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Shelly smiled wryly. “Of course I was going to come. Had you given them your name they would have called me sooner. You have a lot of explaining to do as to why you weren’t in school today. It’s a good thing Sheriff Westmoreland stopped you before you could cause harm to anyone.”
AJ turned and glared at Dare. “Yeah, but I still don’t like cops.”
Dare crossed his arms on his chest. “And I don’t like boys with bad attitudes. To be frank, it doesn’t matter whether or not you like cops, but you’d sure better learn to respect them and what they stand for.” This might be his son, Dare thought, but he intended to teach him a lesson in respect, starting now.
AJ turned to his mother. “I’m ready to go.”
Shelly nodded. “All right.”
“Not yet,” Dare said, not liking the tone AJ had used with Shelly, or how easily she had given in to him. “What you did today was a serious matter, and as part of your punishment, I expect you to come back every day this week after school to do certain chores I’ll have lined up for you.”
“And if I don’t show up?”
“AJ!”
Dare held up his hand, cutting off anything Shelly was about to say. This was between him and his son. “And if you don’t show up, I’ll know where to find you and when I do it will only make things a lot worse for you. Trust me.”
Dare’s gaze shifted to Shelly. This was not the way he wanted to start things off with his son, but he’d been left with little choice. AJ had to respect him as the sheriff as well as accept him as his father. From the look on Shelly’s face he knew she understood that as well.
“Sheriff Westmoreland is right,” she said firmly, giving Dare her support. “And you will show up after school to do whatever he has for you to do. Is that understood?”
“Yeah, yeah, I understand,” the boy all but snapped. “Can we go now?”
Dare nodded and handed her the completed form. “I’ll walk the two of you out to the car since I was about to leave anyway.”
Once Shelly and AJ were in the car and had buckled up their seat belts, Dare glanced into the car and said to the boy, “I’ll see you tomorrow when you get out of school.”
Ignoring AJ’s glare, he then turned and the look he gave Shelly said that he expected to see her tomorrow as well, at Kate’s Diner in the morning. “Good night and drive safely.”
He then walked away.
An hour later, Dare walked into a room where four men sat at a table engaged in a card game. The four looked up and his brother Stone spoke. “You’re late.”
“I had important business to take care of,” Dare said grabbing a bottle of beer and leaning against the refrigerator in Stone’s kitchen. “I’ll wait this round out and just watch.”
His brothers nodded as they continued with the game. Moments later, Chase Westmoreland let out a curse. Evidently he was losing as usual, Dare thought smiling. He then thought about how the four men at the table were more than just brothers to him; they were also his very best friends, although Thorn, the one known for his moodiness, could test that friendship and brotherly love to the limit at times. At thirty-five, Thorn was only eleven months younger than him, and built and raced motorcycles for a living. Last year he’d been the only African-American on the circuit.
His brother Stone, known for his wild imagination, had recently celebrated his thirty-third birthday and wrote action-thriller novels under the pen name, Rock Mason. Then there were the fraternal thirty-two-year-old twins, Chase and Storm. Chase was the oldest by seven minutes and owned a soul-food restaurant in downtown Atlanta, and Storm was the fireman in the family. According to their mother, she had gone into delivery unexpectedly while riding in the car with their Dad. When a bad storm had come up, he chased time and outran the storm to get her to the hospital. Thus she had named her last two sons Chase and Storm.
“You’re quiet, Dare.”
Dare looked up from studying his beer bottle and brought his thoughts back to the present. He met Stone’s curious stare. “Is that a crime?”
Stone grinned. “No, but if it was a crime I’m sure you’d arrest yourself since you’re such a dedicated lawman.”
Chase chuckled. “Leave Dare alone. Nothing’s wrong with him other than he’s keeping Thorn company with this celibacy thing,” he said jokingly.
“Shut up, Storm, before I hurt you,” Thorn Westmoreland said, without cracking a smile.
Everyone knew Thorn refrained from having sex while preparing for a race, which accounted for his prickly mood most of the time. But since Thorn had been in the same mood for over ten months now they couldn’t help but wonder what his problem was. Dare had a clue but decided not to say. He sighed and crossed the room and sat down at the table. “Guess who’s back in town.”
Storm looked up from studying his hand and grinned. “Okay, I’ll play your silly guessing game. Who’s back in town, Dare?”
“Shelly.”
Everyone at the table got quiet as they looked up at him. Then Stone spoke. “Our Shelly?”
Dare looked at his brother and frowned. “No, not our Shelly, my Shelly.”
Stone glared at him. “Your Shelly? You could have fooled us, the way you dumped her.”
Dare leaned back in his chair. He’d known it was coming. His brothers had actually stopped speaking to him for weeks after he’d broken off with Shelly. “I did not dump her. I merely made the decision that I wasn’t ready for marriage and wanted a career with the Bureau instead.
“That sounds pretty much like you dumped her to me,” Stone said angrily. “You knew she was the marrying kind. And you led her to believe, like you did the rest of us, that the two of you would eventually marry when she finished college. In my book you played her for a fool, and I’ve always felt bad about it because I’m the one who introduced the two of you,” he added, glaring at his brother.
Dare stood. “I did not play her for a fool. Why is it so hard to believe that I really loved her all those years?” he asked, clearly frustrated. He’d had this same conversation with Shelly earlier.
“Because,” Thorn said slowly and in a menacing tone as he threw out a card, “I would think most men don’t walk away from the woman they claim to love for no damn reason, especially not some lame excuse about not being ready to settle down. The way I see it, Dare, you wanted to have your cake and eat it too.” He took a swig of his beer. “Let’s change the subject before I get mad all over again and knock the hell out of you for hurting her the way you did.”
Chase narrowed his eyes at Dare. “Yeah, and I hope she’s happily married with a bunch of kids. It would serve you right for letting the best thing that ever happen to you get away.”
Dare raised his eyes to the ceiling, wondering if there was such a thing as family loyalty when it came to Shelly Brockman. He decided to sit back down when a new card game began. “She isn’t happily married with a bunch of kids, Chase, but she does have a son. He’s ten.”
Stone smiled happily. “Good for her. I bet it ate up your guts to know she got involved with someone else and had his baby after she left here.”
Dare leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, I went through some pretty hard stomach pains until I found out the truth.”
Storm raised a brow. “The truth about what?”
Dare smirked at each one of his brothers before answering. “Shelly’s son is mine.”
Early the next morning Dare walked into Kate’s Diner.
“Good morning, Sheriff.”
“Good morning, Boris. How’s that sore arm doing?”
“Fine. I’ll be ready to play you in another game of basketball real soon.”
“I’m counting on it.”
“Good morning, Sheriff.”
“Good morning, Ms. Mamie. How’s your arthritis?”
“A pain as usual,” was the old woman’s reply.
“Good morning, Sheriff Westmoreland.”
“Good morning, Lizzie,” Dare greeted the young waitress as he slid into the stool at the counter. She was old man Barton’s granddaughter and was working at the diner part-time while taking classes at the college in town.
He smiled when Lizzie automatically poured his coffee. She knew just how he liked it. Black. “Where’s Ms. Kate this morning?” he asked after taking a sip.
“She hasn’t come in yet.”
He raised a dark brow. For as long as he’d known Ms. Kate—and that had been all of his thirty-six years—he’d never known her to be late to work at the diner. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, I guess so,” Lizzie said, not looking the least bit worried. “She called and said Mr. Granger was stopping by her house this morning to take a look her hot-water heater. She thinks it’s broken and wanted to be there when he arrived.”
Dare nodded. It had been rumored around town for years that old man Granger and Ms. Kate were sweet on each other.
“Would you like for me to go ahead and order your usual, Sheriff?”
He rolled his shoulders as if to ease sore muscles as he smiled up at her and said. “No, not yet. I’m waiting on someone.” He glanced at his watch. “She should be here any minute.”
Lizzie nodded. “All right then. I’ll be back when your guest arrives.”
Dare was just about to check his watch again when he heard the diner’s door open behind him, followed by Boris’s loud exclamation. “Well, my word, if it isn’t Shelly Brockman! What on earth are you doing back here in College Park?”
Dare turned around on his stool as other patrons who’d known Shelly when she lived in town hollered out similar greetings. He had forgotten just how popular she’d been with everyone, both young and old. That was one of the reasons the entire town had all but skinned him alive when he’d broken off with her.
A muscle in his jaw twitched when he noticed that a few of the guys she’d gone to school with—Boris Jones, David Wright and Wayland Miller—who’d known years ago that she was off limits because of him, were checking her out now. And he could understand why. She looked pretty damn good, and she still had that natural ability to turn men on without even trying. Blue was a color she wore well and nothing about that had changed, he thought, as his gaze roamed over the blue sundress she was wearing. With thin straps tied at the shoulders, it was a decent length that stopped right above her knees and showed off long beautiful bare legs and feet encased in a pair of black sandals. When he felt his erection straining against the crotch of his pants, he knew he was in big trouble. He was beginning to feel a powerful and compelling need that he hadn’t felt in a long time; at least ten years.
“Is that her, Sheriff? The woman you’ve been waiting on?”
Lizzie’s question interrupted Dare’s musings. “Yes, that’s her.”
“Will the two of you be sitting at the counter or will you be using a table or a booth?”
Now that’s a loaded question, Dare thought. He wished—doubly so—that he could take Shelly and use a table or a booth. He could just imagine her spread out on either. He shook his head. Although he’d always been sexually attracted to Shelly, he’d never thought of her with so much lust before, and he couldn’t help wondering why. Maybe it was because in the past she’d always been his. Now things were different, she was no longer his and he was lusting hard—and he meant hard!—for something he had lost.
“Sheriff?”
Knowing Lizzie was waiting for his decision, he glanced toward the back of the diner and made a quick decision. “We’ll be sitting at a booth in the back.” Once he was confident he had his body back under control, he stood and walked over to where Shelly was surrounded by a number of people, mostly men.
Breaking into their conversations he said. “Good morning, Shelly. Are you ready for breakfast?”
It seemed the entire diner got quiet and all eyes turned to him. The majority of those present remembered that he had been the one to break Shelly’s heart, which ultimately had resulted in her leaving town, and from the way everyone was looking at him, the last thing they wanted was for her to become involved with him again.
In fact, old Mr. Sylvester turned to him and said. “I’m surprised Shelly is willing to give you the time of day, Sheriff, after what you did to her ten years ago.”
“You got that right,” eighty-year-old Mamie Potter agreed.
Dare rolled his eyes. That was all he needed, the entire town bringing up the past and ganging up on him. “Shelly and I have business to discuss, if none of you mind.”
Allen Davis, who had worked with Dare’s grandfather years ago, crossed his arms over his chest. “Considering what you did to her, yes, we do mind. So you better behave yourself where she is concerned, Dare Westmoreland. Don’t forget there’s an election next year.”
Dare had just about had it, and was about to tell Mr. Davis a thing or two when Shelly piped in, laughing. “I can’t believe all of you still remember what happened ten years ago. I’d almost forgotten about that,” she lied. “And to this day I still consider Dare my good friend,” she lied again, and tried tactfully to change the subject. “Ms. Mamie, how is Mr. Fred?”
“He still can’t hear worth a dime, but other than that he’s fine. Thanks for asking. Now to get back to the subject of Dare here, from the way he used to sniff behind you and kept all the other boys away from you, we all thought he was going to be your husband,” Mamie mumbled, glaring at Dare.
Shelly shook her head, seeing that the older woman was determined to have her say. She placed a hand on Ms. Mamie’s arm in a warm display of affection. “Yes, I know you all did and that was sweet. But things didn’t work out that way and we can’t worry about spilled milk now can we?”
Ms. Mamie smiled up at Shelly and patted her hand. “I guess not, dear, but watch yourself around him. I know how crazy you were about him before. There’s no need for a woman to let the same man break her heart twice.”
Dare frowned, not appreciating Mamie Potter talking about him as if he wasn’t there. Nor did it help matters that Shelly was looking at him as though she’d just been given good sound advice. He cleared his throat, thinking that it was time he broke up the little gathering. He placed his hand on Shelly’s arm and said. “This way, Shelly. We need to discuss our business so I can get to the office. We can talk now or you can join Jared and I for lunch.”
From the look on her face he could tell his words had reminded her of why he was meeting Jared for lunch. After telling everyone goodbye and giving out a few more hugs, she turned and followed Dare to a booth, the farthest one in the back.
He stood aside while she slipped into a soft padded seat and then he slid into the one across from her. Nervously she traced the floral designs on the placemat. Dare’s nearness was getting to her. She had experienced the same thing in his office last night, and it aggravated the heck out of her that all that anger she’d felt for him had not been able to diffuse her desire for him; especially after ten years.
Desire.
That had to be what it was since she knew she was no longer in love with him. He had effectively put an end to those feelings years ago. Yet, for some reason she was feeling the same turbulent yearnings she’d always felt for him. And last night in her bed, the memories had been at their worse…or their best, depending on how you looked at it.
She had awakened in the middle of the night with her breath coming in deep, ragged gasps, and her sheets damp with perspiration after a hot, steamy dream about him.
Getting up and drinking a glass of ice water, she had made a decision not to beat herself up over her dreams of Dare. She’d decided that the reason for them was understandable. Her body knew Dare as it knew no other man, and it had reminded her of that fact in a not-too-subtle way. It didn’t help that for the past ten years she hadn’t dated much; raising AJ and working at the hospital kept her busy, and the few occasions she had dated had been a complete waste of her time since she’d never experienced the sparks with any of them that she’d grown accustomed to with Dare.
“Would you like some more coffee, Sheriff?”
Shelly snatched her head up when she heard the sultry, feminine voice and was just in time to see the slow smile that spread across the young woman’s lips, as well as the look of wanton hunger in her eyes as she looked at Dare. Either he didn’t notice or he was doing a pretty good job of pretending not to.
“Yes, Lizzie, I’d like another cup.”
“And what would you like?” Lizzie asked her, and Shelly couldn’t help but notice the cold, unfriendly eyes that were staring at her.
Evidently the same thing you would like, Shelly thought, trying to downplay the envy she suddenly felt, although she knew there was no legitimate reason to feel that way. What was once between her and Dare had ended years ago and she didn’t intend to go back there, no matter how much he could still arouse her. Sighing, she was about to give the woman her order when Dare spoke. “She would like a cup of coffee with cream and one sugar.”
The waitress lifted her brow as if wondering how Dare knew what Shelly wanted. “Okay, Sheriff.” Lizzie placed menus in front of them, saying, “I’ll bring your coffee while you take a look at these.”
When Lizzie had left, Shelly leaned in closer to the center of the booth and whispered, “I don’t appreciate the daggered looks coming from one of your girlfriends.” She decided not to tell him that she’d felt like throwing a few daggered looks of her own.
Lifting his head from the menu, Dare frowned. “What are you talking about? I’ve never dated Lizzie. She’s just a kid.”
Shelly shrugged as she straightened in her seat and glanced over to where Lizzie was now taking another order. Her short uniform showed off quite nicely the curves of her body and her long legs. Dare was wrong. Lizzie was no kid. Her body attested to that.
“Well, kid or no kid, she definitely has the hots for you, Dare Westmoreland.”
He shrugged. “You’re imagining things.”
“No, trust me. I know.”
He rubbed his chin as his mouth tipped up crookedly into a smile. Settling back in his seat, he asked, “And how would you know?”
She met his gaze. “Because I’m a woman.” And I know all about having the hots for you, she decided not to add.
Dare nodded. He definitely couldn’t deny that she was a woman. He glanced over at Lizzie and caught her at the exact moment she was looking at him with a flirty smile. He remembered the other times she’d given him that smile, and now it all made sense. He quickly averted his eyes. Clearing his throat, he met Shelly’s gaze. “I’ve never noticed before.”
Typical man, Shelly thought, but before she could say anything else, Lizzie had returned with their coffee. After taking their order she left, and Shelly smiled and said, “I can’t believe you remembered how I like my coffee after all this time.”
Dare looked at her. His gaze remained steady when he said. “There are some things a man can’t forget about a woman he considered as his, Shelly.”
“Oh,” her voice was slightly shaky, and she decided not to touch that one; mainly because what he said was true. He had considered her as his; she had been his in every way a woman could belong to a man.
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