by S Doyle
“Then you stay here,” I said, taking another sip of beer. “Everyone else thinks you’re at The King’s Land. You need to come into town, you find me first and I’ll set you up with a detail. Either myself or a deputy.”
“Even though you want to kiss me.”
“Yes. Even though. Because here is the thing, Brin. I won’t.”
“Oh.”
Was that disappointment? Did she look disappointed?
“Because you don’t like me,” she assumed. “Not really.”
“Wrong. Because I do like you. But I don’t want to like another woman again. Not one I’m fucking.”
She scrunched up her nose. “So you’re never with women?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I fuck women, Brin. I fuck them and forget them. I obviously can’t do that with you. And since kissing you is only going to make me want to fuck you, no kissing. Get it?”
“How do you even know I want to kiss you?” she asked, flipping her hair back over her shoulder. Then she did that thing with her finger…the minus one.
I stood up from the deck chair where I was sitting and walked over to hers. I braced my hands on the armrests so she was essentially trapped. She looked up at me with those wide brown eyes. So dark, so filled with emotion all the time. It’s why I hated it when she wore sunglasses. I could see everything inside Brin as long as I could see her eyes.
I leaned and whispered into her ear. “You’ve wanted to kiss me for a very long time, Sabrina King. Are you saying now, after a mere five years, you no longer want that?”
I could hear the rush of her breath. I could see the way her pulse was beating in her neck. And when I pulled back it was there in her eyes. That look that made me, lowly Garrett Pine, a god.
“Maybe?”
I leaned down and took her mouth. It was a mistake. I knew it because it felt too damn good. Soft lips. She tasted like wine and barbecue sauce. When I pushed my tongue between her lips she gasped and the next thing I knew, her hands were in my hair. Like she couldn’t stop herself from touching me. Opening herself to me.
Slowly I pulled away. Then I straightened. “Yeah, I was right. Kissing you only makes me want to fuck you. So no more of that.”
She sighed and slumped a little in her chair. “You’re probably right. Kissing leads to sex and the truth is…well, the honest truth is I hate sex.”
It was like a punch to the solar plexus. And I was pretty sure it sealed my fate. Because there was no way in hell I wasn’t now bound and determined to make Sabrina King not hate sex.
“Why do you hate sex?” Which was probably the worst question to ask someone when you were trying to avoid the topic.
“I know everybody says it’s the greatest thing. But I think all those romance novels I read as a teenager were total horseshit. At best it’s been uncomfortable, and at worst it has really hurt.”
It was like I could feel the red haze of fury over take my eyes. “Someone hurt you during sex?”
“Only with his penis,” she said, like that didn’t count. “I had this idea that I might be gay. And the producers on the show thought that would be awesome for ratings. They did this whole set-up for me to kiss a woman for the first time, and I realized that I wasn’t into that, either. I mean, I’m pretty sure you should be attracted to the same sex if you’re gay.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s how it works,” I muttered. Naturally, I still wanted to know the asshole who had hurt her with this penis so I could rip it the fuck off his body.
Except Brin stood and started clearing our plates to take them back to the kitchen. I moved to get the sliding glass door for her, still at a loss as to what to say.
She stopped and smiled. “You were right. I did always want to kiss you. I’m glad I got to. Even if it was just once.” She pecked me on the cheek and breezed back inside.
I watched her scrape plates and load the dishwasher like she hadn’t just altered my life irrevocably.
11
SABRINA
A Few Days Later
“You want me to do what?” I asked him as we stood in the barn where he kept his two horses, Evelyn and Nora. I had recently been introduced. “Have you met me?”
“You said you were bored,” he pointed out.
“I was looking for creative suggestions not actual work.”
“Stables have to be mucked.”
“Yes, by mucking-type people. I’m a Cowboy Princess!” I screeched.
He smirked and handed me the shovel. “Not anymore. Now you’re just a regular old girl from Dusty Creek. A little hard work might help you through that transition.”
“I didn’t know this whole bodyguard thing came at the cost of slave labor,” I mumbled.
“You said you wanted to stay here on the ranch.”
I had. Not because watching Garrett work would necessarily be boring, but I didn’t want everyone in town to know what was happening. The rule was that when I was in town, either he or a deputy would follow me. People would see that and start speculating.
“What am I supposed to do about shoes?”
Garrett looked at my feet. “You’re wearing cowboy boots.”
“Yes, but they are the only ranch-type shoes I have. I don’t want to get horse poop on them.”
“It’s horse shit. And fine.” He left me and went to open a trunk that sat just inside the door of the stables. “I’m pretty sure my mom…yeah, here they are.”
He pulled out two long black rubber hideous-looking things.
I screeched. “What are those?
He laughed. “I thought only your character on TV squealed at ugly shoes.”
“Don’t call those rubber abominations shoes!”
“Fine. I’ll call them what they are. Galoshes. You can wear these while you’re cleaning out the stalls. And once that’s done you’ve got to pitch them some clean hay. Evelyn and Nora are counting on you.”
“They’re in for some disappointment,” I warned.
“You don’t have to do this,” he laughed. “You said you wanted something to do and these are just some of the chores I have to take care of.”
I took the shovel from him and gasped at how heavy it was.
That only made him laugh harder. I snarled but he didn’t seem intimidated.
“Fine. I’ll do it. Just so I feel like I’m pulling some of my weight around here.”
“Whatever, Brin. You have my number. You hear or see anything, you call me. But since no one knows you’re here but me, you should be perfectly safe.”
I nodded. It was odd but I felt safe. Garrett wasn’t going to let anything happen to me. He was right about that. He’d always done a bang-up job being my hero. I set the shovel aside and followed him out of the barn and back to his driveway.
He got in his truck and gave me a wave, and I waved back at him thinking how domestic it all felt. I’d been sleeping here the last few nights. In his bed—granted, his old bed—my head on the pillow he used to sleep on. And now I was sending him off to work and I would be here when he came home.
I should bake him something. Something way better than just plain chocolate chip cookies. There were my chocolate pudding cookies. If I gave him those he might kiss me again.
Did I want that?
No, I told myself logically. He said he didn’t want a relationship and I had no interest in fucking for fuck’s sake.
Maybe Garrett would be different.
No, I told myself. That was wishful thinking. That was the fourteen-year-old girl still inside me who thought that we were going to be together forever. Then we weren’t. Then real life happened and I learned the hard way that kisses don’t always lead to mind-blowing sex and Garrett was just a crush I had to get over.
No, not get over, was over. I was totally over, one hundred percent over him.
Then why are you thinking about kissing him again?
“Because I’m a fool,” I said to no one. Shaking off all my thoughts about Garrett, away I went to do
something practical, like clean up horseshit.
Stalls mucked, fresh hay put down—I think Evelyn and Nora were pretty happy with me. There was sweating…so gross. But it felt real, which I didn’t mind. Unlike sweating because the lights we needed to film were too hot. I was just stepping out of the foul galoshes and back into my cowboy boots when I heard a faint mewling sound.
I looked around the barn and followed the sound to where it was coming from, seriously hoping I wasn’t about to find some big rat or something. Then I saw it, a little bundle of fur in the corner of the barn, all alone.
I ran to it and saw that it was a kitten. So tiny, and it was crying.
“Where’s your mother, honey?” I crooned to it even as I brought it to my chest. “Did she forget you?”
More cries as I looked around, waiting to see if the mother was anywhere in sight. But there was no cat and no other kittens that could see. I couldn’t leave the poor thing. What if his mother never came back for her baby?
I lifted the black-and-white ball of fur up to my face.
It cried again and I imagined it was hungry. It was so small it couldn’t have been weaned yet. I didn’t have a clue what to do. I took it back up to the house and found some milk and a flat dish. I poured some milk in the dish and set the kitten down, but it was as if he wasn’t sure what to do with it, either.
Or maybe he didn’t have the strength. I dipped my pinky into the milk and dripped it into the kitten’s mouth. That seemed to work, so I kept doing that until eventually the kitten dozed off.
Cradling it against my chest I knew I was down for the count. This poor creature needed my help and I was going to save it. First things first—I needed a vet to check him out.
I took a throw blanket I found in the closet and used that on the front seat of the car to form a little nest for it. Then, driving as slow as I could, I made my way into town. Dusty Creek only had one vet, who handled small and large animals, but I knew Charlotte from high school was now working as Doc’s assistant. She would help me out in an emergency.
I parked in front of the Doc’s office and got out. I looked down the street and could see the police station, Garrett’s truck parked out front. I thought about telling him I was here, but I didn’t think this would take long. I would have Charlotte check out my kitten, pop down to the Piggly Wiggly to get some supplies, and be back on the ranch before he knew it.
“Sound like a plan?” I asked my new friend. Except my new friend was still sleeping.
I gathered the blanket up and headed inside the office.
“Well, it definitely must have been abandoned,” Charlotte said as she checked the animal out. She was a few years older than me and had gotten her license only recently, but she seemed to know what she was doing. “It happens. Mother starts to move the kittens and maybe something happens to her or she forgets how many she had.”
“That’s terrible. Can I save it? Or is it too young?”
Charlotte opened a cabinet and came back with a tiny syringe with a rubber tip. “It will be work. But if you nurse him and he takes the nipple, you might be able to save him. Small amounts every two hours until he gets his strength up. Then in a week or two you can try him on wet food. I can send you home with some formula.”
I nodded. “I can do it. I can feed him. It’s a boy?”
“It’s a boy. And if you do plan to keep him, make sure you bring him back in a few weeks to have him neutered and vaccinated.”
“I’ll do it. Thanks for this, Charlotte,” I said, smiling as I lifted up my kitten. “I’m going to be your momma now, baby.”
It cried again, and maybe it was wishful thinking but I thought he sounded a little stronger already.
“I’m going to name you Romeo, because you stole my heart.” I brought his tiny body back into the cradle of my chest.
“Thought Sheriff Pine already did that,” Charlotte laughed.
Instinctively, I stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Saw you two together at The Bar a couple of nights ago. Figure now that you’re back and he’s single…well, everyone in Dusty Creek knew Sabrina King was gone over Garrett Pine.”
“Not anymore,” I said quickly. “We’re just…friends. He’s helping me out with something. That’s all.”
Charlotte looked at me and I could feel my cheeks heating up. Friends probably didn’t kiss the way we had. But that had been a one-time thing. Garrett said it himself. It didn’t matter if I was thinking about doing it again if he wasn’t thinking about doing it again.
“Friends,” Charlotte said with a ton of innuendo. “Okay.”
“We are,” I insisted. “Now, tell me what I need to get for Romeo.”
I left Charlotte’s office with an armload of formula and some extra nipples. Next it was off to the grocery store. I wasn’t sure how Mr. Dawson, who owned the Piggly Wiggly, would feel about my bringing an animal into the store but I wasn’t about to leave Romeo by himself.
Instead, I emptied my purse and tucked Romeo inside my Kate Spade bag.
“Try not to pee in there, buddy.”
But Romeo seemed to content to snuggle down. With my wallet in my hand, I breezed through the store, picking up a litter box and sand. And some toys he probably wasn’t strong enough to play with yet, but I couldn’t have a baby kitten and not have some toys for him to play with.
I probably went a little overboard, but I was a new mother so it was okay.
I rolled my cart to my car, loaded the supplies into the trunk, and was about to get into the car when I stopped. I couldn’t say what it was. A feeling. An intuition. I just knew, knew someone was watching me.
I thought about the gun I had left at Garrett’s place. I had been so focused on getting help for Romeo it hadn’t even occurred to me to bring it with me. Slowly I turned around, hoping that I was just being paranoid.
It was him. The guy with the hoodie from the jogging trail. The hood this time pulled low over his face. He was also wearing sunglasses.
And he was staring right at me.
This time he didn’t run after me. Instead, he just pointed directly at me.
I wasn’t crazy. It was him. I screamed and started to run, holding my purse and Romeo close to my chest.
Garrett. I needed to get to Garrett. Garrett needed to see him. See that he was real.
I sprinted for the police station, up the steps until I was inside. There was an older woman at the desk I didn’t recognize. Some new receptionist I imagined. “I need to see Garrett,” I practically shouted at her.
“Now hold on there,” she said. “Calm down…”
“No, I can’t calm down. I need to see Garrett, now! Garrett!” I screamed his name and the next thing I saw was him sprinting out of his office.
He was here. I was safe.
“Brin, what is it?”
“He’s here,” I said grabbing onto his forearms as soon as he was close enough. “I saw him outside. He pointed at me. It was the same person from Dallas. I’m sure of it. He’s wearing a black hoodie and sunglasses.”
I didn’t have to say anything after that. Garrett took off at run, barreling out of the station.
I stayed near the door, waiting for him. Logically, I knew Garrett was a law enforcement officer, but what if the stalker surprised him or shot at him? What if I had just sent Garrett into trouble? If something happened I didn’t think I could live with myself.
That fear was quickly removed when Garrett walked back into the station. I didn’t think. I just acted and threw myself into his arms.
I belong here. I always have.
“It’s okay. You’re all right,” he said, patting my back.
“Did you see him?”
“No. Nobody fitting that description.”
I sighed. “You’re not going to believe me, then.”
“Brin,” he said. “Obviously you’re scared.”
I pulled away from him. All the commotion must have disturbed Romeo because he started crying ag
ain. I pulled him out of my bag and settled him on my chest to comfort him.
“What is that?”
“He’s my kitten. I’m his momma now.”
“You keep kittens in your purse?”
“I had to smuggle him into the Piggly Wiggly, okay?” Which I knew made no sense, but I was irritated enough by what had happened to not care. “And now I need to get him home so I can nurse him.”
“You’re going to nurse a kitten?”
I glared at him. “I have formula.”
“Right. Can we step back?” Garrett asked. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Why bother? You’re not going to believe me anyway. I’m taking Romeo home. I’ll make sure I’m not followed.”
I settled Romeo back into the purse and started out of the station, but Garrett caught me around the arm. “Will you stop telling me what I will or won’t believe when it comes to you? I’m walking you to your car. You’re waiting for me to get my truck. Then I’m following you back to the house. Got it.”
I had to swallow around a sudden lump in my throat. “You do believe me,” I whispered.
“You saw something that scared you. That’s all I need to know. Now let’s go.”
We walked to my car and I waited for Garrett to make it back to his truck before I pulled out. And if I looked at him in my rearview mirror every other second, just to make sure he was still there, I decided that was okay.
12
GARRETT
Pine’s Ranch
I pulled in behind her Mercedes and followed her into the house. “I want details, Brin,” I growled at her. I was still slightly pissed that she’d immediately assumed I wouldn’t believe her about the stalker.
It meant she didn’t trust me yet. Not fully. I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t have her not trusting me. I didn’t think too long about why it was so important, I just knew it was true. Despite knowing I could never truly trust her because I didn’t have that in me anymore.
