Snowbound with the Sheriff

by Laurel Greer

  “Walk away? And here that’s what I thought you were doing to me.” He looped his arm around her waist and tucked her in the nook between his body and the wall. Leaning as he was, they were face-to-face. She took the chance and kissed him softly.

  His eyes fluttered closed, and his breath caught audibly. Cupping her cheek with a tender hand, he deepened the kiss.

  Spending their last two minutes doing this might not convince him that she was sincere, but at least it felt—

  No. This wasn’t why she’d tracked him down. She pulled her mouth away. Her body complained at the distance, but she refocused.

  “I’m not walking away from you for long. I’ll be joining you. And Lach and Maggie, too. Joining their business, growing it—I want to start a life here. With you. But I can’t think of some grand gesture to prove it.”

  He chuckled, burying his face in the crook of her neck. His breath brushed her skin, sending shivers down her limbs. “Fine by me. You shouting that you love me to the entire coffee shop was beyond public enough for my liking.”

  She winced. “You were escaping, and I couldn’t let—”

  “It’s okay, Stella. People are interested because they care. And having the fact you love me be public knowledge? I like that. More than you know. But proving love? That’ll happen over time, don’t you think? Slowly?”

  “Bit hard to be slow when I’m going to need to move across the country.”

  He smiled. “And you want me to help you with that?”

  She nodded. “If you can.”

  “If taking a rotation off for family leave means getting you home faster, I’ll make it happen.”

  Family. The word bloomed in her chest, her emotions around it complicated and nuanced, as always. But she was getting used to the positive connotations. Focusing not on the pain and isolation she’d attached to it in the past, but on what it meant now, and what it would mean in the future. Connection. Security.

  Joy.

  She kissed him again. “I’d have to be your family for you to get leave without lying.”

  “Are you planning to wake up in my bed every morning?”

  His stern tone made her laugh. “Yes, Sheriff.”

  “With no plans to stop?”

  She stroked his face, his short beard soft under her hand. The sensation grounded her in the reality of this—it was really happening. And she couldn’t be more at peace about it. “You’re stuck with me,” she teased.

  His expression stayed serious. “And a couple of years from now, could we look to turning the spare room into a nursery?”

  Warmth infused her at the thought of welcoming a child or two with Ryan. “I’d love to.”

  “Me, too.” He bent his head and kissed her cheek. His whisper was a caress, a promise. “That sounds like family to me.”

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  The afternoon of the training school’s grand opening, Stella raced around the clinic building into the yard. She’d been in charge of bringing dessert, and had gotten held up at the Main Street Bakery—anyone who wasn’t here was there, lining up for the epically popular wedding cupcakes Ryan’s aunt Nancy had been churning out for weeks to commemorate Gertie and Gramps having tied the knot in Las Vegas almost a month ago. Wedding bells were definitely in the air. Ryan had been dropping hints like nobody’s business. But with Maggie and Asher planning to say their vows in the fall, and her grandfather still wearing his new-groom glow, Stella hadn’t felt the need to hurry.

  Until this morning, anyway.

  Her other reason for being late to the party—she was late in the way that mattered most.

  She’d been so shocked, staring at the pregnancy test on the bathroom counter, she’d been tardy leaving to get the desserts in the first place. She and Ryan had figured it might take them a while to get pregnant, so they’d gotten a little fast and loose with protection. She should have at least anticipated that things could happen faster than they’d expected... But maybe the test was wrong. Her period had been due yesterday—what was one day?

  It wasn’t wrong. Those lines were nice and clear.

  Knowing Ryan, he’d want to keep this private. Hell, she did, too. It was way too early to announce anything. She wasn’t about to tell half the town that she was expecting, so she wouldn’t be telling him during the party. But how would she be able to keep it to herself when her heart was bursting? She’d have to hide it, somehow.

  Careful not to jar the extralarge box of dog-shaped cookies and puppy-themed cake pops, Stella halted at the edge of the rectangular lawn and groaned. Her stilettos were the worst choice for wearing on the grass. But she’d started the day with a meeting at the bank about the newly formed Gallatin Paws Foundation before heading home, boxed pregnancy test in hand. And had been so discombobulated after seeing those blue lines that she hadn’t changed out of her skirt and heels as planned.

  Her sister sidled over and held out a pair of her work clogs. “Trade you. I heard you clicking all the way from the parking lot. Figured you could use these.”

  Stella handed over the box and took the shoes in return. She toed out of her heels and slid into Maggie’s flat-soled offering. “Better. Thanks.”

  The July sky was overcast, but Maggie was smiling bright enough to make up for the lack of sunlight. So was their brother, for that matter, as he stood across the lawn with his family.

  Her family. Her siblings and their significant others and kids, their grandparents and the more distant connections, too. Asher’s brother, Caleb, and his partner, Garnet, who was pregnant with their first child and just starting to show. Marisol’s brother, Zach, and his wife, Cadie, chasing after their little one and, rumor had it, considering having another. And the whole Halloran crew was here, except for Georgie and her husband, who were off on a three-month adventure in Europe. The lawn was crawling with people who were connected through blood and marriage. So much love.

  She’d been foolish, thinking that she didn’t need it or want it. And was lucky as anything to have been absorbed into the fold. And to be adding to it... Unbelievable.

  She gave her sister a side hug. “Good to know we’ll all fit back here for your wedding.”

  Maggie tipped her head onto Stella’s shoulder. “Good to know you’ll be standing next to me when it happens.” She cleared her throat. “I’d better get these cookies over to the food table before the hungry masses revolt.”

  Stella motioned her sister forward, stood on her toes and scanned the crowd, frowning. The man most integral to her life was nowhere to be seen. She deposited her shoes and purse under a folding chair and peered around bodies, looking for the black, short-sleeved uniform shirt Ryan had been wearing when he’d left the house this morning. Unless he’d changed—

  A pair of strong arms linked around her waist, pulling her against a hard chest and the distinct lack of a weapons belt.

  “Hey, Bella,” Ryan murmured in her ear.

  She reached back and ran her hands down his sides from waist to hips, finding a T-shirt and some lightweight shorts. “You went home.”

  Wait, had he seen the test in the bathroom garbage? Her pulse raced.

  “You didn’t.” He clucked his disapproval. “And here I was hoping to take those shoes off you myself.”

  “I can put them back on later.”

  “Do that.” He dropped a lazy kiss to her temple. “Big turnout. I imagine my aunts and their broods will turn up when the bakery closes.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” she hummed, afraid if she opened her mouth, she’d blurt out that more of his family was here than he realized. Good grief. Once she’d committed sharing everything that mattered with this man, she’d gotten really terrible at hiding things. And he was so attuned to facial expressions, hers especially. As soon as he got a good look at her eyes, he’d know something was up.

  Attempting t
o school the blend of nerves and excitement pulling at her mouth, she relaxed into him. “I was saying to Maggie that it’s good to see the yard full of people. Gives them an idea of what to expect for the wedding.”

  “Yeah.” He pointed over to the fenced-off field beyond the newly-built barn. “That’d be a nice place for a ceremony.”

  The statement was weighted.

  And if she all of a sudden showed her eagerness to get a ring on her finger, he’d ask her what made her want to speed up—

  She shrugged, feigning being noncommittal. She motioned toward Laura, who held Lachlan’s finger on one side and Marisol’s on the other, and was taking a few tentative steps, much to her parents’ delight. “Laura is pretty much the cutest.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I’m betting ours would be cuter.”

  She froze. Tilting her head, she peered at him from the corner of her eye. His smile was relaxed. Not ecstatic, like it would be had he guessed, or seen that test. Breathing a sigh of relief, she said as blandly as possible, “That’ll be a ways off, though.”

  “I guess.” He sighed and ran a palm along her belly.

  Her knees went mushy and she held in a squeak of contentment.

  “I thought we were starting to think about kids,” he said, tone low with disappointment.

  “Start thinking? No.”

  He tightened his hold on her and exhaled. “Well, you let me know, sweetheart.”

  Ouch. Time for a rethink. She couldn’t keep him in the dark if he was going to be so sad... Turning in his embrace, she cupped his face. “Come for a walk with me.”

  He shook his head. “Food first, okay? I’m starving.” He nudged her toward the table weighed down with trays of ribs and salads.

  Stopping him with a hand to his chest, she fixed him with a meaningful look and said, “We should really find a quiet corner.”

  Crossing his arms, he frowned. “Stella...”

  A major rethink, then. “If I tell you something, promise you won’t react?”

  His brow crinkled. “I spend my whole workday facing the unbelievable and manage to keep a stone face. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She put her hands on his shoulders and went up on her toes, as close to his ear as she could get. “We’re beyond ‘starting to think’ about having kids. I’m ready. Which is a damn good thing, because by next spring, you’re going to be a daddy.”

  He stumbled back a step and his jaw dropped. “Did you say daddy?”

  Heads turned in their direction.

  “Shh!” She motioned for him to keep his voice down. “I said not to react. It’s super early. Like, ‘happened at the cabin on the Fourth when we were lazy about condoms’ early. What happened to stone-faced Ryan?”

  His mouth gaped and he cupped her cheeks with both hands, stroking with his thumbs. “Fatherhood, doll. And not expecting it this soon.”

  Her stomach twinged and she wrung her hands. “Will it be okay?”

  “Stella.” Covering her hands with a big palm, he squeezed. Then he pressed his lips to her forehead, a long, tender touch punctuated by a deep breath through his nose. “You even need to ask?”

  “Well, yeah. I figured you’d at least smile.”

  He finally did. A sheepish, overwhelmed lip tilt that he covered with shaking fingers. She felt it through her whole body, a rush of the magnitude of what they were going to take on.

  He glanced at her stomach. “You’re—Wow. Just wow.”

  “I know. I took the test right after I finished at the bank, and I almost peed myself with surprise, except I’d just gone, and...”

  He chuckled. “We can spend the rest of our lives surprising each other, okay?”

  Wrapping her arms around his waist, she let herself be absorbed by his warmth and the smell of fresh T-shirt and Ryan. “And loving each other. Every day.”

  “Sounds like everything I ever wanted.”

  * * *

  Don’t miss the previous titles in Laurel Greer’s Sutter Creek, Montana miniseries:

  From Exes to Expecting

  A Father for Her Child

  Holiday by Candlelight

  Their Nine-Month Surprise

  In Service of Love

  Available now from Harlequin Special Edition!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Marriage Moment by Katie Meyer.

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  The Marriage Moment

  by Katie Meyer

  Chapter One

  Nothing in Deputy Jessica Santiago’s training had prepared her for this moment.

  Not her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, not her time in the police academy and certainly not the packet of training materials she’d memorized before starting her first shift as a deputy in the Palmetto County sheriff’s department. Sweat trickled between her breasts under the perfectly pressed navy uniform she had so proudly put on a few hours ago, mocking her commitment to bravery in the face of danger.

  But Ryan O’Sullivan wasn’t the kind of threat she’d expected to face as the only female law enforcement officer to come from Paradise Isle, Florida, in nearly a decade.

  What was he doing here? He wore the same uniform she did, and for a moment her face heated as she remembered exactly what he looked like without any clothes at all. But he wasn’t supposed to be in Paradise. The last they’d spoken, a hurried and awkward conversation as she’d dressed herself in the early morning light, he’d told her that he’d hired on at the police department in his home town. He should have been hundreds of miles away in Miami Beach, not across the room, looking every bit as sexy as she remembered. She never would have slept with him if she’d thought there was a chance she would see him again.

  Not that she had been a virgin—she’d crossed that bridge back in college with a longtime boyfriend, though that relationship had turned into a long-distance breakup when he graduated from the University of Florida a year before her and moved to Oregon. But one-night stands weren’t usually her style either. She’d been raised in a religious household, and although she didn’t always go along with everything the church taught, in many ways she was still the good Catholic girl her mother had raised her to be. But even an angel would have been temped by Ryan O’Sullivan.

  Tall with broad shoulders that spoke of his college swimming success, he towered over everyone else in the room. At only five foot three herself, Ryan was a full foot taller than her, but that wasn’t why she’d mentally marked him off as out of reach. It was much more than that—he was the uncrowned king of the academy recruits, the kind of man who inspired admiration from other men and something a bit more visceral among the women.

  Looking at him now out of the corner of her eye, it was easy to see why he’d always had a flock of females around him everywhere he went. Dark hair, classically sculpted features any male model would envy, and soulful brown eyes that were more sinful than her favorite triple-chocolate espresso cake. So yes, she’d crushed on him, as had every other woman in their class. But she’d gone to the academy to learn, not to flirt. So every time he’d asked her out she’d ignored him and focused on the job at hand. Until graduation night, when a bit too much tequila had intensified the lust she usually kept under control, overriding her better judgment.

  And now she was regretting it. Because alcohol or not, had she known she’d be working in the same department with him two months later, she would have kept her clothes on and her legs crossed, no matter how intense the chemistry had been between them.

  No, not chemistry. That implied a real connection, something beyond the sheer relief of finishing up
such an intense training schedule—and topping off that liberating sense of freedom with a hefty dose of alcohol-lubricated lust. It was pure hedonism; nothing personal. In fact, she was probably stressing out over nothing. As many women as he’d been rumored to have been with, and as much booze as they’d shared, there was a good chance that night hadn’t even registered on his radar. He likely hadn’t given their encounter, or her, a second thought since then.

  Clutching to that hope, she kept her eyes forward and headed for the door the minute the department meeting was over. She was to report to the staffing sergeant, where she’d be paired up with a partner and given her patrol orders for the evening. Thankfully, her brother had recently switched to day shifts; the last thing she needed was a protective older brother hovering over her on her first shift. As long as he wasn’t there, she didn’t care who she got partnered with.

  Or maybe she did. Blocking her way into the main precinct was Ryan, a boyish grin on his face. Dread slithered through her gut. Surely they wouldn’t pair up two rookies, would they?

  “Jessica, I was just coming to look for you.”

  And I was trying to avoid you, she nearly muttered. Instead, she managed a nervous smile, and tried her hardest to forget that he’d ever seen her naked. “Well, you found me.” Smooth. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Or ever again.

  “Jason ended up getting the post in Miami. It was kind of a last minute thing.” He shrugged, his muscular shoulders stretching the limits of his department-issued uniform. “This was the only other opening left, and I remembered you talking about what a nice town Paradise was, so I figured I’d give small-town life a try.”

  “Oh.” Of course she’d known he hadn’t purposely come here to be with her, but hearing that it was his last choice didn’t feel great either. “Well, I hope you like it. It’s very different from Miami.” She’d grown up there too, but the Little Havana neighborhood she’d called home was nothing like the wealthy suburb he came from. She’d been in college, living in the dorms, when her mom and brother picked up and moved to Paradise. Over long weekends and holiday breaks she’d gotten to know the small island, and although she still sometimes missed the excitement of Miami, Paradise was her home now.