Her Man Behind the Badge

by Stella Bagwell

“Not today. We have something else to do.”

  “Yeah, we have to eat,” he announced with great fervor. “We always eat something good after church.”

  Jazelle looked at her son’s eager face and wondered for the umpteenth time what she was doing. Why had she ever agreed to go out with Connor in the first place? Even if he’d said they wouldn’t call it a date, it was still an outing with a man. And Raine wouldn’t understand why they were spending time with a person they’d only met a few days ago.

  Frankly, Jazelle didn’t understand it herself. True, Connor was smoking hot to look at, but he wasn’t her type. There wasn’t any man on earth that was her type. Not after Spence’s betrayal.

  Pushing that dire thought aside, she said, “We’re going to do something different today. So hurry up. Let’s go in the house and I’ll tell you about it.”

  Once they were out of the truck, Raine raced to the back porch and waited for Jazelle to unlock the door.

  “Mommy, can we go eat at the Broken Spur?”

  She pushed the door wide and nudged Raine inside. “We haven’t been there in ages. I’m surprised you remembered the place.”

  “Auntie Camille took me there and I like it. The ice cream is super!”

  Earlier this spring, Camille, the youngest Hollister sibling, had come up from Red Bluff to stay for a few weeks while her husband, Matthew Waggoner, helped the new foreman settle into his new job. During that visit, Camille had spent extra time with Raine, often taking him with her when she’d made trips into Wickenburg.

  “You never told me you liked the Broken Spur that much,” Jazelle said thoughtfully.

  “It’s fun! If you sit at the bar, you can spin the seat around.”

  “And I’m sure Auntie Camille let you spin your seat around,” she said, picturing her son on one of the old red stools.

  “Only two times. She said it might break if I did it any more than that.”

  Thank goodness, Jazelle thought. “Well, if you’re a good boy this week, we might go there next Sunday. Today we’re going...”

  She paused as she realized she didn’t know exactly where Connor had planned to take them. He’d simply promised the outing would be something a little boy would enjoy. The idea made her want to roll her eyes. How could a man like him remember being a child? He’d probably come out of the womb winking at the nurses.

  “Where, Mommy? To the park? I could swing. That’s not as fun as riding Victor, though.”

  “Today is a surprise. So don’t keep asking. Go change out of your church clothes and into the jeans and shirt I put on your bed. And wear your cowboy boots, just in case.”

  He took off in a run toward his bedroom, yelling questions the whole way. “Just in case of what, Mommy? Are we going to the Bar X?”

  With a wry shake of her head, Jazelle called after him, “No more questions.”

  Three minutes later, her son skidded to a halt just inside the open doorway of her bedroom. “I’m ready,” he announced. “See?”

  “Almost ready,” Jazelle corrected as she walked over to him and stuffed the tails of his cotton shirt into the waistband of his jeans.

  Impatient, he wrinkled his nose and squirmed. “Why do I have to have my shirt all fixed? We already went to church this morning. Are we going back again?”

  “No. We’re going to have company and I want you to look nice. That means you need to brush your hair—yes, again.”

  He moaned. “Oh, gosh, Mommy, is Grandma coming?”

  He didn’t sound a bit too happy about that idea, which came as no surprise to Jazelle. Della had never been the gentle, maternal type. Not to her daughter or her grandson. She was constantly scolding Raine and pointing out his faults.

  “No. She’s not coming. You remember the man you talked to at the ranch? The one who works with Uncle Joe?”

  Raine’s eyes widened. “Yeah! He’s a deputy and his name is Connor.”

  Finished with his shirt, Jazelle looked at him. “How do you know all that?”

  “He told me so.”

  The night of the dinner party at the ranch, Connor had surprised Jazelle on several counts. First, by carrying the tray upstairs for her and, second, when he’d followed Tessa into the upstairs sitting room. And then while she’d been playing with the twins, she’d noticed Raine approaching Connor. She’d expected the man to briefly acknowledge her son and move on. Instead, he’d squatted to Raine’s level and taken the time to have a little conversation with him.

  “Oh. I see,” Jazelle replied.

  Raine went on. “He was resting that night. That’s why he wasn’t wearing his badge.”

  “That makes sense,” Jazelle said, finger-brushing his thick bangs to one side of his forehead. “Well, Connor is going to be here in a few minutes and take us somewhere nice.”

  Raine’s eyes grew wide and wondrous. “And we’ll get to eat with him?”

  “Yes, we’ll eat with him,” Jazelle answered. “Does that sound okay to you?”

  A wide smile spread across his face. “Yippee!”

  Before Jazelle could say more, he turned and raced out of the room.

  “Where are you going?” she called after him.

  “I’m going to go watch for Connor!” he yelled back.

  Bemused by his reaction, Jazelle turned to the clothes she’d tossed across the foot of the bed. She’d half expected Raine to be resentful or suspicious of having a man show up today. Sunday afternoons were always reserved for just the two of them to spend together. Apparently, the idea of sharing his mother with company didn’t bother him.

  Thank goodness she wasn’t going to have to worry about her son being sulky or petulant, Jazelle thought. Now all she had to do was get through the afternoon without letting Connor Murphy’s charm get under her skin.

  * * *

  Last Monday, Connor’s work schedule had unexpectedly changed and he’d been forced to put off his date with Jazelle until today. At the time, he’d been terribly disappointed. Especially since he’d had to practically beg her to agree to the outing. But now, after nearly a week had passed, doubts about the whole thing were beginning to creep over him.

  He’d be lucky if it didn’t turn out to be the most disastrous date he’d ever been on, Connor thought as he drove down the narrow country road to Jazelle’s house. Just how many complete sentences could a child of Raine’s age put together? And if he behaved in an unruly way, would Jazelle even bother to discipline him? And how was Connor supposed to have any meaningful time with Jazelle if Raine was constantly wedged between them?

  This is what happens when you break the rules, Connor. You knew better than to ask Jazelle on a date. You knew she had a child. Yet you barreled on with this plan of yours anyway. You deserve to go home this evening with jangled nerves and a splitting headache.

  No way. He wasn’t about to let himself reach the point of physical misery. This date with Jazelle was not only going to be the shortest one in his history, Connor promised himself, it was also going to be the final one.

  Minutes later, he was parking his truck behind Jazelle’s, when he saw Raine racing off the porch and out to greet him.

  Grinning, he said in a breathless rush, “Hi, Connor! Mommy said you were coming. I’m glad. Real glad!”

  Just when Connor had planned to keep himself emotionally distanced from the little munchkin, the kid had to greet him like this.

  Smiling, he said, “I’m glad I’m here, too, Raine. Are you hungry?”

  Nodding eagerly, he asked, “Are we gonna eat at the Broken Spur? I like it there, ’cause they have ice cream with brown speckles in it. It’s yummy.”

  Connor tried not to laugh. “The Broken Spur didn’t exactly cross my mind. I thought you might like a picnic.”

  Raine’s mouth formed a perfect O. “You mean we’re gonna sit on a blanket on the floor and
eat? Like me and Little Joe do at the ranch? That’s what Mommy calls a picnic.”

  Connor shook his head. “That’s what I call a play picnic. I thought we’d go on a real one. That’s when you eat outside. How does that sound?”

  “Wow! That’ll be super-duper!” He grabbed hold of Connor’s hand and tugged him forward. “Come on! Let’s go tell Mommy.”

  Once they were standing in the middle of the small living room, Raine yelled for his mother.

  “He’s here, Mommy! Come on!”

  Connor heard footsteps and looked around as she passed through the open doorway and into the room. Dressed in skinny white jeans that outlined the curvy shape of her legs and hips, and a black peasant blouse that exposed her bare shoulders, she was more than pretty. She was downright sexy.

  And he’d planned to make this outing short? He must’ve been out of his mind.

  “Hello, Jazelle. I apologize for being a bit early. The drive over here was shorter than I thought.” He sounded like a dumb oaf, but he couldn’t help it. With Raine holding on to his hand and Jazelle smiling at him, he felt like he’d turned into a man he’d never met before.

  “No problem. I’m almost ready.” She gestured to the couch. “Have a seat. If you’d like, Raine will get you something to drink. He’s actually as good a waiter as I am a waitress—most of the time.”

  “Thanks. I’m fine. Just take your time,” he told her.

  She left the room and Connor eased down onto a dark green couch. Instead of sitting next to him, Raine stood against Connor’s leg and rested a little hand on his knee.

  “We have lemonade and grape juice,” the boy told him. “Tomato juice, too. But it’s yucky. Mommy likes it, though. She likes things that are nu-trus-cous or something like that.”

  “You mean ‘nutritious’?”

  “Yeah. Stuff that’s good for you. I like strawberry soda, but she says it makes me hop around like a rabbit.”

  Connor wondered if it would be okay to laugh or if it would hurt this child’s feelings. Either way, he was finding it hard to keep a straight face.

  “That’s okay,” Connor told him. “I’m not thirsty.”

  Raine tilted his head to one side as he gave Connor a thoughtful look. “Are you resting today?”

  “Resting?” he asked. Then, seeing the boy eye his shirt pocket, it dawned on him. “Oh, you mean I’m not wearing my badge today. Well, yes, today is another rest day. So I don’t need my badge.”

  “I like badges,” he said. “Someday when I get big, I’m gonna wear one, too. Mommy says you have to be brave and strong to be a lawman. But I can be like that, can’t I?”

  He had no idea what Jazelle thought about her son growing up to be a lawman. In any case, Raine needed to know he could be just as brave and strong as the next man.

  “Sure you can.”

  Raine scrubbed his nose with the palm of his hand. “I wanta be big like you and Uncle Joe. Then I can take care of Mommy.”

  That was the last thing Connor had expected to hear the boy say. How could a little tyke be thinking of such a grown-up thing? He should be running and playing without a serious thought in his head. Was it because he’d never had a father and believed his mother needed a grown-up man to take care of her?

  Connor was wondering how to respond when, much to his relief, Jazelle returned to the living room. As soon as she spotted Raine snuggled close to Connor’s leg, she paused and stared. Clearly, she hadn’t been expecting Raine to make friends with him so quickly. Connor supposed he should’ve been surprised how the child taken to him, but he wasn’t. Never having a mother, and a father who’d only been in his life for a few years, Connor figured there was a connection between him and Raine that only the two of them could understand.

  “I’m all set to go,” she announced. “Are you two ready?”

  Raine trotted over to his mother. “We’re going on a picnic. A real one!”

  Jazelle’s gaze lifted from her son’s excited face to Connor’s. “A picnic? That’s your plan?”

  He rose. “Little boys like to be outdoors. So do big ones. But only if the lady of the house agrees,” he added.

  Her short laugh was a mixture of disbelief and excitement. “I do approve. I, uh, like picnics,” she said.

  And Connor liked everything he was seeing, he decided. A hint of pink tinged her cheeks and lips, while the hair brushed smooth upon her shoulders was variated shades of gold and sun-kissed wheat. The vibrant color made her brown eyes seem that much darker and richer.

  If Raine hadn’t been standing at his side, he figured he could’ve gone on staring at her for long, long minutes. Instead, he cleared his throat and tried to shake himself out of the fog that had suddenly settled in his brain.

  “Great. Let’s get going,” he finally managed to say. “It takes a while to drive to the lake.”

  Her mouth fell open a second time. “Do you mean Lake Pleasant? We’re going that far?”

  “That’s the nearest lake,” he patiently explained. “We don’t have time to drive all the way over to Roosevelt.”

  A frown pulled her brows together. “That’s not what I meant. Going that far—it’s too much trouble. We could go to the park in town instead,” she suggested. “There’re picnic tables there and it would save you lots of driving.”

  She was either a very practical woman or she was thinking to keep their date as short as possible. The thought made him hate himself for planning the same thing.

  “That’s not my idea of a real picnic. Besides, I thought Raine might like to do a little fishing with me.” He looked down at the boy who’d been silently taking in their conversation. “Do you like to fish, Raine?”

  Uncertain about answering, the child looked to his mother for help.

  “He doesn’t know whether he likes it or not,” Jazelle explained. “He’s never gone fishing.”

  All sorts of thoughts rushed through Connor’s head. The main one being that Raine needed him. The idea was ridiculous, he thought. He was a far cry from father material. But for the boy’s sake, he could pretend for a few hours.

  Connor reached out and rubbed the top of Raine’s head. “No problem. I’m just the guy who can teach him.”

  While Jazelle cast Connor a doubtful look, Raine hopped around on his toes.

  “Yay! I’m going to catch a fish!” he exclaimed.

  “We’re going to try,” Connor corrected him. “Catching a fish isn’t always guaranteed.”

  Jazelle walked over to a wall table and picked up her handbag. “Okay, guys. Looks like we’re going to the lake.”

  Seeing that his mother had given the plan a green light, Raine raced out the front door and left the two adults to follow.

  Out on the tiny porch, Connor stood to one side while Jazelle locked the door.

  “I hope you’re not annoyed with me,” he told her.

  She glanced at him. “Why would you think I’m annoyed?”

  He shrugged one shoulder while wondering why this woman made him feel so uncertain of everything he was doing or saying. She was no different than those he’d dated in the past.

  Yeah, who are you trying to kid, Connor? Jazelle is in a whole different league than those women. Furthermore, you know it. So keep your hands to yourself and your mind out of the gutter.

  Fighting against the annoying voice in his ear, he said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I didn’t make plans to take you and Raine to a nice, family-oriented restaurant. The idea of dealing with ants and dirt and paper plates and—”

  “Fresh air and beautiful sunshine sparkling on the lake,” she interrupted with a soft smile. “I think I can deal with it okay, Connor.”

  Relief rushed through him. “I’m glad,” he said, thinking he’d never been so manipulated by a woman’s brown eyes or soft smile. He was turning into a complete wuss, he
decided, then wondered how long it would take Joseph to notice the change in his partner.

  * * *

  Jazelle wasn’t very talkative as Connor drove them south from Wickenburg then east onto 74 toward Lake Pleasant State Park. She was using the time to try to figure out the man sitting next to her. As if that were possible, she thought wryly.

  Why was he making all this effort to take them to the lake for a picnic? Because he knew Tessa and Joseph would hear about their date and he wanted to impress them. Or did he actually want Raine to feel included and enjoy himself? Since he carried the reputation of being a ladies’ man, she found it difficult to believe that the feelings of a five-year-old boy could matter much to him.

  “Mommy, are you going to try to catch a fish?” Raine asked from the backseat where Connor had buckled him safely in his booster seat.

  “I might leave that up to you, Raine,” Jazelle told him. “I haven’t tried to fish in a long time. Not since your grandpa Sherman took me fishing years ago. I’d probably get the line all tangled up.”

  Connor glanced over at her. “We can always get the line untangled,” he said then asked, “Did you and your father do much together when you were growing up?”

  She nodded. “I was a big daddy’s girl and that never changed until Dad...uh, moved away to Oracle. He’s lived down there with his other family for a long time now. Ever since he and Mom divorced.”

  “When did that happen?” he asked.

  “When I was thirteen—in junior high school. I have two half-siblings. A ten-year-old brother and eight-year-old sister. I rarely see them or my stepmother, though.”

  “Why is that? You don’t get along with them?”

  She shrugged, thinking her family situation was something she rarely discussed with anyone. “We get along well enough. But I wouldn’t call us close. They’ve only been to Wickenburg a handful of times. And I’ve been down there to see them even less. I guess it’s just too awkward for everyone involved.”

  She turned her gaze at the landscape whizzing by the passenger window. It had been ages since she’d gone past the town of Wickenburg or beyond Three Rivers Ranch. Seeing the beautiful desert with its thick green chaparral, tall saguaros and distant mountains was always a treat. But today the majestic landscape wasn’t enough to blot out the sexy image of the man sitting next to her.