Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
I quickly tried to ease the tension. “That’s right. Dev’s here. Maybe Dev needs some flowers, too.”
“Dah!” she said, grabbing a handful of flowers in her fat fist and standing up to approach him. By the time she reached Dev, the flowers were more of a yellow mash, but he received them as if they were the Crown Jewels.
“Thank you, sweetheart. What beautiful buttercups. Do you know these flowers have the same name as the horse you met yesterday? Her name is Buttercup, too.”
She ran back and threw herself down with abandon. Dev followed, lowering himself carefully to the ground beside me. I tried not to appreciate the intoxicating combination of horse and clean sweat coming from him, but it was nearly impossible.
He began to tie the flowers together into a chain, narrating the process to Lellie, who pranced around us, babbling and pulling at random clumps of grass. When he finished the chain, Dev leaned over and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry I left earlier without asking you to watch her. It was rude and presumptuous.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you for watching her for me. I was upset and didn’t want to be around her while I was feeling that way.” He hesitated. “Let’s chalk that up to another reason I’m not exactly parent material.”
I appreciated his gratitude, but his self-deprecation rubbed me the wrong way.
“What will you do when I’m gone?” Because if he decided to walk out every time he got upset around a toddler, he was going to spend a lot of time alone.
His hazel eyes met mine. “You leaving?”
My heart rate ticked up the way it always did when I was the sole recipient of his gaze. “No. Uh… I mean…Not right away. Not anytime soon.”
Something in his face softened. “I’ll have to stop behaving like an ass, I guess.”
“Always a good strategy,” I murmured, looking away in hopes of getting out of the damned tractor beams that wanted to lure me somewhere I had no business going.
The crunch of tires on gravel alerted us to a visitor. The SUV was emblazoned with law enforcement symbols and lettering, and sure enough, out stepped the tall fucker from the night before.
The sheriff came bearing gifts.
“What’d you just say?” Dev asked.
I blinked at him. “Me?”
“Yeah, sounded like you muttered, ‘Fucking great.’”
My face heated. “Did I? I… I’m just embarrassed because my hair is full of flowers and dirt.” I quickly brushed some of the flowers out of my hair to support the lie.
Dev’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to impress him?”
I stopped and took a deep breath. “Please. Pretty sure that’s your job, Dev. The man’s not interested in a random lawyer from out of town.”
“Says you.”
“Says the guy who saw exactly how protective the asshole was of you last night,” I hissed as the sheriff got closer.
“We’re just friends,” Dev said defensively.
“None of my business. And I hardly care,” I shot back.
Wow. Apparently, it was true what they said about lawyers. They really did lie all the damned time.
The sheriff’s grin was almost as big as his wingspan when he reached us. “Hey, Dev. I thought you might appreciate a home-cooked meal to celebrate the new addition, so to speak.”
“You cooked?” I blurted.
His smile dimmed as his eyes flicked from Dev over to me. “Don’t be ridiculous. I stopped at the cafe and picked up Dev’s favorite.”
Dev smiled. “You brought me your mom’s Thai power bowl?”
The sheriff nodded. “And she threw in some penne pasta with marinara for the princess. Hope that’s okay.”
Dev took the large paper bag with reverence. “That’s perfect. Thank you so much.”
Awkward silence landed like a harsh bellyflop.
“So…” Foster gave me a cool-eyed stare that marked him as law enforcement as surely as the shiny badge and the holster at his waist. “I’m Foster Blake. And you are?”
Dev shook himself. “Sorry. Foster, this is Tully Bowman. Tully, Foster. He’s the sheriff of Majestic.”
As if that wasn’t obvious.
Foster held out a giant hand to shake. For a split second, I wondered if I could get away with pretending I hadn’t seen it, but I didn’t want to cause trouble for Dev with his friends, so I shook the man’s hand. And nearly felt my bones pop in his grip.
I gritted my teeth before pulling my injured hand back.
Dev sensed the tension. “And this is Lellie,” he said, gesturing to where she was still denuding the general area of all things that came close to being classified as flowers.
Foster moved closer and crouched down near her. “Hi, baby. Are you picking flowers for your da—”
Dev and I both squawked out a sound to keep him from finishing that sentence. Foster glanced at us in surprise. “Ix-nay on the ad-day,” I said without thinking.
Dev bit his lip and shifted from foot to foot. “It’s just that I’m not… I don’t know if I’m… We’re not doing that right now.”