The Lawman's Romance Lesson (Forever, Tx. Series Book 20) Read online

  He bit his tongue again to keep from saying the first thing that popped up in his mind. Instead, he took a breath, tried to collect his thoughts. “I’ve got to go to the sheriff’s office to log this in,” he told her, indicating the bottles of alcohol in the back. He looked into his sister’s eyes. “I want your word that you won’t leave the house until I get back.”

  “I thought you didn’t trust me,” she taunted, her tone haughty and arrogant.

  “I don’t,” he answered honestly. “But I’m hoping you’ll want to prove me wrong more than you want to run off to find another party that I’ll just have to shut down.” He let his words sink in before noting, “That can’t be making you very popular, being the girl whose brother follows her around, shutting down the parties she attends.”

  “It doesn’t,” Elena snapped, glaring at him. She pressed her lips together, as if going over several things in her mind. “All right, you win. I’ll stay home,” she pouted.

  Instead of getting out, Daniel remained seated behind the steering wheel. Eyeing his sister, he asked, “I have your word?”

  Elena blew out a long, dramatic breath. “Yeah, yeah, you have my word.”

  “Good.” Daniel nodded, getting out of the vehicle. “Why don’t you study while you wait for me to get home?” he suggested. He saw her roll her eyes. It took effort to hold onto his temper. Taking a breath, he told her, “You used to be a great student.”

  “And then I got smart,” Elena responded sarcastically.

  Daniel’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “Not really,” he countered.

  Elena uttered a frustrated, guttural sound and then stomped all the way to the front door.

  Getting there ahead of her, Daniel unlocked the door then opened it and let her in. For his part, he remained standing outside. “I’ll get back home just as soon as I can.”

  “I can’t wait,” Elena retorted sarcastically.

  Rather than say anything, Daniel quickly closed the door the moment she was inside the house and then locked it.

  “Oh gee, now I can’t get out,” Elena called out, raising her voice so that it carried to him through the door.

  “No, you can’t,” he informed her. “Because you gave me your word.”

  Daniel heard another sound, louder and more guttural this time. He could picture the look on his sister’s angry face.

  He walked to his car and really hoped that he wasn’t being an idiot to believe that, despite everything, Elena was going to live up to her promise.

  Daniel got into the vehicle.

  “Really wish you guys were still here,” he murmured under his breath to the parents who were no longer there to hear him.

  He would have missed his parents no matter what, but being left to grapple with trying to raise a headstrong, overly intelligent sixteen-year-old teenage girl made everything three times worse. And it really made him miss his mother and father.

  * * *

  When Daniel walked into the sheriff’s office fifteen minutes later, he was surprised to see Joe there.

  Senior Deputy Sheriff Joe Lone Wolf was the reason he had this job. He’d known the older deputy by sight when they were both growing up on the reservation. But then his parents had moved him and his sister into town and the next time their paths crossed, Joe was a deputy, working for Sheriff Rick Santiago. Joe’s influence in the scheme of things increased a great deal when he wound up marrying Ramona, the town’s veterinarian. Ramona also happened to be Rick’s sister. And when Daniel suddenly found himself in need of a job, Joe was the one who not only vouched for him but took Daniel under his wing, teaching him everything he needed to know. It wasn’t the job he had dreamed of having, but it was one he felt he could do justice to.

  “I didn’t know you had the night shift tonight,” Daniel said to the other man.

  “I didn’t. I traded Rodriguez for it. I had a feeling, when you went to answer that domestic disturbance call coming in from the better part of town, that you might wind up coming back.” Craning his neck, Joe looked around behind Daniel. “So where’s Elena?”

  It was unnerving the way that Joe seemed to know about things before they became public knowledge. “She’s home.”

  Joe’s eyes never left his face as he rocked back in his chair. “Let me guess, she promised to be on her best behavior.”

  “I don’t think that girl has any ‘best behavior’ to fall back on anymore,” Daniel responded. There was no missing the disgusted note in his voice. “But she gave me her word that she wouldn’t leave the house until I got back.”

  Joe laughed dryly. “Then I guess you’d better hurry back before Elena’s tempted to break her word again.” And then he looked at Daniel, studying him. “Why did you come back?”

  “Well, I wanted to log these in at the station,” Daniel answered. The next minute, he was going out the front door.

  “These?” Joe repeated, following the younger man out.

  Daniel paused to reach into the backseat and take out the carton he’d used in order to carry all the liquor bottles out of Matthew McGuire’s house.

  “These,” Daniel repeated as he carried the carton crammed full of bottles back past Joe and into the sheriff’s office.

  Joe uttered a low whistle as he looked at all the semi-filled and three-quarters-filled bottles stuffed into the carton.

  “What was the kid doing? Competing with the Murphy brothers’ saloon?”

  Daniel glanced down at the bottles in his arms. “I’m guessing these belong to his parents.”

  “Speaking of his parents, just where are these fine citizens?” Joe asked him.

  Daniel thought back, trying to remember. “According to what Elena told me through her clenched teeth and her hostile attitude, I gather that Matthew’s parents are away for the week, touring a couple of colleges with his older brother.”

  Joe smile was grim. “In other words, when the cat’s away, the mice’ll play.”

  “And get drunk,” Daniel added with a deep, disapproving frown.

  “Evidence?” Joe asked, nodding at the liquor bottles and curious as to exactly what Daniel planned to do with all of them.

  “My first thought was to get these things out of the kids’ reach,” Daniel confessed. He put the carton down on his desk. “When Matthew’s parents get back into town, they can come by the station and get them.”

  “My guess is that they’re not going to be happy about that,” Joe commented.

  Joe took a couple of the bottles out of the carton one by one and looked at the labels. He wasn’t a connoisseur when it came to alcohol, but he could see that there were some very expensive bottles in the carton.

  “I’m counting on it,” Daniel told him. “Maybe his parents will think twice before leaving Matthew alone with all this temptation again.”

  “What did Elena say about you doing this?” Joe asked.

  Daniel blew out a breath. “Not anything I feel like repeating right now,” he answered.

  Opening his desk’s middle drawer, he took out a pad and a pen and began to write down the various names that were on the labels.

  “Here, let me do that,” Joe told the younger deputy, taking the pad and pen away from Daniel. “You go on back to your sister. Like I said, the sooner you get yourself back home, the less tempted she’s going to be to fly the coop again.”

  This was where Daniel would have wanted to say that since Elena had given him her word she’d stay home, he felt confident that she would be there when he walked in through the door. But the truth was that he wasn’t confident she’d be there. Not confident at all.

  Joe was right. The sooner he got home, the more likely it was that he’d still find Elena at home. Because if she decided to take off again, this time he wouldn’t be able to just shrug it off or let it slide. This time, he was going to have to come down on her.
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  Hard.

  And that would do even more harm to their relationship, causing it to splinter and break apart that much more. Maybe even irreparably, because he was only able to hold on to his temper for so long before it exploded on him.

  “Thanks, Joe, I owe you,” Daniel said, heading for the door.

  “Damn straight you do,” Joe called out, his voice following the other deputy as Daniel went outside to his vehicle.

  How did it all get so confused and heavy-handed? Daniel couldn’t help wondering as he got in behind the wheel of his car again.

  How did he and Elena go from being practically best friends to being these people who kept snapping at each other and regarding everything the other person did as being suspect?

  He wished he knew. Daniel couldn’t even remember how it all had started to unravel. All he knew was that somehow, it had. And not just slowly but with what felt like lightning speed. One day he was Elena’s confidant, her shoulder to cry on, the next day, he was her enemy, part of “them,” otherwise known as a grown-up. And everyone knew that grown-ups or adults were the ones who stood in the way and impeded anything that even remotely looked like fun.

  Elena stopped telling him things, stopped confiding in him, stopped looking at him the way she used to. These days, she wasn’t proud of him. She was just leery of him and it showed in everything she did, everything she said to him.

  How did he go about changing that back to what it had been?

  And just as important, how did he get Elena to realize that getting an education was the only way she would ever get out of Forever?

  Chapter Two

  Shania made sure that she always parked her feelings of doubt and insecurity outside the door before walking into any classroom. It was the one major rule she always abided by. She felt it was her personal mission to inspire her students, to get them to focus on not just their schoolwork, but also on their abilities to surmount any and all obstacles that existed in their daily lives. She did her best to instill a work ethic within them that enabled them to work hard at achieving their personal goals.

  On those occasions when things got particularly rough for her, it was then that Shania found herself channeling her great-aunt Naomi.

  Early on in their relationship, the gruff, far from soft-spoken woman became her inspiration. To Shania’s recollection, there was no problem too big or too taxing to bring Aunt Naomi down or cause her to throw in the towel and give up. No matter what it was, Aunt Naomi had taught them that they could always find a way to deal with it.

  Today had been about as taxing a day as she could ever remember enduring.

  Usually, on those days when her students turned out to be particularly challenging, she’d go home and then she and Wynona would act as each other’s cheering section—or support group—whatever way wound up doing the trick.

  But Wynona was no longer here. Right after the wedding had taken place, she and Clint had moved in together at the ranch. For a few minutes after her day had ended, Shania debated picking up the phone and calling Wynona just to unwind for a minute.

  She would be damned if she was going to call her cousin to complain about today. Wynona didn’t need to hear her carping. What her cousin needed was to spend quality time with her husband, not to mention that she was also acclimating to being a mother to Clint’s nine-year-old son, Ryan.

  No, Shania thought, growing more restless, Wyn had her hands more than full with all that going on, plus teaching. Her cousin definitely had no time to offer her a shoulder to lean on, Shania thought, even though Wynona would if called upon.

  She wasn’t going to call her. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t still need at least a willing ear to listen to her, Shania thought as she chewed on her lower lip.

  She could only think of one place where she could find that willing ear. An ear that only listened, but didn’t feel obligated to give advice.

  “No offense, Belle,” she said, looking down at the rather diminutive German shepherd that was shadowing her every move and weaving in and out between her legs when she walked, “but tonight I really think that I need a human to talk to.”

  Belle stopped moving and looked up at her with her big brown eyes. Shania could have sworn that the dog understood what she was saying—and forgave her.

  “I won’t be long,” Shania promised as she grabbed her jacket from the coat rack by the door and shrugged into the garment.

  Granted it was only just the end of September, but sometimes the weather took an unexpected turn around seven or eight o’clock, becoming cold. The last thing she wanted to do was to catch a cold. It was bad enough having to deal with low spirits, something she was not accustomed to having.

  * * *

  Murphy’s, the town’s only saloon, has initially been owned by Patrick Murphy, the present owners’ uncle. A lifelong bachelor, he had taken in the three orphaned brothers when they were just boys after his younger brother, their widowed father, died. Eventually, since they comprised his only family, Patrick left the establishment that was his pride and joy to them when he passed away.

  Although the two younger Murphy brothers occasionally took turns operating it, everyone agreed that the saloon was Brett’s baby. The oldest of the Murphy brothers was the force behind its present success and he was the reason that most people in and around Forever would find their way there.

  Murphy’s had an unspoken agreement with Miss Joan, the woman who owned the town’s only diner, which was also its only restaurant. Miss Joan’s was where people went for food and, on occasion, for advice. Murphy’s was where they went to have a drink amid people they knew. It was also where they went to enjoy some camaraderie and have their spirits lifted.

  It was exactly the latter that Shania found herself needing tonight.

  The moment she walked into Murphy’s, she found herself feeling better. Unlike bars that were located in the larger cities, Murphy’s didn’t shun ample lighting, opting instead to lean toward atmosphere that was created by a lack of darkness. Because of the bright lighting, there were no shadows to hide in, no dimly lit areas to gravitate toward that would enable the patrons to observe without being observed.

  Shania quickly looked around. As usual, she noted, Brett was tending bar. Married to one of the town’s two doctors, whenever Alicia worked late at the clinic, Brett was the one who worked late at the bar. In any given emergency, he and his brothers traded off shifts, although Murphy’s was doing so well, they could afford to hire a bartender for the nights that none of the brothers could be here.

  “Don’t usually see you here, pretty lady. I know that my paper’s overdue, but I’m still working on it,” Brett told her with a wink. Wiping down the bar, he gestured toward a stool directly in front of him.

  “I’ve got a feeling you’ll be working on it a long time,” she told him, sliding in on the stool.

  “You could be right,” Brett responded. “So, what’ll it be?” he asked, flashing a welcoming smile at her as he retired the cloth he was using. “Or are you just here for some good conversation?”

  “I’ll have whatever you have on tap,” Shania told the man.

  “Coming right up,” Brett responded. As he spoke, he filled up a mug. There was foam taking up two thirds of the space. Placing the mug down on the bar right in front of her, Brett took a closer look at her expression. “Something wrong?” he asked her gently.

  Shania squared her shoulders. “Why does there have to be something wrong?” she asked, drawing the mug closer to her.

  “Because it’s a school night and you’re here, having a beer,” Brett pointed out.

  “I drink beer,” she protested defensively.

  “Didn’t say you didn’t,” he answered. “Just not used to seeing you drinking it here.”

  She couldn’t really argue with that. Shrugging off his observation, she told him, “Maybe
I just came out to make contact with my fellow man.”

  The look on Brett’s face told her that he knew it had to be more than that, but he wasn’t about to challenge her.

  “This is the place to do that,” Brett agreed. Someone called out to him. Brett glanced over in the patron’s direction, then excused himself. “Sorry, Shania, duty calls.” He hesitated just for a moment. “You’ll be all right?” he asked.

  Shania nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m not fragile,” she assured him.

  “That’s good to know,” a deep voice behind her told her.

  Not so much startled as surprised, Shania turned around to see who the voice belonged to and found herself looking up into the softest brown eyes that she had ever seen. With broad shoulders, a taut, trim waist and standing approximately six one, the rest of the man was even more strikingly impressive.

  “Fragile women don’t have an easy time of it,” the man said.

  There was something about the man that looked vaguely familiar, but she was fairly certain that she had never met him.

  “And you know this how?” Shana heard herself asking the dark-haired man.

  “Years of experience,” he answered.

  Shania saw the badge he was wearing and she made the logical assumption. The man had to be one of the sheriff’s deputies. She also guessed that given the man’s high cheekbones, he was also at least part Navajo, which instantly gave them something in common.

  But rather than comment on that—it sounded like such a line to her—Shania took another sip of her drink. The beer tasted particularly bitter, but she had gotten it expressly for that very reason. The bitter drink would keep her from having another—if she finished this one at all.

  “Are you saving this seat for someone?” Daniel asked her, nodding at the empty stool beside her.

  Her hands tightened around the mug she was holding. “No, I’m not saving it.” Her voice sounded almost tinny, she thought disparagingly.

  “Then you don’t mind if I sit down next to you?” Daniel asked, still not making a move to slide onto the stool.