The Lawman Lassoes A Family (Conard County: The Next Generation Book 24) (Contemporary Romance)

by Rachel Lee

  If she could figure out how. She seemed to have become somewhat socially inept after the past year. But of course, she’d stopped meeting new people and had become enclosed by the blue wall of Hank’s friends. If she sat for hours without speaking, they didn’t worry about it. They just included her, then let her be.

  Despite the passage of time, she’d seemed to want to be left alone more rather than less. It was part of what had driven her to accept Lena’s invitation—the feeling that Hal’s friends, despite their best intentions, were holding her in some kind of stasis. That with them she would always be Hal’s widow.

  Well, if she was to have any life at all other than being his widow and Krystal’s mom, now was the time to start. And friendship was a good place to begin.

  She went to the kitchen to pour herself coffee before joining them. Once again, she found Dan and her aunt on Lena’s old couch. Vicki wondered if her recliner sofa was radioactive or something.

  “Hey there,” Lena said. “Is the tyke out for the night?”

  “Totally. She worked hard on her playroom today.” Vicki smiled. “And she loves it. Thanks, Lena. I can’t quite tell how she organized it, but everything is where she wants it.”

  “I could get rid of that bed.”

  Vicki sat on the edge of the sofa. “I don’t think you need to. It seems to have become the home for a bazillion stuffed animals.”

  “We should find some things to put on the walls,” Lena remarked. “That old wallpaper just looks old, and the room hasn’t been used in so long that if it ever had any charm, it was in another era.”

  Dan chuckled, and Vicki felt a smile lift her lips. “Krys seems happy with it.”

  “Krys put a lot of life into it,” Lena agreed. “But I’m sure I could give her something cheerier to look at above little-girl height.” She brightened. “Let’s do that. Posters, whatever. Bright colors. I bet she’d love to help pick them.”

  Vicki had no doubt of that. “Just not too much,” she said cautiously.

  Lena eyed her inquisitively. “Why?”

  Vicki hesitated, acutely aware that Dan would hear, and might take it wrong. “Well, our friends...” Yes, call them friends, not Hal’s colleagues, not cops. “Every time they came to see us, they brought something for Krystal. That’s why she has so many stuffed animals and toys. More than any child needs. Hal and I didn’t want to spoil her, but...” Vicki shrugged, not knowing how to finish the thought.

  “Well, thank goodness,” Dan said.

  Startled, she looked at him and found him almost grinning. “What?”

  “Krystal was admiring the wolf on my T-shirt yesterday. You don’t know how close I came to getting her a stuffed wolf. I guess that would have been the wrong thing to do.”

  Lena laughed. Vicki felt her cheeks warm. “It wouldn’t have been wrong,” she said swiftly. “I’m sure she would have loved it. It’s just that she’s spent most of past year living in a flood of gifts. That needs to slow down.”

  Dan winked. “Got it. I’ll get the wolf next week.”

  In spite of everything, Vicki laughed. All of a sudden her heart felt a smidgeon lighter. “That’ll work,” she said.

  Dan rose to get more coffee. Lena suggested he just bring the pot into the living room.

  “So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Lena asked Vicki.

  “Your house, your agenda.”

  Lena cocked an eyebrow at her. “You don’t get off so easy. It’s your house now, too. You still haven’t gone through to tell me if I’ve labeled any furniture for removal that you might want to keep. And we need to get at your unpacking.”

  Vicki was glad Dan wasn’t in the room at that moment, because what burst out of her sounded anything but adult. “Lena, this is so hard.”

  Her aunt instantly came to sit beside her and hug her. “I know, my sweet girl. I know. Don’t let me pressure you.”

  “It’s not that,” Vicki admitted. “It’s that I seem to have made all the decisions I can make. I don’t know if I can make any more. And I’m not even sure I made the right ones. What if this is all wrong for Krystal?”

  Dan froze in the foyer as he heard what Vicki said. The worn oriental rug beneath his feet had silenced his steps, and he was certain neither of the women knew he was there. Should he go back into the kitchen? But the anguish in Vicki’s voice riveted him to the spot.

  He understood the torment of losing your spouse, and he was intimately acquainted with the decisions that eventually had to be made. Few of them were easy; all of them were painful. You could either turn your life into a living gravestone, or you could chose to move ahead.

  But moving ahead meant making painful choices. The day he had realized that he needed to take his wife’s clothing to the Red Cross had sent him over an emotional cliff edge. Lena talked about living in her family’s museum. Well, he’d done that, too. He’d lived in a museum of his life with Callie. He supposed Vicki had done the same thing.

  But his choices hadn’t been as broad or sweeping as the ones Vicki had just made. She hadn’t just closed up her own museum, but she’d left the only place familiar to her, everyone she knew, and she’d taken her daughter on the journey with her.

  Hearing her fear that she might not have done right by Krystal pierced him. How she must have agonized over making the correct decisions.

  He heard Lena speak again, quietly. “I’m sorry, my dear. I’m truly sorry. I keep wanting to be cheerful, and keep moving us along, and I forget how hard this must be. I’ve never had to do anything like it. It was different when your grandparents died. They were old, they were sick, it was time. And I didn’t have to do anything except stay right here and let time do its work. You’ve chosen a much harder path.”

  “What if it’s the wrong one?” Vicki asked, her voice strained.

  “I can’t guarantee it’s not. Only time will tell. But I listened to you enough to know all the thought you put into deciding to move here. And I know that never at any point did you forget about your daughter.”

  Silence. Dan closed his eyes for a moment, absorbing Vicki’s fears and pain. He didn’t know what he could do about any of it, but he was determined to try. Then he heard Lena speak again.

  “All right,” she said, “no more decisions for you unless you feel like making them. There’s really no rush, you know. I shouldn’t have pressured you. Take a break. We’ll sort out everything when you’re ready.”

  Dan suddenly realized he’d been gone too long. After stepping backward on the rug to the kitchen door, he headed for the living room again, making his footsteps heavier this time.

  When he entered the room, Lena was still sitting beside Vicki.

  “Coffee, anyone?” he asked casually.

  Chapter Three

  Two days later, Vicki was beginning to feel that she had her feet under her again. She spent a couple hours unpacking her own belongings and arranging her bedroom, with Krystal’s guidance, then suggested they take a walk to the park.

  Krys, dressed like her mother in jeans and a T-shirt, liked the idea, but ran to her room to grab a teddy bear first.

  Vicki wondered what to make of that. Krystal had never before seemed inclined to carry a stuffed animal with her. Maybe the girl was still feeling insecure. Vicki hid her concern behind a big smile, stopped to grab her purse and keys, then opened the front door.

  A young woman stood there, hand raised to knock, and beside her was a girl of about Krys’s age. The woman wore a summery halter dress, and the little girl was dressed in shorts and a sleeveless top with a pink bear on it. They looked almost like peas from the same pod with their shoulder-length auburn hair and hazel eyes.

  “Hi,” said Vicki. “Can I help you?”

  The other woman smiled. “Well, we’d heard a new little girl had just moved in down the block. I’m Janine Dalrymple, and this is my daughter, Peggy. She’s been badgering me to come meet you, but I figured you might need a day or two to settle in a bit.”


  Vicki immediately offered her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Vicki Templeton and this is my daughter, Krys.” She glanced down at her, wondering how she would react. Vicki didn’t have long to wait.

  “Hi,” Krys said to Peggy. “Mommy’s taking me to the park. Do you know where it is?”

  “The park is great,” Peggy answered. “Slides ‘n’ swings and everything.”

  Before either woman could say another word, the girls were off together.

  Janine regarded Vicki wryly. “I think we’d better keep up. How are you at the fifty-yard dash?”

  Vicki laughed, quickly locked the door behind her and hurried along. She noticed the teddy bear had been left behind on the floor.

  God, she hoped that was a good sign.

  *

  The next couple hours slid quickly by as the girls played and Janine filled Vicki in on enough local gossip that she wondered if she needed to keep a crib sheet.

  “Oh, you’ll hear it all again,” Janine assured her. “And again. Eventually, you’ll even remember the names. Little enough else to talk about around here except each other. Although... I wouldn’t want you to worry...most talk is kind and general. We have to live together, and hard feelings could last a long time.”

  She looked toward the swings. “I see a couple of girls who are getting tired. Or at least Peggy is. Let’s do this again.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Krystal practically skipped the whole way home, and after they left Janine and Peggy at their house, en route, she turned into a chatterbox, words tumbling over one another. It was the most animated Vicki had seen her daughter in ages.

  Maybe, she thought, drawing in a deep breath of summer air as they walked beneath leafy trees, she hadn’t been wrong to move. Maybe the shadows that had been haunting her had haunted Krys, as well.

  Lena, who kept so-called banker’s hours at her job, was already there, humming as she emptied some grocery bags. She looked up as Krys and Vicki joined her. “Don’t you two look a sight for sore eyes. Good day?”

  Krys didn’t give her mother a chance to answer. She started babbling on about the park and Peggy, telling her great-aunt every delightful little moment, before running to the bathroom.

  “Don’t have to worry about conversation around that one.” Lena grinned as she and Vicki finished putting groceries away.

  “Not today, anyway.”

  “What did you think of Janine? At least I suppose it was Janine, seeing as how I just heard all about a little girl named Peggy.”

  Vicki laughed. “It was Janine. She spent the whole time trying to clue me in on the town, and I’m not sure I remember a quarter of it.”

  “Most of it was probably old and outdated, anyway. We’ll have new stuff to talk about next week.”

  Vicki laughed again. “So what can I do to help with dinner?”

  “Not a dang thing. After all these years of cooking for one, and collaring Dan or the gals to come be extra mouths, I’m actually looking forward to making a meal big enough for four.”

  “Four?”

  “I invited Dan over.”

  For some reason, this time Vicki didn’t feel at all uncomfortable with the prospect. “Good. He’s been scarce.”

  “All but invisible, if you ask me.”

  Vicki leaned back against the table, trying to stay out of Lena’s way as she buzzed around. “You see him a lot?”

  Lena glanced at her. “We’re friends.”

  “I would have thought he’d have a more active social life.”

  “Than me? Thank you very much.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way.” Vicki felt her cheeks heat. The last thing she wanted to do was offend her aunt.

  Lena turned from the groceries and eyed her. “I know you didn’t. Like I said, we’re friends. Just like I am with a bunch of gals. But if you’re curious about him, ask him. The man’s an open book.”

  Was she curious about him? Was that what had caused Vicki to speak in a way that had implied there might be something wrong with the man? Why should she care, anyway?

  She couldn’t answer those questions, but their existence scared her.

  She didn’t want to get involved. She didn’t want another man in her life, most certainly not a cop. She shouldn’t be curious about Dan at all...except that she was.

  *

  Oh, boy.

  Dan had been trying to give Vicki the space she seemed to want, and life had cooperated. Last night there’d been a baseball game that he’d wound up umpiring, because their regular man had broken his foot. Tonight some of the deputies had suggested meeting at Mahoney’s to watch a ball game on the big screen TV, and he’d considered it, but didn’t really feel like it.

  Lena’s invitation had come as a relief, in a way. He could bow out of going to Mahoney’s, and have a good excuse to see how Vicki was doing. Vicki and Krystal. He told himself he was more concerned about the little girl whose life had been upended, but he knew he was equally concerned about her mother. Been there, done that. He knew grief intimately, and he was worried about the woman.

  When Callie had died, he’d stayed put for a few years, relying on his friends for distraction, and keeping as busy as he could. Occasionally, he had even allowed himself to wallow, not that his buddies would leave him alone for long.

  Sometimes he’d resented their intrusions, but in retrospect he knew they’d helped him every single time they’d badgered him to come do something with them. Vicki had chosen to kick that all to the curb. He knew everybody was different, but he still worried. Other than Lena, she didn’t know a soul here.

  He guessed that left him, for now, anyway. Except she had sort of made it clear that she didn’t want him getting too involved. Maybe she was right. All that stuff about her being a cop’s widow, deserving of support and whatever else she might need, was true. It was even good. Cops took care of each other and maybe she hadn’t had time to discover it. But if someone else had been walking in her shoes, she and her late husband would have been among the people trying to help as they could.

  But over the past couple days, Dan had become wary, and not just because she’d intimated she didn’t want him to become too close to her and her daughter. He’d become wary of himself.

  His first reaction on seeing her had been quickly swamped in the awareness of who she was, and concern for her, her daughter and Lena. But the mental image of when he’d first seen her come out the door had become engraved on his brain, and he couldn’t dislodge it.

  Vicki was sexy. Her tiny waist had been accentuated by the way she had knotted that shirt at her waist. Her hips flared perfectly, and when she bent over to lift something, he couldn’t help noticing her rounded bottom. Eye candy.

  The woman turned him on.

  Not good. He didn’t want another woman. Some part of him felt as if he’d be betraying Callie, even though it had been years, and that wasn’t a feeling he could reason with. Then there was Vicki’s clearly wounded state. And a little girl who might well resent any man who hung around her mother too much.

  So while his response to her was all natural male, Dan couldn’t afford to let it grow, not even a bit. All it could do was make a hash of everything, maybe even damage his friendship with Lena. He suspected that woman would react like a she-bear with cubs if she thought anyone might hurt her niece.

  “Ah, hell,” he said aloud as he showered after a long day of riding dusty roads and answering calls, most of which had turned out to be minor. He’d even had to pull a truck out of a ditch with his winch, all the while wondering if the driver, a ranch hand, had been drunk when it happened, but had had time to sober up and get rid of the evidence before Dan arrived. The guy had claimed to be waiting for a tow truck that hadn’t yet shown.

  It was possible, but not likely, so Dan had questioned him closely, hoping he put the fear of the law into him sufficiently that he wouldn’t pop the top on a few beers again and then get behind the wheel. Or possibly enjoy the brewskis while he was
driving.

  It was easy out there on lonely county roads to sometimes get the idea you were all alone in the world. It was one of the reasons Dan liked patrolling, but it sometimes led people to do stupid things.

  He glanced at the clock and realized it was time to get over to Lena’s. The burst of activity rearranging the house had died down, or at least any part that might involve him. Lena had been all in a rush to get rid of furniture, enough of a rush that she’d labeled it all, but nothing on that front had happened since.

  Of course, the other night he’d overheard Vicki saying she couldn’t make any more decisions. He kind of understood that feeling, too. The way he had dithered about buying his own house...hell, it was a wonder the real estate agent hadn’t thrown him out on his butt.

  Now to go pretend he didn’t feel attracted to Vicki, when in fact she was the first woman he’d felt attracted to since Callie... Didn’t that beat all?

  It also made him uneasy. Was he responding to Vicki especially, or was he just waking after a long period of quiescence? He didn’t know. Dangerous ground, either way.

  *

  Krystal wanted to answer the door. Lena immediately said, “Let her. The worst thing that ever showed up on my doorstep was a guy selling life insurance.”

  So Vicki stayed in the kitchen with the delicious aromas of Lena’s homemade mac and cheese—made with white cheddar and sausage instead of hot dogs—and tossed the salad.

  She heard Krystal practically shriek, “Dan!” Then her daughter was off and running, relating everything she could about Peggy and the park. A short time later, Vicki heard footsteps approach and Dan’s voice saying, “Howdy.”

  She turned and nearly gasped when she realized he’d picked Krystal up and was carrying her on his hip. “I want a horsey ride,” Krys said. One of Hal’s friends had taught her that, crawling around the floor on hands and knees while Krys straddled his back. Vicki’s chest tightened a bit.

  “Maybe we can get you a real horsey ride soon.” Gently, Dan put the child down. “How are you ladies tonight?”