Page 38 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“How’s your credit score?”
“Danged if I know,” he said. “Why?”
She shrugged. “You made a good point before about not having a place of your own. Maybe it’s time to start lookin’.” She reached for her radio mic to report in, giving him an apologetic wave.
He waved back and headed to his Jeep. Drew stepped out of the way, and Jeremiah got in, simultaneously moving the pup to the passenger side. Willow watched him back out into the road and drive away as Drew came across the lot toward her.
She leaned on the open window and said, “Girl, what are you doin’?”
“My best to keep my hands off him,” Willow replied.
“Shouldn’t be so hard. You heard him say he was deceivin’ you.”
“And yet I keep thinkin’, what better way to find out how he’s deceivin’ me than gettin’ a little closer? You know?”
“How do you get closer than sex?”
Willow shrugged. “More sex?”
“You be safe, you hear me? Until you know what he’s lyin’ about, make his condom wear a condom!”
Willow’s shocked laugh sounded like a bark.
But then Drew stopped grinning. “Protect your heart, too, cuz,” she said, her voice going softer, her face, serious. “At least you know he has ulterior motives goin’ in.”
Willow nodded. “Forewarned is forearmed,” she said.
“Then again, how bad can he be?” Drew asked. “He saved a puppy.”
“Yeah,” Willow said. She looked down the road in the direction he’d gone and breathed the word again. “Yeah.”
The pup was lying on the rug near the side door, snoring like a chainsaw. He was perpetually hungry, and hilariously clumsy, even tripping over his long ears sometimes. Smart, too. He’d learned multiple commands today with almost no effort at all.
It was midnight. Willow’s shift was over.
He looked at his phone, tipped his head to one side. It hadn’t been a very productive night. He’d taken the pup with him back to the former Bluebonnet Inn an hour ago and thrown the main power switch at the electric pole out front. Shut everything down including the old cameras he’d noticed there, if they were still working. He doubted they were, but still.
He’d spent forty-five minutes waving his metal detector, which he’d driven all the way to El Paso to buy, over every inch of that back yard. Aside from some odds and ends—a pair of eyeglass frames with no lenses, some barbed wire, and a handful of roofing nails—he’d found nothing.
He looked at his phone again. It was surprising to him how much he wanted to call Willow.
Then call her, he thought. It was no big deal. He was aching to get her back into his bed. And, yes, he liked her. She was easy to be with. And she’d listened to him today; she’d heard him when he’d said someone might be deliberately accusing him of petty crimes around town.
She was on her way home right now, and within a few minutes would be driving past the turnoff for the Texas Brand, and this very bunkhouse.
He tapped her face on his phone. He’d snapped a pic of her on her horse, Sundance, one day awhile back when they’d all gone riding. Bright smile, cowboy hat, long dark hair flying in the breeze—that was the photo on her contact entry in his phone.
She picked up on the first ring. “Why am I not surprised you’re callin’ at this particular time of the evenin’?”
“I don’t know. Why are you not surprised?” he asked.
She hesitated for a moment before answering. “Because I’m drivin’ home, and I’m not comin’ over there.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I’m better manscaped than I’ve ever been in my life.”
She laughed softly. Then, “Takin’ things for granted, aren’t you?”
“Not even a little bit. I’m just…a hopeful guy.”
