The Sheriff’s Christmas Surprise Read online

  Her brow.

  If everything went well and there were no upsets, perhaps Tina would add a little something to the bank account in time, but right now, the real responsibility for taking care of everyone fell on her shoulders and would continue to in the foreseeable future.

  So she worked her proverbial tail off and sacrificed. Predominantly what she sacrificed was her social life. Other than attending office functions, she had no social life to speak of.

  In the beginning, when she’d begun to work at the firm of Norvil and Tyler, the friends she’d once had made attempts to include her in their gatherings. But she always had to beg off for one reason or another, because she was working twice as hard as anyone else at the law firm. She was trying to become indispensable.

  After a while, her friends stopped asking her to go out with them. By now they’d gone on to live their lives without her.

  All she had in her life was her work and Tina. It was enough, she told herself.

  “You,” she assured him, answering his question. “I’m sure you size up everyone who happens to pass through your town.”

  “Only if they require my services,” the sheriff told her.

  There was just a touch of humor about his mouth, enough for her to momentarily wonder just what those services he was referring to were.

  Oh, damn, Liv, you are overwrought, aren’t you? Stop having R-rated thoughts about Rick Santiago and focus on what’s important. Getting to Tina. Bringing her and Bobby home. Who cares what kind of “services” the cowboy with a badge renders?

  She was roused abruptly out of her wandering thoughts when she realized that they weren’t leaving town. They were going back to his office.

  He pulled his vehicle up in front of the squat building.

  “Why are we stopping?” Olivia asked. Had he changed his mind about driving her to Pine Ridge after offering to do it? Was this payback for her asking him questions? He didn’t seem like the vengeful type, but then, how much did she actually know about this man with the sexy smile? Next to nothing, really.

  Rick got out and closed his door. “Just want to tell Alma where I’m going and let her know that she’s in charge.”

  “You’re putting a woman in charge?” Maybe the man was more progressive than she thought.

  The look the sheriff gave her was patiently tolerant. Olivia could feel herself bristling—and becoming embarrassed at the same time.

  “Why not? Alma’s good at her job,” Rick told her. “Besides, I know I can count on her to give me the biggest bribe.” He saw Olivia’s eyes darken with disappointment. “That was a joke,” he told her drily. “I guess I better not quit my day job any time soon.” He paused for a moment and looked into the vehicle. “You might want to make use of the facilities,” he suggested, motioning toward the building with his head. “It’s going to take us a few hours to get to Pine Ridge.”

  Olivia pursed her lips, struggling not to take offense. Did he think she was ten? Or the flip side of the coin, did he think she was a doddering old woman who needed to be reminded that she had to go to the bathroom periodically?

  “I’m fine, thank you,” she said tersely.

  Rick shrugged at what he saw as her stubborn refusal. Made no difference to him one way or the other.

  “Suit yourself. You don’t strike me as the type to relieve yourself on the roadside, that’s all. And the land’s pretty flat from here to there. We’ll be lucky to see any brush at all, much less find it just when you might have a need—”

  “I said I was fine,” she repeated, quickly cutting him off before he could get too explicit.

  Rick stood where he was for a moment, his eyes sliding over her slowly, as if assessing what she’d just declared.

  “Yes, I’d say you are,” he agreed. Straightening, he began walking toward his office. “I won’t be long.”

  “I’ll wait here,” she assured him in case he was going to ask.

  “I expect you will,” he replied without bothering to turn in her direction.

  SHE WISHED THAT THE SHERIFF hadn’t made such a big deal about going to the bathroom before they left Forever. She silently blamed him for the fact that she was unusually preoccupied with the thought that she had to go, and that she would really have to go before they reached civilization again.

  Suppressing a sigh, Olivia stared out the window at the desolation that stretched before them. Granted, as a native Texan, she was more than aware that this was, for the most part, what her home state looked like. But living in Dallas was like living in any large city. A person tended to forget that the world beyond the sophisticated urban boundaries was mostly rural. And when she was jockeying for position on one of the main highways threading through Dallas, desolation like this slipped her mind.

  But here it was, miles of nothing with more miles of nothing just beyond that.

  Without her trusty GPS or even a map, she had no idea where they were or how far they’d come. Unable to hold back the question any longer, she turned toward the sheriff and raised her voice to be heard above the country and western music playing on the radio. “How much farther?” Olivia asked.

  Rick hid his smile and congratulated himself on pulling it off. “To Pine Ridge?” he asked innocently.

  Olivia lost her slender hold on her temper. “No, to Disneyland. Of course to Pine Ridge.”

  The look on his face told her that he thought he saw right through her. “Anyone ever tell you that you’ve got the personality of a rattlesnake when you’re uptight? I told you to use the facilities,” he reminded her matter-of-factly.

  She made up her mind right there and then that she would rather die before she would own up to needing to use the great outdoors as a not-so-great bathroom. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “And for your information, I don’t have the personality of a rattlesnake. I’m just anxious about Tina.”

  “Being anxious isn’t going to change anything,” he told her. Someone on the radio was hawking a contest for tickets to the latest country and western touring concert. Rick turned the radio down. “Might as well just think positive thoughts.”

  She wondered if the man practiced what he preached. “That’s very Zen of you.”

  One shoulder lifted and fell in a careless shrug. “Don’t know about Zen, but I find it helps me cope.” He glanced at her for more than a fleeting second. With nothing up ahead to hit, he could spare the time. “You have bad feelings about something and it doesn’t come true, you’ve wasted a lot of time and energy worrying about something that didn’t happen.”

  “What if it does come true?” she countered. “If you’re having all these positive thoughts and they couldn’t be further from the truth?”

  Her question didn’t change his position. “Way I see it, you’ve got all the time in the world to be upset and mourn over something bad. No need to rush it. And maybe, taking on a happy frame of mind might just help you cope.”

  Maybe the man never had to deal with anything more tragic than getting jelly doughnut stains off his uniform. He was in no position to give her “helpful” advice. “All this wisdom, maybe you missed your calling. Maybe you should be stuffing fortune cookies.”

  Rather than take offense, he seemed amused. “Something to think about for my retirement days,” he quipped. Rick nodded toward the sign that was coming into view. “You can get yourself more comfortable,” he proposed delicately, “over there.”

  Her eyes widened. “Behind the sign?”

  Rick had to bite down on his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. “No, in the town the sign says we’re coming to.”

  Relieved that they were at journey’s end, she looked more closely at what she’d assumed was a billboard ad. Reading it now, Olivia frowned again. What was going on here?

  “That sign says we’re approaching the town of Beaumont.”

  “And so we are,” he said drily. “Guess that means you pass your eye test.”

  She was getting really annoyed with his folksy manne
r. She liked getting results, not the runaround.

  “Why are we stopping in Beaumont?” she asked. “You told me that my sister’s in the hospital in Pine Ridge. Did they switch her?” she demanded. And if they had, why hadn’t he told her before this?

  But the sheriff shook his head. “No place to switch her to,” he reminded Olivia. “Unless the good people of Beaumont built themselves a hospital in the last few hours.”

  Olivia dug deep for patience. When she spoke, she said each word slowly and separately, as if she was talking to someone who was mentally challenged. “My question again is why are we stopping in Beaumont?”

  Again, rather than be annoyed, he appeared tickled by her bad mood, which only annoyed her further.

  “Because, Livy, you need to relieve yourself before you start turning funny colors, and I need to talk to the sheriff to get all the information I can about your sister’s accident and also find out the whereabouts of the body.”

  She was about to snap at him for calling her by the nickname, but the second half of his statement stopped her cold.

  “Body?” Olivia echoed as he slowed down and made a right turn down a street. “What body?”

  The sheriff’s office—a building that made the one back in Forever look as if it was constructed to be state of the art—was in the center of the street. Rick pulled his vehicle up before it.

  He looked surprised that she seemed to have forgotten. “The guy your sister was with when the utility pole jumped in front of the car,” he replied with just a touch of sarcasm. “Bobby’s father,” he prompted when she didn’t say anything.

  Don.

  With everything going on, she’d forgotten about Don. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part. In either case, she was relieved all over again that the small-time con artist and would-be musician was never going to be the source of her sister’s grief—and thus hers by proxy—again.

  She just prayed that there wasn’t going to be some other “Don Norman” waiting in the wings to pounce on her vulnerable sister. That Tina would finally come to her senses and select the next man in her life for his personality and better qualities, not the fact that he looked good in a pair of jeans and had seductive, bedroom eyes.

  She could only hope, Olivia thought, mentally crossing her fingers.

  Kindness and understanding is worth a boatload of sexy, she told herself fiercely.

  So why did the sheriff in the little backward town appear to have both going for him? He seemed kind and understanding on the one hand and had sexy, bedroom eyes coupled with one damn fine seat on the other.

  Where was she going with this?

  A hot shiver ran up her spine.

  If she didn’t get some rest soon, she would wind up doing something or at least saying something that would ultimately embarrass her beyond words.

  “I’ll stay in the car,” she told him stubbornly.

  She was well aware that this would backfire on her. Maybe, if he stayed in the sheriff’s office long enough, she would be able to find a diner or some public place that believed in bathrooms and not outhouses.

  Rick got out. “Sun’s directly overhead,” he pointed out, his index finger indicating where she might glance to find the fiery orb. “You might not want to stay in the car right about now.”

  He didn’t think she had enough sense to come out of the rain, she thought resentfully. Or the hot sun. And it was hot despite being the tail end of November. If her car hadn’t decided to give up the ghost and play dead, she would have absolutely no reason to be in this predicament. Stupid vehicle was just out of warranty, too. It figured.

  Olivia blew out a long, frustrated breath. So far, this had not been one of her better weeks. She just hoped that the worst was behind her and not, God forbid, just ahead.

  “I changed my mind,” she informed him, getting out and slamming the car door behind her. “I want to hear what the sheriff has to say as much as you do. More,” she underscored, “because you don’t have a personal stake in this case, and I do.”

  “I take a personal interest in every case I get,” he said evenly, contradicting her assumption as he walked up to the building’s front door. He held it open for her and gestured. “After you.”

  With a quick nod of her head, Olivia walked in front of him and entered the building. And as she did, Olivia decided that the man was just a tad too laid-back to be real.

  She didn’t trust the sheriff any further than she could throw him.

  Maybe less.

  Chapter Seven

  If she were to guess, Olivia would have estimated that the small building that housed the Beaumont sheriff’s department was somewhere around seventy-five years old, if not more.

  The wooden floor creaked in protest beneath their feet as she and Rick walked into the tiny office.

  The faint smell of cigarettes mingled with another, mysterious smell that Olivia couldn’t readily identify. Maybe that was for the best. Whatever it was, was musty. The office itself was shrouded in semishadow. The midafternoon sun had completely bypassed it, apparently having better places to be. There was a certain chill about the room. And, except for the sound of breathing, it was eerily quiet.

  There was only one occupant in the room, presumably the town’s sheriff. The heavyset man appeared to be dozing. He had his boots, drastically worn down at the heel, propped up comfortably on his scarred desk. Olivia couldn’t help thinking that the man was a portrait of contentment, sleeping the sleep of the just, seemingly without a care in the world.

  An amused smile playing on his lips, Rick crouched down close to the sandy-haired man’s ear and loudly cleared his throat.

  The older sheriff started abruptly, roused out of a dream he obviously was enjoying a great deal more than the reality he was forced to wake up to.

  Rising back to his feet, Rick grinned as he looked down at the other man. “Working hard as usual, I see, Josh.”

  Swinging his sizable legs down to the floor, Sheriff Joshua Hudson cleared his throat, stalling for time as his brain cleared itself of the cobwebs that had imprisoned it. He appeared only slightly embarrassed to be caught this way. Obviously, it wasn’t the first time.

  He lifted his chin defensively. “I was just resting my eyes.”

  “Well, they certainly look well rested,” Rick assured him. He stepped back slightly, in order for the man to be able to get a clear view of Olivia, and then made the necessary introduction. “Olivia Blayne, this is Sheriff Joshua Hudson. Josh, this is Olivia Blayne.”

  The sheriff leaped to his feet, his boots thudding heavily on the wooden floor. After quickly wiping his right hand against his pant leg, Josh extended it to Olivia as he beamed at her.

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” he said, sounding, in her estimation, as if he genuinely meant it.

  Her mind on the reason they were here, Olivia had to force a smile to her lips. “Hello.”

  Rick spoke up for her before Hudson could ask what brought them to Beaumont. “Olivia’s here about that car accident that happened on the outskirts of town earlier today.”

  The sheriff’s deep-set, small brown eyes slid over his visitor quickly, making an educated guess as to the exact purpose of her visit.

  “You’re an insurance investigator?”

  “No, she’s the sister,” Rick said before she had a chance to answer.

  She wasn’t accustomed to having someone speak for her. The look she shot Rick said as much. From what she could see, the man ignored it.

  Olivia noted that Rick’s revelation made the heavyset sheriff uncomfortable. Had he a hat in his hands, she had a feeling that he’d be running the brim nervously through his moist fingers. And then she found out why he looked so uneasy.

  “Not the boy’s sister?” he asked hesitantly in a voice that was far too small for him.

  Olivia shook her head. “No, I’m Tina’s sister.”

  “Oh. The girl in the hospital.” Hudson didn’t look all that relieved over th
e clarification. It was obvious that he felt badly for her, as well as for Tina. “What can I do for you?” The question was directed at Olivia rather than at Rick. And then, as if his brain was slowly coming around and engaging, he gestured toward the chair next to his desk. “Please, take a seat, Miss Blayne.”

  “That’s all right, I’ll stand.” Olivia felt far too restless to sit. Coming here, she’d had all she could do just to remain seated in the car. Off and on she had the completely unrealistic urge to leap out and just run to her destination, despite the fact that she had no idea where it was. Blessed with a great many skills, she freely admitted that a sense of direction was not one of them.

  The older sheriff bobbed his exceedingly round head up and down a number of times as he digested her words. The next question he asked momentarily floored Olivia. “Do you want to see the boy’s body?”

  She never wanted to see Don again, and to view him enshrouded in death was absolutely the last thing she needed. But she knew that Tina would ask after him and her sister would want her to make sure that he was indeed dead.

  Olivia knew how Tina thought. Most likely, now that Don was dead, her sister would wind up making some kind of hero out of him, glossing over his shortcomings and focusing on his few semigood points, reminiscing over the one or two actual good moments they’d shared.

  If she didn’t go to the morgue to see the body, worse, if she didn’t verify that Don was really dead, Tina would live out the next few years, if not more, waiting for him to come walking through the door again. She would have bet money on it. Olivia suppressed a sigh. She had no choice in the matter. She had to see him.

  Gritting her teeth, she forced the word “yes” out.

  Her stomach tightened and she did her best not to succumb to the sick feeling the thought of seeing the man generated. With all her heart—and not for the first time—she sincerely wished that Tina had never gotten involved with Don.

  She tried not to dwell on the fact that he could have easily killed Tina in the accident. Hell, maybe that was even what he was trying to do. She wouldn’t have put the idea of a suicide pact beyond him. His mind had been twisted enough to savor something like that.