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

freckles on her nose. “I know you haven’t,” she said. “But I don’t think you should be left alone.”
    He snorted at the notion; since the divorce, that was all he knew. Hell, even before the divorce he’d been alone, except for Matthew, because he and Robyn had been so busy with their separate lives and goals. “I’m used to it. I’ll be fine.”
    â€œYou don’t have to be all by yourself,” she said.
    Maybe it was the antihistamines, but an impulse totease her overcame him. He leaned across the console, suppressing a grin as her eyes widened in surprise at his nearness. Then he lowered his voice and murmured, “I thought you had to go home…”
    She nodded then jerked back when her face nearly touched his. “I—I do. I—I wasn’t talking about me.”
    He might have intended to tease her, but with her lips so close to his, he was the one fighting to breathe now. And he suspected it had nothing to do with the allergy attack. He leaned away from her.
    â€œMrs. Wilson,” Jessie said, blurting the name out with a breath she’d apparently been holding. “She’s the one who offered to come back and sit with you.”
    The nurse had taken the older woman home to check on the cat Chance had found caught in the tractor in the barn. He glanced down at the deep scratches on his forearm and winced as he remembered how deeply the feline’s claws had sunk into his skin when he’d tried working it free of the rusty tractor frame.
    â€œThat was nice of her to offer,” he said, especially as he suspected the brusque old woman preferred her cats to humans. And because she did, her hair-covered clothes would set back his recovery. “But unnecessary.” He pushed open the door and had to use the frame to lever himself from the seat. Fighting for breath had sapped his strength. “I’ll send one of the deputies over to your place to collect the car in a little while.”
    â€œI’ll leave it and walk,” she said, turning off the ignition. “It’s not far.”
    He’d noticed the night before that his house was only a couple of blocks from the little Craftsman bungalow she and Tommy called home. This place, despite his fond memories of childhood summers spent at hisgrandmother’s, was still just a house. It wouldn’t be a home until his son was able to move in with him.
    He shifted his focus back to the woman now standing on her side of the sedan. “But how will Tommy know how cool you are unless he sees you driving the car?”
    A smile curved her lips again. “Forest Glen is a small town. He’ll find out.”
    Chance had only spent a couple of weeks here each of those long ago summers, and he’d loved the sense of freedom and security in the quiet country. The rest of his life he’d lived in Chicago—except for the two tours he’d spent in war zones. Hell, before he’d been deployed his marriage had become a war zone.
    â€œYou’re saying everyone knows everyone else’s business?” he asked, wondering how long Eleanor would keep his secret.
    She must have misunderstood his question because her voice cracked with anger as she warned him, “Don’t you dare ask around about me…about Tommy’s father.” Her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. She slammed the driver’s side door. “You can’t. You have no legal right to pry into my life.”
    Maybe all his years on the Chicago force had made him cynical, or his divorce had left him so bitter that he wanted to believe she was doing something wrong. But he had no evidence of a crime, so no reason to investigate her.
    â€œI won’t,” he assured her. He wouldn’t ask around; he wouldn’t make her the topic of speculation and gossip because that wouldn’t just affect her. It would affect her son, too.
    â€œYou wouldn’t learn anything