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

if you did,” she said, asif she didn’t trust him to keep his word. “No one knows my business but me.”
    He grinned at her naiveté. “I can’t imagine anyone who’s grown up in a small town can keep anything about her life secret.”
    â€œI didn’t grow up here.” She shrugged. “Well, in a way I did. But I wasn’t born here. I moved here after I was already pregnant with Tommy. So no one knows…”
    â€œFather unknown,” he murmured.
    She gasped. “You looked at his birth certificate!”
    Regret increased the pounding in his head. Even as he’d pulled up the record, he’d known he was overstepping. And he knew why. He could have shared his own situation with Jessie, but like her, he didn’t want everybody discovering his secrets. “Why don’t you want anyone to find out who Tommy’s father is?” If the man was a threat, Chance had to know. It was his job to protect her and Tommy. “Is he dangerous?”
    She shook her head, anger flashing in her eyes. “You’re the one who’s dangerous. You’re disrupting my life. Digging into my private records, making promises to my son…” Her eyes glistened now with tears.
    Chance swallowed a groan of regret. She was right. “I’m sorry.”
    â€œYou should be sorry!” she yelled at him. “You had no right!” Then she turned away and stomped off down his driveway.
    Even though breathing was still an effort, he could have chased after her. But he’d already apologized. If he’d caught her, he might have done something stupid—something like he’d been tempted to do in the car when he’d leaned so close to her that their mouths had nearly touched.
    Staring after Jessie Phillips, he had to remind himself that the only relationship he was interested in was with his son. After his disastrous divorce, he could never trust any woman again, and especially not one whose behaviour reminded him so much of his ex. Jessie Phillips would not tempt him again.

Chapter Four
    What must he think of her? Did he actually believe she didn’t know who had fathered Tommy? That she’d slept around so much she’d had no idea?
    Heat rushed to her face, and she fanned herself with her hand as she kicked off her tangled blankets. She’d like to blame her temperature on the unusually warm spring weather rather than embarrassment. That would imply she cared what Sheriff Chance Drayton thought of her. And she didn’t.
    She didn’t care what anyone thought but Tommy. And he’d totally dropped the subject of his father, not asking her one question in the week since he’d filed his missing person report with the sheriff. He was over it—for now. Why couldn’t she let it go?
    It was Saturday, and she should have been snuggled under the blankets sleeping in. But instead, she’d tossed and turned since dawn. Early morning sunlight streamed through her blinds, but she closed her eyes again. The house was quiet. Maybe she could catch some sleep now.
    But just then a crash reverberated throughout the house. She jumped from her bed and ran down the hall to Tommy’s room. “What happened? Are you okay?”
    Since he didn’t have bunk beds, the noise wouldn’t have been so loud if he had fallen out of bed. The times it had happened before, his small body tumbling onto the floor had resulted in a dull thud and a murmured oath from him. Her hand trembling, she flipped on the light, which glinted off ceramic shards on the hardwood floor.
    Tommy sat cross-legged next to the remains of his broken piggy bank, a hammer against his knee. “That was loud, huh?” he remarked, his light blue eyes bright with excitement.
    â€œUh, yeah,” Jessie replied. “What are you doing? Why’d you break open piggy?”
    â€œI need to buy another baseball mitt,” he said as he unfolded