Page 2 of Dairy and Deadly

“A wedding that you crashed,” he couldn’t resist pointing out as he caught the jacket. Her nearness made his heart thump a little harder, answering the biggest question burning inside him ever since their first encounter. Though she appeared to be making no effort to do so, she’d managed to do what no other woman had been able to do for the past three years. She’d captured his interest.

He’d gone on a few dates after his arrival to Heart Lake, mostly to keep people from wondering why a guy in his late twenties wasn’t interested in dating. However, he’d only been going through the motions. He hadn’t followed any of them up with a second date because his heart wasn’t in it, but now it was. Did that make him a bad person? Disloyal to the memory of the young wife and mother-to-be who’d tragically been torn from his life?

“Whatever.” Ashley sounded distracted as she jammed a hand inside one of her coat pockets and pulled out a cell phone. She bent her head over it, frowning.

“Are you denying you crashed a double wedding for two couples you’d never laid eyes on in your life?” He dropped his jacket on his desk, unaccustomed to being ignored by the female species. The way she was frowning, though, made him wonder if she’d received some bad news.

“Not at all. Um…sorry.” She glanced up from her phone, wrinkling her nose ruefully. “I’m not trying to be rude here. Just had a message come through that I’ve been waiting a few hours for.”

“New boyfriend?” he shot back, hoping to catch her off guard. The first time they’d met, she’d made a salty reference to breaking things off with her fiancé. The breakup had sounded recent.

She rolled her gorgeous hazel eyes at him before answering. “I’ve only been in town for a few days, remember? To rest, not shop for a rebound relationship.”

Her announcement fascinated him. If she wasn’t in a rush to pair off again, it meant she would be single for a while, and he was alright with that. More than alright. Maybe it would give him the time he needed to figure out when and if his own heart would ever be available again.

“Two coffees coming up,” he drawled. “How do you like yours?” His gaze swept over the frown riding the middle of her forehead, underscoring the fact that she must have received bad news. He hoped it wasn’t about her health. There were shadows beneath her eyes and an aura of vulnerability in her heart-shaped features that tugged at his sympathies. Both were a testament to the fact that she was very much still recovering from her injuries, not that she would welcome his sympathy. She’d been shot in the line of duty. That much he knew, though he didn’t have any other details.

“Black. Thanks.” She went back to fiddling with her cell phone.

He exited the room without another word and made his way to the employee lounge a few doors down. He returned with two steaming cups of black coffee, half afraid she wouldn’t be sitting there when he got back.

Not only was she present, her cell phone was no longer in sight.

He wordlessly held out one of the cardboard cups he’d capped and stuck a coffee straw in.

She reached for it with a grateful sigh. “Johnny Cuba, you just made my morning alotbetter.”

His heart leaped at her words, but all he did was raise his eyebrows at her. “It’s good coffee. I’ll give you that.” He took a seat in the chair beside her, uncapping his coffee to let it cool some.

She chuckled as she watched him. “It’s probably best if I leave my lid on. We don’t want a repeat of what happened the last time I got near you with a cup of scalding liquid.”

He reached up to run the pads of his fingers over the spot on his chin she’d burned with the hot cider she’d splashed on him. He’d expected it to blister, but it hadn’t. “Whatever you put on the burn did the trick.” She’d produced a tube of something gooey from her pocket and applied it to the affected area.

She looked relieved. “Petroleum jelly.”

He changed the subject. “How’s your vacation going?”

She drew a deep breath and let it out in a way that gave him the impression she was stalling for time to fabricate an answer. “It’s not really a vacation. It’s more of a…” She paused and shook her head. “I just needed to get away from the noise of the city, I guess. That, and my family’s never-ending drama.”

“Oh?” Sensing she’d given him a partial truth, his interest shot upward several more degrees.

She took a sip of her coffee, looking like she was tasting something bitter. “I lost my mom a few years ago. My dad, who I wasn’t even aware was dating again, remarried a few months ago.” She waved a hand. “Unfortunately, the ceremony took place three days after I was shot. I wasn’t in any condition to serve as a bridesmaid, but that’s not the way they tell it.”

“A bridesmaid?” Indignation simmered through his veins on her behalf. “I should think not!” The very idea that her family had expected something like that of her was preposterous.

Her lips tightened. “Like my ex, they’ve convinced themselves I’m wallowing into some sort of post-recovery funk that I’m taking out on the rest of the world.”

As if!He snorted. “That’s crazy! It takes more than a few days to heal from stuff like that.” Alotmore time, and not just from the physical part of the wound. After nearly being trampled to death by the last bull he’d ridden, he knew what he was talking about. A person needed time to heal on both the inside and the outside, and the inside part could take a lot longer.

“That’s one of the kindest things anyone has ever said to me.” A faint smile curved Ashley’s lips, drawing his gaze to her mouth. Her full, rosy lips and slight overbite struck him as kissable — very, very kissable, though she’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in stuff like that. Not right now, at any rate. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure he had any business being interested in stuff like that at the moment, either.

He yanked his gaze higher. “That’s two points in my column — for coffee and compliments.” He mentally gave her a dozen points for simply showing up.

“How’s Caro?” she asked suddenly.

“How would I know?” He scowled at her, wondering why she was bringing up the new events director at Chester Farm all of a sudden. He had zero interest in bringing the coy southern belle into their conversation. Caro was cute and fun to be around, but she hadn’t exactly been subtle with the hints she’d dropped about “working their way toward their first date.” Even if he’d been in the market for a girlfriend, he didn’t think it would be wise to work his way toward anything with her. There was something about Caro Madison that stirred his caution. He couldn’t say what it was, only that it was there.

“My bad.” Ashley smirked into her cup of coffee. “I got the impression you two were…” She waved a hand expressively. “You know. Together.”

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