“Uh, no. Your sister had good reason to kick me. She thought she was protecting your brother.”
“Phoenix is always causing trouble.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“I’m not going to cause trouble. I’m going to be a policeman. Then people will be afraid of me like Phoebe was afraid of that old sheriff. He was really mean to her once. And yelled at her, called her stupid because she couldn’t hear him. And other mean names. I think he was stupid.”
“Well, he’s not the sheriff any longer. I am. People liked me better. And I’ll never be mean to Phoebe. I like Phoebe, very much.” Very, very much.
“Your brother is mean to my Perci.”
“Is he?”
“She comes home crying sometimes. In her room. She doesn’t know that I wake up every night when she comes home. I’m her brother.” Big blue eyes again. “I’m supposed to protect her. So I wake up to make sure she comes home.”
“I’ll tell Nate to be really nice to your sister because you said so. How does that sound?”
The child nodded and took Joel’s hand in his. “That will work. I think Phoebe likes you.”
“Do you?”
“Her cheeks turn red like her hair when she talks about you.” Parker led him up the porch steps, where Patton was napping in a hammock, the old Border collie curled around him. How had the dog even gotten up there? “Did she really bite the bad guy today? Before you rescued her?”
“Yes. She did. Phoebe can take care of herself just fine. But I’m going to be there to help her when she needs me. Is that ok with you?”
Parker was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded solemnly. “I suppose so. As long as you promise not to take her away.”
Phoebe was listening as best she could to the argument behind her and missed the sound of the back door opening up into the kitchen. It was only when a dark shadow fell over the pot of pasta she was stirring that she looked up.
Right into Joel’s dark green eyes. “Joel!”
The room immediately quieted. She looked around to make sure no one was whispering too low for her to hear. Her father was still sitting in his chair at the head of the table. Pan was pacing in front of him, agitated and red-faced.
Phoebe wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of her youngest sister going to live on the Masterson Ranch, of all places. But she had to admit, the salary Levi Masterson was offering was far more than what Pan was bringing in cleaning for various clients during the day. And she’d still have time to do her clerical work online. She’d even mentioned Levi Masterson telling her she could help him with records for an additional fee.
Room and board and health insurance were also included. Pan would actually come out ahead by taking the job. It would be one less mouth for them to feed here. Of course, it would also mean one less pair of hands to help around here.
But Pan had to do what Pan had to do. Her sister deserved to make her own path, her own future, without being tied down here. Phoebe knew it was coming for a while. Pan…needed more than the ranch could give her. She needed to discover what she was capable of accomplishing.
They weren’t going to stand in her way. What kind of family would they be then?
Perci just didn’t want Pan going near Nate Masterson, let alone working for him. Phoebe understood that, too.
Their father didn’t want his youngest daughter living with four single men, alone on their ranch with just them and a bunch of male hired hands. He thought it was just asking for trouble.
Now that was something Phoebe could agree on.
Joel had probably picked a very poor time to come by.
Parker was clinging to his hand, looking up at the tall man in the white Stetson with a bit of hero-worship in his eyes. “I found the sheriff! He’s not here to take you away, or nothing, Phoebe. He promised. Can he stay for dinner, please?”
“Urgh! Another Masterson. They’re everywhere I turn lately!” Perci shot him a glare as if he’d caused all of her problems with the doctor brother.
“Actually, I think you Tylers outnumber us Mastersons two-to-one, Perci. But if you’d like, I’ll happily help you lock Nate in the woodshed for a few hours. Could put a duck in there with him. He’s terrified of ducks, you know. Comes from the time Matt and I may have set an attack duck on him for pestering Levi.”
“Quack, quack. I’m getting a pet duck.” An evil glare entered her sister’s eyes. Then Perci sobered. “We don’t like this job offer.”
Joel held up his hands. “Hey, not my thing. I will tell you this, my brother Levi takes running his ranch—all of our properties—very seriously. He didn’t pick your sister on a whim. He’s a professional. And he’ll make sure your sister is just fine. Hell, so will I. She’ll have her own apartment, even. We’re not ogres—well, Matt, Levi, and I aren’t. Nate was found under a rock.” Joel looked at her father. “Your daughter will be safe with us. I can promise you that.”
“She’s a grown woman, I guess. Time to let her—to let them all—make their own decisions. I have held them back these past two years, and I know that. But enough is enough. Pandora, baby girl, you have my blessing. And the door is always open if you need to come home.”
Pan hugged their father.
Phoebe struggled not to cry.
It seemed like her family was splintering off right in front of her, almost overnight. First Phoenix, now Pan. Who was going to be next?
Chapter 24
After dinner, Joel brought up the real reason he’d stopped by. Phoebe’s father listened quietly. “He’s still up at the cabin. And the bridge up there is flooded out right now.”
“Only way up there is by horseback,” Pip said. “If you left now, you could get up there and back by nightfall. But it’ll be pushing it.”
Joel couldn’t put it off any longer, and he knew it. “I need to see him tonight. Rule him out as a suspect before the state police get involved. It’s better he deal with me than with them.”
Phil looked at his four daughters, one by one. “Someone will have to take you up there. It’s not exactly a well-known path.”
“I’m out. Sorry, it’s the whole anti-Masterson thing I have going on.” Perci sent him a smirk. “But don’t worry, I kind of half like you, Sheriff. You’re not half bad.”
“Gee, thanks, Persephone. I’ll be sure to give your love and best to my brother when I get home.” Sure enough, a sneer hit her beautiful face. Joel was starting to understand—the two were attracted to each other, and pissed off about it.
“I can’t. I’m packing tonight. I told Levi that I’d be there first thing in the morning. Can’t be late because I’ve been out in the woods with the boss’s brother.”
Joel looked at little Pip, the quietest sister. She just shook her head. “I have to be in town tomorrow to pick up a horse by nine a.m. We’re going to be boarding her, and I haven’t gotten her stall ready yet.”
He fought back a smile, as her sisters seemed to be conspiring to give him exactly what he wanted. He looked at the eldest sister. Her eyes were big and wide, and she knew exactly what he was about to ask. Joel held out a hand to her. “Phoebe, honey?”
She visibly swallowed and looked at her father. “Daddy?”
“I’m leaving first light myself, sweetie. You know I can’t miss my plane. Too much hinges on convincing that Finley Creek rancher to let me use his bull as a stud. A W Deane line in our cattle will make a huge difference…”
Phoebe looked back at him. “We’ll head up now. Then…get back here as quickly as possible.”
“Of course.” Joel was looking forward to having the woman to himself for more than half an hour at a time. Yes, it might be only a ninety-minute horse ride or so, but it was just the two of them. Alone.
He couldn’t wait to head up the mountain.
After about the first fifteen minutes of riding toward the back corner of her family’s property, Phoebe started to relax. Started to forget how the man had her all tied up in knots and began to enjoy the feel of the horse b
eneath her and experience the beautiful world around her.
The man. Whenever she looked at him a thrill of something very close to hunger and anticipation went through her.
She did not know this man, but she wanted to. Wanted to be with him, figure out just why he wanted to be with her. And what she wanted to give him.
Something her sisters had said had struck her in the diner parking lot. When it was right, it should be easy.
But that didn’t seem to describe what she felt when with this man.
There was nothing easy about being with the sheriff of Masterson County, was there? It was all emotion—anger, fear, yes. But it was also excitement, anticipation, and she wasn’t going to hide it from herself—lust. Something more than that.
Had she ever been quite this attracted to a man before?
She didn’t think she ever had. There had been boys in her life, her teen years, even her early twenties. But nothing like what she felt for this man.
Phoebe didn’t know what she wanted to do about that.
To be honest, it would probably come to nothing. She couldn’t see him making such a drastic change in his life to make room for the Tylers. It just wasn’t about to happen.
But did that mean she couldn’t make a small space in her life, did it?
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone. She wanted to experience everything life had to offer. And that included love.
Or even just this small part of it.
As they continued up the mountain, Phoebe tried to figure out just exactly what it was she wanted from him.
Chapter 25
The cabin waited up just ahead. Thank God. They’d make it before the approaching storms hit. The weather reports had mentioned nothing of a storm. They’d been wrong. Joel kept his horse on the small path, just behind hers. The woman was one hell of a rider, no one could miss that.
They reached the front of the small cabin that had to be close to one hundred fifty years old, and she called her brother’s name. No response. She called again.
“His truck isn’t here.” She turned toward Joel and shaded her eyes from the setting sun. “He may be in town. Something with the school.”
“Then we wait.” He dismounted, then reached up for her. She hesitated a moment, then leaned into his hands.
She was wary of him now, aware in a way she hadn’t been before. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He didn’t want to rush her at all. But it had been a damned long time since he’d felt an attraction to a woman this strongly.
“The storm?”
He shook his head. There was no way they were going to be able to ride back down the mountain tonight. Their best bet would be to stable the horses in the small lean-to behind the cabin and head back at first light.
And take that time to really get through to that idiot younger brother of hers. Find the answers he needed. “Honey, that storm is coming up on us a little too fast for comfort. We will never make it back to your place—unless your brother gets back with his truck. Which is a big if. The Stoddard Bridge was washed out last time I rode through there.”
She paled. “We may be surrounded by flood waters? I need to get home to the boys.”
“Honey, it just isn’t going to happen.”
“I need to call my sisters.”
He pulled his phone free and checked the display. He had two bars, which was better than most areas of the county. Phoebe didn’t have a phone at all, something he didn’t understand. With all those boys she was practically raising, she needed a cell phone. He handed it to her. “Call your father, let him know that you’re safe.”
“Am I? Somehow I wonder.”
“Well, you can tell him your safe...unless you choose not to be.”
He listened as she called her father and gave very clear instructions to everyone in the house. It took a while to convince her sisters that she didn’t need them to ride up to the cabin and rescue her.
He appreciated the irony in that. Her voice softened when she spoke to the youngest boy. Joel bit back a smile as she told him to make sure he read a chapter in his reading book before bed.
The Tylers didn’t have much material wealth, but they had each other. And that made them very fortunate.
He had his mother, Nate, Levi, and Matt, and that was about it. There were cousins sprinkled throughout the county. He was close to his brothers—they were his closest friends—but Phoebe’s family took that to another level. The degree to which they depended on each other spoke volumes. She disconnected then handed the phone back to him. “I don’t remember the last time I was away from the boys for a full night. Probably back before Parker was born. I came back home from college when Mom was pregnant. She was so sick with him, and after he was born...”
He got it. She’d probably taken a lot on herself. She would have been around what? Eighteen? Which meant her younger sisters would have been sixteen and fourteen or so. An awful lot of responsibility for so young. “Did you go back?”
“Hmmm? No. I finished a few classes online, but...well...things happened. Besides, I’m doing what I love to do. My weaving...well, there isn’t a whole lot of classes for weavers, is there?” She smiled, a light of joy in those blue eyes of hers.
And at that moment, he got it. Truly understood it. Phoebe was happy. All her family’s problems aside, she took joy from what she did each day.
He wasn’t so certain he could say the same thing.
Joel looked at her and knew exactly how to change that, to feel that joy again.
Chapter 26
Nate had made the decision to call in every member of the on-call staff the instant the flood warnings came in. It was better to be prepared than to send his small hospital into a code black situation. It wasn’t just floods they were predicting, but severe storms.
Persephone was the first one to arrive. No surprise. She took one look at him. “Hey, Masterson, your brother took my sister up into the mountains an hour ago.”
“Why?”
“Looking for my brother.” There was snark in her words, like always. But he also heard the concern. “I’m not certain they’ll make it back before all hell breaks.”
Nate pulled out his cell. He dialed his brother quickly. It was a two-minute conversation, and it reassured him. “They’re going to stay put up in that cabin. The river was rising when they crossed.”
She nodded and put her coat—why hadn’t he ever noticed how threadbare it actually was before?—in her locker. “Good. That river has washed out before.”
“Joel’s not stupid. He’ll keep your sister safe.”
“But who’s going to keep her safe from him? He’s getting a little randy with my sister.”
“Joel’s always been the bravest of our lot.”
“Ha-ha. Like Phoebe could ever hurt a Masterson.”
“Oh, I’m sure a woman like your sister,” Like you, he thought. “Could tear a man into pieces with just one look.”
“Hey, we try.”
“Get out there. I have a feeling tonight is going to be a rough one.”
Chapter 27
Phoenix wasn’t going to make it back before the storm. Phoebe didn’t know how she felt about that. It wasn’t something she’d intended or expected. It wasn’t supposed to rain or storm today. She’d double checked just that morning. Apparently, the weather report had been wrong. Dead wrong.
She heard the thunder, even with her limited hearing. It was going to be a bad one. She led the way to the lean-to, and they made quick work of caring for Sky Dancer and Prancer, the gelding the sheriff had borrowed. The horses would be warm and dry and safe for the night.
The torrential rain had started by the time they were finished.
Phoebe was soaked almost clear through just on the ten feet between the opening of the lean-to and the cabin’s front door.
Joel hadn’t fared any better.
He took off his white hat and tossed it on the small table. Phoenix had made an effort
to keep the place clean at least. The dishes had been washed, the bed made, and everything was neat.
The bed dominated the room, dwarfing the single chair that sat by the small woodstove. Phoebe shivered.
They were there for the rest of the night, weren’t they? And something had changed between them.
Unless Phoenix came. “My brother isn’t going to be here?”
He stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head. The look of fire in his eyes had her shivering again. And it wasn’t from her drenched clothes.
Which were dripping all over the hardwood floor.
As were his.
And there was no way he’d be able to fit into any of Phoenix’s clothes.
“There’s...” She cleared her throat and tried again. “There’s a bathroom through there. I...there might be some of my brother’s clothes that you can...that’ll stretch...I mean...Oh, hell. I’ll just...get changed.”
He stepped closer. One hand rose, and he flicked open the top button of her shirt. And then the next. “I can help.”
Phoebe stood there, staring up at him, wondering what in the world she should do next. Wondering what it was that she wanted to do.
He undid the third button and then a fourth. “You’re soaked.”
“Yes.” She couldn’t stop shivering. She needed to get out of her wet clothes. She needed...
“Tell me. Yes, or no. If it’s yes, this shirt is coming off by my hands. If no...I’ll go back outside until you’re changed.”
This was crazy. She’d known this man all of two weeks.
Two weeks wasn’t long enough to make these kinds of choices, kinds of decisions, was it?
“Phoebe?”
His hand was so warm on her, even though he wasn’t actually touching her at the moment. He could. All he had to do was shift his hand just half an inch, and he could touch her. Damn, she felt his heat.
He could touch her.
In a way she hadn’t been touched in a very long time.
Seeking the Sheriff (Masterson County Book 1) Page 8
