change. Instead, he’d been as immovable as a two-ton boulder and, from the looks of it, still was.
“Simone had to post bail last night to get Andrew out of jail,” Emily reported.
“It might have been better had she let him stay the night in a cell.”
She should have known Dylan would say that, Emily thought, with quickly mounting aggravation. And when had he gotten to be such a hard case?
Emily huffed and went on, “The arraignment was held this morning. Thanks to your statement and the recommendation of the sheriff’s department, the district attorney charged Andrew—and his three accomplices—with trespassing and third-degree burglary. His friends all had previous records and have been sent to juvenile detention. Only Andrew, thus far, has been released to parental custody. And rather than be relieved, he was resentful about that, too.” Emily paused, shook her head. “I’ve never seen Simone so upset.” She had told her to take a few days off—with pay—until she could get things straightened out.
Dylan listened quietly. “How’s Andrew taking it?” he asked finally.
“He’s angry and ashamed.”
“Remorseful?” he pressed.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Dylan nodded, not at all surprised.
Where was his compassion? Emily wondered in frustration. She knew he had it—he showed it to the horses he trained. He’d also bestowed it on her on more than one occasion.
“And don’t say I told you so,” Emily grumbled, actually as shocked as Simone that the trauma of being arrested hadn’t been enough to shake some sense into the fifteen-year-old boy.
Something inscrutable flickered in Dylan’s expression as he folded his arms across his chest. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Emily studied Dylan, not about to let him off the hook for his part in this mess.
For a moment she thought he was going to put up the usual barrier to his private thoughts. Instead, something in his gaze shifted, became more intimate which, in turn, prompted her to admit, “I’m afraid this is going to backfire on everyone.” Emily sighed. “That all it will do is make a bad situation worse.”
“That’s up to Andrew.”
Emily wasn’t used to feeling this helpless. She wrung her hands. “I feel I should do something.”
Dylan placed a steadying hand on her elbow. “The best thing you can do is stand back and let it play out. This is Andrew’s life. These are his choices to make, his consequences to deal with.”
Emily forced herself to remain calm. “He hasn’t made the right choices thus far,” she warned.
“Let’s hope that changes,” Dylan said. “And soon.”
* * *
EMILY WAS NOT CONTENT to leave everything up to fate—or the impulsive emotions of a teenage boy in crisis. As soon as the café closed for the day, she drove over to the sheriff’s department, to see what she could do.
Luck was with her. Deputy Rio Vasquez, the officer who’d arrested Andrew the night before, was just coming on duty. Her cousin, Kyle McCabe, was also on shift.
The two deputies shared the same outlook. “Dylan was right to call us and take a hard line,” Rio said.
Kyle nodded. “I know it seems like it isn’t that big a deal. But it is. Pranks like this are gateway crimes. The kids don’t see it that way, of course. They think they’re just messing around and accepting dares and having fun.” He sighed heavily. “But things have a way of getting out of control—fast—with kids this age and before you know it, someone is badly hurt. Or there’s a fatal car accident. And then lives are really turned upside down.”
“Dylan knows this better than anyone,” Rio added.
Emily did a double take. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Rio and Kyle exchanged wary looks.
Whatever they knew, Emily realized in disappointment, they weren’t going to share.
“The point is,” Rio continued, sidestepping her question completely, “Dylan takes the situation very seriously. And that’s good. The worst thing any of you could have done is used your influence with the district attorney to try to have the whole matter dropped, before any real consequences were felt.”
Dylan had said as much, but somehow it helped hearing the same thing from two such experienced lawmen.
Emily thanked them both, and Kyle walked her outside. Because he was her cousin, and they’d grown up together, he knew her pretty well. “So does this mean it’s over with you and Dylan Reeves?” he asked curiously.
Emily could confide in Kyle the way she couldn’t confide in her brothers. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I could date anyone who is as intractable as he is, for very long.” Maybe it would be best to cut her losses while the potential damage to her heart was still small.
“So it’s not like the two of you are in love or anything?” Kyle teased.
Emily blushed. “Heavens, no!”
“You were just kissing him on the green, the other night....”
“You saw that?”
“Emily, everyone saw that. It looked pretty hot.”
It had been hot. Their tumble into bed the evening before, hotter still. But sex wasn’t everything. Even between friends. Emily bit her lip. “I’m just not sure we’re compatible in the ways that count.”
Kyle chuckled. “You mean he’s not makeover material.”
“I haven’t tried to make him over.” Not like she had in the past. She hadn’t gone clothes shopping with him, helped decorate his place or suggested a way to further his career aspirations—like she had with the previous guys she had dated....
Clearly not seeing the difference in her approach to this male-female relationship, Kyle lifted a skeptical brow. “Well, that’s good. Because unlike your previous boyfriends—who, by the way, were all way too malleable for their own good—Dylan is a man who operates on the strength of his convictions. And I don’t see that changing. Not for you. Not for anyone.”
* * *
EMILY HAD PROMISED herself she would not get enmeshed in any more dead-end romances. Which left her with only one choice.
“I think we should be friends,” she told Dylan, when she showed up at his ranch that afternoon.
“I thought we already were. Or at least were on the way to becoming good friends.”
“What I mean is,” Emily explained, aware her voice sounded a little rusty, and her emotions felt all out of whack, too, “I don’t think we should have sex again.”
Their glances locked and
