Her Valentine Sheriff

by Deb Kastner

  Alexis chuckled. “And you are going to stand there and try to tell me that you were showing off for the teenagers only?”

  Here was his opening to bring up his feelings for Mary...but he couldn’t bring himself to take it. He was too busy blushing. Good thing he had whiskers to cover it. He nodded, as if he didn’t comprehend her meaning.

  She didn’t push him. “You can set the silverware, if you really want to help.” She pointed to the drawer and then at the long, rectangular table with benches for seating.

  Eli counted the place settings and grabbed the appropriate number of forks, butter knives and spoons, then divided them with a set next to each plate.

  “Fork has four letters, like left,” Alexis reminded him. “Knife and spoon have five, like right.”

  “Huh,” he said, scratching his chin as he surveyed his incorrect place settings. “That’s clever. I’ve never heard that before. I’ve always arranged them—however.” He gestured vaguely at the tabletop.

  “It seems like you’ve been learning a lot lately.”

  Humph. Some segue. And while he was relieved that she’d brought up the subject herself, he couldn’t help but be amused at the awkward transition.

  “Mary has brought you and Bullet quite a long way, hasn’t she? I was pretty impressed by the show you put on for the kids,” she said, slightly emphasizing the last word. Clearly Alexis was on to him.

  Eli chuckled, then cringed when he realized how nervous he sounded. “Thank you. It hasn’t been easy—for Mary, I mean. I’m not always the most cooperative student.”

  “So she says.”

  His gut clenched. “She’s talking about me?”

  And saying bad things?

  He didn’t ask the second question aloud.

  “Only to Samantha and me, and we don’t count. We share everything in our lives, good and bad.”

  Eli wanted to duck and cover, maybe plunge under the table and pull the cloth over him. That bad was what he was concerned about. Maybe he shouldn’t follow through on his feelings after all.

  “Don’t worry. It’s mostly good, I promise,” she continued, as if she’d guessed his thoughts.

  “Well, that’s a relief,” he drawled, striving toward cavalier and landing somewhere near cynical. “I’d hate to think she was speaking poorly of me.”

  “Are you kidding me? How could she even think poorly of you when she—” Alexis’s declaration came to a screeching halt.

  “When she—what?” Eli prodded, intrigued by Alexis’s slip of the tongue.

  Alexis waved a hand and turned back to the stove, stirring the potatoes with abandon. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “No.” Eli reached for her elbow and turned her to face him. “I want to know. I need to hear what you were about to say.”

  Alexis sighed, then raised her spatula and shook it under Eli’s nose. “If you hurt her, Elijah Bishop, you’re going to answer to me, and it isn’t going to be pretty.”

  “I don’t want to upset her, Alexis,” he assured her, his voice dropping deep into his throat. “You know me better than that.”

  “I don’t think you’d wound her on purpose. But Mary has an extra-tender and sensitive heart. Don’t toy with her if you don’t mean it.”

  Eli lowered his brows over his eyes. His pulse was pounding in his ears, half in denial, half in hope. How had they gotten into this conversation in the first place? Was she saying what it sounded like she was saying, or was he reading his own emotions into it?

  “I’d never toy with her. I really do feel something for her. I’m just not sure I’m ready for... I mean, do you think it’s too soon? For her and for me, after everything that happened?”

  “Maybe it’s too soon, maybe not. Because...” She glanced down at the skillet and then back at Eli. “Have you ever considered that maybe you chose the wrong sister?”

  Considered it? Mary had been the only thing on his mind since the day she had sprained her ankle, and he’d had to carry her back to her vehicle. Mary’s sweet scent. Mary’s determination to make her dreams a reality. Mary’s tender, caring heart that never passed over an animal in need—or a human, either. But wishing he’d fallen for her from the start couldn’t change what had happened with Natalie.

  “It...occurred to me,” he admitted vaguely.

  Alexis laid a hand on his arm and met his eyes with a deep, penetrating gaze that set him squirming.

  “As far as I’m concerned, it’s never too soon to be with the right person—the one who can make you the happiest. Mary would be good for you, you know,” Alexis said, her already rich alto voice lowering to a whisper. “She’s nothing like her sister.”

  “I know,” he responded, having issues with his own voice. He couldn’t swallow around the lump of emotion clouding his throat, because he did know Mary would be good for him, in all the ways Natalie had not been, and then some. The problem was, he wasn’t sure he’d be good for her.

  “So what are you going to do about it?” Alexis stirred the potatoes, judged them done and turned off the burner.

  Eli leaned his shoulder against the refrigerator door and countered her question with one of his own. “What do you think I should do about it?”

  “For starters, I’d say be honest with her. Let her know what you’re afraid of, so that you can work through it together.”

  Work through it together? Share his fears? Not a chance. Hadn’t his pride taken enough of a beating with the canine training? Mary had already seen too many of his inadequacies—how could he expect her to want to be with him if he revealed even more?

  “Maybe,” he hedged. “Eventually. But what else can I do for now, to see if having a relationship with me is something she’d even consider?”

  She was silent for a moment, tapping her index finger against her lips.

  “I’d say you should take your time, take things slow. That would be the most comfortable for both of you. Start with something small, and low pressure. The Sweetheart Social,” she pronounced definitively. “Valentine’s Day is next week. It will be the perfect opportunity for you to—”

  Her sentence ended abruptly and she pulled away from Eli as if he’d caught on fire. Startled, Eli looked in the direction of Alexis’s wide-eyed gaze to find Mary standing just inside the back doorway, white as a sheet, with an unreadable expression on her face, and her lips pinched into a tight line.

  How long had she been standing there? How much of their conversation had she heard?

  What had Alexis been about to say when they’d been interrupted? And what exactly did she think he ought to say or do at the town’s Sweetheart Social?

  Chapter Six

  Mary’s heart jumped into her throat and then plunged into her belly, where it churned like a garden tiller plowing untidy rows in the pit of her stomach.

  She’d considered—she’d suspected—that there might be a spark of something between Eli and Alexis, but knowing it in her head and seeing it with her eyes were two entirely different things. Finding Eli and Alexis huddled together gazing at each other and whispering in hushed tones was almost more than Mary could bear.

  Add to that the fact that both of them had bolted away from each other when they’d realized she’d entered the room—well, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there was something going on between them.

  Of course there was. There was no reason Eli and Alexis would not be attracted to each other. Pretty is as pretty does, and both of them were highly qualified in that category.

  And then there was Mary.

  “I beg your pardon,” she said, stepping forward. The moment where she possibly could have slinked away without being discovered was long past her. She’d already managed to destroy whatever intimacy was going on between her two friends, so she might as well
join them. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your private conversation. I can go, if you’d like.”

  “Oh, nonsense,” Alexis exclaimed, laughing a bit more boisterously than the occasion called for. “You weren’t interrupting anything. Eli and I were just...”

  Yeah. Mary knew exactly what Alexis and Eli were just doing. She wished she could crawl into a hole in the floor, and escape this awkward and painful situation completely.

  “I was setting the table,” Eli offered, opening the silverware drawer and reaching for some serving spoons. “How many did you say you needed, Alexis?”

  Alexis turned back to the stove and poured her skillet of potatoes into a large decorative blue bowl. “Five ought to do it. Are you staying for supper, Mary?”

  “No, I...have things to do.”

  Alexis chuckled. “Funny. That’s what Eli said when I asked him.”

  “Oh.” Mary couldn’t come up with a single clever response. Her mind was simply...scattered, and her heart was plainly wounded.

  “You wouldn’t happen to have that box of stuff for Bullet, would you?” Eli asked. “The crazy dog is always hungry. I can’t believe he’s already eaten through the big bag of kibble you gave me.”

  “That’s a K-9 for you. They work hard, play hard and eat hard.”

  Eli grinned. “That’s for sure. So you have it with you? Great! I can walk you out and switch the bundle over to my vehicle. I brought the truck because I can’t figure out how to fit Bullet on my motorbike. If I ever do, though, we two will look awesome together.” He fisted his hands in front of him like he was revving the engine on his bike.

  The image of Bullet balancing on the back of Eli’s motorcycle as they sped down the road made Mary smile—a little. It also made her want to cry.

  “I’m afraid I gave you the wrong impression,” Mary replied. He must think she was every kind of scatterbrained. “Bullet’s supplies are at my house.”

  “No problem. I can swing by your place and pick it up now, if you’d like.”

  “I don’t want you to go out of your way on my account. Will you be home tonight? I can drop it off in, say, an hour?” Talk about jumping right out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  “All right. If you’re sure it’s not too much trouble for you. I’d say we could wait on it, if it wasn’t for the whole out-of-kibble issue.”

  “It’s not a problem, I promise. In any case, I wouldn’t want Bullet to go hungry. Poor thing.”

  “An hour, then.”

  An hour. One single hour for her to wrap her mind around the fact that Alexis and Eli were actually becoming a couple. It would be easier if she disliked one or the other of them, but in truth she wanted the best for each of them.

  The hard part would be coming to terms with the idea that what was best for both of them might be each other.

  And that left Mary as she had been and probably always would be...

  Alone.

  * * *

  Eli surveyed his apartment as he waited for Mary to arrive, feeling peculiarly antsy and unable to focus. This was one time he wished he wasn’t quite so close to being OCD. It would have been nice to have magazines on his coffee table to straighten or clothes to snatch off the floor in his bedroom. But there were no magazines, and his clothes were all neatly organized and put away in his drawers and closet.

  For the first time in his life, he looked at his apartment with new eyes—perhaps as Mary would see it. And it was...

  Empty.

  Like his life felt right now. Stark. Bleak. Formal.

  Sterile.

  And while he found Mary’s house to be one doggy chew away from utter chaos, at least her house was a home—lived-in and noisy.

  Alive.

  Maybe it was worth the risk to let someone in, to risk being vulnerable, if it made his life feel as warm and vibrant as Mary’s smile.

  Technically she was a single person living alone, as was he, but at least she had all of her dogs for companionship. Now that Bullet had taken up residence with him, he realized that that counted for something. And while he wasn’t ever completely at ease in Bullet’s company, he found himself having one-way conversations with the dog—out loud. Maybe he was crazy. Or maybe it was something else altogether.

  Him—a dog person? Now wouldn’t that just beat all?

  “You’re gonna be on your best behavior when Mary gets here, right, buddy?” he asked Bullet, who was comfortably ensconced in the middle of the floor on his overstuffed bright yellow pillow. He was busy chomping away on a rawhide bone Eli had offered him as a treat, but he looked up when Eli spoke to him. He tilted his head, wagged his tail once and promptly redirected his attention to his bone.

  Eli sniffed. “I’ll take that as a yes. We’ve got to impress the pretty lady because...”

  Why?

  And he would say...

  What?

  Oops, I accidentally and foolishly chose the wrong sister to propose to. I’m over her, but I’m still an emotional wreck. Will you go out with me?

  Then he could mention that he hated dogs and she loved them, but he was sure they could work through their differences. That opposites must attract, because he couldn’t get her out of his mind. How many ways would she find to say brainless?

  Maybe he shouldn’t rush into asking her out yet. There was still time, right? At least he got to work with her on a daily basis, for now. He didn’t even want to think about when his training would be finished. He never wanted to graduate from her course. He looked forward to getting up each morning, to spending time with her, learning more about her with every day that passed.

  And then there was the town’s Sweetheart Social coming up on Friday, where he would have the opportunity to—do whatever Alexis was about to suggest when Mary had interrupted them, if he could even figure out what that was.

  He didn’t have time to work up any kind of plan for the social, because at that moment, Mary buzzed the intercom for him to let her into the apartment complex.

  “Did you decorate the place yourself?” she asked as he took a large box of dog paraphernalia from her arms and placed it on the island that separated the kitchen from the living area.

  “Yes, if you can call it that,” he admitted, scrubbing a hand along his jaw and suddenly wishing he’d put more thought and effort into his decor, such as it was.

  “Amazing.”

  “What?” That was so far from the response Eli was expecting from her that he was sure his mouth was gaping.

  “Seriously. It’s so clean and edgy, like something out of a high-end home decorating magazine. One theme. Matching pieces. All the furniture carefully placed. And I love that you have pictures of your family on your wall. Perfect. Classy.”

  Eli’s chest welled with pride and gratitude, and he couldn’t help but stand a little taller at Mary’s praise.

  “Versus my house,” she continued with a groan. “Utter chaos. You must think I’m one of those hoarders, living in an utter pigpen.”

  Eli was taken aback. He had been thinking of her house as chaotic, but he’d been thinking of the benefits, not the detriments. He was beginning to see the advantages of the frenzy that accompanied the bedlam.

  It was lived-in. It was Mary. And he liked it.

  She’d seen and accentuated the positive in his bleak excuse for an apartment. He wished he could find the words to compliment hers, but he had nothing.

  “Do you want a cup of coffee?” he offered. Could he be any more inept at saying what he felt? More proof that he was right to ignore Alexis’s advice about sharing his fears. If he couldn’t even muster up a compliment, how could he manage to talk about his insecurities without sounding like an idiot?

  “Yes, please. Black.” She’d taken his curve in the conversation with remarkable ease, but then, tha
t was Mary.

  He moved into the kitchen and poured two mugs of coffee. He took his with milk and more spoonfuls of sugar than he probably should.

  “I brought along a dog bed and also some toys for Bullet to play with,” she said, gesturing to the fluffy yellow pillow where Bullet lay contentedly munching on his rawhide, “but I see that you’ve already anticipated many of his long-term needs.”

  Eli snorted. “If you don’t count feeding the poor pup. I failed to foresee Bullet’s never-ending hunger. I underestimated the needs and overkilled on the wants, his beds and toys.”

  She lifted a brow. Her green eyes were alive, glittering in the low light of the nearby standing lamp. “How is that, exactly?”

  “That cushion there is not his only bed. He has one in my bedroom, as well, although I crate him at night like you taught me to.”

  “Trust me. That’s best for both of you. Otherwise the first time you doze off in bed, Bullet will sneak up and join you. He knows a good thing when he sees one, and he’ll take advantage every chance he gets. And for the record, dogs are major bed-hogs.”

  Eli couldn’t contain the shiver that rocked him to his very core. His imagination immediately went into overdrive.

  Why did this keep happening?

  He was doing better with his phobia. He was. Most of the time. But then he’d experience a moment like this when, despite his best efforts and defenses, his mind would flash back to that field, that dog, that moment of not knowing if he was going to live or die, but knowing for certain it was completely out of his control.

  He bit the inside of his lip until he tasted copper.

  “Is the dog food in the back of your SUV? If you give me a minute and your car keys, I will run down and grab the kibble.” And make a clean escape.

  “It’s not locked. And thank you. I wasn’t looking forward to carrying two forty-pound bags of dog food up two flights of stairs.”

  Eli scoffed. “As if I’d ever let you do such a thing. You’re not going to be hauling around heavy kibble while I’m around to say anything about it.” He’d meant it to come out as a gentlemanly statement but feared he’d sounded chauvinistic, or at the very least, egotistical.