by Sharon Kay
A chorus of “Thank you” emitted from the group.
“Now, let’s get back to our lesson.”
Shane tugged Denver’s lead, and they walked to the end of the hallway. On the way back, they ducked into a side corridor. Their standard procedure was to check every area that the public had access to. Denver sniffed along the ground and around the two utility closet doors, while Shane took a breath and smelled… her.
The faintest trace of her perfume hung in the air. At least, he thought so. But why would she have been in this spot? Maybe he was imagining it.
Maybe she was on his brain when he should be focused on his job.
But she wasn’t the kind of woman he was likely to forget. Brown hair—not light or dark, but somewhere in between, hung straight down her back. Big green eyes had stared up at him with mortification. She’d clearly wanted nothing more than to get the hell away. Denver startling her hadn’t helped. Shane wasn’t entirely sure she really was okay, but he chose not to push the issue. He’d watched her walk away, assessing her gait, and she hadn’t limped.
Yeah, he’d looked. Her hips flared from her small waist, and though her legs were hidden, those pants fit her ass perfectly.
Maybe he was an ass for thinking that.
He shook his head. He had no idea who she was and would probably never see her again. Lots of people came to the courthouse for business.
Shane and Denver exited the short corridor and moved into the main hall. “Hey, Paul,” he called to the janitor mopping up the last of the spill.
“Hey, Shane. Denver.” Paul set up a yellow plastic sign that read Wet Floor. “Well, that should do it. Not much here.”
“Thanks for taking care of that so fast.” Shane scanned the area. “One person already fell. We don’t need…”
His attention snagged on a piece of something white over by the baseboard. It was hard to see, since the building floor was mostly white. He strode over with Denver at his heels, and crouched.
A small piece of plastic—a driver’s license. Shane turned it over to read the name.
Whoa. It was hers.
A tiny yet vital item they had both missed in her rush to get away. He’d never seen anyone scramble like she had, just from a fall.
He focused on her smiling face. He’d seen hundreds of bad driver’s license photos, but hers was actually good. Rebecca Gable. She lived in Hamilton, one of a handful of towns that dotted Redemption County.
She would need this back. Instinctively he reached for his phone to call her. His hand froze halfway to his pocket. Dumbass. Of course he didn’t have her number. She hadn’t even given him her name.
He frowned. Sooner or later she’d realize it was missing and would probably come back. The county had a lost-and-found box in the deputies’ room. Shane could just take it there.
That would be the smart thing to do. Logical. Easy.
But maybe she was still on county grounds. The complex had a three-story parking garage plus two surface lots. Shane tugged Denver’s lead. Time for a parking area check.
They headed downstairs and outside, along a curved sidewalk to the garage. A couple of cars exited as they passed—not her. It would help if he knew what kind of car she drove, but he’d have to settle for a visual on any person they encountered.
Three levels later, they came up empty. Shane set his hands on his hips as they stood on the third level, which was open to the sky. Bright sun blazed down, and from here, he could see a good swath of Redemption County’s green fields stretching out in each direction. But that didn’t hold his attention.
The memory of Rebecca Gable’s face lingered in his mind—embarrassment topped with the determination to hold onto her dignity and walk out of that hallway. And those eyes blinking up at him in surprise after scanning his chest.
He was certain she’d read his last name. But if she recognized him, she hadn’t let on, and he silently thanked her for that. Most people who did recognize him spouted apologies or words of thanks. Or the word he hated most.
Hero.
He shook his head and recalibrated to the matter at hand. Her address was right there on her license. The search of the parking garage had yielded nothing, and his next decision came just as easily as the one that would’ve been logical. With one more check of the exterior grounds on their schedule, their day was almost done.
Then he’d be on his way to Rebecca Gable’s place, and damn, though he was kicking standard procedure to the curb, he was looking forward to it.
Chapter 3
Becca lounged on her cozy tan couch, scrolling through her phone. She was drained from her day but too wired to focus on anything in front of her. Maybe that was because she was in a sugar coma from syrup-doused waffles followed by a bowl of cookie-dough ice cream.
At least it was over. The last loose end of her situation was tied up. She had nothing else to do today except more of nothing, and that suited her just fine.
She laid her head back against the couch cushions and stretched her yoga-pants-covered legs onto the coffee table. She’d changed clothes the second she walked in her door, opting for bare feet, her favorite well-worn Dierks Bentley T-shirt, and hair piled in a messy bun.
She blew out a breath. Although her misdemeanor would always be on her record, she’d been dealt her punishment and had handled it. Now it was on to a new job and a new life. No more fiancé, but she couldn’t change whatever was in Kirk’s mind. Heck, she couldn’t even understand what had been in hers.
The ring of her front doorbell jolted her from the mental analysis of her life. What was the point of analyzing it, anyway, when some days, she didn’t know which end was up? And who could that be at the door? She wasn’t expecting anyone. Probably just a package being delivered that didn’t fit in the mailbox.
But she hadn’t ordered anything. Hmm. Had Marcy decided to come over? No, she would have texted first. Becca dragged herself up from the soft, beckoning couch and shuffled to the window.
Oh shit!
In her driveway sat a blue-and-black Redemption County Police SUV.
Shit, shit, shit!
Was she in trouble? Was there a problem with her payment today? Panic flooded through her body. She darted to the couch and grabbed her phone. Scrolling until she found her brother’s number, she pressed the call sign and prayed he’d pick up.
Evan’s cheerful voice greeted her. “Hey, Bec. How—”
“There’s a cop at my door, and I don’t know why. I paid my fine today. I thought that was the last thing I had to do. What’s going on? What should I do?” The words fell from her mouth in a frightened jumble that mirrored her mind.
“Whoa, slow down. Take a breath. It’s gonna be okay. Let’s talk through this.”
She breathed deeply. “Okay.” Her brother, and also her source of legal advice, had been her rock through the ordeal and the whole horrible year.
“You took care of the fine. You used a cashier’s check, right?”
“Yep.”
“The bank won’t create one of those if the funds aren’t already there, so you should be good. Now, you don’t have to open the door. But if you do, he can’t come in without a warrant. You said there’s one officer there?”
“Yeah. One squad car.” Becca crept to the window and double-checked. And nearly forgot to breathe.
The side of the car said “K-9 Unit.”
Oh god. That cop. What was he doing here? “Shit.”
“What?”
“Um, oh my god, Evan. I met this cop today. I-I kinda fell down in the hallway, and he was right there. It was a disaster. I’m fine though.”
“Do you want me to come over? Or hand the phone to him? I’ll talk to him. You don’t have to answer questions without me being present, anyway.” Evan managed to mix big-brother reassurance seamlessly with the best lawyer talk she’d
ever heard.
“No, you don’t have to come over. You’re right. I know he can’t come in. I’ve got this.”
“You sure? Wanna keep me on speaker?”
“Actually…” Why not? The doorbell rang a second time. The fact that he was here freaked her out. “Yeah. Speaker.”
“Sounds good. Get his name too. Okay?”
Marlow. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she may as well get his first name too. “Got it.” She switched the device to speaker and padded to the front door.
She squared her shoulders. The cop had been nice. She could tell him to go away. So what if he was insanely hot? Some cops were nice, and some were jerks, and she hadn’t done anything wrong. Not today anyway. You can do this.
She pulled open the door, and her breath left her lungs on a slow whoosh.
He stood there, hands on his hips, like every girl’s sexy-cop fantasy come to life. Viewed through her screen door, his shoulders seemed impossibly wide. When those blue eyes locked onto her, a hint of a smile flickered over his lips. And, god, she really had to look up at him now. In her bare feet, she had no more heels to level the playing field. Not that they had helped much earlier today.
“Hi. Rebecca Gable?” he asked as casually as if he was asking about a football score. Not all bossy and authoritative.
“That’s me.” She tried to put as much confidence in her voice as she could. How in the hell did he know her name? She held up the phone. “And I have my attorney here on speaker. If you have any questions, they go through him.”
The officer blinked and frowned. “All right.” He fished around in his chest pocket. “No questions. I just came by to bring you this.” Between his first two fingers, he held a white piece of plastic.
Becca stared through the mesh of the screen. “My license?”
“You must have dropped it along with the rest of your stuff. It was in the same hallway but way over on the side, hard to see.”
“Oh my gosh.” She hadn’t even realized it was missing. Crap. Was she going to be in trouble since she’d obviously driven home without it in her possession?
“I couldn’t call you to let you know we had it since I don’t have your number. So I figured it’d be easiest just to bring it over.” He held it up, an almost-shy grin tugging at his mouth.
“Um, thank you.” She should open the screen door a crack so she could retrieve it. But surely, he didn’t have to do this? Had he looked her up? Did he know all about her? “Is…is that all?”
“Well, I also wanted to see how you’re doing. You had a hard fall.”
Evan’s gruff voice burst from the phone. “Bec? What’s going on?”
“Oh, hang on,” she said to the cop. She took the phone off speaker and held it to her ear. “Evan? I’m okay. I got this.”
“Who is this guy? I didn’t hear him give his name. What is he doing at your house?”
“Um, his name is Officer…?” She paused and glanced at the cop.
“Shane Marlow,” he replied.
Good, got the first name. “Shane Marlow,” she repeated to Evan.
“Got it noted down. What did he say he brought you?”
“I dropped my driver’s license at the courthouse today, apparently, and he’s returning it.” She dug her toes into the rug by the door. “I’ll call you in a bit, okay?”
“Please do. I need to know what the guy’s angle is.”
“I will. Bye.” She ended the call and looked up at tall, hot Shane Marlow.
“Your lawyer?” He raised a brow.
“Well, it’s not every day that a patrol car parks in your driveway and a cop knocks on your door.” And, god, the last time that happened wasn’t too long ago and was forever branded into her memory. “It can be unsettling.”
“Makes sense.” He ran a hand over his short brown hair. “Guess that’s twice today I’ve had the wrong effect on you. I sure didn’t mean it.”
The sincerity in his voice hammered his words home. “That’s okay,” she murmured.
“So, how’re you feeling? Your leg okay?”
“I’m fine.” She shook her head, figuring she’d never live it down. At least no one she knew had witnessed it. “I bet you don’t have people falling on their asses in front of you every day.”
He cast a gaze to the sky as if he were really thinking about it. Again, that tease of a smile graced his lips. “That’d be a no.”
Great. She rubbed her temple. “That was so embarrassing.”
“The important thing is you’re all right.”
“Yeah. I’ll just have a big bruise. That’s all.”
His eyes twinkled. “Believe it or not, I know exactly how you feel.”
“No way.” She folded her arms. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen on that marble floor too.”
“Worse.”
“What could be worse than falling on your rear end in front of dozens of people?”
He glanced down, then up again, with another sly grin. “Falling on your ass right into a creek in front of the one person you wanted to impress.”
“What?” Her jaw dropped at the improbability of what he just said. He didn’t look like he fell, tripped, or even grabbed the wrong coffee mug in the morning. Ever. “You fell into a creek? Oh, I gotta hear this.” On impulse, because she had zero fear that he would harm her, she pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto her front porch.
It wasn’t a huge porch. Not the beautiful wrap-around ones she dreamed of having one day, with a swing and gorgeous woodwork all around. No, hers was a rectangular slab of cement, roughly four feet deep by twelve feet long. It had a little, flat roof, a basic white wood railing, and white pillars lined up with the door. It was as cute as she could get when she bought the house.
Shane stepped aside as the door swung open, cracking a grin. “You wanna hear my story of deathly embarrassment?”
“I sure do.” She gently pushed the door closed and leaned a hip on it. “After my day, I need a laugh.”
“That’s guaranteed.” He rubbed a hand over his strong square jaw. “Where to start? Okay, so it was sophomore year in high school. I’d been wanting to ask out this one girl all year. Had the biggest crush on her. So I finally worked up the guts, and she said okay. But I couldn’t drive yet.”
“Ah yes. The asking out, yet you can’t actually go anywhere unless your parents drive you.”
“Exactly. So we went for a walk at Little Potato Creek over in Sundown.”
“I know that creek.” Geez, had he grown up there? Sundown was less than ten miles from where she’d grown up, right here in Hamilton.
“So, it had rained the night before. The whole area was muddy. It was a terrible idea for a date.” He shook his head. “I should have known better than to get too close to the edge. The banks were a muddy mess. But I wasn’t paying attention to the banks or much of anything ’cept her.”
Becca studied the hint of stubble dusting his jaw and couldn’t imagine him wrapped up in a girl. It seemed like it should have been the other way around. But she kept her thoughts to herself. “I can guess where this is headed.”
“You know it. I slipped right down the bank, which was a giant mudslide, and into the creek.”
She covered her mouth with a hand. “Oh my god. I’m trying to picture that.”
He grimaced. “It wasn’t pretty. And that was the last date I had with her. She tried hard not to laugh, but she told the whole school. I was known as Slip-n-Slide for the rest of the year.”
She sucked in a breath. “Oh, that is mortifying.”
“Yeah. That word is an understatement.” He scanned her yard and then back to her. “So you today… I get it.”
Then he winked.
Holy wow. He shouldn’t be allowed to wink. She blinked away the impending butterflies. She still could barely
process he was here socializing, not asking her official questions.
Though, she was grateful for that. She’d be happy if he never heard her story. She sent up a silent prayer that he wouldn’t look her up in some county database.
“Um…” She needed to fill the silence that stretched between them before it got awkward. “So, did you grow up in Sundown?”
“Born and raised.” He grinned. “You?”
“Right here in Hamilton.” She shifted her feet. “Small world.”
“Do you go by your full name? Or something shorter?”
“Becca.” He had probably heard Evan address her as Bec.
He nodded. “Well, Becca, I’m glad you were home today so I could return this.” He handed her the driver’s license.
She took it, unable to avoid a brief touch of his warm fingers. “Thanks again. I would have panicked when I noticed it was missing, whenever that might have happened.” She frowned. “I’m not always a scatterbrain.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” he murmured.
“Okay, well, take care.” It sounded lame, but she had no idea how to say goodbye to this cop who didn’t need to be here, who had come by apparently just because he was nice. And who she had nearly flipped out on when he’d first arrived.
“You too, Becca.” He gave her a small smile and strode to his car, all long legs and tight butt.
She couldn’t resist peeking. He opened the driver’s side door and for a second, she saw a pointed snout.
He’d left his dog in the car this whole time.
Whoa. She couldn’t help but feel warmed by his consideration. Normally she wouldn’t be afraid of a police dog. It was just that he’d gotten so darn close to her when she’d slipped, and she hadn’t been expecting it.
Slipping back into the house, she watched through the screen as he drove away. Shane Marlow. It had been nice to meet him, and he was sexy and dreamy. And she’d probably never see him again.
That was for the best. He was a cop. She had committed theft and was on a relationship rebound to boot. Bad news didn’t begin to describe her.
