Being Emma
Authors: Jeanne Harrell
Tags: #love, #western, #austen, #archery, #western adventure romance
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2014 by Jeanne Harrell
All Rights Reserved.
Published by Jeanne Harrell on
Smashwords
Thank you for downloading my book! I am happy
that you have made it part of your library.
No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author
and/or publisher. No part of this publication may be sold or hired,
without written permission from the author.
Actions in the book were inspired by real
events.
Special thanks to my editor, Pam Kilrain.
Dedicated to Jane and her wonderful
books…
Rancher’s Girl
Whisperer
Always and Forever
PROLOGUE
She never was a girly-girl and sometimes it
was a real problem…
Sure, her tenth birthday party had been lots
of fun with cake and ice cream, and all her friends were there too…
Her brothers had put shiny decorations around the house and her
sister had made her favorite chocolate cake with strawberry filling
in between the layers… Just how she liked it. After playing some
games and riding ponies in the back yard, she had opened her many
gifts.
She received that new saddle that she wanted
and other horse related gifts. Between playing cowboy and cop, she
wasn’t exactly a soft and sweet girl, but someone gave her a
doll... Whoever thought she’d like that?
Later that night in bed, she was happy. It
had been a good day… She tiptoed to her window so as not to awaken
the family dogs that had crawled in with her. She leaned against
the windowsill and gazed out. It seemed like an enormous black
blanket had been hung up with all these pretty lights twinkling
down.
The little girl looking up into the starry
sky saw one big, bright star in particular. Her daddy had told her
that it was Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love. Ick… She
wasn’t going to think too much about love — There were many more
fun things to do.
She wanted to be a cowboy like her brothers
for a while. Or maybe a bronc rider… She wasn’t your typical little
girl… The world beckoned and she wanted to have many adventures
–
The only adventure Janie wasn’t willing to
try was love…
CHAPTER ONE
You’re kidding… It’s morning already?
Janie yawned, stretched and then reached
over to slam her hand down on the noisy alarm clock. She probably
had already hit the snooze button once, but she was tired from her
late night. She’d taken a call around eleven just outside of town
on the road up to Kingsbury, close to Lake Tahoe. Domestic
violence… Never a fun call… And this one ranked up there to being
one of the worst. Kids were involved, wife beating, drugs, the
usual – Or it seemed more usual these days than in the
past.
Janie had been a deputy sheriff in the
Naples’ Sheriff’s Office for three years now. She took courses at
the University of Nevada in Reno and had been hired right out of
school. Generally, she enjoyed her work in law enforcement,
although there were the occasional times, like last night, when
things could get unpleasant. Also, her family, the Johnsons,
sometimes had a little difficulty with the fact that she had
undertaken such a serious position as peace officer. Her brothers,
Jesse, Colt, Joey and Miles, were ranchers and artists, and sister,
Meg, was a chef. Her brother, Miles, had teased her incessantly
about going into police work until she finally laid him out flat
with her Tae Kwon Do skills at a party once. But he’d asked for it
and never bothered her again…
She got up, rubbed her eyes and shook her
head to clear a few cobwebs before heading into the shower. Her
slightly-worse-for-wear alarm clock had informed her that she had
thirty minutes to get to the office for the sheriff, Bud Moody, was
having a staff meeting. That would include the three deputy
sheriffs and office staff. Since he had meetings so rarely, she
knew this would be important and wanted to be punctual. A late
night domestic call was just part of the job.
Janie dressed quickly after having downed a
cup of coffee. Reaching for her Pop Tarts, she remembered what her
mother had said about just eating junk food for breakfast. However,
she hadn’t had time to shop this week – again – and glanced over at
the bag of apples on the counter that her friend, Craig, had given
her. Okay… she put the Pop Tart back and picked out one of the
apples from the bag. On second thought… she smiled and grabbed the
Pop Tart too. Deal with it, folks…
She didn’t exactly speed to the office, but
Janie didn’t take her time either.
She pulled up and parked her car next to
Bud’s. It looked like everyone was there already. Great…
Bud looked up from behind his desk as Janie
breezed in. He grinned at her. She was so like her mother, Lily, in
temperament, but looked more like her father, Sandy. His
association with the Johnson family went way back.
“…I’m not late…”
“No, but you’re pushing it. Late night?”
Janie sat down by Ethan and James, the other
deputy sheriffs. They grinned at his comment. She gave them both a
cool look.
“Guys… I was on duty last night, okay?” Ethan
shrugged his shoulders.
“Dispatch said it was a domestic dispute
call. How’d it go? I see in the report you didn’t call for backup.”
Bud glanced from the report in his hands to her.
“No. The guy calmed down when I arrived… You
know how I’m always going on about not wanting to be treated any
differently just because I’m a woman?”
Ethan laughed. “Is this a trick question?”
James and Bud laughed too.
“Ha Ha. Well, it actually helped last night
that I’m female. The man de-escalated just looking at me. Maybe
seeing a woman in a police uniform made him think twice about his
actions.”
“Maybe…” Bud gave her a hard look. “But next
time, call for backup. We’ve seen too many of these cases explode
with the dry timber. Two officers for domestic dispute, got
it?”
“Yes sir.”
“… I’ve got good news this morning, which is
why I called the meeting. The town manager just told me about our
new line item amount in the budget.” He smiled broadly. “Naples
raised several million dollars with the town fundraiser last week,
more than last year, and the town is increasing our budget with
$500,000.” Everyone was stunned…
“You’re kidding, Sheriff…” James blinked. It
was hard to believe.
“Yes, I know. Usually we have to beg the city
council for equipment and supplies, but apparently the town’s
flush. Therefore… so are we!”
A round of applause with smiles galore and
then Bud held up his hand for silence.
“Now comes the fun part… Let’s take some time
to figure out how to spend it. The office staff, I know, has some
computer issues to deal with.” He looked over at the secretary and
dispatcher who nodded at him. “But you deputies probably have a
better handle on equipment necessities than I do.”
Janie nodded. “Sheriff, could we get a new
vehicle too?”
“Good idea.” Ethan agreed with her.
“Yes, that was on my list of necessities. The
ones we have are pretty worn-out and in need of servicing. I want
you all to take a week, think about what you need and submit it in
writing to me by next Thursday. Everyone all right with that?”
Nods and comments of “Sure, Sheriff” were
heard.
“Then that’s it for today. Back to work…” Bud
headed into another office with the secretary to discuss her
computer problems. A call came in and James took it. Ethan walked
over to Janie as she was getting up to leave.
“
How
about some practice at the gun range? I need to get some practice
hours in.” Ethan watched Janie turn that over
. Pretty girl.
Lovely, dark blonde hair
twisted up in a no-nonsense ponytail. Cool blue eyes. He’d always
had a bit of a crush on Janie, but had never acted on it. And he
had never seen anything in her eyes that signaled she thought of
him that way either.
“You know, that would be great actually. I
wanted to get in a workout today, but I’ll do that after work. I
need to get in some hours myself.”
“Do you want to drive up with me?” He hoped
she’d say yes.
“Hmm… Better not. I have to take some
paperwork over to City Hall later. It’s close to the gun range, so
I’ll just go over after the shoot.”
“Okay then. I’ll meet you there.”
Janie thought about that scene for a minute
while getting in her car and buckling up. Ethan had been trying to
get her to do things with him lately. What was that about? He was a
nice looking man, tall, with brown hair, and was good at his job.
And, of course, the sheriff’s son… Huh… That’s all she could think
of to say about him. Guess that was it then. She headed for the gun
range and thought no more about it.
* * *
The shooting range where the local police in
the whole Carson City area practiced was at a range about a mile
north of Naples. There were different sections to it for stationary
and moving targets. SWAT teams, detectives, cops, and deputy
sheriffs all mingled when getting in their monthly practice hours.
It was a necessary and ongoing requirement of any law enforcement
job. As soon as Janie stepped foot onto the practice range, the
smell of gunpowder filled her nose. A little rain had fallen the
night before and some dampness covered part of the ground where
they walked.
Janie and Ethan found empty stalls to
practice with measured targets first. They put on earmuffs and
protective glasses and took their police revolvers out to check
them. They both used Glocks, as many police departments did, and
drew them out carefully. Janie took her time to make sure her
weapon was functioning properly and straddled her shooting line.
After loading new cartridges, they both got off six shots and then
checked to see how they did. Janie’s shots were closer to the
center of the target than Ethan’s. He whistled appreciatively.
“Nice shooting, deputy.”
“Thanks. Your shots are pretty good too.
Let’s set them up again.”
They practiced at this section of the range
for a good half hour and then decided to go to another section
where they could practice walking shots.
Finding an area that was not being used,
Janie and Ethan stood side-by-side and began their practice round.
Ethan looked at Janie and nodded.
They dropped flat on the ground to lie prone
and then got off three shots. Then they rose to stand with one knee
on the ground in a kneeling position and shot three more rounds.
Last they stood up straight and got off three more rounds for this
practice round. After they’d finished, they walked over to the
stationary target. It was made of a round piece of rusted metal
hung in a metal frame. However, it didn’t always stay still if the
wind was blowing, so their stationary practice round became a
moving target as well.
Ethan bested her this time and Janie
acknowledged it. They decided to practice for another half hour to
get in a full hour for this time out. Leaving the gun range, Ethan
looked over at Janie and admired a woman who could shoot so well.
She did extremely well in the prone position and her standing shots
were good as well. He thought she looked very attractive indeed
practicing with her weapon…