Page 4 of Sheriff's City Girl

“Oh stop. My husband is a good sport. He knows he’s the only one for me. Besides, Hewitt is literally the most unavailable man in the entire town.”

Now, that was intriguing.

“How come? I didn’t see a wedding ring?”

Not that I was paying attention.

“Oh, yeah. He’s not married. I don’t think he ever really dates, either. From what I know—which isn’t much—is that he’s not interested in anyone. Apparently, his ex-wife burned him bad, took him for all he was worth. Now, he just hangs out at the Lowe Creek Ranch all the time with his BFF Lucas Lowe.”

“Lucas Lowe?”

She frowned at me. “You really have so much catching up to do.”

“Well, I wasn’t born and raised here like you were,” I reasoned. “I only moved here because you’re here.”

“And you want to be a billion miles away from your crazy, helicopter mom.” Lily gave me one of her most sympathetic looks, her thin lips barely curving into a soft smile.

“You’re not wrong.”

“You still ignoring her calls?”

“I mean…” my voice trailed off as a pang of guilt hit me. “I wouldn’t say that I ignore them, per se. She just always calls during business hours, and I’m busy. I always text her and tell her to call me after work…”

“And she never does.”

“Bingo,” I say with a sigh. “She’s just angry with me because I’m not settling down the way she wants me to. She thinks I should be married with a house full of kids right now, not going after some bakery business in the middle of a small town.”

“Ah, yeah. Sounds about right,” Lily chuckled, grabbing up the broom I had gotten out a few minutes before she had arrived. “Your mom loves you though… Just not in the conventional, unconditional way.”

“Well, that’s one way to put it,” I laughed, going back to wiping everything down. As I ran the damp rag over the register counter, my mind drifted back to Sheriff Hewitt. As much as I wanted to just blow off his presence as a hot stranger…

There was something so appealing about him.

He had this rugged, sexy look about him, though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that was so captivating about him. I had lived in Austin for nearly my entire life, so it wasn’t like I had been deprived of attractive men…

But, whatever it was, I couldn’t shake him and the electricity I felt when his eyes met mine.

“You okay?” Lily called from the other side of my café, her brow furrowed.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said quickly, brushing off the heat between my legs. “So… Back to Sheriff Hewitt…”

The giddy grin on Lily’s face made me blush. “You’re into him, aren’t you? Since when is Emma Fisher into anyone?”

“Stop,” I warned her, but then admitted, “…there’s just something… intriguing about him.”

“Oh yeah, he’s definitely intriguing.” Lily laughed. “His daughter is Jess.”

I cocked my head to the side. “You mean, Dara’s best friend Jess?” I thought of the dark-headed blue eyed friend of Lily’s daughter. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Mason and Jess did share some similarities—not that I knew either of them well enough to make that judgment.

“Yep, that’s the one. Drew knows Mason better than I do, but I’d still say that he’s a very private kind of guy. He watches his daughter like a hawk, too.”

“I don’t blame him for that. Teenagers are full of mischief.” I let out a sigh, that old familiar longing for children knocking at my heart.

“Yeah, you know,” Lily paused, leaning against the broom. “Jess hasn’t been hanging out with Dara as much. She was at our house nearly every evening—or they were over at the Lowe Ranch. Now, Jess is only at the house a couple of nights a week.”

“Okay, so maybe they’re not together twenty-four seven. That’s not that concerning.” I shrugged, tossing the dirty rag into the hamper. I would have to take it with me to wash at home.

“Well, if you knew those two the way I do, you might disagree. I don’t know. Dara has seemed a little down, but blows me off when I ask her.” Lily went back to sweeping, shaking her head as she went. “Kids are so complicated.”

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