by T. M. Cromer
The sight that greeted Coop when he arrived downtown was pure chaos. Intersection traffic was blocked as well as the entrance to multiple side streets.
What appeared to be miniature goats ran about hairy scary—until a horn blared or some driver shook their fist with a yell. Then, like an in-sync water ballet, all the goats would tip over on their sides, legs straight out as if they’d gone belly up for good.
Curses could be heard over the din. All of them directed at a flustered Summer Thorne.
Their eyes connected across the road between them.
Hers quickly dropped to the pavement and a slight pink blush lit her cheeks.
God, she was beautiful with her bright blonde curls and her flashing blue eyes. Her smooth complexion was marred only by a light dusting of freckles across her nose.
Not that he could see her freckles from this distance, but there wasn’t an inch of her face he hadn’t memorized the day he’d tore her heart from her chest. His gaze swept the length of her curvy figure, and his mouth watered. His fantasies all came flooding back.
Yep, he was an idiot eleven years ago for chasing her away, and again today for giving Knox the green light to pursue her.
With a heavy sigh, he started forward. “Summer!”
A mass bleating echoed off the brick buildings, then all the goats toppled where they stood.
“For the love of—.” He bit off the curse and hurried to her side. “Care to tell me why your herd is in the middle of downtown when you should be getting that pervert out of my pool?”
Titters of laughter sounded around them, and he glared his response.
Pedestrians scurried away with the occasional backward glance. Where Summer went, drama was sure to follow.
Her chin shot up and challenge lit her gaze. “I told you, Spring needed to remove Eddie.”
“Uh, huh. So why this?” He waved his arm to encompass the entire street.
Her delectable mouth opened and closed twice—he knew because it was all he could focus on—and she frantically glanced about as if looking for something or someone to save her.
“Summer, start talking.”
“Maybe we could shelve this for another time, Sheriff.” Winnie sashayed up and wrapped a slender arm around her sister’s shoulders. “I think the important thing is to help round up these goats.”
“Care to enlighten me how we go about doing that?” He shot a sharp glance at a suspiciously quiet Summer. “If I’m not mistaken, these are fainting goats. Any sudden movement and they drop.”
The sisters shared a secretive look.
His anger began on a low simmer. They were playing him.
Summer chose that moment to comment. “Exceedingly skittish fainting goats. They were rescued from—”
His temper erupted. “I don’t give a rat’s ass where they were rescued from or why the hell they are ‘exceedingly skittish’, Summer.” One finger tipped up her chin as he leaned in to relay his point. “You have five minutes to get them off the streets, or I take matters into my own hands. Are we clear?” A tap of his gun holster clarified his threat. Not that he intended to shoot her pets, but she didn’t need to know that. If it got her butt in gear and got the animals in hand, he’d use whatever bluff he needed to.
“You’re evil,” she whispered hoarsely, emotion choking off the tail end of her accusation.
God, please don’t let her cry. A woman’s tears ripped his insides out. Who was he kidding? This woman’s tears ripped his insides out.
“Yeah, no one could accuse me of being an angel. But the law is the law, and you’re breaking it. Shall I tally the offenses?” His thumb caressed the soft skin of her jawline and was at direct odds with his words.
Damned if her skin wasn’t like silk to the touch. His eyes followed the movement of his thumb. Was the rest of her equally soft and smooth? And why was his mind suddenly preoccupied with thoughts of a naked Summer Thorne? He shifted closer.
“Sheriff Carlyle?”
He ignored the summons behind him, lost to the beating pulse of Summer’s throat. The tan column begged his lips to—.
“Uh, Coop?” the person behind him persisted.
“What?” he snapped, bringing his head around.
“Keaton’s old Ford is on fire,” Deputy Aimes informed him.
3
Summer stood shell-shocked and helpless against Coop’s touch. How many times had she longed for him to wake the hell up and notice her as a woman?
Too many to count.
Now that it happened—granted in the middle of a busy downtown—she froze like a pathetic loser.
He swore and hurried toward the blazing vehicle, leaping over the goats that toppled left and right.
“Wow. The whole town witnessed that little display. Think Coop was making his interest known?” Winnie asked as she came to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.
Because coherent sentence forming was impossible, Summer blinked and shrugged. What was that all about?
Autumn joined them on the sidewalk. “Mission accomplished. Eddie is safely back home. Way to distract Coop, Summer. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
She didn’t, but Summer didn’t intend to tell her sister otherwise.
“Where’s Spring?” Winnie asked.
“She stayed behind to taunt Knox.” A flash of white teeth indicated Autumn’s amusement. “She was forced to resort to the bathing suit distraction. Or that’s what she’ll swear happened.”
“The poor bastard doesn’t stand a chance,” Winnie mumbled.
The other two nodded their heads in agreement.
“That was Keaton’s old red Ford, right?” The glee in Autumn’s voice was suspicious.
Summer nodded and raised a questioning brow. “Please tell me you’re not the one responsible for the fire.”
“Pfft. Who, me? I will say Granny Thorne’s concealment spell works fabulously well though.”
Summer and Winnie groaned.
Autumn’s Grudge Club ticket had just been validated.
“Time to get the heck outta here before Coop comes back. He doesn’t look happy.” Summer let loose a sharp whistle.
Gertie and her posse jumped to their feet and formed a line. Like an army of four-legged soldiers, they trotted in two rows of single formation toward the church parking lot.
“Oh, shit.”
Summer’s head whipped to where Autumn pointed.
Disbelief warred with outrage on Coop’s countenance as he stared at her perfectly behaved herd. When his fury-filled gaze touched on her, Summer shivered. She needed to get a move on. The last thing she wanted was to wind up in a cell at the sheriff’s department.
“You’re in big trouble,” Winnie sang.
“Well, I’m not waiting around to deal with his temper. Can’t you, ya know…” Summer wiggled her fingers behind her hand. “… make everyone forget we were ever here? Like you did Chloe.”
“That was the initial plan, but there are too many people. I’m not sure a simple finger-wave is going to cut it.”
Autumn agreed with Winnie. “It’s going to take a stronger spell.”
“What are we supposed to do? Sneak in and dump a potion in the town’s water supply?” Summer desperately suggested. The guilty looks from her sisters sparked her outrage. “This is exactly what I need; another strike against me. This town is going to run me out on a rail!”
“Overdramatic much?” Autumn laughed.
“The freaking goats were your idea!”
“If I told you to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you?”
A swan dive off the Brooklyn Bridge sounded great right about then. It didn’t take a genius to recognize the dirty scowls directed her way meant Summer was the most hated individual in town at the moment.
She pointed a finger at Autumn. “You suck!”
“Never on the first date and only if he—”
Winnie’s hand over Autumn’s mouth stemmed their sister’s retort. “Let’s get a move on
. The lynch mob is forming, and with the way our sheriff looks at the moment, I’m of the belief he might assist instead of have them desist.”
The three sisters beat a hasty retreat. They raced around the corner of the building, laughing like a pack of wild hyenas. Once in the parking lot, Winnie spun about and waved her hands. The air around them pulsed once then solidified to a normal appearance.
“Let’s get you loaded, ladies,” Summer said to the goats.
The rapid pounding of soles on the pavement caught the sisters’ attention. Everyone froze. Even the goats paused to witness Coop approach. When he stopped short, ten feet away, they all exhaled a collective breath.
Like a bewildered beast, he swung his head back and forth in his search for the Thorne sisters.
Summer sidled up to Winnie, licked her lips, and whispered, “Can he hear us?”
“No. The spell cloaks sound as well. Or mostly it does.” Winnie offered up a delicate shrug. “I imagine if there is horrendous banging or screaming, it might be a different story.”
“Yeah, none of this is suspicious at all.” Autumn snorted and snapped her fingers. Gertie and crew loaded into the trailer with minimal noise.
As her hungry eyes devoured Coop, Summer said, “I really need to perfect this particular spell.”
“So much for not lusting after the sheriff,” Winnie snickered.
Summer flipped her off. “Shut up and get in the van.”
“This is how every bad abduction starts.” Autumn inserted.
“There’s such a thing as a good abduction?” Winnie asked as she climbed through the side door.
“Why couldn’t I have been an only child?” Summer complained although she didn’t mean it. She wouldn’t trade her sisters for anything in the world.
With a quick crank of the engine, they were on their way.
Coop grew smaller in the rearview mirror until he disappeared.
Why couldn’t her obsessive thoughts of him go the same route?
Cooper had to be losing his mind. There was no other explanation. How else did three women and a herd of roughly twenty fainting goats disappear in less than two minutes?
Luckily, he knew Summer’s ultimate destination.
Unluckily, he had no transportation to get to said destination.
He turned and stalked back the way he’d come. As he approached the smoldering Ford, Coop caught his brother’s angry vibe.
That POS Ford had been Keaton’s favorite toy. Keaton and his daughter, Chloe, had invested their time trying to restore the 1950s F1 to its former glory.
In Coop’s opinion, the old rust bucket was a money pit. Parts needed to be custom made and took weeks, sometimes months, to get. Still, it gave his brother and niece a project to bond over.
“I’m sorry, Keaton. I needed to get to town and the cruiser wasn’t safe to drive in that condition.” Coop rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I’ll pay for the damage.”
“Was Autumn here?”
He frowned and nodded. “Yeah, but not right here. She was across the street.”
“Uh huh.”
“You think this is her fault?”
“Oh, I don’t think, I know.”
“Keaton, don’t make accusations you can’t back up.”
Keaton ignored him and studied the neighboring buildings. Apparently, he found what he was looking for because a triumphant, evil grin spread across his face. “Bingo.”
Coop followed the line of sight to an exterior security camera.
The brothers shared a questioning look and lifted their brows.
That camera, if working, would provide the evidence they both needed. Coop had no doubt Summer’s little fiasco with the goats was staged. He just didn’t know why. The video footage might give him an idea.
“Come on. Let’s see what Old Man Harkins caught on tape.” He checked both ways before leading the charge to the hardware store.
The recording proved nothing except Old Man Harkins was a crotchety pain in the ass who refused to cooperate until threatened with a court order, and the Thorne sisters were piss-poor goat herders. It could be said they weren’t trying very hard to gather the animals, but no definitive proof of mischief could be detected.
Keaton muttered about sneaky witches and their desire for revenge.
While Coop didn’t feel the women warranted being called names, he did mull over the revenge factor.
Perhaps Keaton was right. Maybe the Thornes had it in for the Carlyles. After all, the Thorne estate had been in the women’s family for generations, and before they moved to town, their grandfather, Preston Thorne, resided there. It was no secret Grandpa Carlyle and Preston had hated each other.
Coop had thought the ridiculous feud died out with his grandparents’ generation, but perhaps it hadn’t. Maybe the sisters and their father, the current Preston Thorne, kept it alive and well.
Had Coop and Keaton reactivated old grievances with their romantic slights to Summer and Autumn? What was the saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?
His cousin Knox needed to be warned. If he truly intended to date Summer, he could be walking into a minefield. Coop wasn’t about to let that happen. Or that’s what he told himself. If he had other reasons to prevent Knox from asking her out, Coop refused to acknowledge them.
“I heard you called an emergency meeting tonight.”
Keaton’s words startled Coop. He’d been lost in thought and forgotten he was in the middle of downtown.
“Uh, yeah. I thought we should address Summer Thorne’s animal issues. You know, the Babe Ruth of chimps, Marty.”
“Morty,” Keaton corrected absently with a glance at his watch.
“Whatever. Between him and that Casanova of an elephant, we have a problem.”
“C.C., she is going to hate you if try to take away her pets.”
“Those ‘pets’ are out of control, Keaton. What if it was Chloe that chimp raged on this morning? She’d be dead right now.” He sighed and shook his head, secure in his decision. “And Eddie is making eyes at our breeding stock. If he decided to do anything other than show off his swimming prowess, he could injure one of the mares. We can’t afford the risk.”
Keaton ran his hands through his dark hair, spiking the thick strands in his irritation. “Look, I get it. But you’d better be prepared for the fallout. My F1 was a casualty of Autumn’s rage—nearly nine years later! You’ve already got a strike against you with Summer. You do this, and man, I don’t want to be in your shoes.”
With a point of his finger at the charred vehicle, Coop scoffed at Keaton. “You don’t know this was Autumn’s doing. Let’s deal with one issue at a time.”
His brother glanced at his watch a third time in as many minutes.
“What’s the deal, man? You have somewhere to be?”
Keaton nodded. “Yeah. City Council meeting. As Mayor, I’m required to attend, but Diane is late picking up Chloe. It’s her week to have her.”
“Where is Chloe, anyway? I’d have thought she’d have gotten a kick out of the goats.”
“She’s with her friends at the park.”
“Look, if you need to run, I can wait on the tow truck. I need to be here to take statements from a few of the bystanders. When I’m done with that, I’ll check on Chloe.”
“Thanks, C.C.. Will you text me with the time of the meeting tonight?”
Coop watched his brother hurry away toward the city building before he phoned Lil to send the next tow truck driver on rotation.
“Yes, sir. The meeting to discuss Summer’s rescue is on the agenda for tonight at six. I’ve notified all parties involved.”
A sick dread built inside him. All parties involved meant she’d already placed a call to Summer. “How did she take it?”
“She had a few creative choice words for you, Sheriff.”
When Lil resorted to calling him Sheriff, she was displeased.
“Why do I feel like she has a sympathetic ear in you, L
il?”
“Because she does. I think you’re wrong, but I’m just the hired help.”
A snort of disbelief escaped. Lil was no more the hired help than Morty was a sweet baby. She practically ran the entire town on her own.
“Will you be there tonight?”
“Yes, Sheriff. I’ll be there in support of Summer. She’s doing a wonderful thing for those poor animals.”
“Lil,” he groaned. “How will it look if you support her? You’re supposed to be on the side of public safety.”
Her tone changed from frosty to frigid. “I have never once not looked out for the welfare of this town in all my fifty-eight years, Cooper Neal Carlyle. I resent you insinuating differently.”
Crap. As his mother’s life-long best friend, Lil was practically his second mom. Everyone knew when a mother used a middle name you were in deep shit.
“You happen to be wrong because you can’t see straight where that gal is concerned.”
He almost asked what gal, when she clarified.
“You could do a whole lot worse than Summer Thorne. In fact, you have.”
When did this become about his love life? “Let’s keep on track with the reason for this phone call, Lil. My love life is not up for discussion.”
Her humph told him that he’d offended her greatly. Freaking awesome. The next month of his work life would be hell.
“Six o’clock, city hall, Sheriff.”
She hung up before he could apologize.
“Was that about Miss Summer, Uncle Coop?”
He glanced around to see Chloe and two young boys roughly her same age perched on the edge of their bike seats, one leg out to the side to balance their ride.
“Why do you ask, midget?”
Her lips formed a grimace at the endearment. Oops, he’d forgotten she didn’t care to be called the nickname in front of friends. Another female he’d pissed off today. He was three for three.
Surprisingly, she answered. “Because you get that funny look on your face when you talk about her.”
Funny look?
He hadn’t realized the question popped out until she answered.
“Yeah, like you sucked on a lemon.”