The Sheriff Catches a Bride

by Cora Seton

  Almost small enough to be a child’s, Cab thought affectionately. A memory intruded on his consciousness. He was standing near his father in the garage workshop in his childhood home. They were building a birdhouse and Cab longed to work the bandsaw to cut out the circular door.

  “I’ll cut and you watch,” his father said, like he always did. Cab had squirmed with impatience but bit back his protest, just like Rose was doing now.

  Understanding flooded him. “Hey, Ethan,” he said, straightening up. “Ethan, buddy—give Rose a turn.”

  She glanced up, startled. So did Ethan.

  “I’m just showing her…”

  “I think she’s got it now. Rose, you want us to leave you to it?”

  She nodded vigorously, and he thought for an awful second she actually might cry with relief. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Okay,” Ethan said reluctantly. “I’ll be nearby if you want some help.”

  “Terrific,” she said. Cab noticed she waited until they’d retreated around the corner before she got the saw running.

  “What did you do that for?” Ethan asked as they headed toward the barn. “I wanted to help.”

  “So did I,” Cab said heavily.

  Rose got all the wood cut, but the afternoon wasn’t nearly as fun as she had hoped because she felt like she was being watched the entire time. Ethan and Cab kept their distance near the corrals or in the house or barn, but she saw them glancing her way from time to time and more than once seemed prepared to come and see how she was doing. She refused to catch either one’s eye, however, and turned her back on them whenever she could. Still, she messed up more than one cut because of nerves.

  What was it with men that they needed to control everything? It was one thing to help; it was another thing altogether to remove the tools from her hands and do it for her. At least Cab seemed to get it in the end, although she was sure he wouldn’t have hung around the ranch this long if he wasn’t hoping she’d ask for his help again.

  Well, she wouldn’t ask for his help. She didn’t need it. She was perfectly capable of sawing lumber and anything else she needed to do.

  Autumn brought her a steaming hot cup of cocoa just as she was finishing up. “I figured you could use this by now.”

  “You figured right,” Rose said, cupping her hands around its warmth.

  “I heard some yelling out here earlier.”

  “I swear they would build the whole thing if I let them,” Rose said disgustedly.

  “I’m sure they would,” Autumn said with a smile. “Especially Cab. I think he’s sweet on you.”

  Rose kept silent, all too aware of Jason’s ring on her finger, and the reasons she couldn’t date anyone else. Even someone as handsome as Cab. Now that she was done with her work and had recovered her sense of humor, she could admit that she’d like to spend time with him, but not while she was building her cabin. That was private. “I got them to back off finally.”

  “Good for you,” Autumn said.

  “I guess I’m going to head out now and do a little work on site.”

  “Want me to come along? You can watch while I assemble your shed.”

  Rose stared at her until she caught Autumn’s mischievous grin. “Stop it! You’re worse than they are!”

  “Don’t worry,” Autumn said, laughing. “You definitely won’t see me out there poking my nose into your business. I like it here in my warm house just fine.” She patted her belly with the same gesture Rose had seen Mia make at the hardware store the other day.

  “How’s the baby?” she asked.

  “Strong as a horse. I can’t wait until it’s born.”

  “Come spring your life will be really different,” Rose told her.

  Autumn met her gaze. “How about you? Seems like you might be making some changes, too.”

  Rose nodded, but didn’t say anything more, even though it was hard to keep secrets from Autumn. “Thanks for letting me come and cut the wood.”

  “Any time.”

  A half hour later, with Ethan’s tools put away and everything else loaded back into her truck, Rose made sure neither Cab nor Ethan was visible before she drove away from the Cruz ranch. She didn’t want the sheriff to see where she was going next. Picking Carl’s woods had both advantages and disadvantages. They were relatively close to town and to where her friends lived. Plus, there was a tap in Carl’s huge garden not far from the edge of the woods. Most of the time she’d haul her own supply in, but she figured in a pinch she could sneak in and grab water from it if Cab wasn’t at home. On her reconnaissance the other night, she’d even discovered a place she could pull into the woods and hide her truck among a thick clump of pines. From there she’d need to carry everything deep into the forest where it was safe to build, but at least her vehicle couldn’t be spotted from the road.

  She reached the woods without incident and made sure no one was coming as she pulled off the country road in between the trees. She spent an hour scouting the woods until she found a building site. As she hauled the two-by-fours in a few at a time, she thought about what Cab had said. Contrary to his belief, she had thought about a foundation. She doubted he could have come up with anything suitable, no matter how much experience he might have in construction; she wasn’t building a cabin on the ground—hers would be high in the air.

  Rose had always wanted a tree house of her own. Now she was going to get one.

  Just six feet by six feet, the tree house would hold a bench seat, a desk and two windows. Shelves for her painting supplies. A door. That was it. She wouldn’t damage Carl’s property. He’d never know she’d been there.

  Her plan was flawless.

  She uncovered a bundle she’d kept wrapped in a tarp in the bed of the truck while she was at the Cruz ranch. She’d completed this little project at the abandoned Sutter place on the south side of town. Since she didn’t want to harm even a twig on Carl’s property in case she got caught and had to answer for what she’d done, she’d taken four long four by four posts and stuck one end of each into metal buckets filled with cement mix. After leaving them there to harden overnight, she’d picked them up first thing this morning. It had been a bear to lift them into the truck and would be a bear to move them to the building site, so she positioned an old radio flyer wagon she’d found in Emory’s shed under the tailgate and shifted one post at a time until it fell off the end and landed in the wagon. With the plain end resting on her shoulder and the cement end in the wagon, she could just pull them one by one to her building spot, with a fair bit of cussing and complaining. She measured off the correct distances, poked sticks into the dirt at each corner and set about the task of digging holes for her posts.

  Again she underestimated the time it would take. She’d only set two posts in place when she checked her watch and saw that it was after three. By four-fifteen, the four posts were in place and she’d fastened the cross-pieces to them designed to hold up the floor. She was tired, dirty, and more than a little frustrated, but she was elated, too. Her hideaway was taking shape.

  Still, she needed to get out of here before Cab came home. There was a chance he’d stay to dinner at the Cruz ranch, but if not, he’d head back this way soon. Checking her watch again, she hustled to pile up the remaining boards and supplies into a heap, cover them with the green tarp and pile evergreen branches on top. She couldn’t do anything about the four pale four-by-four posts sticking out of the ground, however. It was too late to paint them so that they blended into the surrounding fir trees. All she could hope was that no one decided to take a walk through these woods tonight.

  She looked at her watch again and swore; she’d meant to be long gone by now. Doing one last sweep to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, she hurried to the edge of the woods where she’d stored the truck. All was quiet on the country road when she reached it, so she climbed in, got it started and pulled quickly out of her hiding place. She reached the asphalt safely, and passed Carl’s place, her heart slowing do
wn as she breathed a sigh of relief, but just as she accelerated to head back toward town, Cab’s truck pulled around a bend in the road.

  Damn. Could she drive on by without him noticing her? She didn’t have a good reason to be out this way. She hunched in her seat and hoped like heck he’d be too preoccupied with his own thoughts to even look at her, but no—his truck slowed as it approached, he rolled the window down and stuck out his hand to wave.

  There was nothing for it but to do the same. They came to a stop in the middle of the road and Cab eyed her curiously.

  “Hey, Rose. Long time, no see! What are you up to way out here?” This was Cab in sheriff mode, his voice friendly but his question probing. Rose could trace his line of thought. Back at the Cruz ranch she’d said she was cutting lumber to build a shed at home. Now she was coming from the wrong direction entirely. Even if she’d been at home and was returning to visit Autumn again, she’d have been coming the from the other way—and she’d have missed her turnoff already.

  There was no good reason for her to be where she was.

  If he’d simply said hello, or asked where she was going, or even came right out and asked if she’d been trespassing on Carl’s land, she could have told a white lie and gotten away with it. Something about his tone when he asked what she’d been up to told her he wouldn’t be fooled by a white lie, however. He was about to catch her and she was about to lose her hideaway.

  She needed that hideaway. Desperately.

  Summoning all her strength of will, she looked him right in the eye.

  “I came to see you.”

  Cab set out two plates of macaroni and cheese and kicked himself again for not having something else to offer Rose. The steaks in his freezer would have taken too long to defrost, and that was pretty much the extent of the food he had on hand. They sat in Carl’s kitchen, a restaurant-level facility that always made him feel like he was playing at cooking instead of really doing it. A solid oak table and chairs sat at one end of the room. It was better than eating in Carl’s formal dining room, but only a little. Rose didn’t seem to notice her surroundings, or that the meal he set in front of her was singularly lacking in anything green. She picked up her fork and toyed with it.

  “I’m not sure I’m the best person to give you advice,” he said cautiously. He still couldn’t believe Rose had driven out to his place to ask for it, especially after the cold shoulder she’d given him earlier. He hoped it was a sign she wanted to patch things up. Maybe she was more interested in him than he’d thought. His gaze fell on her left hand and he took in the ring still on her finger. Jason was still in the picture. On the outskirts, yes, but definitely in the picture. Until that ring came off, he had to be a gentleman. He took a seat across from her.

  “It’s not for me,” she said. “It’s for a friend.”

  A friend. Of course. “Shoot.”

  “If you were a man and you’d been with a woman,” she began, blushing faintly, “and she got pregnant…”

  Cab, who had so far enjoyed where this question was going, sat back in his seat. Pregnant? Was she pregnant?

  “…but you were married to another woman and you didn’t want her to know about the baby, what would you do?”

  Cab blinked. Okay, Jason wasn’t married to another woman. As far as he knew. “Well…” Hell, what would he do?

  “What I mean is…” Rose sighed in frustration. “Obviously this guy doesn’t want to claim paternity, and the girl who’s pregnant thinks that’s for the best. She doesn’t like him anymore since he’s being such an ass. But what about the baby?”

  He raised his eyebrows, experiencing the distinct sensation of being swallowed by quicksand. “The baby?”

  “Shouldn’t the baby figure in all of this? I mean, she could let the guy off the hook and not tell anyone that he’s the father, but that means the baby will be raised nearly in poverty. Shouldn’t the guy be held accountable?”

  Well, shit. She really did want advice for a friend, didn’t she? He’d hoped that was just an excuse to come and see him. Although maybe it was. She’d never come to him for advice before. Was this some kind of round-about apology for being short with him earlier today and for leaving the Cruz ranch without even saying good-bye? If it was, he’d take it. He wanted Rose to feel like she could talk to him. Whether or not they ever had the chance to take things further—which they wouldn’t unless she removed that ring from her finger—he wanted to be her friend. A good one.

  “Here’s the thing,” he said. “I’d never back away from my responsibility as a father. When I marry a woman—and I will marry the woman I have children with—I’ll stay married for good. However many kids I have, I’ll support them. That doesn’t just mean I’ll pay for their upkeep. I’ll be there for them, too. Any man who doesn’t step up the same way doesn’t deserve to be a father.”

  She stared at him. “You mean that, don’t you?” she said softly.

  “Of course I do. Life isn’t all that complicated. People make it complicated. They overwhelm themselves with options. For me, when it comes to kids and responsibility, there is only one option.”

  She held his gaze for a long moment, a funny look on her face. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was a little turned on by what he’d just said.

  Interesting.

  “Okay,” she said. “But what about my friend? Should she force the issue? She can take him to court and make him take a paternity test.”

  “Do the benefits outweigh the cost of having that kind of jerk in her life? Because once she forces him to pay child support he’ll think he has every right to tell her how to raise her kid. He could even try to get custody and force her to pay child support to him.”

  Rose’s eyes went wide. “He could do that?”

  “He probably wouldn’t win,” Cab said. “But he sure as hell can try. Sounds like he can outspend her on lawyer’s fees.”

  Rose nodded.

  “Maybe you’d better let your friend decide what’s best for her,” he said gently. “Eat your supper, it’s getting cold.”

  She looked down at her plate. Picked up another bite of mac and cheese with a sigh. “Thanks,” she said when she’d swallowed. “For everything.”

  “Next time let’s go to DelMonaco’s,” he said, finishing the food on his plate. “What about the rest of your life? Everything okay?” She looked up at him sharply, so he added, “What about work?” That was a safe enough topic. He wanted to keep her talking about herself. He wanted to know more about what made Rose tick.

  She made a face. “I need a new job.”

  “Really? I thought you were pretty good at the one you have. I’ve heard you can tell from the ring if a couple is meant to be together.” He reached across the table and touched her engagement ring.

  She tried to pull her hand away. “That’s a whole other can of worms,” she said.

  He held onto it, touching her ring again. “What about this one? What does it tell you?”

  Her shoulders slumped and the fight went out of her. “Nothing,” she said in a quiet voice. “Not a damn thing. It never did. I didn’t even know I could tell people’s futures from their rings until I started working for Emory. When Jason gave me this one I didn’t get a twinge! We’re over, Cab. I’m going to leave him.”

  “Really?” He had to fight back a smile, jerk that he was. Forcing his face into concerned lines, he took Rose’s hand and squeezed it. He hadn’t seen that one coming. Maybe that explained why Rose had driven out this way. Maybe she wasn’t ready to tell her closer friends but needed someone to talk to nevertheless.

  “You’re the only one I’ve said that to,” she said, echoing his thoughts. “I haven’t even talked to Jason about it. I don’t know what I’m going to say.” Her eyes filled with tears and he stood up and rounded the table to get to her side. Instinct had him gently pulling her into a hug, and she came willingly, resting her head against his chest for a minute. Cab relished the feel of her in his arms. He knew
she only wanted comfort from him, but he’d take what he could get. Maybe one day soon she’d be ready for more. When she pulled back a few minutes later, he tried to bring things back to normal.

  “Sit. Finish your dinner.” He nodded toward the remains of her food.

  “I think I am finished.” But she took her seat again. He made his way back to his, wishing he could stick closer to Rose, but he refused to take advantage of the situation. She needed to tie things off with Jason before he asked her out. He frowned in concentration. He didn’t want to back off too far, either, or Jason might find a way to recapture Rose’s heart.

  He couldn’t let this visit of hers be a one-off thing. He needed to make a plan with Rose to do something neutral, but fun. Something that couldn’t be construed as a date, but would throw them together again. Helping her build her shed was the obvious choice, but he had the feeling she’d refuse as vehemently as she’d done earlier today. He needed to think of something else.

  The solution hit him as Rose picked up her plate to carry it to the sink.

  “You need to learn to shoot.”

  “I beg your pardon?” She looked at him askance. Cab scrambled to find an explanation that would convince her.

  “You have trouble being assertive. Lots of women do. When Ethan took over sawing the wood for you today, it made you mad but you didn’t do anything about it.” She opened her mouth and he knew she was about to point out that he’d tried to do the same thing, so he barreled on. “When we give presentations on safety to women, we tell them they need to learn skills that increase their confidence. If you’re assertive, people won’t bully you.”