Colorado Cowboy - Includes a bonus novella

by Sara Richardson

  “Have you ever had to use it?” Bodie asked from the back seat.

  “Yeah, I’ve drawn a couple times.” Dev glanced in the rearview mirror. “There’ve been a few domestic disturbances that got a little dicey.”

  “Have you ever shot anyone?” her nephew pressed. It almost sounded like an accusation. Charity winced.

  “No. I haven’t had to.” The question didn’t appear to faze Dev. Not much seemed to. “Firing your weapon is always a last resort.”

  “Not where I come from,” Bodie muttered.

  “I live over on Columbine Drive,” Charity broke in before her nephew could expand. She didn’t need him starting something right now. Not after Dev has just saved him from juvie. “It’s the one right after the curve. Up there on the left,” she said after he turned onto her street.

  Dev pulled into the driveway and left the engine idling.

  Charity turned to her nephew. “Why don’t you go on inside? I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Without a word—or even a thank-you—to the deputy, her nephew climbed out of the SUV and slammed the door hard. She watched him all the way to the front door to make sure he went inside, then she faced Dev. “I’m sorry. He’s so angry right now.”

  “And what about you?” The deputy put the SUV into park. “You still mad about the handcuffs?”

  How could she be when he’d done so much for her? For them? The fact that he always seemed to step up when she needed someone made it hard to stay mad at Dev for long. To keep up appearances, she shot him a smirk. “I’m still not sure that was totally necessary.”

  “I figured it was best to give Hank the whole dog and pony show. Especially considering the county sheriff election coming up.” The election. She’d hadn’t even thought about what could happen to Dev if someone found out he helped her tonight. That had the potential to hurt his chances in the election. Yet he’d done it anyway. “Thank you for being there when I needed you,” she whispered.

  Dev dropped his gaze to her lips, a new awareness rising to his face. He reached over and skimmed his fingers up her neck, gently guiding her face to his.

  Tiny knots of pleasure pulled tighter and tighter in her stomach until it felt like they would break her open. Her eyes fell closed, her lungs suspended in wild anticipation of his kiss. The scent of spice came first, taking over her senses mere seconds before his lips touched hers with a jolt of electricity that reverberated through her body and hit all of the right notes. Notes no one else had ever managed to hit with a simple touch of the lips. Notes that strummed low in her belly before plunging down to more erogenous regions.

  Sweet Jesus, she was in trouble.

  Dev’s lips guided hers open, and he stroked his tongue against hers, kindling a heat so intense she found it difficult to breathe. Their mouths fell into a rhythm—opening to each other, exploring, tasting with an extravagance she’d never experienced. Charity’s eyelids fluttered, opened. She pulled back, her lungs full of a new ache. She didn’t do this. Didn’t kiss like this. Didn’t feel things like this. Need. Longing.

  The deputy stared back at her, eyes wide, lips still parted like he didn’t quite know what to say.

  “Whoa.” Charity gasped. Parts of her still strummed too hard for her to fight against the emotions. Dev had made her hot for him. So. Damn. Hot. She narrowed her eyes into a glare. “First you handcuff me, then you give me a ticket, and then you kiss me?”

  “Yeah…” He still had his gaze trained on hers as though he couldn’t quite shake himself awake. “That was probably inappropriate—”

  But hot. Too hot to ignore. Charity fisted his uniform shirt and pulled him back to her. “Just so you know…I’m not totally against inappropriate.” She barely got out the words before her lips brushed his again.

  This time it wasn’t just a kiss…it was a sensual proposition. His hand palmed the back of her head roughly, fingers tangling in her hair. His obvious greed for her drove her own urges deeper. If the damn console wasn’t in the way, she’d climb into his lap. Instead, Charity bit his lower lip lightly, teasingly, and smiled when a deep groan resounded in his throat. She responded with a sultry moan against his lips and worked her hands down the front of his uniform, toying with the buttons.

  A knock on the window broke through the steady hum of pleasure. Charity pushed away from Dev, raised her head, and found herself staring directly into Mayor Hank Green’s eyes.

  Chapter Six

  Dev didn’t usually rely on coffee to wake him up, but the second he walked into his parents’ house and sat down at their breakfast table, he poured himself a full mug.

  “You look done worn out, son.” Even after forty years in Colorado, his mother’s Texas twang still came through. She leaned over and piled enough biscuits and gravy on his plate that he wouldn’t need to eat lunch. “You been sleepin’ all right?”

  “Sure. I’ve been sleeping fine.” Minus last night. After last night, he may never sleep again. Kissing Charity hadn’t been the smartest move he’d ever made. Hank Green had pointed that out numerous times after Charity had hurried inside her house. The man claimed he’d simply swung by because he wanted to make sure everyone had gotten home all right, but Dev had a feeling Hank had wanted to check up on him. Granted, it had been with good reason. If Hank hadn’t come when he did, Dev could’ve kissed her all night. Instead, he’d endured a lengthy lecture about what was at stake with the upcoming election. Didn’t he know he couldn’t be seen “fraternizing” with a woman who’d just “broken the law” and “ruined a town landmark”? According to Hank, it made him look bad. It sent the message that he wouldn’t be tough on crime. He hadn’t reminded Hank that Charity’s ticket was technically only a Class 1 misdemeanor. Who hadn’t gotten one of those?

  “Did you have a busy night?” his mom asked.

  “You could call it busy.” Despite Hank’s best efforts, Dev couldn’t seem to make himself regret the kiss. He’d known he shouldn’t touch Charity—not in his patrol car, not when he’d handcuffed her and given her a ticket less than a half hour before—but he couldn’t stop himself. He’d wanted her so hard for so long and she’d always pushed him away. But not last night. Last night she’d seemed to want him as much as he wanted her.

  Just so you know, I’m not totally against inappropriate.

  “Dev? Hello? You there, son?” His father was looking at him over the top of his newspaper.

  “Oh. Yeah.” He shook himself. “Sorry. Did you say something?”

  His parents exchanged concerned frowns. After being married for over fifty years, Dev swore the two of them were starting to look alike.

  “I said, you must’ve had a hell of a night last night.” His dad set down the paper. “I haven’t seen you drink coffee since you worked the night shift.”

  “It was a late one.” He’d best leave it at that. Sharing additional details about the statue would only get his parents riled and inevitably they’d end up deliberating how this would impact his chances of becoming the county sheriff. His parents were even more excited about the election than most people in town. They never missed a chance to tell him how proud they were, how this was the absolute best thing he could do with his life. Sometimes he wondered, though. If he was county sheriff, that meant he’d have even less time to help his dad on the ranch.

  “I heard someone crashed into the statue of Luis Cortez in the middle of the night.” Across the table, his mother buttered her toast. “I’ll bet that kept you busy.”

  Why was he not surprised they’d already heard? “News sure travels fast.” How long would it take for word to get out about the kiss? He downed more coffee. Hank had told him it would be their secret—as long as it didn’t happen again—but what if one of Charity’s neighbors had seen? The last thing he needed was an editorial about how he kissed his suspects showing up in the newspaper.

  “Betty Osterman sent out a text to our walking group,” his mom went on. “She said someone mowed the thing right down. Sa
id most of the town is fit to be tied over the whole situation.”

  That’s what he’d been worried about. Word would likely get out that the town’s favorite barrel racer was behind the accident, but it wouldn’t be him sharing the details. “It’s taken care of,” he said vaguely. And yet that wasn’t exactly true. Taken care of would mean he’d been able to hold the right person accountable, but Charity hadn’t given him that option. She’d asked him to trust her, and he was trying, but he still worried that Bodie didn’t understand the seriousness of what he’d done.

  His parents were both staring at him like they expected more details on the statue, so he steered them in another direction. “What do you two have going on today?”

  His father shoveled in a spoonful of gravy. “Got some fences down over on the west side. Bordering the Cortez place. Thought I’d head over and see about rebuilding that section.”

  “Why don’t you wait until I’m off my shift?” Dev did his best to tread lightly. His dad wouldn’t appreciate the insinuation that he needed assistance. Even if it was the truth. “I can help out.”

  “Nah. I got it.” The old man waved him off. “Want to get it done before any of them steers get fancy ideas about wandering off.”

  Okay, subtle hadn’t worked. It was time to bring in the big guns. Dev shared a look with his mom. They’d already agreed his father shouldn’t be out there on his own.

  “Can’t the fences wait?” MaryElla Jenkins could sound as sweet as her fresh-baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies when she wanted to. She leaned over to refill his father’s coffee. “I thought we could go on over to that new antique shop down the highway.”

  “New antique shop?” Nothing distracted his father like the prospect of looking through old crap.

  “It’s more like an emporium from what I hear,” Dev said, playing up his mother’s ploy. “The place has two floors of merchandise.”

  “You don’t say.” His father frowned thoughtfully.

  “They’ve probably got all kinds of old tools there.” That would do it. His father had a whole shed of antique tools he liked to tinker with.

  “I guess we could take a look,” he mumbled, bringing his mug back to his lips. “But I can’t be gone all day, MaryElla. I’ve got a whole heap of work to do around here.”

  “Oh, we won’t be gone all day,” she promised.

  Dev concentrated on eating his breakfast so he wouldn’t chuckle at the twinkle in his mother’s eye. She’d likely make sure they didn’t get home until Dev got off his shift.

  “What about you, son?” she asked. “You got a busy day ahead? I heard things are really heating up with the election. Oh, that reminds me!” His mom jumped up from the table and hurried to the desk in the corner of the kitchen. “Did you see that wonderful article Betty wrote about you in the paper?”

  “Yeah.” Unfortunately. It’d take the guys a good long while to get over that “devastatingly handsome” bit.

  “I had it framed!” She presented one of his dad’s handmade wooden frames, and sure enough, there was Betty Osterman’s glowing endorsement preserved in the glass.

  “When you get elected, you’ll be the youngest sheriff the county has ever had,” his dad reminded him.

  “If I get elected.” Dev pushed away his plate. Lately he’d been wondering if he even wanted to get elected. Everyone else had been so enthusiastic about him running, he’d gotten swept up in the hoopla, but lately doubts had started to niggle at him. “I should get going.” Before he had to witness his mom hanging that framed article on the wall. “Busy day ahead.” That wasn’t a total lie. After what had happened with Bodie last night, he intended to spend the day making good on his promise to look for Charity’s sister. It’d be nice to focus on something besides the election. “Thanks for breakfast, Mom.” He rose and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. Not giving her a chance to comment on his half-eaten plate of biscuits and gravy, he booked it out the door. “Have fun at the antique mall,” he called over his shoulder.

  Whew. Dev hotfooted it to his SUV and drove to his favorite hiding spot on the highway just outside of town.

  He backed into the alcove in the mountain where the speed limit dropped from fifty-five to thirty-five miles per hour. Most everyone knew he parked here on a regular basis, so he could focus on doing some research instead of actually having to pull anyone over.

  Once he was satisfied he was out of sight from traffic, he cut the engine and fired up his laptop. In his estimation, there were only a few reasons Charity’s sister would skip town so fast. She might be running from an abusive relationship. According to Charity, Melody ran with a rough crowd, and domestic violence was not uncommon in those circles. The other possibility, which he hated to even entertain, was that she’d gotten herself into some kind of trouble and needed to hide. While that was the least appealing option, it also happened to be the simplest to research.

  He looked up crime briefings in Oklahoma, scrolling through the typical petty thefts, domestic disputes, and an article about a carjacking before a headline caught his eye.

  CONVENIENCE STORE CLERK SHOT DURING ROBBERY NEAR STILLWATER.

  Dev glanced at the date. The article had been posted four days ago. Interesting timing with Melody’s arrival, if you asked him. He clicked on the link.

  A local man was hospitalized after a midday robbery at a convenience store in nearby Morrison. Witnesses say two masked suspects, one male and one female, entered the store at 11:15 a.m. and held the clerk at gunpoint. When he reached for the phone, the male suspect fired the gun and cleaned out the register before exiting the store. A stolen Ford pickup truck used in the robbery was found abandoned a short time later.

  Dev squinted at the grainy surveillance image of two perps as they stood across the counter. Hard to see much, but he could make out blond hair curling from under one of their ski masks. That wasn’t good. He didn’t believe in coincidences, and he never liked to speculate, but based on the woman’s build and that long hair, she sure bore a startling resemblance to a certain blond barrel racer. Dev bookmarked the article and pulled out his phone. Looked like he needed to have a chat with his comrades in Oklahoma.

  Faster. Charity crouched her upper body lower and steered Ace into the tight turn around the third barrel. “Yah!” She clicked her heels into the thoroughbred’s wide girth as the horse accelerated out of the turn, kicking up dirt clods behind them.

  “Yah! Yah!” Charity leaned over the horse’s mane, urging Ace on with her heels. The wind brought a resistance, making her eyes tear up as they tore across the arena to the gate. Ace sailed through and then slowed to a trot, grunting from his efforts.

  “Good boy, Ace.” Charity gave him a good scrub with her fist, which made the horse prance proudly.

  “Not so fast. No swaggering until we see if we beat our record.” She steered the horse over to where Bodie hung out by the fence. “How’d we do?” she asked, giving the horse more love.

  “Oh.” Her nephew tapped the screen on his phone. “Don’t know. Sorry. I was texting a friend.”

  Charity did her best not to groan. Usually she had Levi, Ty, or Mateo track time for her, but she’d wanted to make Bodie feel involved. All day, they’d worked on chores around her house. Well…she’d worked. He’d pitched in here and there in between texting his friends. She eyed his phone, tempted to throw it under Ace’s hooves and take off again, but that would sever Bodie’s only communication with his friends back home.

  Patience. She had to have patience with him. He was going through a tough time. “Do you think you could pay attention this time? All I need you to do is start the timer when I yell go and focus for twenty seconds.” She and Ace would finish in under eighteen, hopefully.

  “Fine,” the kid grumbled with a hearty eye roll he seemed to reserve especially for lame adults. She’d been trying not to take it personally, but her heart took a hit every time he looked at her like that—like he hated her. It only proved she had no idea what she was do
ing. She didn’t know how to get through to him. She loved him but it didn’t seem to matter. He needed a real parent.

  Charity inhaled deeply. “I would really appreciate it if you would—”

  “Hey you two.”

  Dev. Her joints went soft. All of them. Elbows, knees, hips…it was amazing she didn’t topple right off Ace.

  The deputy rode over to them on a beautiful horse—a paint with dark brown spots scattered over its clean white coat. He wasn’t in his uniform. In fact, it was possible that he looked even better in worn jeans and a threadbare T-shirt than he’d looked in his crisp ensemble last night.

  Oh, god. Last night…It all came hurtling back at her—the kiss, that horrible moment Hank Green had knocked on the window. She’d be the first to admit she was spooked. After quickly thanking Dev for the ride, she’d hightailed it inside and had proceeded to worry about him all night.

  “How’s it going?” Dev asked in that easy way of his.

  “Fine.” It didn’t matter how she was doing, she was dying to know what had happened with Hank. “What about you?” She watched his face for any sign of turmoil. “Everything okay?” Had Hank fired him? Did Hank have the power to fire him?

  “Everything’s…” It seemed to take an extra second for him to settle on the right word. “Fine.”

  She waited in rapt attention for him to expand but instead he turned his attention to Bodie. “How’s the training going? Looks like you’ve got a pro running time for you.” He shot a peace-offering smile to her nephew, who promptly plugged up his ears with headphones and walked away. The kid managed to project so much attitude that giving Dev the finger would’ve been a subtler move.

  Charity sighed. She had no idea what to do with him when he acted like that. She wasn’t his mom—she hadn’t earned the right to discipline him. She wouldn’t even know how to discipline a thirteen-year-old. It wasn’t like she could ground him. He had no life here. No friends. For all intents and purposes, he already was grounded. Her sister had basically taken everything good away from him when she’d abandoned him on Charity’s doorstep.