Close To The Edge (Westen #2) (35 page)

“Those two supermodels are
your
sisters?” Clint asked, which gained him his wife’s elbow to his ribs. He looked at her. “What?”

Emma gave him a disgusted look while Bobby scooted out of the booth on an intercept course with Chloe and Dylan as they entered the café.

“Sis!” Dylan wrapped her arms around her and hugged tight.

“Are you okay?” Chloe asked after getting her own hug.

“Yes. I told you that yesterday. What are you two doing here? Dylan’s supposed to be getting ready for graduation from med school and you have cases to handle.”

“We’ve decided to put an end to this crazy PI scheme of yours, Bobby.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest like she was interrogating a witness. “It’s time you came home before you get hurt.”

Dylan nodded. “Be reasonable, sis. You’re a teacher. You’re not cut out for police work.”

Her sisters’ lack of confidence in her hurt. Bobby wasn’t sure how to tell them they were wrong without causing a major family fight in the middle of Lorna’s café, but she intended to tell them to mind their own damn business.

“You shouldn’t sell your sister short,” Gage said, right behind her.

“And you are?” Chloe asked, sizing him up from head to toe.

“Gage Justice, Westen’s sheriff.”

Chloe raised one eyebrow. “The man who almost got our sister killed?”

Bobby couldn’t believe her sister’s rudeness. “Chloe Elizabeth Roberts, that was uncalled for.”

“I sent you up here to do a simple question-and-answer session with the bank’s loan officer, Bobby. Next thing I know, you’re involved with dead bodies, drug labs and explosions. You’re way over your head here and he’s responsible for it. Someone needs to look after you.”

“I don’t need—” She started to defend herself.

“Your sister not only solved this case and helped stop the drugs being manufactured near our town,” Gage stepped up and draped his good arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close so no one would misunderstand their relationship, “she also saved my life.”

The shocked looks on her sisters’ faces were priceless.

Chloe recovered first. “Well if the case is finished, it’s time for you to come home.”

“She can’t,” Gage said firmly.

“I can’t?” Bobby looked up at him.

“I need you.”

“You do?” Her heart gave a little flutter.

“You’re a deputy in Westen. You have a filing system to finish decoding.”

“Bobby’s a deputy?” Chloe asked.

The renewed shock in her sister’s voice irritated Bobby, but the smoldering depth of Gage's gaze held her captive.

“Your sister is a fine deputy. She’s courageous, smart, patient and good at solving puzzles. More importantly…” He paused.

“More importantly?” Dylan prodded from behind her.

“She made me fall in love with her.” Gage took Bobby’s hand in his, bringing it to his lips to press a kiss to her knuckles. “Trapped in that tunnel made me realize how short life is. I don’t want to spend another minute without you by my side. Bobby Roberts, will you marry me?”

Behind her, Bobby heard both her sisters suck in their breath, but no protests came from either. Good thing. She’d hate to have to
not
invite them to her wedding. And by God, she was going to marry this big, slightly autocratic man, and love every second of it.

“Bobby?” Gage asked a bit hesitantly.

Oh, crap! She’d forgotten to answer him. “Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you.”

He pulled her up against his solid frame and kissed her so passionately it left little doubt to her or anyone else how much he loved her.

Moments later they were separated by well-wishing friends and family. Bobby’s sisters both hugged her after she reassured them she loved Gage beyond reason. She introduced them to her new friends and soon-to-be family.

Finally, sheltered in the circle of Gage’s arms once more, Bobby smiled at the small gathering as they toasted their engagement with Lorna’s sweet tea all around.

“So, Gunslinger, think things will ever get back to normal around here?” Deke asked.

Before Gage could answer, Jason walked into the café. “Sheriff, hate to break up the party, but Ralph’s cows are out again.”

Bobby and Gage exchanged looks then cracked up.

Life in Westen might never change, but it would
never
be normal.

The End

Author Bio

Suzanne Ferrell

Suzanne discovered romance novels in her aunt's hidden stash one summer as a teenager. From that moment on she knew two things: she loved romance stories and someday she'd be writing her own. Her love for romances has only grown over the years. It took her a number of years and a secondary career as a nurse to finally start writing her own stories.

A double finalist in the Romance Writer's of America's 2006 Golden Heart with her manuscripts, KIDNAPPED and HUNTED (Romantic Suspense), Suzanne has also won The Beacon Unpublished and the CTRWA's contests in the erotica categories with her book, The Surrender Of Lacy Morgan.

Suzanne's sexy stories, whether they be her steamy Western eroticas, her on the edge of your seat romantic suspense, or the heart warming small town stories, will keep you thinking about her characters long after their Happy Ever After is achieved. Visit Suzanne Ferrell’s website at
www.suzanneferrell.com

Other Books by Suzanne Ferrell

Close To Home

Excerpt:

Chapter One

“
W
hat you need is a man in your life, Emma.”

Emma Lewis rolled her eyes at the comment and stacked a pile of celery to chop.

Luckily, she had her back to her boss, Lorna Doone—named after the cookie—the owner of the Peaches ’N Cream café. Not that Lorna would fire her for the action. Lorna thought of herself as the unofficial matchmaker of Westen. Almost daily, she carried on about some part of someone’s life in the small Ohio town.

Apparently today was Emma’s turn.

“What I need is to get this prep work done before the lunch crowd gets here.” She looked through the pass-through window to where her twin sons sat on stools eating their breakfast at the café’s counter. “Benjamin and Brian, I better see all that oatmeal gone or no cookies for later. You hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they both muttered, shoving spoonfuls of oatmeal in their mouths.

She glanced at the elderly lady seated next to the boys. Her mother stared off into space, something she’d been doing a little more since Daddy passed away back in the spring. “You okay, Mama?”

Isabelle Lewis blinked then smiled. “Why yes, dear. And Lorna’s right. You do need a man in your life.”

“Not you, too, Mama.” Emma shook her head and began chopping. “Besides, I already have two men in my life.” She winked at her sons, which sent them into fits of small boy giggles.

“Mom’s right, Em,” Rachel, Lorna’s daughter, chimed in as she filled the ketchup bottles lined up in a row on the lunch counter. “You need someone, tall, dark, handsome…”

“Like the doc’s nephew,” Harriett, the doc’s nurse, said between sips of Lorna’s sweet tea.

“Yeah, him.” Rachel leaned one elbow on the counter. “He’s so…hot. That’s who you need to hook up with, Em.”

“Harriett, don’t you have patients to see?” Emma peeled two onions and halved them on the cutting board.

“Clint’s never been married, has he, Harriett?” Lorna carried out a tray of clean glasses and began lining them up next to the soda fountain.

“No. He came close about a year ago then it all sort of fell apart. Doc and Caroline were concerned about him for a while, but now he’s staying in Westen while the Doc takes Caroline cruising around the world.”

“The poor guy’s heartbroken and in need of a good woman.” Rachel looked at Emma through the pass-through. “Someone like our Em, huh?”

“Of course. Besides, Emma works too hard. A man to take care of her would be so wonderful.” Mama picked up her toast and scooted down next to Harriett. “How long will Clint be in town this time?”

Emma diced the onion into smaller and smaller pieces.

Dear God, save her. Lorna, Harriett and now her mother. The only person missing was the minister’s wife and there’d be no stopping them until they had her dating and marrying the fill-in doctor. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Her ex, Dwayne Hazard, cured her of ever trusting a doctor under fifty again. Especially not one as handsome as she remembered Clint Preston.

For a moment she studied her sons, their copper-colored hair shining in the early morning light, heads bent together as they whispered something back and forth. Those were the only two good things she’d gotten from her ex.

She grabbed three roasted chicken breasts and peeled the skin off, then the bones.

“The poor girl hasn’t dated anyone since coming home with the boys. Of course they were so small then, they took both of us all day to care for. And they certainly need a father,” her mother said.

“That was nearly seven years ago, Isabelle. It’s time for her to find someone.” Lorna leaned over the counter.

“I’m standing right here,” Emma called from the kitchen as she lined the chicken up and chopped with a vengeance.

“What we need is a way to get her to meet the doc’s nephew.”

“Maybe she could come down with something,” Rachel chimed in, her shoulders shaking with hidden mirth.

Emma shot her an I’m-going-to-hurt-you glare.

Rachel’s shoulders shook harder.

“No, we wouldn’t want him to see her sick,” Lorna said, slipping a straw between her lips and chewing on the end. Since she stopped smoking, she’d taken up straw chewing to fill the need for oral fixation.

“Oh, dear no,” Mama agreed. “The poor child gets all pale and splotchy when she’s running a fever. You remember last winter when she had bronchitis, don’t you?”

Harriett nodded. “Sure do. Wasn’t a pretty sight at all. What we need is a minor injury.”

“I can
hear
you, you know.”

What she needed wasn’t a man. What she needed was a month’s vacation in a sunny place, with a masseuse, good margaritas and a hot tub. Somewhere far away from Westen.

“Oh, yes. Something where he’ll have to stitch her up.”

“See her as a damsel in distress.”

“That’s it! Lorna, I’m taking my break.” Emma dropped her knife, pulled off her apron, grabbed her tea and stomped out the back door.

“What are we going to do with all these chopped vegetables and chicken?” Lorna called after her.

“Add mayo and cranberries for chicken salad, or make potpie. I don’t care!” Emma yelled over her shoulder just before the screen door slammed.

“Poor dear, she really does need someone to help her.”

“A man to love her.”

“What we need is a good accident.”

End of Excerpt

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