Page 56 of New Hope, Old Grudges

My heartbeat, fluttering with alarm, I quickly put my hand on Brody’s arm.

“How about we let him go, honey?” It was the first time I’d used any kind of term of endearment with him.

Brody looked as if he might not heed my request, but he did, dropping Geoff roughly so he stumbled on his feet.

I used the opportunity to put myself between the men.

Brody was breathing heavily, seething with fury.

“What are you planning on doing here?” I asked him.

His eyes were still on Geoff. “Beating him within an inch of his life sounds appealing.”

I stared at Brody. The man who looked dangerous, imposing but never used those looks to make me feel like he was violent.

Except for right now.

“You’re the sheriff,” I reminded him, clutching his shirt and nodding to his badge. “You cannot beat the shit out of people because you don’t like their past actions.”

His furious gaze ripped from where I assumed Geoff was standing. If he had any smarts about him, he would’ve run for the hills. But Geoff, despite his Ivy League education, did not have any smarts.

“Right now, I’m not the sheriff. I’m the man whose woman was hurt by thatfuck,” he spat the word through his teeth like it was something that could hit the sidewalk. His eyes darted back to Geoff, glittering with a barely contained violence I hadn’t seen before. The violence that showed me the man he might’ve been in the past.

It was easy to forget that Brody Adams, the current sheriff, my old bully, my new—boyfriend?—had also once been some kind of special ops soldier. Had been a deadly, highly trained, dangerous individual.

It was impossible to forget all that in that moment. And so help me God, I found it hot as hell.

I grasped his stubbled chin in my hands, forcing his face downward, toward mine. “As much as it’s …sweetthat you think beating up my ex is a nice gesture, can we maybe do something more traditional? Flowers? Chocolate? Steak dinner?”

Brody just blinked as my words filtered past all that masculine rage I’d previously thought myself too evolved to find attractive. My panties made a liar out of me.

“But he ruined your life.”

I tilted my head to regard him and ponder that statement. Yes, Geoff had ruined my business, decimated my finances, and then demolished my reputation—in certain circles, at least, circles I now knew I didn’t need to be a part of—but had he ruined my life?

“A couple of months ago, I might’ve agreed with you,” I cupped his cheeks. “But from where I’m standing, my life doesn’t seem all that ruined.”

I whispered the last part. Because I was kind of a coward. Brody had been speaking freely about his feelings, yet I’d been keeping mine close to my chest, still afraid of getting hurt.

Brody’s eyes no longer blazed with fury as he regarded me. No, they were twinkling now. With tenderness.

I would say love,but that was utterly ridiculous. It was ridiculous for one of us—me—to be feeling that. He couldn’t be too.

Before he could say anything, a flash of purple distracted me.

I didn’t know whether it was a coincidence, whether word really did travel that fast in small towns or my mother really was clairvoyant like she claimed to be. However she found herself in the coffee shop didn’t matter, because she found Geoff, made a beeline for him, then didn’t hesitate to plow her fist through his face.

My mother.

The petite woman who wouldn’t harm a honeybee. Who had never so much raised her voice in anger let alone a fist. Punched my ex-fiancé. In the face.

I gasped as he crumpled to the floor.

She stood over him. “That’s for hurting my little girl.”

My eyes were wide as I took my mother in. Brody’s were not. They were alight with delight, his mouth turned up in satisfaction.

“Sheriff.” Mom turned to him, straightening her scarves. “I think there’s a fugitive for you to apprehend.”

---