In the short time I’d been inside with Mimi and Trixie, the temperature had shot up by at least ten degrees. I turned on the air conditioner before the next delivery so I didn’t show up to the mayor’s office looking like a vagrant. Even though I had no plans to become politically active beyond voting, I didn’t want to show up looking anything less than put together, since the last time I saw the man, I was on my knees in the dirt with a gun aimed at me.
“Nope, not thinking about that. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.” It became my mantra every time thoughts of Deputy Vargas crossed my mind. Each time I thought of him as Antonio instead of deputy, I said the words. Dirty thoughts, same. Naughty thoughts, also the same. Apparently it was a pretty useful all-around mantra. “Not ever,” I said one last time as I stood on the cement steps of City Hall before pulling one of the large metal doors open.
The building was old on the outside but once I was inside, all the modern renovations were present and accounted for, including air conditioning, ramps, and a shiny new elevator. The copper accents gave it a much older appearance but the ride to the fourth floor was smooth and silent, a testament to the newness of it.
I stood just outside the door with “Mayor Leland Ashford” emblazoned on it and took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart. I didn’t know why I was nervous, only that I was so anxious, the gift bag of goodies shook in my hand. A moment later, the door to the office opened and Penny appeared. “Are you planning a terrorist attack or what?”
I blinked, stunned, and shook my head. “I’m here to make a delivery. Mrs. Ashford purchased a care package for the mayor.”
Penny rolled her eyes and stepped back. “Of course she did. Go on back. He’s just changing his tie.”
I stepped inside the large, dated office and found Mayor Ashford staring at me with a wide, Texas-sized grin. “Ms. Nyland, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
I held up the basket and set it on his desk. “A special delivery from your wife.” As the mayor unpacked the gift bag, I explained what everything was and how he should use it. “It’s very simple and it’ll make the place smell welcoming and relaxing.”
The mayor blushed and shook his head. “My wife really is something special, isn’t she?”
“Seems to be,” I agreed, even though I hadn’t met the woman.
“She takes good care of me. Do you have a man to take good care of you, Elka? Or a woman,” he added hurriedly.
“No, sir, I’m completely single for the time being. I have to focus on my career.”
He held up the silver-and-lavender spray bottle and sent two pumps of mist into the air. “Smells incredible.” Like a child with a new gift, Mayor Ashford did it again and groaned at the scent. “You’re quiet a talented young woman, Elka. You make these wonderful creations and you saved Paul, something we’re all mighty grateful to you for.”
I felt the blush rising up my neck and cheeks before my brain could tell that little embarrassed part of me to sit down and shut up. “It’s what anyone would have done. I’m just grateful he’s all right.” Aside from a wicked case of sunburn and dehydration, Paul Brinkley was already lounging on his porch and drinking beer. There was no direct sun there, which made him safe. “I won’t keep you, mayor. I just wanted to drop off the order along with these cookies to say thank you for your business.”
“Nice touch,” he said with a smile around a bite of lavender shortbread. “Have a seat, Elka. There’s something else I’d like to discuss with you.”
Suddenly I was a kid again, caught with a bag of cheesy popcorn and a small stash of chocolate and candy when I knew I shouldn’t have been eating them. Even though I was no longer a child, I sat when he told me to. “Is there something the matter, mayor?”
“The opposite. Sheriff Henderson couldn’t stop raving about your chili. Said it was better than any he’s ever had.” He said what? That news was shocking to me. I mean, sure, he did eat two and a half bowls, but he seemed like a man with a huge appetite.
“That’s nice to hear.” But I had no clue where he was going with this. Did he want me to make him a batch and, more importantly, was that an appropriate request from the mayor of my town? “You want me to make you some chili?”
“Yes. Me and the whole town at our Tulip Annual Chili Cook-Off. We’ve had it every year for the past thirty years and it would be nice to have some new blood who also happens to be a pretty lady and a hero.” Oh he was laying it on thick to make sure he got his way. “Me and Judge Mayburn, along with Tyson, will be judging the dishes,” he added, punctuated with a charming smile.
“Can I think about it?” I didn’t want to be the center of attention, for any reason. It would probably give Deputy Vargas exactly the excuse he needed to run me out of town like some Wild West villain.
“If you must, but this would be a great way to get to know some more of your new community. Maybe find a fella for you.”
I didn’t bother to tell him that the first man to show any kind of interest in me seemed to hate my guts. It was humiliating and hard to explain. It was sweet of the mayor to worry, so I smiled and inched my way out of the office.
“You can’t run from the mayor.”
I whirled at the closeness of Penny’s voice and gasped. “Maybe not, but I can try.”
“Resistance is futile,” she said without any real emotion as she handed me a white envelope with a red tulip splashed across the front. “This is your entry application. Most of it is already completed, so figure out what kind of chili you want to make and then name it.”
Her matter of fact tone might have thrown off a lesser woman, but my mother was the queen of making demands without them sounding like demands. “I haven’t agreed to do it yet.”
“You will,” she sang breezily.
My fingers bent and flexed, itching to shake some sense into the no-nonsense woman. “We’ll see. I made chili exactly two times in my whole life, both using a recipe I found online. I don’t have a special recipe, Penny. Or a name for said nonexistent recipe!”
Penny was unfazed by my outburst but there was a hint of sympathy shining in her eyes. “Add a weird ingredient like chocolate and give it a cutesy name so you stand out. The end.”
I knew enough about lost causes to recognize one right in front of me, so I took the envelope, sighing heavily sigh, rolled my eyes, and left City Hall. I had a few more deliveries to make, a stop at the post office, and now, apparently, chili research.
Antonio
“All right, boys.” Janey stood in front of a booth that held six oversized adult men. She clapped her hands. “This monthly meeting of the Hometown Heroes is now officially in session.” Her bright smile might have been able to fool strangers and other people who hadn’t known her since birth, but I didn’t buy that easy-going cheerleader personality. At all. Janey was a shark in sheep’s clothing, especially when it came to getting her way. Nina leaned against the wall right beside me, thumbs moving a mile a minute over her phone.
“Is this official?” Ry asked with a smirk. “Because, if so, I think there should be a gavel. Maybe even uniforms.”
Nina pushed off the wall. “Uniforms? Oh we can definitely do uniforms,” she said with a smile that could only be called lascivious.
Nate and Will groaned beside me while Preston smirked. “Look what you started, Ry. I thought we talked about this—just be quiet.” Nate tried to fly under the radar and I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but those days were over. Some time in the past month, Janey and Nina, with the mayor’s permission, had kicked the Hometown Heroes calendar into overdrive.
Ry shrugged and leaned back in the booth, not bothered at all by Nate’s grumpiness since it was his normal state. “Just trying to liven things up.”
Janey pointed at him, smiling. “Exactly. We need to keep things lively so the calendars sell like iPhones!” Her excitement would have been contagious if not for the fact that she was trying to convince us to get as naked as possible. For
charity sure, but still. It was the principle of it all. “We have more events for you to volunteer for so don’t be shy, boys.”
More events? How in the hell was that even possible? “Isn’t the calendar the event?” I didn’t mind pitching in to help out the folks of Tulip, not even when I was off the clock, but this was turning into a full-time job.
“No, the calendar is you doing your civic duty, deputy. These events are so we can restore Tulip to her former glory, or don’t you care about that?”
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Dammit, Janey.” Instead of arguing, I snatched the clipboard from Nina’s hands and read each one with a suppressed eyeroll. It was too late to pull out of the calendar without suffering the wrath of two pint-sized dynamos, so I was well and truly stuck. Dammit.
“What did you sign up for?” Nate leaned in and read over my shoulder. “Chili cook-off?” He looked to Nina and Janey with hope shining in his eyes. “Is this like a judge type deal because if so, sign me up.”
I agreed with Nate and scribbled my name on the list before handing it off. There was an auction, a car wash, and talking to at-risk youth, all four of them in Tulip, which is exactly why I signed up for it. “All done.”
“For the cook-off, you will be matched with an applicant and your job will be to help them in any capacity they need on the day of the cook-off. And before then, if you’re feeling particularly civic-minded,” Janey added with a heaping dose of guilt dripping from her words.
I had a mother who could pile on the guilt like it was an Olympic sport and Janey, for all her spunk and determination, was an amateur by comparison. By the time the meeting was over, I wished there was some kind of law enforcement training I could escape to until the calendar nonsense was over. On the heels of that thought, my mother’s ring tone sounded, which I was obligated to answer because she’s my mother. “Hey, Mom.”
There was a long pause before she spoke. “Oh, so you do recognize the number. Funny, since I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”
Now that was some mom-level guilt tripping right there. “I’ve been busy working. You know the thing that pays the bills so I don’t have to mooch off you forever.”
“I’d love to have you live with me again, honey.” She laughed her melodic laugh that was the best damn memory of my childhood. “Seems like maybe I need to come back to Tulip for a while since you’ve forgotten how to treat a woman.”
I should have realized that someone was bound to tell her about Elka. “I haven’t forgotten a thing, Mom. This is different. You don’t understand.” None of them understood and I knew part of that was on me, because I had never spoken about it to anyone other than the department-assigned shrink.
She sighed that completely put-upon sigh and I rolled my eyes because I knew she couldn’t see me. “I may not know exactly what happened to you in New Orleans, but I know something did, Antonio. And I know that a woman was involved, so don’t even bother trying to deny it. You were hurt, honey, and that’s terrible, but it’s also a part of life.”
“I don’t see you out there painting the town red, and Dad’s been gone for nearly a decade.”
Mom snorted and I could see her smiling and rolling her eyes at me in exasperation. “I do just fine with the men, thank you very much. The difference is that I’m not cynical or bitter, nor determined to sleep my way through all the single women in Texas.”
“Not all of them, Mom. I do have standards.” And now we’d veered off into a topic of conversation I vowed never to have with my mother. Ever. “This is different, Mom. I have a feeling about Elka and it isn’t good.”
She smacked her lips. “And you’ve never been wrong about a woman before? So you must be him, then.”
“Who?”
“The smartest man in the world, of course.” She laughed again and it made it hard to be upset with her.
“Very funny.”
“I thought so too.” The sound of Mom’s laughter was exactly what I needed after the past few weeks.
“How are things in Arizona?” She’d taken to spending winters all over the country, determined to see everything she missed out on in her youth.
“Dry and wonderful. But I’m thinking it’s time I made my way back to Texas. Sounds like you need some good old-fashioned mothering.”
I didn’t, but it would be great to see her and enjoy a few of her home-cooked meals. Especially all the Portuguese dishes she’d learned to cook for Dad. “There’s always a bed for you here, Mom.”
“Good. Be bad before I get there and cramp your style.” She cracked herself up and I stood in the middle of my kitchen, smiling, while she laughed her heart out at her own silly joke. “And leave that poor girl alone until I’ve had a chance to sort you out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Even though she loved to give me crap, talking to Mom always made me feel better. She was right about one thing though: I needed to do better where Elka was concerned. I didn’t owe her nice, but as an officer of the law, I owed her civility. And a fair shot.
And I would, as soon as I found out everything there was to know about Elka Nyland.
Elka
My cell vibrated on the kitchen table and I chose to ignore it since it was my parents calling. Again. A small part of me wondered if something was wrong, if one of my parents was physically ill, but a smaller, pettier part of me wondered what they’d expect me to give up to save them. Instead of wallowing in that bitter, macabre mindset, I turned back to the ingredients laid out on the counter for two different types of chili. Beef was my no-brainer option and lamb was my experiment, although I imagined lamb chili deep in the heart of Texas might not go over so well. Still, it was worth a shot.
I read a lot online about all the different ways to cook chili and ended up with far more information than was useful, given the time constraints. One of these recipes would have to pan out if I wanted time to tweak it and make it my own, not to mention make it under the pressure of the whole town. There were two large pots on the stove mocking me over their empty state as the phone began to ring. Again.
Ignoring it, I grabbed a big yellow onion and began to chop just as the doorbell sounded. For someone with no family and hardly any friends, I seemed to be popular today. I was also completely focused on this chili cook-off the mayor had roped me into so, just like the phone, I ignored the door, confident no one was coming to me for an emergency. But the knocking persisted, and I knew, before I even left the kitchen, who I would find on the other side of the front door.
Deputy Vargas was the last person I wanted to talk to and that was a list that included my parents as well, which made it easy to turn back towards the kitchen and get down to business. “This chili won’t cook itself.”
The onions were chopped, yellow on one side and red on the other. Now it was time for peppers—a key to any chili recipe, according to all the online chili experts. It was a slow process, chopping everything on two separate cutting boards, but I was determined to get it done because I’d promised. No, not really promised, but I’d accepted my fate, which meant I had to see it through.
A knock sounded on the back door, scaring the hell out of me as I whirled around and found Deputy Vargas on my back porch. Too bad for him, I always kept my screen doors locked. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing, deputy? Trespassing is illegal even for officers of the law.” The man had some nerve, constantly accusing me of wrongdoing or acting like I was some big criminal, and now he was violating my privacy.
He flashed a smile that was so sexy and smoldering that I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him or kick him—probably a little bit of both. “I’m just checking to make sure you’re all right. Being neighborly.”
“That’s bull and we both know it. What are you doing skulking around my house?” He didn’t give off a crooked vibe, but then again, he was snooping around my place without cause.
“You signed up for the chili cook-off and I am your Hometown Hero volunteer, which means I’m yours to comma
nd.” To his credit, Deputy Vargas didn’t seem all that put out by the idea, but that was irrelevant.
“Great,” I told him, punctuated by my best fake smile. “I command you to leave and stay far, far away from me.” I didn’t wait for him to say anything else because there was nothing else to say, so I cranked up some music and went back to chopping my chili ingredients.
“You really should get something better than this little latch if you want to keep people out.”
His deep voice startled me and I screamed, tossing the knife and chopped garlic into the air. “What. The. Fuck?” This was getting out of hand and I was no longer scared, just pissed. “Why are you in my house? I made it pretty clear just now that I don’t want or need your help.”
His smile faded and those broad shoulders fell, but I ignored the dejected look he wore because it wasn’t real. “I just want to help.”
“And I don’t want your help, but I guess what I want doesn’t matter.” It was, literally, the story of my life. My old life.
Deputy Vargas took another step into my kitchen, looking around as if he were an invited guest. “It matters. I’m hoping we can start over.”
Of course he did. He looked like the jerk, not me. “We can’t.”
He took another step forward and my heart began to race, in fear or desire, I wasn’t sure. Then he was right in my personal space. His hand went up to touch my face, stroking my cheek in a gentle caress that I worked hard not to lean into. Then he lowered his head and, by the time I realized what was happening, his lips were on mine and I was … melting.
Yep, it was an actual sensation of melting into the kiss, into the hands cupping my face, into his big strong body. A more experienced woman would have been able to resist the kiss, but I hadn’t been kissed a lot in my life, since it was an easy to way spread germs I couldn’t afford to catch. Plus, I didn’t have the strength to stop something that felt so amazing.
Mr. Cop: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 8
