Page 25 of The Sheriff & the Nurse

He studied her and then straightened away from the counter and folded his arms across his chest. The move gave her some breathing room. “If you don’t want Bennett to know what’s happening, I assume you don’t want to share with any of your family.”

“Can we wait? There’s no reason to stress them until we know more, right?”

He shrugged. “I think your family would want to know what is happening and would be more than understanding.”

“I know. There will just be so many questions and issues. Dealing with all of this…” She gestured to him but meant the deal with Dr. Hampshire and the poster leaver as much as fighting to resist him. “Is a lot.”

“All right,” he said evenly. “It’s your choice.”

“Thank you.”

“What’s our cover story then?” He arched an eyebrow.

“Cover story? About me staying here?”

He nodded. “And us being engaged.”

“Well, only Dr. Hampshire has to believe we’re engaged. I told some other co-workers I was dating someone seriously. If you’re coming with me to the ranch today and tomorrow, we can just say that we’ve started dating and you wanted to spend more time with me. My family will love that.”

His eyebrows rose. He nodded.

“Hopefully no one will know I’m staying here. I can leave a lamp on in my house and the doors locked. I’m often staying at Grandma’s down in Kalispell.”

“All right. So the story is I came to check on you after your co-workers played a prank at your house last night, and you cornered me in the kitchen and proclaimed your lifelong love. Of course I couldn’t resist you, so now we’re spending every minute together.”

His gaze was probing. What on earth was she supposed to say to all of that?

“Um … that’ll work. Excuse me while I brush my teeth and grab my phone.” She raced around him and for the staircase. Lifelong love? Did he see straight through her? She could only pray that with Clint, Mark, and now Aiden Porter helping her, they could get to the bottom of the poster and get Dr. Hampshire to leave her alone without hurting her grandma.

Lily might have felt like she belonged in this house as she cooked breakfast, but nothing could be further from the truth. She didn’t belong here. She was going to make a fool of herself and ‘proclaim’ her love if she spent much more time around Clint.

This entire fake engagement was a lot more involved than she’d foreseen. Clint staying by her side day and night … heresophagus closed off and her lungs constricted. She couldn’t breathe or think straight around him.

Chapter

Six

Clint and Lilyrode his Harley to the ranch. With her leaning against his back, her hands circled around his abdomen, and his left hand resting on her leg, he was tempted to drive past the ranch and keep on going. They arrived far too quick and got to work with Rose and Bennett. Surprisingly only Rose gave them a hard time about ‘dating’. Her parents seemed thrilled.

Rose called him the ‘walking billboard of manly cowboy heroism’ a couple times, making Lily blush and blame Daisy, and Clint wondered if these Lillywhite sisters had teased her about him before. He certainly hoped so.

He was focused on Lily until this case was solved. If only he could focus on her for the rest of his life.

Mark and Carlsen Smith, his other deputy, had been willing to deal with anything at the sheriff’s office for a few days. Mark was more than willing; he was ecstatic Clint was with Lily. His men would let him know if a big issue came up, but their county was pretty quiet. He was more worried about his family, but Miles said he’d watch his back and his dad assured him they could handle the protection details at the ranch. His dad alsosaid he’d tell Walker to watch his back. Clint didn’t analyze why he was avoiding talking to Walker himself.

The hours went fast as he and Lily helped some children feed calves and clean out horse stalls. They rode fence line with her dad and fixed any issues. They had lunch with a large crew out in their parents’ backyard, but dinner was just the family around their large dining room table. He bantered with Lily and Rose and Bennett’s adopted son Jack.

Lily by his side was just about perfect. If only he knew if she wanted him around for protection or if there was something more in her beautiful golden-brown eyes. He was risking his heart and betraying his little brother if he made his intentions known. He couldn’t do either.

Why had she said this morning ‘dealing with all of this’ as she’d gestured to him and ‘friends since we were toddlers’? Was he hard to deal with? Did she only want friendship?

Clint felt like he’d revealed his interest in her far too often as he couldn’t peel his eyes away from her, wanted to be close and touch her too much, and had said some too-telling lines. He had to guard himself better. It wasn’t fair to her or Walker if he pursued her right now like he wanted to.

He and Lily finally made a show of him taking her to her cabin, through the trees from her parents. He checked it out thoroughly, but nothing was disturbed from when they were here last night. She left a lamp on and locked the doors. They headed for his house on the motorcycle after dark.

They glided down the highway. Her arms tightened around him and she melted against his back. He ran his hand along her leg, securing it against his side. She trembled. His nerves ramped up.

Last night, she’d been exhausted. Had she slept as poorly as he had? Longing for her in the room next to his had made it hard to settle down.

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