girls, and a warm feeling filled him. They were his life. So he stood corrected. He knew deep-down, put-your-life-on-the-line love, just not the romantic kind.
“Yeah. I think I’ll keep them around.”
“You may be peeling them off the ceiling tonight.” Jensen clasped her fingers together in her lap.
“Why?”
“I fed them cotton candy, red punch, red vines and red hots.”
“You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, I’ll know who to blame. You fed them sugar and red stuff at the same time?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Because they wanted it.”
“Do I need to read you your rights before I run you in?”
“On what charge?”
“Contributing to the hyperactivity of minors.” He snapped his fingers. “I believe in making the punishment fit the crime. Why don’t you come over and help me put them to bed?”
“Ooh. You are devious,” she said. “The perfect father for future teenage twins.” Her teasing look faded and was replaced by pensive. “How do you do it?”
“What?”
“Raise them alone. You must miss Lacey.”
Lacey Miller O’Connor. His wife. She’d died right after the twins were born—complications of childbirth. He rested his other boot on the metal bleacher seat, then twirled his hat in his hands.
He thought about how to respond. “She was my best friend.” That didn’t exactly answer the question, but it was all he wanted to share with her.
“Didn’t you live with her family for a while?”
He nodded. “They took me in after my folks died.”
“Car accident, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“It must have been devastating for you. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like. But you and Lacey?” She smiled. “Friendship, love, then marriage.”
“We hardly had time to know what being married meant.”
“If anybody knows what that feels like, it’s me,” she said. “I often wished that Zach and I had had a child together. At least you have your girls.”
“Yeah.”
And that was his secret, he thought.
“Have you considered marrying again?” she asked.
“You applying for the position?”
Why had he said that? Deflect the question? Put a stop to personal questions? Or was there a deeper, more wishful reason?
Her green eyes widened and she tugged at the hem of her cotton skirt. “Objection,” she said, as if she were addressing the court.
“Overruled. Are you interested in the job?”
“Job? So marriage to you would be a chore? A duty? An assignment?”
“Heck, no. I’m a swell guy.”
“Then why haven’t you remarried?” She zeroed that green-eyed gaze on him. “And don’t tell me no one’s been interested.”
One corner of his mouth rose. “Is that a compliment?”
“Are you fishing for one?”
“Always.”
“Okay. Let me shoot your ego full of steroids. You’re a nice-looking man.”
“Nice-looking? That’s the best you can do?”
The glaring spotlights overhead clearly showed the blush that crept into her cheeks. For the life of him, he couldn’t seem to let her off the hook. He was deliberately baiting her.
“Words are my life, Sheriff. And no, that’s not the best I can do. However, it’s all I’m willing to say. But my point is, and I do have one, that women must notice you. Is there a problem?”
“Yeah. Two. Their names are Kasey and Stacey.”
“What do the twins have to do with it?”
“Everything. Either I meet someone they like who would be a good mother to them but doesn’t do a thing for me, or I find a woman I like and they make gagging noises when I mention her name.”
“Gagging noises? Those sweet angels I saw just a little while ago?”
“Angels?” He put the palm of his hand to her forehead, as if to check for fever. A teasing gesture. Not meant to be more. But the arc of electricity the touch produced put a lie to that and he quickly pulled back. “Those two could make a career out of duping innocent folks. Their favorite trick is switching identities. Most people can’t tell them apart.”
“Yes, angels. They gave me the cheat sheet.”
“The what?”
“The cheat sheet for who’s who.”
“They must like you.”
“Of course they do. I plied them with red vines, red hots and red punch. What’s not to like? Besides, all that red dye works better than truth serum.”
He shook his head. “I still say they must like you. I can’t get them to cooperate after that much junk. Mostly they’re devils disguised as angels.”
“Those girls are beautiful little cherubs.” She grinned, showing straight, even teeth and a beautiful smile that made her green eyes sparkle like precious gems.
“Okay. Eighty percent of the time they’re as good as gold. But they have their dark side.”
“No,” she said, exaggerating the word.
“Everyone does, Jen.”
He wasn’t thinking of the twins now, but her husband. He wasn’t the man she’d thought. But there was no reason to speak ill of the dead, and worse, destroy her illusions. And she did have them, or she wouldn’t have stayed single all this time mourning the creep.
“I know that, Grady. I’m not naive,” she scoffed. “In my line of work, I see the best and worst.”
“I suppose that’s true. So do I.”
“Tell me again why you haven’t remarried?”
“You’re like a dog with a favorite bone on that subject.”
Her eyes
