Page 7 of Lucky Cowboy

Her heart pounding with nerves, Val laid the brush down and hurried back into the sunshine as if those warm rays could dispel the clouds suddenly hovering over her. She took a deep breath before answering the call. Was this something to do with Biggs again? Was he making himself a nuisance somewhere she hadn’t yet heard about?

But her shaky hello was reciprocated with a buttery male voice that didn’t contain a smidge of warning or alarm. Sheriff Mark Talbot’s voice.

“How you doing?”

“H-how am I doing?” She stuttered his question back at him. “I’m okay, I guess. Why?”

He chuckled. “Just thought I’d check up on you. Been busy out there on the circuit?”

“Quite busy. Been down and back to Arizona recently.”

“Yeah? I went to Flagstaff once.”

Her heart ever so gradually slowed back into its normal rhythm. “Is this a social call, sheriff?”

“No,” he answered promptly, but then an additional tinge of care entered his tone. “This is me doing my due diligence with someone who, through no fault of her own, had to deal with a less than stellar encounter on my watch.”

Oh, she was at fault, all right. But the sheriff didn’t know that. Her youth and inexperience were no excuse. She should’ve seen through him faster, caught on to what type of man Biggs was sooner. It took a second or two for her to refocus on the conversation at hand.

“That’s sweet of you.” It was downright solicitous.

He chuckled again. “Sweet. Not sure how many of those I’ve arrested would use that term to identify me, but okay.”

She found herself smiling at this. Val remembered how sternly he’d behave while handling the problem of Biggs. She and the sheriff chatted casually, and she felt herself loosening up, her muscles relaxing as they made small talk.

“Surely someone has a higher opinion of you than that. I would imagine those you imprison to be the teeniest bit biased.”

“You could say that.” Humor became a living thing between them.

It took her dad observing her with an amused expression and a tilt of his head before she even realized that she’d taken too much of the good sheriff’s time. Granted, he’d called her, but still. Speaking with him had been easy. A little too easy if she was being honest. Their discussion had veered too close to flirting. It hadn’t quite gone that far, but it’d nuzzled against the edge of it.

She firmed up her voice, not becoming discourteous or anything, but her tone became much more business-like. “Is that all, sheriff, or is there anything else I should know?”

His tone followed suit to a certain degree. “Nothing for now. I’ll let you know if that changes.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

After that, they spoke their farewells and disconnected. If her father hadn’t been scrutinizing her so avidly, she thought she might’ve continued the call for longer.

“What was all that about?” her dad asked, curiosity twinkling in his eyes.

“Not much. The sheriff over in Rocky Ridge said he wanted to check in with me.”

Her dad frowned. “Why would he want to do that?”

Only after her father inquired about this did Val absorb that she’d let the cat out of the bag. At least partially. So now she had a choice to make. Let him in on more of the truth or continue to omit the majority from him.

“Well, probably because I had an interaction with Biggs while I visited the sheriff’s town.”

Her father appeared first shocked, then appalled. “What did that villain do?”

The thing was that her dad knew only what she’d told him prior to now. He knew that Val had fired him, and that he’d treated those he worked with terribly. He’d acted as if Mitzi and any members of staff he considered “beneath” him like they were livestock, ordering them around and getting in their face as he snapped his fingers.

He’d done it to Val, too, which she’d also mentioned. Just that much had infuriated her father enough for him to release a string of words from him she’d never heard him use before. She’d grown so concerned that her dad might tax himself too much, that she never explained anything beyond that.

Even saying Biggs’ name had caused her father’s complexion to turn bright red.

She didn’t dare admit to how Biggs succeeded in pulling a financial fast one on them. Nor did she confess to how he’d succeeded in stealing a sizable amount from their coffers. She’d certainly never tell him about becoming his romantic partner.

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