He pulled away from the curb.
“How was your day?” she asked.
“Could have been worse. I’m a little concerned about some drug dealers coming into my territory,” he said.
“Oh, no,” she said, staring at him.
“Plenty of dealers and manufacturers try to move into rural territories, but I’ve been pretty good about keeping them away. It takes some extra effort. I’ll get some help from the state and get them gone.”
“That’s good. I would have thought drug dealers would be the last thing you would find in Montana,” she said.
“Meth users are everywhere. They’re like cockroaches. It’s my job to stamp them out here, to make it difficult to survive and thrive. So far, I’ve been successful,” he said.
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said.
“It’s kind of crazy,” he said. “More than half of my time is spent on nothing serious. Lawn ornaments and other stuff. I won’t tolerate drugs.”
“Your community is lucky they have you and that you have your attitude. You’re very protective,” she said. “You’re an excellent sheriff.”
His lips lifted in a slow, sexy smile. “Thanks, Lissa.”
Lissa felt a crazy dip in her belly and leaned toward him. “Yes,” she said, wanting him to meet her halfway with a kiss that would knock her into next week. “Yes.”
A long silence followed. Gage cleared his throat. “Uh, we’re here. I can walk you to the front door of the rooming house.”
Lissa gaped outside the window of his SUV, surprised to see the rooming house. She tried to gather her wits. “Oh, that’s not necessary. Thanks for the ride home,” she said and tried to get out of the car. Without unlocking the door first. Finally, she remembered to unlock and push open the door, sliding out onto the ground.
“Good night,” she said, determined not to look at him.
“Hey, Lissa,” he said.
She couldn’t help but turn back around to look at him. “Yes?”
“Thank you for what Bootstraps is doing for us. You’re making a big difference,” he said.
She gave a slow nod, her mind fighting with her hormones. “You’re welcome,” she managed, and climbed the steps to the rooming house. She made her way to her room and kicked off her boots. Totally exasperated, she frowned and scowled at Gage’s reaction to her.
Gratitude, she thought. She didn’t want gratitude. She wanted passion. Stripping off her clothes, she took a quick shower and pulled on comfy pajamas, cursing Gage all the time. She impulsively poured herself a tiny glass of red wine and took a gulp. Shrugging, she poured the wine down the drain. She wanted cold, cold water instead, and drank some down.
“Could be worse,” she said and told herself to get a good night’s sleep. “Tomorrow will be ten times better.”
She slumped back against her pillow and pulled the covers over her. “When I wake up in the morning, I’m not going to want Gage Christensen. I’m not going to think of Gage Christensen. I’m going to purge him from my system while I sleep.”
She kept repeating those words until she fell asleep.
When Lissa awakened in the morning, her first thought was of Gage.
* * *
Gage woke up with an uncomfortable jangly sensation inside him. Maybe he should fix his house, so he could make it a home again. The only problem was that he didn’t have time. He couldn’t see fixing his own house before other people’s homes that needed far more work.
He felt grungy and his back was sore. As much as he told himself that the new sofa bed didn’t affect his back, he was so wrong. Maybe he was getting old, he thought, as he stumbled to his feet and into the shower. Shoving himself under the shower, he lifted his face to the spray. He would have fallen asleep a lot sooner last night if he hadn’t been thinking about Lissa. He didn’t want to be thinking about Lissa. He didn’t want to be feeling anything for Lissa.
He scowled, focusing on the shower, willing it to clean out his head. He spent some extra moments under the spray then dragged himself out of it and scrubbed himself dry. Gage got dressed and walked out to his car, his mind filled with too many people. The former mayor, his mother and Lissa.
Swearing under his breath, he was determined to extricate his distractions from his head. He turned his favorite country station on super loud and drove toward the office.
He walked inside to find the dispatcher already at her desk. “Mornin’, Vickie. How are you?”
“I’m awake and drinking my second cup of coffee, so that’s pretty good. How are you?” she asked.
“I’ve only had one cup, so I better catch up with you,” he said with a wink and poured himself a cup. At that moment, Will walked into the office. Gage gave his deputy a nod of greeting.
“I got a call from Danielle,” said Vickie. “She said something about her son doing some volunteer work, but said she’s going to need some help with transportation.”
“Right,” he said. “I’m wondering if we can expand the volunteer elder care drivers to anyone else who might need transportation if they have a good reason.”
Will snickered. “I don’t think Harry Leonard is going to want to transport his juvenile neighbors anywhere except the moon.”
Gage swallowed a chuckle. “Can’t deny that, but I think we need to keep some of these teens busy before they get into real trouble.”
Will sobered. “True. I’m in.”
“You’re already in over your head,” Gage said. “But I appreciate your commitment. I’ll put out a request for some volunteers. In the meantime, you and I may be doing some extra carting.”
“We’ve doing a lot of that with Lissa here, at least before Harry loaned her a truck,” Will said. “Not that I minded. She’s so hot.”
Gage felt a trickle of irritation. “Back down, hound dog. You’re too young for her, anyway.”
Will stiffened his spine and stuck out his chin. “That’s a matter of opinion. She seems to respect me.”
“Lissa respects everybody,” Gage said, growing more irritated by the second.
“She sure does,” Vickie said. “But I’ve noticed more than one man giving her the eye. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody didn’t try to snap her up.”
Gage frowned. “What do you mean somebody will snap her up? She’s too busy for that.”
Vickie shrugged. “Everyone has a weak moment and Lissa is a beautiful woman....”
Will cleared his throat. “Well, I’m ready anytime she wants a ride.”
Gage ground his teeth. “Step back, deputy,” he said and headed for his desk. What a rotten start to the day.
“On another subject, I also heard that the Crawfords are spreading rumors about your brother-in-law, Collin,” Vickie said in a low voice.
“What do you mean?” he asked, wondering what other bad news he was going to get.
“Those Crawfords are determined that Nate win the post as mayor. They don’t think Collin Traub deserves to be mayor, and I’m afraid they may turn this into a dirty race. Everyone should be prepared for it.”
Gage sighed. “Thanks for letting me know,” he said and made a mental note to talk to Collin. It was always best to be prepared.
A call came in and Gage hit the ground running. A robbery followed by a fire followed by someone who needed an appendectomy. He also checked by the abandoned house where he’d discovered an illegal drug manufacturer doing business a month ago to make sure no one else had set up shop there. By the end of today he was ready for a trip to Jamaica. But he knew that wouldn’t happen. He finally walked back into his office, late. Very late.
The late dispatcher had arrived and was asleep at the desk. Gage couldn’t blame the poor guy. Thank goodness there usually weren’t many calls at night. Sighing, he walked toward his office.
/> He heard a soft feminine voice. “Enough for the day,” she murmured.
He knew that voice. Lissa. He headed toward her little corner. “How’s it going?”
“Long day,” she said. “I made a few home visits and a lot of calls. I want to make sure everything is ready for our next group of volunteers.”
Gage nodded. “Sounds like you’re on top of it.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s relative.”
He chuckled. “Give me a minute and I’ll give you a ride to the rooming house.”
She waved her hand. “No need.”
“Give me a minute,” he told her and went to his office and collected his messages. Thank goodness, nothing was an emergency.
He returned just as Lissa headed out the door. “Hey,” he called, running after her. “Why didn’t you wait?”
She glanced back at him. “You’ve got enough to do. I don’t want you to feel like you have to look after me.”
“I was just going to drive you back to the rooming house,” he said.
She shoved her hands into her pockets. “I can walk. It’s not that far or I would use the truck Harry Leonard is letting me use. But actually a couple people invited me to the bar. I thought I might stop there before I headed back to my room.”
Surprise rolled through him. “I haven’t heard you talk about going to the bar since you’ve been here.”
She shrugged. “I hear change can be good.”
He gave a slow nod. “Yeah. I’ll take you to the bar,” he said, feeling overly protective, but determined not to show it.
“Okay, thanks,” she said with a smile.
He helped her into his SUV and drove to the bar, parking in a spot several spots away from the door. Escorting her out of the car, he walked inside the bar with her. Loud country music was playing and the place was filled with the smell of beer and hard liquor. A few couples shuffled around on the tiny dance floor. The smell of tobacco permeated the bar even though patrons were required to smoke outside.
“Is this working for you?” he asked. “Just like a Manhattan bar, right?”
She knitted her brows together. “It’s a bit primitive, but it could be worse. I’m going to be here awhile longer, so maybe I should respect the native culture.” She glanced up at him and shot him a sassy smile.
His gut took a twist and turn. “If you say so. What would you like to drink?”
“I’m betting they can’t make a cosmopolitan or appletini,” she said with a sigh.
“I think you’re betting right.”
“Okay. I’ll take vodka and orange juice. That can’t be too hard.”
Gage tipped his hat. “I’ll see what I can do,” and he went to the bar. “I’ll take a vodka and orange juice and a beer for me.”
The bartender gave him a second look. “Vodka and orange juice. I don’t think we have any orange juice.”
“Do you have any fruit juice?” Gage asked.
The bartender searched his inventory. “We’ve got some lime.”
Gage rubbed his face. “Put in a lot of lime and anything else sweet you have.”
“Sweet,” the bartender echoed. “We may have some grenadine in the back, for wimps.”
“This is for a wimp,” Gage said. “A woman wimp.”
“Oh,” the bartender said. “Why didn’t you tell me that from the beginning?” The bartender left, poured the drinks and returned to give them to Gage. “She’ll like this,” he said.
“What makes you so sure?” he asked.
“Trust me,” the bartender said. “I’ve never had any complaints.”
Gage swallowed a sip of his beer and took the drink to Lissa. She accepted it and took a swallow. “Yum,” she said. “This is good.”
“Take your time,” he said.
“Oh, look, it’s Jared and Will. They’ve both been trying to get me to come here. Let’s go visit them,” she said.
Gage caught sight of the two men she’d mentioned. One was his deputy. The other was the Romeo of Rust Creek Falls. He wondered how in the world Jared Winfree had gotten to Lissa.
Although he didn’t respond, he escorted her toward Jared and Will. Both men looked hesitant at his presence.
“Howdy,” he said to Jared and Will and took another sip of beer.
“Howdy,” Jared said then turned to Lissa. “Are you having a good time?”
She smiled. “I’m working on it. It sure is loud here.”
Will nodded. “Yeah, they try to make it feel like a party every night. You wanna dance?”
She blinked. “I think I just want to soak up the atmosphere,” she said.
Jared moved closer to her. “I bet you don’t have this kind of bar in Manhattan,” he said.
Lissa glanced down at the peanut shells on the floor and nodded. “Not that I’ve seen. But I haven’t been to every bar in the city.”
Jared slid his arm on the bar behind her back and Gage felt an unwelcome itchy feeling up and down his spine.
“So, how did we get so lucky to have you come to Rust Creek Falls?” he asked.
Lissa looked vaguely uncomfortable. “One of my cousins and I wanted to try to help after the flood. It took a bit of persuading, but my boss finally thought it was a good idea.”
Gage cleared his throat. “Where are you from, Jared?”
Jared touched his hat. “I’ve been in Rust Creek since the flood because the work is here. Before that I’ve been a rambling kind of man.”
“Yeah, so where were you born?” Gage asked.
Jared shrugged. “Doesn’t matter where you’re born. It’s where you’ve lived that makes you. Right, Lissa?”
“I’ve lived most of my life in upstate New York and spent the past several years in the city, so I can’t comment. I will say that Manhattan is a different world compared to most of the rest of the country,” she said.
“Exactly,” he said, pointing at her. “Exactly.”
Gage found Jared’s flirting irritating, but he wasn’t going to waste his energy commenting. Instead, he took another long drink of beer.
“So, how do like to spend your spare time?” Jared said, crowding Lissa even more.
She wiggled a little as if she were trying to create some space for herself, but Jared didn’t give an inch. “I haven’t had a lot of spare time since I got here,” Lissa said. “What do you like to do in your spare time?”
“Well, I like this bar and I like pretty, smart girls. You sure I can’t talk you into dancing with me?” he asked, leaning in toward her.
It was all Gage could do to keep from jerking Jared out of her range.
Lissa took a deep breath and another sip of her drink. “Like I said, I’m just trying to soak up the atmosphere.”
“Let me get you another drink,” Jared said and turned toward the bartender.
“Oh, no. I don’t need—”
“Sure you do. Every night is Friday night here,” Jared said.
“But...”
A young man approached Lissa. “You’re the pretty new girl in town. I’m David and I’m here to welcome you to Rust Creek Falls,” he said. “Come on and dance with me.”
“Oh, no...”
“Now, don’t be shy,” he said, taking her hand and nearly dragging her onto the dance floor.
Both Jared and Will stared and frowned.
“Who the hell was that?” Will asked.
“Some guy named David who got Lissa on the dance floor,” Gage said.
Jared swore under his breath. “Well, that’s not gonna happen.”
“Whoa,” Gage said, but Jared was clearly determined. He stalked onto the dance floor and confronted David.
Gage shook his head, getting a bad feeling in his gut. “This doe
sn’t look good.”
“Damn straight,” Will said. “How’d this no-name get Lissa to dance with him?”
“Rein it in, cowboy,” Gage said. “You’re a lawman first.”
One second later, Jared took a swing at David. After that, all hell broke loose. Gage soldiered through the crowd, dodging several punches. He found Lissa sitting on the floor, looking dazed and frightened.
“Come on,” he said, extending his hand to her.
Taking his hand, she rose. “What in the world—”
“It doesn’t take much for some guys to get riled up. Stay close.” He moved through the crowd, again dodging punches. “I’m going to get you to the rooming house, then I’ll come back here to settle all this down.”
“I can walk by myself,” she said.
“Hell, no. You’ve caused enough trouble. The next thing I know you’ll be inciting a riot in the streets.”
“I wouldn’t incite anything,” she complained.
Gage lifted a dark eyebrow. “I think you underestimate your effect on men.”
Chapter Five
The next morning, Lissa was extremely reluctant to go to her so-called command central at the sheriff’s office. She’d heard enough from Melba at breakfast this morning. Everyone was buzzing about the fight at the bar last night. Melba wanted to know which guy Lissa was favoring since several had tried to get her attention. Lissa just asked for more bacon.
After dawdling an extra fifteen minutes, she walked to the sheriff’s office and braced herself.
“Well, hello to you Miss Bachelorette,” Vickie said.
Lissa winced. “Maybe I should work from the rooming house.”
“No, no,” Vickie said, moving toward her with a chocolate-chip muffin. “We got extra treats this morning due to you. Don’t you go anywhere,” she said.
Lissa lifted her hand in refusal. “I just stuffed myself with a breakfast from Melba. I don’t know when I’ll eat again.”
“She’s a good cook,” Vickie said. “I hear both Gage and Will got socked in the face,” she said in a lowered voice. “I can’t wait to see if either of them got a black eye.”
Lissa bit her lip. “Don’t tell me that. I just thought it would be fun to visit the local bar.”
The Maverick & the Manhattanite (Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys) Page 6