Page 16 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“We like swimmin’,” explained the second.
“How’d you like it if some little heathen threw you in the creek?” asked the long-suffering big brother, hugging his dog.
The pup was light brown, with a black face. His legs were too long, and his head and feet were too big for his body.
Willow glanced at the grandparents, and at the girls, and then she crouched down low to put herself at eye-level with them. “Cruelty to animals is against the law. But I don’t think you meant to be cruel, did you?”
They shook their heads.
“From now on, you treat that puppy just like you would a little newborn baby, cause that’s what he is, really. And part of your job from now on is to protect him and watch out for him. And when he grows up, he’ll protect and watch over you. You think you can you do that?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” they said in unison.
“You promise?”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“Well, all right then. I’ll let you off with a warnin’ this time, long as you keep that promise.”
They turned and ran back to their own picnic table, followed by their brother, carrying his wet pup. Of them all, the puppy seemed the least upset by events.
The grandparents thanked Jeremiah profusely, then went limping back and ordered the kids to pack up their toys and get back in the car. They were taking their meal to go. They’d clearly had enough.
Willow faced Jeremiah, and he said, “Why are you smiling?”
“I didn’t know I was.” But she must be. She was suffused in what felt like warm syrup from her head to her toes, and she wasn’t even sure why. Her throat was tight, and her eyes were suspiciously warm.
She nodded at the food. “You want to eat soakin’ wet, or…”
He peeled off his T-shirt, and she stopped smiling, and that warm syrup heated to a low simmer as she gawked at his chest and shoulders, and when he turned to drape the T-shirt over a nearby tree limb, his back.
Suddenly aware she hadn’t done so in too long, Willow took a breath, and it might’ve been noisy.
“You okay, Willow?”
“Good. Good.” His eyes are up there. She lifted her gaze. He was sitting down, wet jeans and all, and reaching for his meal.
So she sat down across from him and reached for hers. It was perfect, exactly what she always got there.
“It’s a little creepy you knowin’ my order by heart, you know that, Gringo?”
He looked across at her. “I can see that. It isn’t that I stalked you. I just heard you order it when we were with the whole gang a few weeks ago, and it stuck in my mind.”
She remembered. It had been hot, and the entire tribe of cousins, adopted cousins, and cousins-in-law had come for ice cream one Sunday.
“You got some kind of super-powered memory, do you?” It was so distracting, talking to him naked from the waist up. She took a long pull from her straw, then focused on her sandwich.
“Just where you’re concerned,” he said.
She stopped chewing, then finished and drank to wash it down. “Why?”
“Why what?” He’d downed half his burger already.
“Why just where I’m concerned?”
He shrugged and kept on eating. Between bites, he said, “I don’t really know. Something about you makes me…pay attention. That’s all. I swear I’m not creepy.”
She laughed and then when she caught hold of herself again, she said, “You jumped in a creek to save a puppy, Gringo. You’re the furthest thing from creepy.”
