were just in an accident.”
This lady was really starting to irritate her. Did she hound all the victims who came here? Lily didn’t respond, just looked toward the road again. Oh, to be on it, driving away from here, on her way home.
“Wait a minute,” the man said, which brought her head back around. “You look familiar.”
How could he possibly know her?
“Where are you from?” he asked.
She didn’t want to tell him.
“Wes Colton.” He stuck out his hand. “Honey Creek County sheriff.”
Momentarily stunned, she numbly took his hand. Colton. He was a Colton?
“You’re from Honey Creek?” she asked, her astonishment coming out in her tone.
He smiled. “Yeah. You’re Lily Masterson, right? You took over for Mary Walsh at the library.”
“That’s me,” Lily said, cringing inside. The resident bad girl. There was only one reason he recognized her. All the gossip. Honey Creek was rampant with it these days.
“You know each other?” the officer cut in.
“No,” Lily all but snapped.
“Not really,” Wes answered conversationally. “We both live in Honey Creek. It’s not far from here.”
“I know where that town is.” The officer smiled. “Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”
Quite.
He nodded toward the prison. “Might be a bad sign that we’re both here.”
Lily was getting good at forcing humor. She laughed.
Great. Would he guess why she was here? If the victims’ officer didn’t give her away….
She glanced at the woman. Her eyes had widened but she remained quiet.
“What brings you here?” she asked Wes.
“I came here to see my brother.”
Of course. She remembered. Damien Colton was in prison for murder, except the man he had supposedly murdered had recently turned up—dead again. Damien was Wes Colton’s brother. Talk about his impending release was all over town. Lily looked more closely at him. He was handsome and young. She thought she remembered someone saying he was thirty-three, which was too young for her forty years.
“What about you?” he asked, and she wished she would have kept her mouth shut.
“Oh….” How was she going to answer that? No one from Honey Creek knew what had happened to her. “I was just … visiting a friend.”
The officer angled her head a little, a silent question in her eyes.
Lily ignored her, but she couldn’t ignore Wes. The amusement that had pulled a smile from his mouth faded.
Surely he’d heard all the rumors. Some weren’t rumors, either. Before she’d left Honey Creek, she’d done anything and everything to spite her holier-than-thou parents. That was so long ago, though, and so much had changed since then. She’d changed. Why was it so hard for everyone to see that?
“What kind of trouble did your friend get into to land himself here?” he asked.
She thought fast. “Robbery.”
The officer’s eyebrows lifted.
“Must be someone close to you if you’re willing to visit him here.”
“He’s just a … a … friend.”
The officer’s eyebrows lowered and her eyes turned sympathetic. She knew why Lily was lying.
Lily met her gaze and hoped she read the message not to say anything. When the officer remained a silent observer, she didn’t know if that was worse. Pity was for the vulnerable.
“You’ve been away from Honey Creek for a while,” Wes said, appearing oblivious to the exchange. “What brought you back?”
Another subject she didn’t particularly want to discuss. But he wasn’t pressing on her reason for being here so she wouldn’t complain. “My dad. His health isn’t so great right now. Stage two stomach cancer. He’s gone through the surgery, but he’s still in treatment and we don’t know how things will progress from here. I came back to help him. Without Mom around it’s hard for him to care for himself.”
He nodded and his blue eyes showed his admiration. They also showed self-assurance and intelligence that went along with his honorable reputation. She checked his left hand. No ring.
“That’s very kind of you to do that,” the officer said, sounding out of place in the conversation. Was that because she’d noticed Lily looking at Wes?
Checking for a ring. Oh, lord….
He had really nice hands. She’d heard he was a nice man, too. And a sheriff..
Something about that appealed to her.
She stopped herself short. Why was she thinking like this? She hadn’t been back in Honey Creek long, and was too caught up in the gossip going around about her to pay much attention to potential love interests. She didn’t want to get involved with anyone. So why had those thoughts even crossed her mind? Was she interested in Wes? He was attractive, but …
Lily tipped her head back and looked up at the big, blue sky. “At least the weather is nice.”
Wes looked up with her, but not for very long. He was studying her again.
“Sure is,” the officer said, drawing out the word sure suggestively.
And Lily snapped her head down to see the officer smiling.
The officer turned to Wes. “So, you’re a sheriff?”
“Yes. Honey Creek County.”
“Oh, well,” the officer beamed, “Lily’s in good hands then.”
Wes chuckled.
Lily loved the sound. “Should we call for a tow now?”
“Of course,” the officer cooed. “And then maybe you could let Sheriff Colton drive you back home in your truck, Lily,” the officer suggested, doing a bad job of pretending to be nonchalant. “He’ll be needing a rental car anyway.” Her smile was more genuine now, but held a tinge of slyness. Maybe she understood why Lily had lied and only wanted to make sure she made it home all right.
Not.
The officer had noticed their exchange and was now matchmaking. Was she like this with all the victims?
“Sure.” Anything to be gone from here as soon as humanly possible. She
