Single Dad Sheriff (Harlequin American Romance) (12 page)

“So why does Chance have to stay there so long?” Tommy asked. “We didn't have to spend the night when we drove down to the zoo.”

The kid had an incredible memory. “Chance is going to talk to your dad. Before I tell him about you, we need to make sure that he'd be a good dad.”

Tommy nodded. “Chance wants to make sure he's a good guy, not a crook.”

She laughed at his perceptiveness. “Yes.”

“I don't care.”

“Well, I do, honey. I don't want him spending time with you if he's changed from the nice young man I remember.”

“If he was nice, how come you didn't marry him?” he asked.

“Because he didn't love me,” she admitted, knowing that back then she probably would have said yes had he proposed. But then she would have wound up like her cousin, divorced once she'd discovered what love really was. “That's why I didn't tell him about you,” she explained. “I didn't want him to be with me just because of you.”

Tommy nodded. Maybe he wasn't too young to understand.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I still should have told him about you. And I'm going to do that soon, once Chance comes back.”

Tommy shook his head. “But I don't want
him
anymore.” He jumped up and pushed back his chair with such force that it toppled over. Barking erupted as he startled the labradoodle puppy awake from its bed in the corner of the kitchen. “I don't want my dad! I want Chance to be my dad and Matt to be my brother.” Tears streaked down his face. “I want Chance…”

He ran from the room, the curly-haired puppy on his heels.

Instead of chasing after them, Jessie pushed her plate toward the center of the table and laid her head on her arms. She felt like crying, too, because he wasn't the only one who wanted Chance.

 

“H
EY
,” T
OMMY SAID
when Matthew answered the phone. “Are you home yet?”

“No.”

“You're still driving?” Matthew and Chance had left early that morning because Tommy had had to get up really early for him and his mom to say goodbye. He'd cried so hard watching his new friend drive off with Chance, but that was probably because he'd been so tired.

“No, this crappy apartment isn't home,” Matt replied, sounding as if he had a runny nose. “I want to come back to Forest Glen.”

“Yeah, it would be so cool if you could move here,” Tommy said.

“Are you taking care of Cookie?” Matt asked.

He glanced down on the floor where the little yellow dog chewed on one of his shoes. His mom wouldn't like that the new tennis shoe was all torn and slobbery. But Tommy didn't care. He wasn't too happy with his mom right now. Or with anything else.

“Yeah…but just till your dad gets back here,” Tommy said. “Cookie's your dog.”

“
Our
dog,” Matthew corrected him. “My dad's not home yet? He left a while ago—after him and my mom got done fighting.”

“They were fighting?” Tommy couldn't imagine Chance getting mad at anyone, but then Matt's mom had been keeping him away from Chance. That had probably made him mad. Would Tommy's dad be mad that his mom had kept him away from Tommy?

“Yeah.” Matt sighed. “I guess it's cool that they're fighting over me, you know. That they both want me.” But he didn't sound like he really thought it was cool, especially since he sniffed again. “I just think it's really lame that I can't pick.”

“Who would you pick?” Tommy wondered.

“I love my mom,” Matt said. “She's not around a whole lot, but she has a really important job. So I get that she's busy. But I can always call her. She never goes out of the country. If I needed her, she'd be there for me.”

“So would your dad,” Tommy defended Chance. “He's the sheriff. He's there for everybody.”

“Mom says that's the problem,” his friend explained. “He's there for everybody else but us.”

Tommy didn't like Matt's mom very much. “Do you believe her?”

Matt sighed again. “I don't know who to believe,”
he admitted. “Dad promised me that he'd be part of my life now, that we'd spend time together, that I'll always come first with him.”

“You can believe him,” Tommy said. “He kept his promise to me.”

“What promise?” Matt asked.

“The first time we met I asked him to find my real dad, and he has.”

“You don't sound too happy about it.”

Tommy glanced down at the Band-Aid on his hand. The wound still throbbed a bit. Becoming blood brothers had been his idea, but like finding his dad, it hadn't been a very good one. He'd cut a little deep, and the cuts hadn't stopped bleeding until his mom had bandaged them. “I don't care about my real dad anymore,” he said.

“Are you scared he might be a jerk?”

He should have thought about that before he'd asked Chance to find him. “I don't know…”

“He probably has a wife and kids,” Matthew warned him. “You might have little brothers and sisters.”

Little kids like his cousins, who got in his stuff and lost the pieces to his puzzles and messed up the scores on his video games? No thanks.

“I'd rather have a big brother,” he said. “I'd rather have you.”

“We are brothers,” Matt reminded him. “Mom checked out my cut. She said if it was any deeper I might have needed stitches. Isn't that cool?”

Tommy didn't think so. The cut had hurt like heck but it wasn't nearly as bad as having to say goodbye to Matt that morning. He did not want to have to do that again.

“You know what would be cool?” Tommy said. “If your dad married my mom, we could all live together in your dad's big house. We'd be a real family.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” Matt agreed with a sigh. “But I wouldn't count on it happening. My mom doesn't want me to move to Forest Glen. And you don't know what's going to happen with your dad.”

Finding his dad had definitely not been one of his better ideas.

Chance drew in a deep breath and lifted his fist to knock. After a moment, the riveted steel door with the peephole in the middle opened to a man's handsome face. “Keith Howard?” he asked.

The brown-haired guy nodded. “Who are you? A process server?” He laughed at what he must have meant as a joke.

But Chance didn't join in the laughter. “Are you anticipating a lawsuit?”

Howard laughed again, but with more ironic humor than real amusement. “So you're the guy.”

“Which guy?”

“The one who's been asking around about me at my office and here at the condo complex.” He studied Chance's face intently. “So you know everything about me now, probably down to my shoe size, but I don't know anything about you. Care to identify yourself?”

Chance reached for the badge he hadn't had to show anyone since Mrs. Applegate smashed into his car. Since that crash, things had been quiet in Forest Glen—as he'd been warned they always were. But bringing Tommy's dad to the town would end that calm as the gossip began.
And how excited would Tommy be that Chance had kept his promise?

Certainly more excited than Chance was. Everyone he'd talked to the day before had had nothing but complimentary things to say about Keith Howard. That should have made Chance happy, given him relief, but it just filled him with regret for having found the guy.

“So are you going to show me your identification?” Howard asked.

Chance nodded and flipped his wallet open to his badge. The guy leaned closer to read it.

“Forest Glen? That's about an hour or so northwest of here, right?”

Chance nodded again.

“So what's the sheriff of Forest Glen doing asking around about me?” Keith Howard's smooth brow furrowed. He was just twenty-six, making Chance feel old and cynical. “I've never even been there. I've only noticed it as a dot on a map.”

“You need to go there.”

A door opened behind Chance, and he glanced over his shoulder at the neighbor peering through the crack. The condo complex was located in a converted cereal warehouse, with exposed brick and high ceilings. With a gym and a bar and restaurant, it was more a complex for singles than couples or families.

“You need to step inside,” Keith said, gesturing for Chance to enter. Then he closed the door behind him. If nosy neighbors concerned him, the guy was going to hate Forest Glen.

A couple of bikes crowded the foyer of the accountant's condo. That was something Tommy and his dad had in common, that and their pale blue eyes. Keith
wouldn't need a DNA test to prove that he was the boy's father.

All Chance had needed was Jessie's word. Should he have trusted her though? He'd trusted Robyn once, too, and had lost his son because of it.

“So why do I need to go to Forest Glen?” Keith asked, leading the way past the bikes and a galley kitchen into the loft-like living room. “Am I wanted for questioning or something?”

“Or something,” Chance replied. He wasn't supposed to talk to Howard. He was only supposed to check him out for Jessie. And he had when he'd interviewed neighbors and coworkers. But to determine what kind of man Keith Howard truly was, Chance needed to speak with him personally. Man to man.

“I wasn't lying,” Keith said, concern now in his deep voice and pale eyes. “I've really never been to your town.”

“You're going to wish you'd gone there earlier,” Chance murmured.

“Why?” Keith asked impatiently. “What's in Forest Glen?”

Her name burned in his throat, so that he had to swallow before saying it. “Jessie Phillips.”

Keith sucked in a breath of surprise. “Jessie?”

“So you remember who she is?” Not that Chance believed anyone could forget the beauty and spirit that was Jessie Phillips.

The man rubbed a slightly trembling hand over his face. “You never forget your first love.”

“What about your second?” Chance asked.

“What?” Keith's brow furrowed again in confusion.

“Did you ever get married?” From his investigation, he knew the man lived alone now.

Keith narrowed his eyes and studied Chance. “That's a kind of personal question for a sheriff to ask me. What's this about? Why are you here?”

“It is personal,” Chance admitted.

“Are you asking about me for Jessie?” Keith asked, almost hopefully.

“Answer my questions, and I'll explain why I'm here,” Chance said. “Have you ever been married?”

“No.” Keith sighed. “I tell people that I'm still too young to settle down. Only twenty-six. But I think I never really got over Jessie. The one that got away and all that.”

“You dumped her,” Chance said, reminding the man and himself that Keith had been a fool.

“I was eighteen and such an idiot,” he admitted. “So she lives in Forest Glen?”

Chance had already told him as much, but the admission hadn't come easily. He wasn't entirely comfortable with this man knowing where she was. “Yes.”

Keith chuckled again, with irony. “She's been living that close but I never found her.”

“You've looked for her?”

The man grinned now. “Yeah. You must know her, probably pretty well since you know I was the idiot who broke up with her.”

Chance nodded.

“Then you have to understand why I looked for her—once I grew up a little and realized what a jerk I'd been.” Keith shook his head in self-disgust. “And how lucky I'd been that she'd ever loved a schmuck like me.”

Chance had to nod again. “I don't know what she was
like back when you two knew each other,” he allowed, “but she's pretty amazing now.”

The guy scrutinized Chance more closely. “Are you and she involved?”

Their lovemaking flashed through Chance's mind, and tension filled his body. But that one night was all they'd had. With the possibility that he might be moving back to Chicago, he couldn't get any more involved with Jessie—and Tommy—than he already was.

“We're friends,” Chance replied after some silent deliberation. “Just friends.”

“Did she want you to find me?” Keith asked excitedly, his eyes bright.

Chance nodded. But she hadn't been the first one to ask him. He'd assured her that he wouldn't tell Keith Howard about Tommy—if he happened to run into the guy. Jessie wanted to tell him about his son herself.

“And she wanted you to talk to my friends and coworkers and check me out before she met with me again?” Keith asked.

“I thought it would be a good idea to check you out,” he said. “People can change a lot in eight years.” Robyn had changed a lot throughout their marriage, even before he'd deployed the first time.

“I thought Jessie hated me,” Keith said, “after the cowardly way I dumped her.”

“A letter was pretty cowardly,” Chance agreed.

Keith's eyes widened in surprise. “You must be really good friends with her since you know about that stupid letter.” He shook his head. “I was an idiot back then, such an idiot that I don't understand why she would even want to find me.” He sucked in another breath as
realization glimmered in his bright eyes. “I have a child, don't I?”

Dread knotted the muscles in Chance's stomach again. He shouldn't have talked to the man; it wasn't his place to tell Keith Howard he was a daddy. “You really need to talk to Jessie.”

Keith uttered a ragged sigh. “I knew it. I knew she lied about being pregnant.”

“But you never called her on it. Instead, you sent her that Dear Jane letter.” Maybe Keith Howard wasn't the nice guy everyone claimed he was.

“I guess I didn't really want to know,” Keith admitted. “I was a kid. I'd just left for college.”

“And Jessie was only seventeen and all alone,” Chance angrily informed the man.

“She wasn't alone,” Keith insisted. “Her parents probably weren't happy with her for getting pregnant, but they would have been there for her.”

“Maybe they would have if she'd moved to Germany with them when they retired.” Now he understood why she hadn't; she'd needed their support, not their disapproval. “Instead she moved to Forest Glen and lived with an aunt and a cousin.”

Keith dropped into a chair in front of the tall windows looking onto the street. “I was such a selfish jerk.”

“She thinks she's the one who was selfish,” Chance admitted.

“Why? Because she lied? That was selfless, not selfish.” Keith defended the woman who'd kept him from his son. “I know she did it for me. She didn't want me to give up college and move back home.”

Not unless he did it out of love. She deserved that, someone who would put her first always. No matter
how much he wished otherwise, Chance couldn't be that guy.

“You're not mad,” he mused as he studied Keith.

“Pissed as hell,” he corrected Chance, “at myself for being a coward. I should have checked back, should have called her on her lie. She was a terrible liar.”

“I can't imagine her ever lying,” Chance agreed. But he had to remember that she had, and that he really shouldn't trust her.

“So what do I have? A son or a daughter?”

“Jessie should be the one who tells you about…” Her amazing kid.

“Okay.” His head bobbed in agreement. “You're right. I need to talk to Jessie. Tell me about her. Is she married? Does she have any other kids?”

“She never married, either.”

Hope lit up Keith's face with a wide grin. “Do you think…is it possible that she might still have feelings for me?”

The thought hadn't occurred to Chance…until now. Jealousy soured his stomach. “I think she was too busy to get involved with anyone because she's built her entire life around raising your child.”

Keith nodded. “She's that kind of woman. Selfless. Generous.”

“She's been worried that you'd be mad at her.” Chance laughed, finally seeing the irony in the situation. “And you're actually still in love with her.”

Keith didn't deny it. Instead he sighed. “Jessie Phillips is not the kind of woman a man ever really gets over.”

That was Chance's second-greatest fear. His first was that he'd fallen for her. His second was that he would never get over her.

 

“S
O HOW
did it go?” Jessie asked the minute she walked into Chance's office. Ever since he'd called to let her know he was back, she'd been a wreck. Instead of meeting later, as they'd planned, she'd asked Dr. Malewitz and Ruth if she could leave work early. The minute they'd agreed—a knowing, matchmaking look passing between them—she had headed right over to the sheriff's office.

Chance glanced up from his computer, his eyes darkening as he met her gaze. Then he stood up and came around the desk. But he didn't reach for her and pull her into his arms like she longed for him to do. Instead he just stood there, close enough that she felt his warmth. Heat flooded her, too, and she knew it wasn't just news of Keith she'd rushed over to hear. She'd wanted to see Chance. She'd missed him, so much that she lifted her hand, as if to touch his face, and her fingers trembled.

She'd been a wreck since he'd called an hour ago. She'd been a wreck since Chance had admitted he'd found Keith. But her nerves had actually first kicked in when he'd carried her up to his bed and she'd finally stopped fighting her feelings for him. Those emotions rushed over her again as her heart pounded and her pulse raced.

She longed to throw her arms around his neck and press her lips to his. But she resisted and pulled her hand back to her side. Her feelings didn't matter now. All that mattered was Tommy. “So it was really him?”

Chance nodded. “His date of birth and social security number matched the kid you'd gone to high school with. I knew it was him before I even went to Battle Creek,” he reminded her.

“I know. I know. It just seems strange that he was
so close all this time…” She forced back her nerves. “I never figured he'd move to Michigan.”

“He went to college here,” he pointed out. “Is that why you moved here, because you knew he was close and you wanted to be close to him?”

She studied his handsome face, trying to determine if she had detected a note of jealousy in his voice. “I had no place else to go,” she said. “The only family I had left was my aunt and cousin here.”

“So you didn't think about him at all?” he asked, as if he was interrogating her.

She sighed as she remembered her youthful optimism. “No. I've thought about him every day.”

Chance sucked in a breath, confirming that he was jealous despite his reluctance to get involved any deeper with her.

“In the beginning, I thought he would find me and tell me that he couldn't live without me,” she said, admitting to her youthful idealism. “And when I stopped waiting for him to come sweep me off my feet, I started worrying that he would find me and take Tommy away from me.” And that fear had just increased when Chance had told her that he'd found him. “So yeah, I think about him every day.”

“I'm sorry,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I had no right to question you. It's not any of my business.”

“I made it your business,” she reminded him, “when I asked you to find him for me.”

“For you or for Tommy?” He pushed his hand through his dark hair, disheveling the silky soft strands. “Forget I asked that.”

“Do you care?” she wondered, although she suspected that he did. It didn't matter, though. She'd given
up long ago on Keith or any other man sweeping her off her feet. But that night Chance had carried her up the stairs had reminded her of that youthful, romantic dream.

“I don't have the right to care,” he replied. “My chances of winning the custody battle for Matthew are slim to none. And if I don't win, I'll move back to Chicago to be close to him.”