Read Single Dad Sheriff (Harlequin American Romance) for Free Online

morning.”
    â€œSo you think he already forgot about it?” Could a kid who, just yesterday, had been as determined as Tommy Phillips give up so easily? While the boy had seemed far older, he was still just eight. A kid. Maybe since he’d only been able to e-mail and chat on the phone with Matthew the past year, and was denied any visitation, Chance had forgotten how a child’s mind worked. Would his son forget about him this easily?
    Jessie nodded but spared him a glance that revealed her own doubts. “For now.”
    â€œDo you want me to talk to him?” he offered. Take back his promise? He wasn’t sure he could do that, though, if he looked into Tommy’s hopeful, vulnerable eyes again.
    Jessie must have realized that because she shook her head again. “No, like I said, he’s fine now. Let’s just forget all about this.”
    If only he could…
    But he wanted to know why Jessie had listed herbaby’s father as unknown. Unless she’d been a real wild teenager, he doubted that she didn’t know her son’s paternity. So if she knew, why would she have omitted to name Tommy’s dad? Had she been afraid of him? Was she still?
    Chance had glimpsed that fear in her eyes when he’d told her what Tommy wanted from him. But she didn’t act like the battered women he’d met during his years in law enforcement in Chicago. She didn’t shy away from him as if afraid to be touched. In fact, she’d reached for him back at the doctor’s office, wrapping her arm around him. To help him.
    After she’d left the exam room, the doctor and nurse had sung her praises about how she juggled her work and nursing school schedule around Tommy’s. That as hard a worker as she was, she was a better mother. So why had she refused the boy a relationship with his father? Maybe if he knew her reasons he could understand Robyn’s better. Not forgive—never forgive—but at least understand…
    He opened his mouth, but a cough smothered the questions he wanted to ask. By the time the spasm passed, she’d pulled the car into his driveway. Even if he hadn’t given his address to her for those medical records, she had probably known where he lived. He doubted there were any secrets in this town but hers.
    â€œDo you have anyone who can check on you?” she asked.
    He shook his head but couldn’t quite shake off the loneliness that tugged at him. The only person he’d known in Forest Glen had died while he’d been deployed the first time. Grandma Drayton, aware of how much he’d loved the summers he’d spent with her, hadleft him this house. In the middle of a five-acre lot, the Victorian farmhouse sat back from the tree-lined road. The freshly budded leaves on the tall oaks in the yard cast shadows across the wraparound porch. He’d fixed its worn floorboards, but he needed to replace some of the spindles in the decorative railing. The teal and purple trim clashed with the warm yellow siding. Grandma had loved her bright colors, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to repaint the house. Hell, if things didn’t work out the way he wanted, he might not even be able to continue living here.
    â€œI can’t stay,” she said. “I’ve already left Tommy at the Johnsons’ too long. I don’t want to interfere with any of their plans for the evening.”
    â€œI haven’t asked you to stay,” he pointed out, though he was tempted to do just that. He wanted to talk to her, but while the antihistamines had reduced the swelling, his lids were heavy with drowsiness, which was probably why Dr. Malewitz had insisted on Jessie driving him home. With his senses muddled, it was safer for him if she wasn’t around because he might forget everything but how beautiful she was.
    Especially now as color flushed her face, darkening her pale skin to nearly the same shade as those sparse