“No,” she said, shaking her head with a small laugh. “You sound like Gran. After my first couple of failed relationships in college, she started giving me the third degree whenever I began dating someone new. Those were her words when she met Michael.”
“The fiancé.”
“The not fiancé. Look, he’s a good guy with a good job, and he was good to me.”
He cleared his throat. “That’s a hell of a lot of good.”
She waved him off. “But he’s not the right guy. And I’m not even the right woman. It’s just that you might be right. I could truly be unfixable.”
He brushed a rogue curl out of her eye, his fingertips skimming the length of her face. “I mighta said something about being a little broken, but I sure as hell never told you that you needed fixing, and anyone who ever gave you that idea is a damned fool.”
Her breath caught in her throat, and for the first time since they’d met—albeit less than twenty-four hours ago—she was at a loss for words.
“Now, let’s go find us some letters,” he said, holding out his hand.
She placed her palm in his, and he gave it a reassuring squeeze. And in that instant, Olivia Belle’s heart did something it had never done before.
It skipped a whole beat. Either this strange man was getting to her in ways no one had before, or she was in need of medical attention. She wasn’t quite sure which scared her more.
Chapter Six
Cash knocked on the screen door, but the main door was open. So when no one answered, he took it upon himself to enter. It wasn’t like he was an unexpected guest. He’d texted Jack Everett late last night after he’d caught Olivia breaking and entering, and Jack had been more than happy to help.
“You can just do that, huh?” Olivia asked. “Walk into other people’s homes when the door’s unlocked and not call it breaking and entering. Is that a sheriff thing?”
He held the screen door for her. “No. It’s a friend thing. Last time I checked you and Lucinda weren’t friends.”
She huffed out a breath. “I didn’t realize someone with as pleasant a demeanor as you had friends. And I bet if Lucinda met me and got to know me, we’d be BFFs in no time.”
His brows furrowed, and she groaned.
“Best friends forever?”
He stared at her absently.
She jutted her chin out as she stepped through the door, and he had to bite back a grin. Of course he knew what the letters stood for, not that he’d ever uttered them in his life. It sure was fun to mess with her, though. And she was right about Lucinda. She and Olivia would be fast friends if they ever had the chance to meet. Lucinda had a soft spot for things that were strange or different yet still beautiful in their unique way.
That was Olivia Belle. Strange. Different. And absolutely beautiful. He was on dangerous ground, even though it was the same earth he’d traversed for the better part of his life.
“Jack?” he called out as they headed down the short hallway toward the kitchen. “I think I’m a few minutes early, but—”
They both stopped short in front of a kitchen table lined with slices of cake—and a half-dressed Luke Everett—the middle brother—blindfolded, his arm in a sling while he was being fed a forkful by Lily Green.
Cash cleared his throat.
Lily yelped while Luke simply chewed the food that was in his mouth, removed the tie covering his eyes, then gave Cash and Olivia a sly grin.
“Mornin’, Sheriff. Who’s your friend?” He raised a brow.
“Sheriff!” Lily said, with a little more enthusiasm than he was used to seeing from her. “I was just—I mean, Luke was helping me pick a cake for the wedding.”
Cash narrowed his eyes. “You two are getting married?”
“Hell no!” Luke said.
Cash wasn’t judging, but Lily and Tucker Green had just finalized their divorce.
Lily narrowed her eyes at Luke, then laughed nervously. “No. Luke and I are not getting married. But my ex-husband is. To Sara Sugar. From that Food Network show, Sugar and Spice? Right. You don’t watch television. Anyway, Tucker’s getting married, and I’m happy for him, and I’m sort of catering the wedding.”
“What?” Olivia blurted. “I’m sorry. I don’t know you, and that was rude of me, but—what? You’re catering your ex-husband’s wedding?”
Lily bit her lip and nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but I need the job.”
“And she agreed to it before she knew whose wedding it was. Not that I didn’t try to stop her.” Luke put his coffee mug down on the counter and swiped the fork out of Lily’s hand. “If you all are going to keep on talking about Lily’s excellent decision-making skills, I’m just going to take care of the cake.” He dug the fork into the hunk of cake and stuffed it into his mouth.
“You’re an asshole sometimes. You know that?” Cash said.
Luke just raised his fork in a gesture of cheers and kept on eating.
“Jack in his office?” Cash asked Lily.
She shook her head. “Is he supposed to be? Ava just went to meet him and Owen for lunch.”
Cash pulled his phone out of his pocket to double check his texts, then cursed under his breath.
“What is it?” Olivia asked, and he could hear the doubt seeping into her voice.
“Nothing,” he said. “Just missed a text from Jack. He took his son Owen to the park for some pitching practice this morning, and now it looks like they’re meeting Owen’s mom, Ava, for lunch. He was going to dig up some deed history on your grandma’s house since I can’t find the record of sale from before Lucinda purchased it. Jack’s a contract attorney, and he’s got a buddy in real estate who might be able to track it down. He says he’s sorry if he put us out and that he’ll email me what he finds this afternoon.”
Olivia’s shoulders sagged.
“Hey,” he said gently. “It’s not a sign.”
He glanced back to Luke and Lily who both looked like they were guilty of something, but of what he wasn’t sure.
“Heard about the rodeo last night,” Cash said to Luke. “Bull threw you pretty hard.”
Luke’s devil-may-care grin faded. “I got—distracted,” was all he said, and Cash could tell not to press the issue.
“You got any horses need working out since I take it you’re out of commission for a bit?”
Luke’s jaw tightened. After his brothers, Cash knew riding was the most important thing to Luke Everett. Being benched wouldn’t be easy for him.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “Cleo and Bella are always good for a workout.”
Cash nodded toward Lily. “You make sure he stays put.”
“Oh, I’m not here to—I mean, I was supposed to do the cake tasting with Ava.” Her face brightened. “Do you two want some cake? I’m sure Luke would love the company.”
Luke mumbled something Cash couldn’t quite make out. And as good as some of Lily Green’s homemade cake sounded right about now, he somehow felt like he and Olivia were intruding.
“We’ll take a rain check,” Cash said.
“I’m Olivia, by the way,” she said.
“Lily,” the other woman said. “And this ray of sunshine is Luke. You new in town?”
Olivia shook her head. “I mean, yes. I am new, but not staying. Just visiting—and trying to stay on the right side of the law. It was nice to meet you both.”
“I’ll hold you to that rain check, Sheriff!” Lily said as they turned toward the door.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” he called over his shoulder, and they were out the door a few seconds later.
Cash led her toward the stable. He was going to make sure this morning wasn’t a loss as far as Olivia giving up hope. “I know what you’re thinking,” Cash said when they were a good distance from the ranch.
Olivia’s cheeks were pink, and she was smiling. “You mean that there was some major sexual tension happening during that cake tasting?” She put finger quotes around cake tasting.
“You are aware that there was actually cake. And Luke did seem to be tasting it.”
She raised her brows. “So you didn’t notice it.”
“No.”
She took a step closer to him, and he could swear the crisp October morning grew warmer with her approach.
“You didn’t feel the heat? Or you like to pretend that kind of thing doesn’t exist?”
He cleared his throat. He knew that kind of thing existed. He knew damned well. But yeah, he was pretending right now. Real hard. Not with Luke and Lily, though. Whatever was going on there was none of his business. The problem was that whatever heat Olivia had noticed back in that kitchen, it had followed them to the stable. And now it was just him and her.
“We’re not here to talk about heat,” he said. “And apparently we’re not here to talk about the deed to your grandma’s house. At least not yet.”
She moved in closer, that heat he didn’t want to acknowledge melting the space between them, and he knew she felt it, too. “What are we here for, Sheriff?”
He could tell she was trying to be coy, but there was a slight tremor in her voice that mirrored the erratic rhythm of his pulse.
He was here to clear his head. That much was true. “We’re here so I can show you Oak Bluff the way it’s meant to be seen—on the back of a horse.”
On the back of a horse? “Whoa there, Sheriff. Slow your roll. I don’t ride horses. I’m from San Francisco. I ride trolley cars. Sometimes I even ride Ubers—”
“And sometimes you ride a canary yellow Bug way too fast in a town that moves at a much slower pace.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Horses don’t move at a slow pace.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, and she gasped dramatically.
“What now?” he asked.
She stepped closer and was even so bold as to touch that spot where his bottom and top lips joined, inspecting it, eyeing it with scrutiny.
He wrapped his hand around her wrist, but the touch was gentle—not full of the force she knew a man of his stature was capable of.
“I was just seeing if this thing worked,” she said. “I mean, other than when you’re laughing at my expense.”
He rolled his eyes. “I smile.”
“Mmm—no. You don’t. You’re that strong, silent type, so stoic, burying your feelings. I mean, if you have them.”
He sighed and lowered her hand, but he didn’t let go. “I’m having a feeling right now,” he said dryly.
She laughed. “I bug you, don’t I?”
“Yes. Because you’re stalling. Come on.”
He tugged her toward the stable door, and only because he’d now laced his fingers with hers did she not resist.
“Oh!” she said when he opened a stall door to reveal a gorgeous caramel-colored horse. Gorgeous and huge. How did anyone even get into the saddle without a ladder?
“Olivia Belle, meet Cleo. Cleo…” He stroked a hand down her mane. “Meet Olivia. You two are going to get to know each other rather well today.”
“Cash,” she said nervously now. Because this was getting a little too real. “I’m not sure this is a good idea. Maybe I could just watch you ride? I’m quite good at spectating. My dad’s a huge Giants fan, and we go to tons of games. I can—”
“Shhh,” Cash said, covering Cleo’s ears. “Cleo here is Jack Everett’s horse, and he’s just about the biggest Dodger fan there is. You don’t want to spook her with talk of another team, do you?”
She forced a smile but backed away from the stall.
“Hey,” he said, his tone shifting from playful to concerned. “What’s wrong?”
She fidgeted with the button on the bottom of her cardigan. “So…My parents actually took me riding once when I was in middle school. They were concerned I didn’t have a thing, you know?”
“A thing?”
“I wasn’t into sports or ballet or playing a musical instrument—by the way, the cello thanked me for quitting. I just hadn’t found what made me tick.”
He raised a brow. “Fast driving.”
She sighed. “No. Event planning.” He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. “Before you make fun, I’ll have you know that I am an excellent party planner, and it all started with my best friend’s thirteenth birthday party. It was Harry Potter themed, and all the kids in school were talking about how amazing it was afterward. But that’s not my point.” She paused, waiting for him to interrupt, but he just stared at her with those gorgeous green eyes all patient and slower paced. “My parents took me to this farm that gives you a half-hour lesson and then lets you set off on this trail. So there we were, the three of us on horses, and my parents get into an argument.”
His brows furrowed. “About what?”
“You name it. Whether we should walk or trot, go right or left at the fork in the trail even though both routes led back to where we started. Then I think it escalated into whether or not my dad’s horse was brown or chestnut. At one point my mom yelled at him so loud that my horse got spooked.”
“Shit,” he hissed quietly.
Olivia nodded. “Threw me right off. I broke my arm in two different places and had to listen to my parents continue arguing in the ER about whose fault it was. So—yeah. Horses did not end up being my thing.”
He followed her out of Cleo’s stall and closed the door.
“You don’t have to get back on the horse, Olivia.”
She laughed at the pun even as the mere thought of the incident made her heart race with the familiar fight-or-flight response that always accompanied one of her parents’ shouting matches.
“But,” he continued, “if you’ll let me, I’ll change your memory of horses to one that’s far less painful.” He pulled her hands from the hem of her sweater where she’d all but torn the bottom button off.
“Are you a cowboy or a sheriff?” she asked, trying to stall her answer.
He shrugged. “Maybe I’m a little bit of both. After my—after Lucinda’s first husband passed, that’s when she sold our farm—and with it the few horses we owned. She bought the antiques shop, and we moved into the apartment above it, and the rest is history. The Everetts let me ride every now and then—whenever I get to missing it.”
“Are you missing it right now?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“I am.” The wistful look in his eyes softened the hard lines of his face.
She sighed. “Why does hearing you talk about horseback riding like that make me want to kiss you?”
And then something wholly unexpected happened. Cash Hawkins grinned.
Her mouth fell open.
He shook his head and chuckled. “You know, I’m not stopping you.”
He let go of her hands, and she used her freedom to run the tips of her fingers over his stubbled jaw. “It’s sexy lawmen cowboys like you that make it awfully hard to concentrate on my unparalleled equine fear.”
He raised a brow. “You talk like we’re a dime a dozen.”
She snaked her hands around his neck, clasping them there as if she’d never let go.
“No,” she said. “I get the feeling they broke the mold when they made you, Sheriff.”
“You gonna keep talking?” he asked.
She skimmed her teeth over her bottom lip. It was dangerous how much and how often she wanted to kiss this man after only just meeting him. Yet there was also safety in Oak Bluff—in this seemingly far-off place where what she was running from couldn’t catch her.
He dipped his head, and she rose on her toes to meet him the rest of the way. Their mouths met with a soft brush, then a gentle flick of her tongue. His lips parted, and she tasted the bitterness of his black coffee mixed with the sugar of hers.
She let out a hum of pleasure and felt him smile against her.
“Now you’re just showing off,” she teased.
“I told you I smile,” he said, his voice low and sexy. “Just not for everyone.”
He kissed her aga
in, his lips firm yet gentle, and his touch—the sheer nearness of him—made her forget how scared she really was.
“Do you promise you’ll keep me safe if I ride?” she asked.
He straightened to look at her, his green eyes so damn sure.
“You have my word.”
She slid her hands from his neck but left them splayed against his chest.
“Then show me your town, Cash Hawkins. The way it was meant to be seen.”
Chapter Seven
Riding was easy when it was on Jack Everett’s mare, Cleo. But Cash could still see the tension in Olivia’s shoulders, which meant the horse could sense it, too.
“It might help if you breathe,” he said. “She’s not gonna throw you, but if you want her to trust you, you have to do the same with her.”
They were moving at a snail’s pace across the pasture and toward the new Everett vineyard, but at least they’d made it past doing guided laps in the small arena.
“How am I supposed to trust someone I just met?” she asked calmly. He guessed she was keeping her voice even so as not to spook the mare. But Cleo didn’t spook. She was older and set in her ways, and spooking wasn’t one of them.
“That’s a good question,” he said. Because Cash was wary about most people other than Lucinda and his deputies. It went with his line of work. And—he guessed—his personal life, too. “But you trust me, right?”
She studied his face for a moment and then nodded. “Even though we just met, too. Is it weird that I feel like I’ve known you longer than a day?”
He shrugged. “Multiple arrests will do that, you know. Bring a cop and a criminal together.”
She snorted. “Your job must be really boring if I’m your definition of criminal.”
He watched her shoulders relax as she laughed, and Cleo began to move with less trepidation.
“See?” he said, giving Bella a slight nudge with his heels to pick up the pace. “It’s all about trust.”
They crested a small hill, and Cash pulled on the reins. “Whoa, girl,” he said softly, and Olivia did the same. Then she sucked in a sharp breath.
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