “What about you? What do you do in Gold Springs?”

“I own a small farm, nothing major, just a few acres,” she replied, keeping her eyes on the wet road with great difficulty. His gaze hadn’t moved from her face since she’d started driving. It was unnerving.

“I would’ve never thought of you being a farmer,” he told her, leaning back against the truck door. “You remind me more of a teacher.”

“A teacher?” She laughed. “I hated school.”

“So did my sister, but she teaches now. Third grade. I keep imagining her in the middle of thirty kids. She didn’t even like to baby-sit.”

“I’m afraid I don’t do anything so important.” She shook her head. “I raise herbs and keep a few bees.”

“Really?” He shuddered. “I can’t imagine that. Being a city boy, bugs make me a little shaky.”

“They take some getting used to,” she acknowledged, “but then so would a classroom of thirty eight-year-olds.”

He agreed with a laugh. “I think I could get used to the bugs first.”

The windshield wipers slapped together in the silence for a moment, then Maria had to ask.

“So, are you planning to stay in Gold Springs?” she wondered. It was rare for anyone who wasn’t from there to come to live in the old mining town. “Do you have relatives there?”

“No.” He smiled. “My family’s scattered everywhere in the world except here. I’m starting the new sheriff’s office in Gold Springs. The job came with a house and some land. I think I’m going to be settling down here.”

“What?” She couldn’t believe his words. “You’re Joseph Roberts? From Chicago?”

“Originally.” He shrugged. “I guess it’s true what they say about small towns. News travels fast.”

Maria felt her fingers tighten on the old steering wheel. “You don’t know the half of it.”

She pulled the truck into the parking lot of the old general store, the first place to stop after the small sign that announced the whereabouts of Gold Springs.

“There’s a phone in there,” she told him, seeing the interested eyes looking out the store window as he opened the truck door.

“Thanks.” He nodded and started to climb out. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Roberts,” she said firmly. As soon as the truck door was closed, she pushed the truck into gear and sped out of the parking lot.

Of all the people to have picked up on the road! Joe Roberts didn’t know it, but he was going to have one hell of a time living in Gold Springs! No one wanted him there, and everyone was prepared to tell him.

It was a vain hope, she knew, that no one would recognize her pickup in the rain. When she ran into the house after parking the truck, the phone was already ringing.

“What the hell were you doing?” Tommy Lightner demanded with no preliminary. “You brought Joe Roberts here knowing the way everyone feels? I thought you were with us, Maria?”

“I’m not with anyone.” She shook her head, water droplets flying around her as she put her groceries down and took off her gloves. “I’ve never said that, Tommy.”

“So you’re against us?” he asked hotly.

She let out a long breath. “No, I’m not against you, and I agree, the commissioners should have asked us before they hired him. But trying to take it out on this man is wrong, and everyone knows it. As for giving him a ride, his car had broken down. I didn’t know who he was.”

He was nearly speechless. “You gave a complete stranger a ride?”

“It was raining. I stopped and gave him a ride for the last few miles into town. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but I would have given him a ride anyway, Tommy. He’s still a human being.”

“A human being we don’t want here,” Tommy raged. “Are you forgetting Josh already? Josh would have been sheriff if he hadn’t been killed. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“I have to go, Tommy,” she mumbled wearily into the mouthpiece. “Sam’s due home soon. I’ll talk to you later.”

She hung up, not giving him a chance to say anything they both might regret later. He was her brother-in-law and Sam’s uncle. She didn’t want to alienate him.

She bustled around the kitchen, stowing away bottles and cans until she paused to look out the big window above the sink.

Josh had loved that window, that view of the rolling, green hills that made up their land. Just hearing his name still hurt, but that didn’t make it right to take it out on Joe Roberts. He was only doing his job. The county had paid him to come to Gold Springs.

The town had been in need of a sheriffs department away from the county police force that cruised by when there was trouble. The rapid encroachment of the outlying housing developments was making its formation even more important.

Gold Springs was growing. The people needed the stability a full-time sheriff’s department would bring to the area.

But everyone resented the fact that they hadn’t chosen another man from town to head the project after Josh had died.

Josh Lightner had been the town constable for ten years after old Mike Matthews had retired. When Josh was gone, Mike Matthews had agreed to step into the role, but only until they could find someone to replace him.

Tommy Lightner had been deputy to both men, and everyone had expected the county commission to name him as the new sheriff. But they had done an about-face and hired someone with experience from outside the area.

“Mom, Mom!” Her son burst into the kitchen, the door slamming against the wall with his exuberance. “Guess what happened? My science project won second place.”

He held up the red ribbon proudly and grinned at her, the sight of several missing teeth in the front of his mouth tugging at her heartstrings.

Sam was the image of his father. Light brown hair, big blue eyes. Even the scattering of freckles on his nose and the tiny dimple in his cheek.

Thinking of Josh, of all the things he would miss, brought tears to her eyes as she knelt and hugged Sam to her.

“That’s wonderful,” she told him. “After all the hard work we put into it, I’m glad it paid off.”

“Don’t cry, Mom.” He touched her cheek with his dirty hand. “It was just a science project.”

“I know,” she answered, her voice husky despite her efforts to control it. “And I’m not really crying.”

But they both knew better. Sam was only eight, but he had seen his mother cry too many times since his father’s death to be misled.

He hugged her tightly. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too, Sam.” She hugged him again, then collected herself, stood up and took his heavy book bag and lunch box from him. “And I think we should go out and celebrate tonight. What do you think about Pizza Express?”

“Cool!” he said. “Can I get tokens to play the games, too?”

“I think so,” she agreed. “Put your stuff away and we’ll go. It’s supposed to rain all night again, and I’d like to be back before it gets late.”

He smirked. “Oh, Mom! You think late is seven or eight. People stay out until ten sometimes, you know.”

“Not people who have to go to school tomorrow,” she retorted, putting on her coat while he ran up the stairs to his bedroom.

Maria wiped her cheeks with an impatient hand. As often as she promised herself that she wouldn’t cry anymore, it still caught her by surprise from time to time.

It wasn’t like it could bring him back. Josh and their life together were gone. No wailing or sighing could change that fact. Yet she still cried for him sometimes in the night when the waste of his life choked up inside of her.

The rain had let up as Maria and Sam went out to start up the old truck. They didn’t go into the town of Rockford often. A good thing, she mused, since she didn’t know how many miles the truck had left to go on its life.

“We need a new truck,” Sam told her as the truck putt-putted down the driveway. “Ronnie’s father just got a new one.”

“I know,” she said, looking over her shoulder until they were clear of the drainage ditch on either side of the road.

“Uncle Tommy said he could get you a new one,” Sam informed her innocently.

Maria grimaced in the rearview mirror. Blue eyes reflected the information back to her that she couldn’t tell her son, that his uncle had made the same offer to her under different circumstances. And she hadn’t liked the strings that were attached.

“We get along fine with what we have,” she replied calmly, pushing a strand of reddish brown hair from her cheek.

“We could get along better with a new truck,” Sam responded, looking out the window at the passing landscape.

“You’re sounding more like your father every day.” She shook her head, then glanced at him. “Stubborn like him, too.”

He nodded solemnly. “Thanks. Everyone knows my dad was a great guy. He was a hero.”

“So he was,” she whispered through a tight throat. She looked up quickly when a solitary figure came into view as they were passing the general store on the way out of Gold Springs going toward Rockford.

“Hitchhiker,” Sam said, identifying the man.

“Not exactly,” Maria said, drawing in a deep breath as she made her decision before they reached him.

“What are you doing? Mom? Are we picking up a hitchhiker?”

“You watch too much television, Sam,” she countered, slowing down. “Scoot over here and be quiet a minute.”

Sam stared at her but he did as he was told, pushing away from the door and hugging her side.

“Need a lift somewhere?” she offered, her heart pounding in her throat as Joe opened the cab door.

He took in the addition to the truck’s passengers and ended up with his dark eyes locked on hers. “I think you know the answer to that.”

There was no laughter in that gaze, she noticed. She had the grace to look at her hands briefly. He was angry, and she didn’t blame him. The county commissioners had put them all in a bad place.

“Get in and I’ll take you into town,” she offered, knowing she was asking for trouble. It just seemed like the least she could do.

Joe climbed into the cab and pulled the door closed. Her light perfume curled around him invitingly. He felt her eyes on him as he fastened his seat belt and he fumbled with the clasp. When he looked up, her gaze slid away. There was no mistaking that the boy was hers. The big, soulful blue eyes fastened on him in a way the woman’s wouldn’t have, but they were identical.

A pang of regret shivered through him. A different tarn, another road. The boy could have been his son. He shrugged it off. Regret was something he had lived with for a long time.

“Billy wouldn’t bring in your car,” she guessed, starting down the road, turning on the windshield wipers as the rain began again.

“I would’ve had to use the phone to find out,” he replied tautly. “Since all the phone lines were down in the entire town and I don’t know where to find the repair shop...”

“The phones were working,” Sam volunteered quickly. “Mr. Maddox, the bus driver, stopped off and called home after we turned past the store.”

“I guess there was some mistake.” Maria grimaced at her son.

“I guess so.” Joe stared out the window. “A big mistake.”

Maria concentrated on her driving, trying not to think about what she was doing. They were nearly to Rockford before they passed a blur of red through the rain-coated windows.

“Is that your car?” Sam asked eagerly.

“That’s it.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Sam.” Maria tried to hush her son’s curiosity.

“It’s all right,” Joe told her, glancing at her taut face over her son’s head. “It’s not his fault.”

Maria kept her eyes stubbornly on the road as he explained that he had forgotten to pack another spare tire after the first one had blown out about a hundred miles away.

“That was pretty careless,” Sam remarked, eyeing the stranger warily.

“It was,” Joe replied steadily, then smiled at him. “Very careless.”

“What kind of car was that?” Sam asked. “I think I saw one like it in a magazine.”

“It’s a Porsche,” he told the boy. “It’ll do a hundred and sixty down a straightaway like this.”

“Wow! Can I have a ride sometime?” Sam looked at him in a new light. Anyone who had a car like that couldn’t be all bad.

“Not when it’s going a hundred and sixty down a straightaway,” Maria told him bluntly, stopping at the first red light at the edge of Rockford.

She looked at Joe Roberts in the fading daylight, wondering why on earth. she had stopped to help him again. She didn’t know anything about him except that he was qualified to run a sheriff’s department.

And that she felt sorry for him. He hadn’t seen the house the commission had promised him yet.

“I’m trading it in, anyway,” Joe told him. “Just as soon as I replace the tire.”

“Why?” Sam demanded.

“I think I’m going to need something a little different now,” Joe replied thoughtfully. “Maybe something more like this truck.”

“You can have this one,” Sam offered. “Maybe you could buy it from Mom and then she could afford to get a new one.”

Maria stepped on the gas, feeling annoyance warm her face. There was no such thing as a tactful eight-year-old.

Joe laughed. “I have a younger sister,” he told her in a low voice. “My mother made me take her out on dates with me so I wouldn’t get into trouble. Trust me. This is nothing.”

Sam rambled on about his science fair project, describing in detail how the mosquito larvae hatched into mosquitoes. He explained that they were on their way out to dinner because of his second-place award and that he would be happy to show the project and the award to Joe sometime.

“I’d like to see it,” Joe assured him. “Any place is fine,” he told Maria as they cruised down the crowded city streets.

“I know a place right next door to where we’re going,” she told him, wondering if her knuckles were turning white with the pressure she was exerting on the steering wheel. “You could get your tire there, and we could run you out with it on the way home.”

“That’s way too much,” Joe said. “The ride in is fine.”

“It’s no trouble,” she lied. She wasn’t sure it wasn’t going to be more trouble than it was worth. Still, she felt obligated to help him.

The commission had brought him a long way and promised him a good job. Tommy and his family wouldn’t let him stay, no matter what it took to convince him. He was a stranger, but anyone deserved better.

“I appreciate it.” He tried to see her face, but the light was gone. She had to be going out on a limb, and he couldn’t figure out why. “I’d like to buy your pizza, if that’s okay.”

“Great!” Sam said happily. “That’s more coins for the games!”

“Wait a sec,” Joe said. “This isn’t one of those gizmo games and pizza places, is it? I hate those places.”

“There’s a few games,” Sam said defensively. “They’re in another room.”

“That’s not it,” Joe answered as they opened the truck doors to get out. “They know me at all of them. I’m the best, you know.”

Sam stared at him with newfound awe for an instant then rolled his eyes. “Get out of here! I could take you on at any of the jumping games. Nobody beats me at those.”

“I’m sorry,” Joe told him mournfully. “Maybe I shouldn’t go in with you—”

“I don’t believe it.” Sam laughed, sliding across the seat to jump down. “You can’t be that good. Nobody’s that good.”

Joe shook his head and stared at the ground. “Well, anyway, your mom hasn’t said—”

“Mom.” Sam turned to Maria, who’d been about to give his offer a flat thanks, but no thanks. “We have to let him go with us. I know he’s lying.”

Maria glanced at Joe’s dark eyes fixed on her son’s back, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

She sighed, hoping they wouldn’t run into anyone they knew. “He can come with us. Can we get out of the rain now?”

It was crowded for a Wednesday night. Maria winced at every voice, worrying that someone she knew would be there. No one from Gold Springs would understand her helping Joe Roberts.

She wasn’t sure she understood it herself.

They found a table and ordered pizza, then Joe and Sam disappeared into the game room. The music was loud, and the excited screams from the game room punctuated the laughter and the calls for pickup in the pizza kitchen.

Costumed characters posed for pictures with their arms around children and adults alike. Flashing lights danced in time to the music while a group of waiters sang “Happy Birthday” slightly off tune.

Maria put a hand to her head. It was beginning to ache. Her life wasn’t usually more stressful than trying to get a good price from her herb crop. A chance encounter had made her placid existence choppy.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of her neighbors and family. She just didn’t want them to think she didn’t support them. It wasn’t in her nature to thrive on controversy.

“Wow!” Sam jumped into his chair at her side, his face flushed but happy. “He’s good.”

Joe took the chair opposite and grinned at him across the table. “I’ve spent so much time in places where there wasn’t anything else to do.” He shrugged. “That’s why I’m the best.”

“He might be.” Sam grinned then jumped up. “Can I go back and try Wrangler again?”

“Go ahead,” Maria told him. “The pizzas haven’t even gone in yet.”

“Thanks.” He took a few more coins from her. “If I keep practicing, I could be as good as Joe. He said I have natural talent.”

Maria smiled and glanced at Joe. “That’s great. Good luck.”

“Call me if the pizza comes,” he yelled as he was running away.

Maria faced the man across the gleaming white table. “I’m not sure I should thank you for telling him to practice.”

“Definitely not.” He shook his head, resting his arms on the table. “I wanted some time to talk to you alone. It seemed the easiest way.”

Maria tensed, looking at a napkin she had neatly folded on the table.

“Look, I’m sorry about what’s happened,” she said. “It got out of hand.”

“What exactly has happened?” he asked, leaning forward, trying to catch her eye. “Surely I have the right to know that, anyway.”

“It’s not easy to explain.” She unfolded the white paper napkin. “The county commission and the town disagreed about who should run the new sheriff’s department. It sounds silly, I know, but the town felt like it should be someone from Gold Springs. Someone who knows the area.”

“They told me that there wasn’t anyone who knew enough to set up the type of department they wanted,” Joe explained.

“The Lightners are the biggest problem.” She bit her lip, feeling as though she was somehow betraying Tommy and the others.

“Your husband?” he wondered.

Her eyes met his then, and the depth of sorrow he saw there made him sorry he had wanted to know the truth.

“My brother-in-law. My husband died two years ago. He was Gold Springs’ constable. He might have been the new sheriff.”

“I’m sorry.” He felt trite when the words were out of his mouth. “This must be hard for you.”

She looked up again, her hair falling back a little from her face. “Actually, it’s not like that for me. It seems to hurt the others, Tommy and Josh’s parents, more than me. Maybe that’s because I always hated Josh doing that job. It’s what killed him.”

Joe drew a deep breath and looked away for an instant, not relishing the memories those words dredged up for him. “So it’s nothing personal. They would have hated anyone.”

“That’s true,” she agreed with a shrug. “Only Tommy would have been good enough for the Lightners once Josh was gone.”

“Why didn’t Tommy get the training and take the job?” he asked, his voice harsh.

Maria smiled. “The commission made it clear from the beginning that they wanted someone with experience in setting up a sheriff’s department. Even if he’d had the training, Tommy would have been out of his depth. Josh had law enforcement training. They would have worked with him.”

Maria looked at the paper napkin only to find that she had shredded it.

Joe touched her hand lightly, stopping its restless destruction, then jerked his fingers away as though he’d been burned.

“I’m sorry to cause you this trouble. There wasn’t any way for me to know.”

“There wasn’t,” she agreed, picking up the pieces of napkin and depositing them in a trash container near their table. “I’m sorry for you, too.” She took her seat again and looked at him more thoroughly in the bright lights.

He had a kind face, she thought, and eyes that did understand what she was feeling, because he looked as though he had been hurt a few times himself. And there was something more. Something she’d never expected to feel again. Something she thought had died with her husband. Heat. Fire. When Joe touched her; when he looked at her. She didn’t want to feel that way but she couldn’t deny it. His voice seemed to hold her, stroke her. His words shivered down her spine.

“Don’t be.” He smiled, his eyes glittering as he made a rapid decision. He wasn’t running anymore. From his memories or this place. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

“Maybe you don’t understand—”

The pizza arrived, accompanied by Sam’s loud whoops of excitement.

“Look who’s here, Mom.” He dragged his towheaded friend to the table. “Ronnie’s science project won first prize, and his dad brought him here, too.”

“Dad says we should share a table,” Ronnie said in a voice that said he didn’t care as long as he could get back to the games. “He’s right over there.”

Maria looked across the crowded restaurant, and Ronnie’s father, Ron, waved to her enthusiastically. He pointed at the empty seats at his table and motioned for her to join him.

“Oh, God,” she moaned. “I can’t believe it.”

“They better get used to the idea.” Joe waved and flashed a smile. “I guess it might as well be now.”

“I have to live here,” she told him. “Everyone’s going to think I planned this.”

“I’m sorry, Maria,” he assured her quietly. “I didn’t plan this, either.”

“Maria!” Ron approached their table, a pitcher of soda in his hand. “I think my table was bigger, darlin’, but if you’d rather sit down here, that’s fine with me.” He pulled two chairs to their table.

Maria glared at Joe, who looked the other way. Is this what she deserved for her good deed? She should have kept herself out of it. Then she wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for the fat to hit the fire.

“I don’t believe we’ve met.” Ron hitched up his pants and stuck out his hand to the stranger across the table. “Ron Washington.”

“Joe Roberts.” Joe took his hand in a hard grip. His gaze targeted the other man’s as Ron’s face went from friendly to hostile.

“Joe Roberts?” Ron spluttered, staring at Maria, who wouldn’t look at him. “From Chicago?”

“Yeah.” Joe grinned. “How ’bout those Cubs?”


Chapter Two

“Why is he here?” Ron demanded when Sam came and pulled Joe off to the game room after they had finished eating.

“You know why he’s here,” Maria returned angrily.

“You know what I mean! He should have been in that fancy car of his and gone already. I never expected to actually meet him! Especially not here with you!”

“Ron, it doesn’t matter to me if someone else does Josh’s job. Especially a stranger. I’ve already had enough of that. So you and Tommy will just have to fight your own battles.”

Ron was thrown off guard by Maria’s outburst. He was a small, mean man who gloried in any sense of power. His dark hair was thick and greasy, slicked back from his forehead.

“Maria, honey.” His tone was clearly conciliatory. “I know Josh’s death has been hard for you and the boy, but...you aren’t dating the man, are you?”

“No.” Maria ground the word out, pushing her last bite of pizza aside. “But it wouldn’t have anything to do with you if I was dating him. He plans on staying, Ron, and after meeting him, I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do to change his mind.”

“He hasn’t seen the house yet.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “After that, we’ll just see, won’t we?”

“I think you might be surprised,” she informed him darkly. She wasn’t sure what they had expected, but she didn’t think they were prepared for Joe Roberts.

Ron left her, headed for the game room, found his son and led him out of the restaurant.

Maria’s headache had turned vicious halfway through the meal. She’d searched her purse for an aspirin but had come up empty.

It wasn’t anything that had been said between the two men. Ronnie had behaved as though Joe was a long-lost cousin. He didn’t have enough nerve to tackle the taller, clearly better conditioned man by himself.

But his glances at Maria had told her that it was far from over. He would head to Gold Springs and be on the phone all night telling everyone what had happened at the pizza restaurant.

Joe had tried to talk to Ronnie about the changes that were coming, about the needs the county felt weren’t being met with the present arrangement.

Ron nodded and didn’t say anything, preferring to keep his vehemence until Joe had left them alone at the table. Then he had lashed out at Maria, leaving nothing unsaid.

“Is everything all right?” Joe asked, bringing Sam back with him after Ronnie had gone.

Maria looked at him, her head pounding. “All right?” she asked scornfully. “No, everything isn’t all right!”

“Maybe we should leave,” Joe suggested, and Sam nodded.

“She gets upset sometimes,” he told the older man.

“Sometimes, women take things the wrong way,” Joe returned with a sigh.

“I think we should leave right now.” Maria glared at them both and stuck the check for the pizza in Joe’s hand. “Thanks for supper.”

She stormed past Joe and took Sam’s hand in a firm grip as she pushed open the door into the cool, rainy night.

“Aren’t we waiting for him like you said?” Sam asked as she headed for the truck. “We can’t just leave him,” he continued when she didn’t answer.

Behind the wheel of the truck, Maria contemplated doing just that. Helping Joe Roberts wasn’t going to be worth the hell she would go through every time she came in contact with someone from town.

And he had certainly left her out to dry by announcing who he was to Ron. She had explained the situation to him. He could have kept it to himself. He could have—

“Mom?” Sam tried to get her attention as Joe walked out of the tire store with a new tire on his arm. “Are we going to let him walk out to his car after you promised him a ride?”

Maria could hear by the tone in her son’s voice that leaving Joe would be an unforgivable event.

She sighed and started up the truck. “We’ll give him a ride out there, Sam. But then we won’t see him anymore, okay?”

“Okay, I guess. But I don’t understand why we can’t see him.”

Maria knew she had only herself to blame. She should have left well enough alone. There was no way the town would ever accept Joe Roberts as sheriff. Trying to be nice was only prolonging the inevitable.

But she’d finish what she started. She pulled the truck into the tire store parking lot and waited while Sam opened the truck door.

“He can put the tire in the back, can’t he, Mom?” Sam turned to her.

“Sure,” she answered curtly.

She didn’t look at Joe as he closed the truck door behind him. Nothing that had happened was his fault. She had put herself in an awkward position by picking him up in the first place.

But she was mad anyway. He seemed like a decent person, but there was no way to win this fight. The best he could do was to change his tire and go on with his life.

Joe and Sam kept a quick-paced conversation going while the truck took them out of town. They talked about games and science, wondering about virtual reality, a favorite concept of Sam’s.

“You have a computer with a CD ROM?” Sam whistled. “I’d really like to see that.”

“Anytime,” Joe promised easily.

Maria seethed and tried to coax a little more speed out of the old truck. She didn’t like to think of Sam being let down, but once they let him off at his car, they wouldn’t be seeing Joe Roberts again.

She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the exotic red car in the headlight beams.

“Here we are,” she said, pulling the truck up behind the car on the shoulder.

“I appreciate this,” Joe said, climbing out of the truck. “I know it won’t be easy for you to explain.”

“I can take care of it,” she announced stiffly, wishing he would go.

“Can’t we wait until the tire is fixed and I can ride back with him?” Sam interrupted.

“I don’t think—”

“I’d like that.” Joe agreed hopefully. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Sam,” Maria groaned. “You’re not riding in that car.”

“Mom! He said himself he’s trading it! It might be the last chance I have to ride in a car like that!”

“No, Sam,” she said.

“It’s no problem,” Joe assured her. “And I promise to go the speed limit.”

“Please, Mom!”

“I’ll just be out here changing this tire.” Joe backed out of the argument.

“Mom!” Sam pleaded. “We’re just a few miles from home, and you’ll be behind us. Can’t I go with him? Just this once?”

Maria decided later that her headache had brought about insanity and that was why she’d agreed to the request. Nothing else could account for it.

“All right.” She shook her head. “All right. You can ride home with him and then you can get in the shower and go to bed.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Sam whooped and jumped out of the truck.

Maria leaned her head against the cool window and closed her eyes. A light rap on the glass brought her head up with a start.

“Sorry it took so long,” Joe apologized. “We’re ready when you are.”

“I’m ready,” she replied. “You won’t—”

“Go a hundred and sixty?” He chuckled, his face nearly invisible in the darkness. “I promised a sedate fifty. You can track me.”

“I will,” she vowed, rolling up the truck window.

Sam waved to her from the lighted interior of the expensive car, then Joe started the engine.

True to his word, Joe drove the car carefully down the highway, the old truck a dark shadow on the car’s bumper.

There were no streetlights, so she couldn’t see into the car, but she felt sure her son was making conversation lively for Joe.

Maria trailed them to her driveway. Sam and Joe were already out of the car by the time she’d parked the truck.

“I just want to show Joe my award,” Sam said.

“No.” Maria was adamant “We had an agreement, remember? You wanted to ride in the car, but in turn you had to go straight in, take a shower and go to bed.”

“Mom,” he groaned.

“Another time,” Joe promised. “It’s getting late.”

“All right.” Sam glanced at his newfound friend in the halo of the porch light. “I’ll see you later.”

“I think my place is the next one up from here,” Joe told him cheerfully. “We’re neighbors. We’re bound to run into each other.”

Maria’s heart sank. It was true. The old Hannon farm was the next place up the road, about a mile away. However, they wouldn’t be all that likely to see one another.

“I appreciate your help, Maria,” Joe told her when Sam had gone inside the house.

“I did what anyone would have done. But I don’t see what good it will do for you to stay here.”

He laughed lightly. The sound sent a shiver up her spine, which she attributed to the late hour and the cool breeze that had picked up after the rain.

“I don’t give up so easily,” he told her bluntly.

“No one wants you here,” she replied in as blunt a fashion. “How can you get anything accomplished like that?”

“Sometimes people have to swallow the medicine even if it doesn’t taste like cherries,” he replied in a cheerful tone. “I guess I’m that medicine.”

Maria thought about the state of the old Hannon place but bit her tongue. She didn’t have the nerve or the heart to tell him the home he was looking for wasn’t to be found there.

“I guess everyone has to do what they think is best,” she said, and turned to the door. “I don’t envy you.”

And you wish I’d go to hell and get it over with, he thought. He wondered if he’d actually consigned himself to that hot spot by staying when his every instinct was telling him to leave.

“Good night, then,” she said, her voice a whisper in the darkness as the rain began to fall again.

“Good night,” he told her quietly. He added, “I’ve seen the house, Maria.”

After she’d closed the door, she thought she might have imagined the last part. How could he have seen the old house without his car? It didn’t make sense. Had he walked there from town?

Probably her guilty conscience putting words in his mouth. She had been part of the scheme. Or if not actively part, then at least she didn’t raise any protest.

But then she had never been one to purposely stand out or get people upset over anything.

She sighed when she saw the number of messages on her answering machine, having a good idea what those messages might be.

She stared at the little black box for a long moment, her head still pounding. Then she turned off the light without listening to the calls and slowly walked up the stairs to bed.

The rain was gone the next morning. Bright September sunlight flooded the changing leaves of the big oak trees around the farmhouse.

Maria got Sam off to school then went out to her garden. The sun was warm on her head as she worked, beginning what would probably be the last harvest of herbs for the year.

It had been a good year, a profitable year. The first since Josh’s death. With any luck and a mild winter, she might be able to afford a new truck by next year.

After selling off the livestock Josh had accumulated, she had changed the old barn into a crude greenhouse that would enable her to go on raising some of her best cash crop even after the first heavy frost of fall.

Over the summer, she’d finally managed to work out a long-term deal with two of the restaurants in Rockford. They would buy whatever she could raise and deliver of fresh parsley, sage, oregano and thyme.

Being able to grow her herbs all year would ease the financial setbacks since Josh’s death.

And maybe, she thought as she sat on her heels and stretched her back, she would even have enough to buy Sam a computer for his birthday next summer.

Like many couples, Maria and Josh hadn’t planned for his early death or what the loss of income would mean to the ones left behind. The first year, she and Sam had barely survived while Maria had tried to patch their lives back together.

By the second year, she was fighting back and finding that she didn’t have to be a victim after all. It wasn’t the life she had planned, but it was the life she had, and she was going to make the best of it.

Many people, including her own family, had said that she wouldn’t be able to make a go of it on her own after Josh’s death. She was determined to prove them wrong.

Maria walked into the house, knowing Sam wasn’t due home for another hour. She threw her dirty gloves into the washing machine then ran upstairs for a shower.

Muddy jeans and T-shirt went down the laundry chute while the water heated, making its strange gurgling and whining sounds.

It was an old house, but she and Josh had managed to get a good buy on it after they were married, when Maria had just learned she was pregnant with Sam. The house had seemed like a godsend, a way to get them out of her mother’s house before the baby was born.

It was a good, sturdy house. She looked at the walls around her. It was dark, with its tiny windows, and it was cold in the winter, hot in the summer. But it was hers.

The twenty acres she owned around the house were mostly overgrown and full of rabbits. Five acres of it she’d leased to a farmer to grow alfalfa for his horses. The rest, except for the acre or so adjoining the house, wasn’t used.

Josh had planned to raise cattle and horses there. It had been his dream. He had planned to buy up some land to go with what they had—the Hannon land the town had given the new sheriff.

The Hannon farm was forty acres. The land was worthwhile, but the house hadn’t been lived in for over twenty years. It was falling down, rotted in most places. No running water or electricity.

When she had first learned of the plan to discourage the new sheriff and defy the county commissioners, Maria felt it was wrong, but the entire town was in on it.

Or rather, the town kept their mouths shut and let the Lightner family tell them what to do.

There was no way to present a case for fairness or to persuade them to give the new man a try. During the town meeting where it had all been decided, they had used her and Sam as living reminders that the town needed a local sheriff.

She had smiled grimly and kept her mouth shut, but she wasn’t sure that had been the right thing to do. It was too late now, of course. The damage was already done. But she felt sorry for Joe Roberts. There was no way he could have known what he was walking into when they had hired him from Chicago.

She stepped out of the shower, shivering because the water heater had run out of hot water at. the worst possible moment, shampoo still in her hair.

She glanced at the clock on her dresser and realized that she had taken longer than she’d expected. Sam and his friend would be home at any minute.

Quickly, she pulled on clean jeans and a white cotton button-up shirt, then brushed her hair with quick, even strokes.

She looked at her face in the mirror and saw the same face she saw every day. The blue eyes worried. The mouth getting a little more set every day.

What would Josh have wanted? she wondered. He was a fair man, but he was inclined to run with the crowd. Would he have wanted the new sheriff to be treated with less than respect? Would he have gone along with the decision to give him the old Hannon house?

Sam’s call from downstairs reminded her that she didn’t have time to daydream. She clipped back her shoulder-length hair and slipped her feet into tennis shoes then met her son at the top of the stairs.

“Hey, Mom!” Sam rushed toward her. “We thought you were gone.”

“Hey, Mrs. Lightner!” Ronnie smiled at her then followed Sam.

“Supper’s at five,” she said to their backs as they disappeared into Sam’s room.

Since it was Thursday, the last day of school that week, Ronnie was spending the night. That was the last bit of conversation she’d have that night. She sighed. Maybe now was the time to curl up with that book she’d meant to read for a month.

The phone rang, startling her.

It was her mother, telling her that an emergency meeting of the county commission had been called for seven that night and they wanted her to be there.

“Why?” Maria demanded. “I don’t have anything to do with any of this.”

“Anna Lightner seems to think your word, the wife of the dead constable, would go a long way,” her mother told her, pleased that her little girl’s word was good for something. It had been the proudest day of her life when Maria had become a Lightner and the darkest one when they had buried Maria’s young husband.

“I can’t,” Maria replied. “Sam and Ronnie are here for the night. I can’t leave them alone.”

“I’ll come over and stay with them,” her mother volunteered. “Maria, this is very important. I don’t think you realize that.”

“I only realize that I don’t want it to have anything to do with me,” Maria muttered tiredly. “Joe Roberts seems to be a good man. Why don’t we just wait and see what happens?”

“I’ll be there about six-thirty.” Her mother ignored her remarks. “And Maria,” she cautioned, “don’t say that to anyone else.”

Maria didn’t tell her that it was too late. She hung up the phone and wondered what Joe would say when he saw her.

Emergency commission meeting, she thought scornfully, getting pots and pans noisily out of the cabinet and banging them on the stove.

It was Tommy and his family trying to inflame everyone about the new sheriff. Not that anyone outside the town cared who became sheriff. Certainly the suburbs, which were growing rapidly, didn’t care who was sheriff so long as he got the job done.

Not that she cared if Joe Roberts was the sheriff. In fact, she would have been happier not seeing him again. She didn’t want to think about how he made her feel. She was still grieving for Josh.

At least in front of a big, noisy crowd they wouldn’t have any time alone together, she mused. He probably wouldn’t even notice her with all the crowd and all the other women.

She glanced down at her clothes that had been fine for a night at home with the boys and considered changing.

Not that she wanted to look her best in case he did notice her from the crowd, she reminded herself sternly. She added a dash of bright lipstick to her pale face after she’d changed her clothes. There were butterflies in her stomach but she was just nervous about the Lightners causing trouble.

He wouldn’t notice her, she repeated like a charm.

Yet a tiny voice whispered, “He might.”


Chapter Three

The room in the old church was packed. Those still coming in the doors at seven would have to stand at the back. The two county commissioners who had come fretted on the dais at the front.

The other eight commissioners felt as though the matter was closed and wouldn’t bother hearing the issue further. Their choice was made. Gold Springs had its first sheriff.

Some of the people of Gold Springs didn’t agree.

There were quite a few unfamiliar faces in the audience. Maria guessed they were residents of the new subdivisions.

She saw Joe Roberts on the dais shaking hands with Sue Drake, one of the commissioners.

She’d probably been the one to hire him in the first place, Maria considered. How had she come to hear about him? Chicago seemed a long way away.

Maria watched Sue Drake’s eyes following Joe’s lean form as he moved away. Her gaze slid slowly down his back until it reached that rounded part of his anatomy clearly outlined by his uniform.

Maria glanced away, her eyes going down the dais, refusing to watch. But it only took a minute for her gaze to wander back again.

He did look very professional in his tan state trooper uniform. It hugged his broad chest and wide shoulders and made his legs look incredibly long.

He leaned over to pick up a paper he’d dropped, and Maria found herself ogling him as openly as Sue Drake had. She sucked in her breath and purposely looked away again.

“Quite a hunk,” Maria’s longtime friend, Amy Carlson, stated, sitting beside her in the crowded church. “I can see why you gave him a ride.”

The implication—that a ride in her truck wasn’t all that was involved—made Maria frown at her.

“It was all perfectly innocent.”

“Of course it was.” Amy sighed. “That’s the part we need to talk about. It’s been nearly three years, Maria. Are you going to be alone forever?”

“Why is it that everyone is worried about me being alone? No, wait,” she corrected. “Everyone is worried about me not having a man.”

“Because it’s unnatural,” Amy told her with a grin.

“And because he’s a damn good-looking man.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to sleep with him, does it?”

“Heavens, no!” Amy replied. “I think you should leave him alone so that us divorced ladies have a chance.”

Maria smiled and shook her head. Amy had always been her opposite. Not afraid to voice her opinions, always the life of the party. Her bright cloud of strawberry blond hair made her easy to spot in a crowd.

They had stopped competing for men when Maria had grabbed Josh Lightner and left her friend with Tommy on a double date.

After that, Amy had married a lawyer and gone to live in Boston. She was back less than two years later, brokenhearted when she’d caught her husband with another woman.

Alone and penniless, she had managed, nonetheless, to open a small dressmaking shop that had done well almost immediately.

There had been no children. Amy had said she was grateful, but Maria doubted it. Amy was Sam’s godmother and spoiled him terribly. When she saw the two of them together, Maria saw a sadness in her friend’s eyes. It made her hug Sam more tightly to her.

“Looks like we’re about to start the witch hunt,” Amy murmured.

“Will you girls be quiet?” their former high school math teacher demanded. “You both always talked too much!”

They looked at each other then giggled, rolling their eyes. The teacher sighed and sat back in his chair, trying to ignore them.

“So, what’s he like?” Amy whispered as the commissioners tried to bring the crowd to order.

“Joe?” Maria shrugged. “Just a nice guy. Sam really liked him.”

“If we could get down to business?” Sue Drake glanced impatiently at her watch.

The crowd began to grow quiet. Maria spotted Tommy and his mother near the front of the church. She was glad she didn’t have to see their faces staring at her.

The old constable, Mike Matthews, stood up and looked at the crowd. His face was lined, and his eyes had faded to a pale blue. “Now, some of you still seem to have a problem with the choice of sheriff these good folks brought us.”

“That’s the problem right there.” Tommy was on his feet, glaring at Joe Roberts. “He was their choice. Not ours.”

A few people supported him, but most of the crowd remained silent.

Mike Matthews shook his head. “Tommy, I’ve talked with you and your family about this. The district was created between voting times. They had to appoint a sheriff. If not, we wouldn’t have received the money for the new nine-one-one system. And I know we all want that.”

Applause broke out randomly. People nodded and agreed.

“That’s not the problem,” Tommy replied. “The problem was choosing someone outside the community to take the job. You could have chosen one of us.”

“We could have,” Sue Drake said, “if there had been someone qualified. Setting up an entire operation from scratch takes experience. There were certain requisites for the job according to federal standards. Sheriff Roberts meets those standards.”

“Maybe we should let Sheriff Roberts say a few words,” remarked David Martin, the other commissioner, who nodded toward the man at the end of the line of chairs.

Joe stood, and Maria felt a hot flush hit her cheeks when his eyes locked with hers across the room. Her heart pounded, and there was a strange rolling feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She looked away first, wondering if she was about to come down with the flu. She felt strange and lightheaded, breathing shallowly.

Maybe it was the crowd. The night was warm, and they were packed in like sardines. She realized suddenly that she had missed Joe Roberts’s opening remarks.

“And after graduation from the academy, I worked as a policeman in Illinois for several years. I had the opportunity to join the U.S. Marshal’s office, and I was there for ten years until I got the call from Commissioner Drake about the job here.”

Joe looked around the crowd as he spoke.

“I believe I can set up something long-lasting here, something that will serve this area into the next millennium. One reason I accepted this job was the offer of a house and land. I plan to settle down here and become part of the community. I’d like to do my part in helping the town feel secure and watching it thrive.”

Sue Drake thanked Joe warmly. “As you can see, we were fortunate to find a man as experienced as Mr. Roberts who would be willing to take the salary we could offer at this time.”

“And something else to remember here.” Mike Matthews joined her, presenting a united front. “In two years there will be a regular election and if Sheriff Roberts doesn’t do the job you expected of him, there’s plenty of time to vote in someone who will.”

“But you need to give him a chance.” David Martin spoke on Joe’s behalf. “That’s the only way we can know what he can do. His record speaks for itself, of course, and once the program is in place, federal money will be forthcoming no matter who is in office.”

“We’re not satisfied with that,” Tommy growled, getting to his feet. “We need someone who knows the area and the people.”

“We need someone who knows how to run the kind of organization we have to create here,” Mike Matthews corrected him.

“I think we should give him a chance,” a tall man from the housing development spoke up, “I think he’ll do a good job for the first two years.”

“We think you should just sit down and shut up!” Ronnie snarled, ready to take on outsiders with a group of his peers behind him.

It looked as though the meeting would dissolve into a shouting match. Joe stood up again and claimed their attention.

“My first act as sheriff is going to be appointing deputies from Gold Springs. These people will be local homeowners who have an interest in keeping the community at its best. That would be one way for me to get to know the people and the area.”

Tommy stood up and glared at him. “We just plain don’t want you here!”

“I don’t think you have a choice,” Joe told him flatly, not taking his gaze from the angry man. “So unless you have something constructive to say, I think you should sit down and keep all the rest of this crap to yourself.”

Applause broke out all over the church except, of course, from Tommy and his family and friends. Tommy turned an angry, defiant face to the crowd then walked out of the church.

“If there are any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer them as best I can,” Joe said.

“Whew!” Amý gasped. “That was tense!”

Maria knew Tommy wouldn’t give up that easily. If he couldn’t win fairly, he would find another way.

The rest of the meeting went quickly. People stood and talked for a while over coffee and cookies provided by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“Maria!” David Martin came up to her. He kissed her cheek and hugged her close. “You’ve lost some weight!”

Maria glanced at the man who stood just behind him, then smiled into David’s gentle blue eyes.

“Just baby fat,” she countered. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. Deidre sends her love, and the boys are always after us to bring them out to play with Sam. How is he?”

“Just fine. He won second place in the science fair,” she told him, acutely aware of Joe standing there, listening to them.

“I want you to meet someone,” David said, bringing the new sheriff forward. “I told him that, of everyone in Gold Springs, he could depend on you. Joe Roberts, this is Maria Lightner. She’s the widow of the man who was constable here for ten years. Josh and I were very good friends.”

“We’ve met.” Joe nodded and smiled slowly at her. “Nice to see you again.”

“You did quite a job tonight,” she told him. “Getting Tommy Lightner to shut up is nothing short of a miracle.”

David laughed. “I was telling him the same thing. Is Tommy still running after you?”

Maria glanced at the floor, wishing David didn’t have to tell all her secrets at once.

“You know Tommy,” she said, hedging. “He doesn’t know when to quit.”

“I have to go.” David kissed her again quickly. “Come to dinner one Sunday with Sam. Don’t forget.”

“I’ll call Deidre,” she promised.

Mike Matthews came over, nodded to Maria, then held out his hand to the new sheriff. “Anything I can do, Sheriff.”

“Thanks,” Joe replied, taking his hand. “I can use all of your experience, Mike.”

“Don’t let those Lightners rile you.” He glanced at Maria cautiously. “Ma’am.”

Alone in the corner of the church together, they looked away from one another and watched the crowd around them.

“People are pretty intense about the Lightners, good and bad,” Joe remarked finally.

Maria nodded and smiled. “They’re a hard family to ignore. You either love them or you hate them.”

He regarded her intently. “David said your husband was a good man.”

“He was,” she replied simply, then put her empty paper cup into the trash. “I have to be going, Sheriff. I hope it works out for you.”

“Thanks. Can I give you a lift for a change?”

“No, thanks. My truck is out front.”

“I’d at least like to walk you out,” he answered as though he’d anticipated her reply. “There’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“All right,” she consented, curious. Her heart suddenly started pounding again, and her mouth felt dry. What could he want?

Outside the night had grown cool. There was a hint of frost in the air, although cold weather wouldn’t visit them for at least a month or so.

The door closed behind them, leaving the parking lot outside the small church barely illuminated by the mercury vapor light a few doors down.

“The only time you see this many cars here,” Maria remarked with a laugh, “is Founder’s Day. You’re famous, Sheriff.”

“I think that might be infamous,” he admitted, walking beside her. “It’ll pass.”

“Most of it,” she agreed. “The Lightners won’t forget.”

“I’ll deal with them, too,” Joe said quietly.

“Well, here we are.” Maria put her hand on her truck door. “It wasn’t much of a walk.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said, leaning against the side of the battered pickup. “I’d like to see you. You can bring Sam, if you like. Maybe you could show me some of the sights, and I could buy you dinner.”

“I don’t date.” She gave him the standard answer she’d used many times.

Her hands were trembling. She didn’t look at him as she spoke. She was afraid that he might see that yeaming that welled up in her suddenly at the idea of spending time with him. It might have been dark but her imagination made that desire feel like a hot, golden glow inside of her.




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