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“I’ll come over and stay with them,” her mother volunteered. “Maria, this is very important. I don’t think you realize that.”
“I only realize that I don’t want it to have anything to do with me,” Maria muttered tiredly. “Joe Roberts seems to be a good man. Why don’t we just wait and see what happens?”
“I’ll be there about six-thirty.” Her mother ignored her remarks. “And Maria,” she cautioned, “don’t say that to anyone else.”
Maria didn’t tell her that it was too late. She hung up the phone and wondered what Joe would say when he saw her.
Emergency commission meeting, she thought scornfully, getting pots and pans noisily out of the cabinet and banging them on the stove.
It was Tommy and his family trying to inflame everyone about the new sheriff. Not that anyone outside the town cared who became sheriff. Certainly the suburbs, which were growing rapidly, didn’t care who was sheriff so long as he got the job done.
Not that she cared if Joe Roberts was the sheriff. In fact, she would have been happier not seeing him again. She didn’t want to think about how he made her feel. She was still grieving for Josh.
At least in front of a big, noisy crowd they wouldn’t have any time alone together, she mused. He probably wouldn’t even notice her with all the crowd and all the other women.
She glanced down at her clothes that had been fine for a night at home with the boys and considered changing.
Not that she wanted to look her best in case he did notice her from the crowd, she reminded herself sternly. She added a dash of bright lipstick to her pale face after she’d changed her clothes. There were butterflies in her stomach but she was just nervous about the Lightners causing trouble.
He wouldn’t notice her, she repeated like a charm.
Yet a tiny voice whispered, “He might.”
Chapter Three
The room in the old church was packed. Those still coming in the doors at seven would have to stand at the back. The two county commissioners who had come fretted on the dais at the front.
The other eight commissioners felt as though the matter was closed and wouldn’t bother hearing the issue further. Their choice was made. Gold Springs had its first sheriff.
Some of the people of Gold Springs didn’t agree.
There were quite a few unfamiliar faces in the audience. Maria guessed they were residents of the new subdivisions.
She saw Joe Roberts on the dais shaking hands with Sue Drake, one of the commissioners.
She’d probably been the one to hire him in the first place, Maria considered. How had she come to hear about him? Chicago seemed a long way away.
Maria watched Sue Drake’s eyes following Joe’s lean form as he moved away. Her gaze slid slowly down his back until it reached that rounded part of his anatomy clearly outlined by his uniform.
Maria glanced away, her eyes going down the dais, refusing to watch. But it only took a minute for her gaze to wander back again.
He did look very professional in his tan state trooper uniform. It hugged his broad chest and wide shoulders and made his legs look incredibly long.
He leaned over to pick up a paper he’d dropped, and Maria found herself ogling him as openly as Sue Drake had. She sucked in her breath and purposely looked away again.
“Quite a hunk,” Maria’s longtime friend, Amy Carlson, stated, sitting beside her in the crowded church. “I can see why you gave him a ride.”
The implication—that a ride in her truck wasn’t all that was involved—made Maria frown at her.
“It was all perfectly innocent.”
“Of course it was.” Amy sighed. “That’s the part we need to talk about. It’s been nearly three years, Maria. Are you going to be alone forever?”
“Why is it that everyone is worried about me being alone? No, wait,” she corrected. “Everyone is worried about me not having a man.”
“Because it’s unnatural,” Amy told her with a grin.
“And because he’s a damn good-looking man.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to sleep with him, does it?”
“Heavens, no!” Amy replied. “I think you should leave him alone so that us divorced ladies have a chance.”
Maria smiled and shook her head. Amy had always been her opposite. Not afraid to voice her opinions, always the life of the party. Her bright cloud of strawberry blond hair made her easy to spot in a crowd.
They had stopped competing for men when Maria had grabbed Josh Lightner and left her friend with Tommy on a double date.
After that, Amy had married a lawyer and gone to live in Boston. She was back less than two years later, brokenhearted when she’d caught her husband with another woman.
Alone and penniless, she had managed, nonetheless, to open a small dressmaking shop that had done well almost immediately.
There had been no children. Amy had said she was grateful, but Maria doubted it. Amy was Sam’s godmother and spoiled him terribly. When she saw the two of them together, Maria saw a sadness in her friend’s eyes. It made her hug Sam more tightly to her.
“Looks like we’re about to start the witch hunt,” Amy murmured.
“Will you girls be quiet?” their former high school math teacher demanded. “You both always talked too much!”
They looked at each other then giggled, rolling their eyes. The teacher sighed and sat back in his chair, trying to ignore them.
“So, what’s he like?” Amy whispered as the commissioners tried to bring the crowd to order.
“Joe?” Maria shrugged. “Just a nice guy. Sam really liked him.”
“If we could get down to business?” Sue Drake glanced impatiently at her watch.
The crowd began to grow quiet. Maria spotted Tommy and his mother near the front of the church. She was glad she didn’t have to see their faces staring at her.
The old constable, Mike Matthews, stood up and looked at the crowd. His face was lined, and his eyes had faded to a pale blue. “Now, some of you still seem to have a problem with the choice of sheriff these good folks brought us.”
“That’s the problem right there.” Tommy was on his feet, glaring at Joe Roberts. “He was their choice. Not ours.”
A few people supported him, but most of the crowd remained silent.
Mike Matthews shook his head. “Tommy, I’ve talked with you and your family about this. The district was created between voting times. They had to appoint a sheriff. If not, we wouldn’t have received the money for the new nine-one-one system. And I know we all want that.”
Applause broke out randomly. People nodded and agreed.
“That’s not the problem,” Tommy replied. “The problem was choosing someone outside the community to take the job. You could have chosen one of us.”
“We could have,” Sue Drake said, “if there had been someone qualified. Setting up an entire operation from scratch takes experience. There were certain requisites for the job according to federal standards. Sheriff Roberts meets those standards.”
“Maybe we should let Sheriff Roberts say a few words,” remarked David Martin, the other commissioner, who nodded toward the man at the end of the line of chairs.
Joe stood, and Maria felt a hot flush hit her cheeks when his eyes locked with hers across the room. Her heart pounded, and there was a strange rolling feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She looked away first, wondering if she was about to come down with the flu. She felt strange and lightheaded, breathing shallowly.
Maybe it was the crowd. The night was warm, and they were packed in like sardines. She realized suddenly that she had missed Joe Roberts’s opening remarks.
“And after graduation from the academy, I worked as a policeman in Illinois for several years. I had the opportunity to join the U.S. Marshal’s office, and I was there for ten years until I got the call from Commissioner Drake about the job here.”
Joe looked around the crowd as he spoke.
“I believe I can set up something long-lasting here, something that will serve this area into the next millennium. One reason I accepted this job was the offer of a house and land. I plan to settle down here and become part of the community. I’d like to do my part in helping the town feel secure and watching it thrive.”
Sue Drake thanked Joe warmly. “As you can see, we were fortunate to find a man as experienced as Mr. Roberts who would be willing to take the salary we could offer at this time.”
“And something else to remember here.” Mike Matthews joined her, presenting a united front. “In two years there will be a regular election and if Sheriff Roberts doesn’t do the job you expected of him, there’s plenty of time to vote in someone who will.”
“But you need to give him a chance.” David Martin spoke on Joe’s behalf. “That’s the only way we can know what he can do. His record speaks for itself, of course, and once the program is in place, federal money will be forthcoming no matter who is in office.”
“We’re not satisfied with that,” Tommy growled, getting to his feet. “We need someone who knows the area and the people.”
“We need someone who knows how to run the kind of organization we have to create here,” Mike Matthews corrected him.
“I think we should give him a chance,” a tall man from the housing development spoke up, “I think he’ll do a good job for the first two years.”
“We think you should just sit down and shut up!” Ronnie snarled, ready to take on outsiders with a group of his peers behind him.
It looked as though the meeting would dissolve into a shouting match. Joe stood up again and claimed their attention.
“My first act as sheriff is going to be appointing deputies from Gold Springs. These people will be local homeowners who have an interest in keeping the community at its best. That would be one way for me to get to know the people and the area.”
Tommy stood up and glared at him. “We just plain don’t want you here!”
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Joe told him flatly, not taking his gaze from the angry man. “So unless you have something constructive to say, I think you should sit down and keep all the rest of this crap to yourself.”
Applause broke out all over the church except, of course, from Tommy and his family and friends. Tommy turned an angry, defiant face to the crowd then walked out of the church.
“If there are any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer them as best I can,” Joe said.
“Whew!” Amý gasped. “That was tense!”
Maria knew Tommy wouldn’t give up that easily. If he couldn’t win fairly, he would find another way.
The rest of the meeting went quickly. People stood and talked for a while over coffee and cookies provided by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
“Maria!” David Martin came up to her. He kissed her cheek and hugged her close. “You’ve lost some weight!”
Maria glanced at the man who stood just behind him, then smiled into David’s gentle blue eyes.
“Just baby fat,” she countered. “How are you doing?”
“Fine. Deidre sends her love, and the boys are always after us to bring them out to play with Sam. How is he?”
“Just fine. He won second place in the science fair,” she told him, acutely aware of Joe standing there, listening to them.
“I want you to meet someone,” David said, bringing the new sheriff forward. “I told him that, of everyone in Gold Springs, he could depend on you. Joe Roberts, this is Maria Lightner. She’s the widow of the man who was constable here for ten years. Josh and I were very good friends.”
“We’ve met.” Joe nodded and smiled slowly at her. “Nice to see you again.”
“You did quite a job tonight,” she told him. “Getting Tommy Lightner to shut up is nothing short of a miracle.”
David laughed. “I was telling him the same thing. Is Tommy still running after you?”
Maria glanced at the floor, wishing David didn’t have to tell all her secrets at once.
“You know Tommy,” she said, hedging. “He doesn’t know when to quit.”
“I have to go.” David kissed her again quickly. “Come to dinner one Sunday with Sam. Don’t forget.”
“I’ll call Deidre,” she promised.
Mike Matthews came over, nodded to Maria, then held out his hand to the new sheriff. “Anything I can do, Sheriff.”
“Thanks,” Joe replied, taking his hand. “I can use all of your experience, Mike.”
“Don’t let those Lightners rile you.” He glanced at Maria cautiously. “Ma’am.”
Alone in the corner of the church together, they looked away from one another and watched the crowd around them.
“People are pretty intense about the Lightners, good and bad,” Joe remarked finally.
Maria nodded and smiled. “They’re a hard family to ignore. You either love them or you hate them.”
He regarded her intently. “David said your husband was a good man.”
“He was,” she replied simply, then put her empty paper cup into the trash. “I have to be going, Sheriff. I hope it works out for you.”
“Thanks. Can I give you a lift for a change?”
“No, thanks. My truck is out front.”
“I’d at least like to walk you out,” he answered as though he’d anticipated her reply. “There’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“All right,” she consented, curious. Her heart suddenly started pounding again, and her mouth felt dry. What could he want?
Outside the night had grown cool. There was a hint of frost in the air, although cold weather wouldn’t visit them for at least a month or so.
The door closed behind them, leaving the parking lot outside the small church barely illuminated by the mercury vapor light a few doors down.
“The only time you see this many cars here,” Maria remarked with a laugh, “is Founder’s Day. You’re famous, Sheriff.”
“I think that might be infamous,” he admitted, walking beside her. “It’ll pass.”
“Most of it,” she agreed. “The Lightners won’t forget.”
“I’ll deal with them, too,” Joe said quietly.
“Well, here we are.” Maria put her hand on her truck door. “It wasn’t much of a walk.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said, leaning against the side of the battered pickup. “I’d like to see you. You can bring Sam, if you like. Maybe you could show me some of the sights, and I could buy you dinner.”
“I don’t date.” She gave him the standard answer she’d used many times.
Her hands were trembling. She didn’t look at him as she spoke. She was afraid that he might see that yeaming that welled up in her suddenly at the idea of spending time with him. It might have been dark but her imagination made that desire feel like a hot, golden glow inside of her.
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