Page 12 of Sheriff's City Girl

Except for the way she left.

I was always the one who left in a hurry like that—not that I had done anything close to it in years. I had a teenage daughter who took up all my time, and I didn’t have the energy to. A jolt of excitement hit me as I thought about the way her skin had felt against mine, but then the regret followed. She had made it very clear it was a mistake…

It’s probably for the better.

“Dad, take this!” Jess bumped my shoulder again. “The faster you take it, the sooner your headache goes away, and I need to get to school.”

“Okay, okay,” I grumbled, keeping my eyes shut as I reached for the three pills on the nightstand. She always put them in the exact same place, and so I didn’t have to be tortured by the light in order to get them—I knew where to reach.

I shoved them in my mouth, swallowing them without any water and then waited, knowing that it never did me any good to get up until the throbbing ceased. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

“Okay,” Jess said with a sigh. “I’m gonna go get ready.”

“All right,” I muttered in response, not moving an inch in the bed. I let out my own sigh, grabbing the spare pillow and covering my head with it.

Jess was another reason that it was probably best to just let Emma go in peace. Having a teenage daughter made things… complicated. Jess noticed every single woman that I talked to, and she always asked a hundred questions. I wasn’t sure if that meant that she was supportive of me finding someone or not, but I didn’t wanna go there.

Jess’s mom had done enough damage when she left us.

My daughter couldn’t really remember what happened nearly fourteen years ago, but I did—and someone just up and leaving without any warning at all had never been a fear of mine until it happened.

And then there was the accident.

Before I let my mind go there, I realized the ache in my head had faded. It was perfect timing as my eyes fluttered open, the soft light in the room not causing any additional pain. I slowly made my way to a seated position, taking in my bare room. I had built the cabin on some land that Lucas had gifted me nearly ten years ago, and even after a decade, nothing was hanging on the white walls of the room.

Maybe it was because I was a man that there was nothing on the walls, and Jess had taken it upon herself to help me decorate the rest of the house over the years. There were plenty of photos of her and the two of us on the shelves and walls…

Just nothing in here.

I flipped the covers back and got ready in a matter of ten minutes, grabbing my cowboy hat off the hook on my way out of the bedroom and stepping out into the living room. Jess was sitting on the couch, her jet-black hair pulled up into a high ponytail on top of her head.

“Oh my god, Dad, you took forever.”

“Don’t say the lord’s name in vain,” I grunted, walking past her to grab the bagel she had nicely made for me. “But thanks for breakfast.”

“You got it, Dad,” she chuckled, standing to her feet and swinging her bag around her shoulder. “You disappeared last night for a while, and Dara told me that she saw you go into the horse barn with some woman…”

Of course someone saw.

“Yeah, I was just showing Emma Fisher, the woman who owns that new bakery, the horses in the barn. She’s new to town, moved here from the city.”

“Ah,” Jess raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at me. “So it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s like seriously gorgeous? All the guys at school make jokes about going to the café after school just to gawk at her. They’re hoping she’s a cougar.”

“Well, that would actually make her a pedophile, but okay,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. I mean, sure, kids could have all the crushes they wanted when it came to adults, but it was never reciprocated. And if it was…

Nah, I wasn’t going there.

I pushed away the anger in my chest. “Let’s go, kiddo. I don’t want you to be late.”

She nodded, heading for the front door. Pulling it open, I grimaced at the bright morning sun. Yeah, the pills lessened the headache, but some of the sensitivities remained…

Or maybe I just wasn’t feeling the morning sun.

We headed to the Bronco in silence, the only noise from the shoes crunching on the gravel of the driveway. My place was secluded, tucked away at the end of a gravel road, and then a long, narrow driveway through thick woods. I set it up that way—and there were cameras through the quarter mile drive, so I was never taken by surprise.

“Do you think she’s pretty?” Jess’s voice cut in over the sound of the radio as I turned out of the driveway, hitting the gate close button attached to the visor.

“What?” I tilted my head, looking over at my daughter.

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