Page 30 of Wrangling a Wild Texan

Sunny knew that better than most. If Reid found out she was behind Sophie’s prank . . . well, she wasn’t sure what he would do. But it wouldn’t be good. Which was why she was there. Hopefully, she could correct her mistake before things got too out of hand.

Unfortunately, things had already gotten out of hand.

The click of boot heels had Sunny turning to see Principal Tucker and Sheriff Decker Carson stepping out of the office. She said a silent prayer that they would head in the opposite direction.

They didn’t. They headed straight toward Jace and Sunny. And she knew in her heart of hearts the sheriff wasn’t there togive a talk on bicycle safety. She watched in horror as he and the principal stopped at the door she and Jace stood next to. Decker nodded a grim greeting to them both before he followed the principal inside the classroom.

A classroom that held Sophie Mitchell.

Chapter Eleven

When Reid got the call from Sheriff Carson, his first thought had been that someone had witnessed him running Sunny off the road. The thought that Sophie had snuck out of the trailer and vandalized a business in town had never even crossed his mind.

But he was looking at the proof on the sheriff’s laptop screen that very second. The camera on the bank ATM across the street had caught the entire thing. Reid watched as the shadowy figure snuck across the roof of Nothin’ But Muffins with a can of paint and a paintbrush. When Decker zoomed in, there was Sophie wearing Reid’s black winter stocking cap and a big ol’ smile.

He turned to Sophie who sat slumped in the chair next to his. “What—?” He cut off when he realized he’d started the question wrong. It was obviouswhatshe’d been doing. “Why? Why would you climb up on the roof of the town bakery and deface a sign? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”

Sophie picked at a hole in the knee of her jeans. He couldn’t help feeling responsible for her wearing holey jeans as much ashe felt responsible for her defacing a sign. “I was trying to make the icky feeling go away,” she muttered.

“The icky feeling? What icky feeling?”

She sighed. “Never mind. You wouldn’t understand.”

He tried to hold in his anger, but damned if he could. “You’re right. I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all.” He pointed at the screen of the laptop. “I don’t understand why someone would want to do that—icky feeling or no icky feeling. It’s childish and irresponsible and just plain . . . stupid!” He wanted the word back as soon as it left his mouth, but it was too late.

Sophie lifted her gaze and he could read the hurt in her hazel eyes. “Stupid? Well, you’re stupid too. You’re a stupid, stupid stupid!” She burst into tears.

Reid rubbed a hand over his jaw and released a frustrated sigh as Decker closed his laptop and pulled a tissue from a box on his desk.

“Okay. How about if everyone takes a deep breath for a second?” He handed the tissue to Reid. Talk about stupid. It took him a good full minute and a questioning look from Decker before he figured out the sheriff wanted him to hand it to Sophie. Of course, when he tried to, she slapped it away.

“I don’t want anything from you!”

Reid crumpled the tissue in his fist with frustration just as Melba tapped on the door and stuck her head in.

“Sorry to interrupt, Sheriff, but Sunny Whitlock is here and she says she really needs to talk to you.”

“Tell her I’ll be out when I’m through here,” Decker said.

Melba hesitated. “Umm . . . she wants to talk to all three of you.”

“No!” Reid spoke a little too loudly, but all he needed was Sunny Whitlock adding to this drama. Although the information that Sunny was there had caused Sophie to stop crying. Somaybe she could help. Reid certainly didn’t know how to handle this.

Decker got up from his chair. “I’ll just go see what she needs.” He shot Reid a sympathetic look. “That will give you and Sophie some time to talk privately.”

Once he was gone, Reid turned to Sophie. Her tears had caused her makeup to smear and run. He held out the crumpled tissue. “You have . . . umm . . .” He waved a finger around his eye.

She jerked the tissue from his hand and proceeded to wipe her eyes and make an even bigger mess. Obviously, she wasn’t very good at cleaning up messes. Of course, neither was he. It seemed to be a family trait.

“Look, I wasn’t calling you stupid, Soph. I was saying what you did was stupid. And you have to agree that it was pretty stupid. You can’t go around vandalizing people’s property just because you have some bad feelings. If you have a bad feeling, you just need to deal with it. Bad feelings are part of life.”

She stared at him as if he’d just given her the worst advice ever. “That’s it? That’s what life is? Just feeling bad and dealing with it?”

When repeated back to him, he had to admit it sounded depressing as hell. “Well, no. There are good things about life too.”

“Really? Like what? Because, so far, my life hasn’t had too many of those.”

His hadn’t either, but he figured now wasn’t the time to point that out. “Climbing on a rooftop and vandalizing a sign is only going to make things worse not better.” A thought struck him. “How did you get up there anyway?”

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