The Accidental Sheriff (16 page)

Zoey, with Spike in tow, scooted to the far end of the swing. Neil sat down. The chains holding the swing creaked under his added weight.

“You want to tell me what happened at school today?” From the corner of his eye, Neil saw Carolina retreat to a dark corner of the porch.

“I pushed Hayden down on the sidewalk.”

“Why?”

Spike offered his support by raining dog kisses all over Zoey’s face.

“Cuz he’s a brat and said mean things to me.”

More taunts about him shooting Lynne? Poor Zoey.

“Even so, you shouldn’t have done it.” He might be sheriff, but apparently his daughter felt entitled to take the law into her own hands.

All at once, she started to sob. “I don’t want to go away with Grandma and Grandpa.”

Okay, that came from left field. “Who told you?”

“Grandma. She said I had to start packing when I got home from school today.”

Damn. He wished his mother-in-law had waited for him to break the news to Zoey. Well, nothing he could do to change that now. He tried for a positive slant.

“You always like visiting them.”

She flung herself at him, trapping Spike between them. “I don’t want to go.”

“Is that why you pushed Hayden down?”

“He told me good riddance to bad rubbish.” Zoey raised a woeful expression to him. “What’s rubbish?”

“Nothing you have to worry about.” He stroked her hair and patted her back until she stopped crying.

“I like it here,” she said around a hiccup after her crying ceased. “I don’t want to move.”

How did she know his plans? More grandparent interference? “I like it here, too.”

“Then let’s stay.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Grandpa says moving isn’t the…” She scrunched her mouth to one side. “The slu-tion to everything.”

He needed to speak to his in-laws about what they discussed with Zoey. “It isn’t. I just want to keep you safe.” And other people safe. “My job is dangerous.”

“Carolina says you caught the bad guys.”

Was
everyone
having conversations with his daughter now? Conversations, he realized, he should be having with her himself.

“The bad guys aren’t all caught, but they will be soon.”

“Then we can stay,” Zoey announced happily.

“Oh, sweetie.” He hugged her again, tighter this time.

“I don’t believe you shot my mommy.”

“Were the kids at school teasing you again?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if we move, they won’t anymore.” Until someone else found out about Lynne.

“What happened to my mommy? How did she die?”

“I told you. It was an accident.”

“Were you there?”

“Yes.”

“Was I there?”

He glanced over at Carolina. She leaned against the railing, all but her face hidden by shadows. He didn’t know it was
possible, but the love and devotion shining in her eyes changed his entire way of thinking in the span of a single heartbeat.

He didn’t want to leave, either. If he were honest with himself, he’d admit that what he longed for most was a permanent home. A caring wife, one who both delighted him and drove him nuts. Another kid or two. To be sheriff, a job he’d be damn good at. And, okay, it was true, a dog. Preferably one that didn’t chew on the end of quilts or drink out of mugs.

If he looked around him right now, all those things were within easy reach. He just had to let go of the past and embrace the future.

It wasn’t nearly as hard as he’d imagined.

“Yes, Zoey, you were there. You were just a baby, sitting in your stroller. You, your mommy and I were having breakfast at an outdoor deli.”

“What’s a deli?”

He looked over again at Carolina, who encouraged him with a gentle smile. As he told Zoey in simple terms what had happened the day her mother died, Carolina wiped away tears with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Neil felt each tear as, one by one, his burden was lifted.

When he finished, Zoey raised herself up on her knees and wrapped her small arms around him. “Don’t feel bad, Daddy. It wasn’t your fault.”

For the first time, he believed it.

She pulled back, patted his cheek, then kissed it. “I love you.”

With those three words, Neil’s fears, carried for four long years, dissolved. His daughter didn’t hate him or blame him for her mother’s death. She’d demonstrated a capacity for compassion well beyond her tender years and understood his feelings of guilt better than anyone except…

Boy, when he was wrong about something, he was really wrong.

He got to his feet, Zoey clinging to his side. Carolina had accused him of being a man of action and few words. He hoped his actions spoke for him now. Raising his free arm, he held it out to her.

Fortunately for him, she was good at reading nuances.

Catching her as she flung herself at him, he lifted her onto her tiptoes in order to kiss the socks off her.

Spike tried to get in on the act by jumping up on Neil’s leg.

“Zoey and I have decided to stay,” he told Carolina, his arm fitting snugly around her waist. Now that he had her, she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Is that a proposal?”

He laughed. Subtlety wasn’t her style.

“I’d get down on one knee but the dog’s in the way.”

“The answer’s yes!” She gave him a smacking kiss on the lips. “Yes, yes, yes.” Abruptly sobering, she pulled away. “That is, if Zoey’s okay with it.”

They both looked down. Zoey had picked the puppy up off the floor.

“Does this mean Spike gets to be my dog, too?”

“Absolutely.” Carolina radiated happiness. “Are you up to training him?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” she mimicked Carolina and twirled the puppy in a circle.

Neil thought that seemed like a good idea and did the same to Carolina. “I love you, Carolina Sweetwater.”

Her laughter was like a balm, repairing the last tear in his damaged heart. Good. He wanted to be whole and new for her and his daughter and the life they would all share together.

The sound of squealing tires and spitting gravel rendered nearly every one of the thirty-eight happy and raucous wedding guests silent—for maybe twenty seconds. When it was obvious no one was hurt, the celebrating started up again.

So did Carolina’s heart. It was her PT Cruiser, now decorated with balloons, paper flowers, streamers and “Just Married” penned with white shoe polish in the rear window that had barely missed being in another parking lot fender bender. And the driver was none other than Briana. Would her niece ever learn to be more careful?

Neil had wanted to drive the department’s old Jeep to the resort outside of Payson where they would spend the night before leaving tomorrow to catch a flight to Lake Tahoe and the condo they’d rented for a week of skiing—Neil knew how, Carolina was going to learn. They also planned to do a lot of snuggling together on the living room floor in front of a roaring fire. Preferably naked. Well, it was their honeymoon, after all.

“Hello, Mrs. Lovitt.” Neil drew her away from the crowd and into his warm embrace. “Or are you keeping your maiden name now that you’re famous?”

“I’m not famous,” she joked back. “Not outside of Payson.”

“It’s only a matter of time.”

He could be right. Being the one to break the story about Sheriff Herberger and the illegal mining had given Carolina’s career a tremendous boost. She had Ward to thank for that.

Too bad she couldn’t do it in person. After cutting a deal with the prosecutor in which he was given a significant reduction in charges in exchange for his testimony, Ward and his wife quietly left Payson and relocated to Tempe, where they would be closer to his son. Ward had used the very last of his pull at the station to make sure Carolina was given the position of roving reporter.

Until yesterday morning, she’d thought that was the best possible news. Then the home pregnancy test she’d taken came back positive. Neil still didn’t know. She was planning on telling him during one of those evenings spent cuddling on the floor in front of the fire. If she could hold out that long.

She brushed a tiny speck of lint off his lapel and straightened his red rose boutonniere. “You look good, Sheriff Lovitt.”

They’d opted for a small, simple wedding with Neil wearing his dress uniform.

“Acting Sheriff Lovitt,” he corrected her.

“Not for long.”

“I have to win the election first.”

“You will.” She had no doubt.

Shortly after Sheriff Herberger was arrested, he was removed from office. Sadly, his health took a turn for the worse. The last Carolina had heard, he was in the hospital again, his trial postponed. Justice would eventually be served, but it saddened her that someone who had once been a pillar of the community and a close family friend had fallen so far.

Greed did that to people, she supposed—and resentment. After serving in the department over a quarter century, he’d had only his pension to show for it. Deciding that wasn’t enough, he’d chosen to supplement his retirement income
with illegally obtained gold after discovering a map to the mine in his wife’s family heirlooms.

He should have hired a more qualified expert to check out the mine before assuming a life of crime. He would have saved himself a lot of time and money and possibly years in prison.

The reports from the Arizona Geological Society were conclusive: there would be no historic gold strike on Bear Creek Ranch. The only wealth to be made from the illegal mining operation was the fifteen percent increase in revenue as tourists flocked to the ranch’s newest attraction. To mark the grand opening of the mine site, Carolina would be doing a live broadcast on location shortly after returning from her honeymoon with Neil.

He’d promised to be there. As he’d promised to stand beside her for the rest of their lives in the vows they’d recently exchanged.

“I’m going to miss you, Daddy.” Zoey grabbed Neil’s much bigger hand in her small one. “Hurry home.”

“I’m going to miss you, too, pumpkin pie. Be good for your uncle Jake.” His voice was husky with emotion. “I will.”

She and Spike were staying with Jake, his wife and his four daughters for the week. Carolina could only imagine how chaotic their house would be—and how full of love.

It was how she wanted their life to be, too. And after seeing the pregnancy test results, she was certain it would be.

Neil released Zoey, but instead of running off, the little girl turned to Carolina. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

“Same here, kiddo.” She bent down and gave Zoey a kiss on the cheek.

When she attempted to straighten, Zoey held on to her and whispered, “Do you think Daddy would mind if I called you Mommy?”

Carolina’s heart melted on the spot. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”

Talk about a wonderful wedding gift!

“I will,” Zoey said shyly. “When you get back.”

“Okay.”

“What was that about?” Neil asked when Zoey joined her new cousins for yet another photo op.

“Something between Zoey and me. She’ll tell you later.”

“Come on.” He took her arm. “It’s time to go.”

“What’s the rush?”

“I want to get you alone.”

Neil was indeed a man of action, as he’d proved many times. And right now, what his eyes said to her was infinitely sexier than the few words he’d uttered.

Darting through a shower of bird seed, they waved goodbye to their family and friends. Rather than get in the passenger side of her PT Cruiser, she snatched the keys from his hands, sauntered around the front of the car and, shoving her long train aside, slid in behind the steering wheel. “I’ll drive.”

Wearing a dumbfounded expression, he climbed in beside her.

Carolina smiled. Men like Neil needed to be shaken up every once in a while, and she intended to do just that for the next fifty or sixty years.