Page 189 of Cowboy Daddies

How dare he call the cops on her? And tell them that she was high? She’d never taken drugs in her life.

Hell. She barely managed to take painkillers when she needed them.

All right, so maybe she hadn’t been thinking straight when she’d offered his son some candy. And she probably shouldn’t have been hanging around a kids’ playground. And perhaps she should have given Wyatt the swing.

Yeah, she could see how everything she had done seemed weird. But she’d just been . . . lonely. She’d wanted to talk to someone.

But a seven-year-old kid wasn’t who she should be talking to.

Even if his dad had lost him. Something that wasn’t her fault. She’d just been hanging with him until his dad found him so no one could do anything bad to him.

Hell, she was practically a hero.

Yep, screw Jeb Wilder.

He was a dick.

And so was this idiot deputy.

“I wasn’t disturbing the peace!” she said as he led her to his car. “I was sleeping.”

“Sleeping in your car in a public park in Oddity is illegal. Do you have permission to sleep here?”

“Illegal?” she whispered as he pushed her into the backseat.

“Yes,” he said pompously.

“Look, I didn’t know that. My car broke down and I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I was going to call a mechanic tomorrow and have them come and fix it. Then I would be on my way. So could you please just let me go?”

He glared down at her. “You said you were going to be on your way earlier. When I let you go.”

“You had nothing to arrest me for! And I was going to leave but my car broke down.” Was this idiot hard of hearing?

“You were on drugs!”

“No, I wasn’t! And if I was, should you have let me drive?” she asked him.

“No one likes a smartass,” he said stiffly.

“And no one likes to be arrested when they haven’t done anything wrong!” she exclaimed.

Happy shut the door before she could say anything more.

Wait. Shit!

He got into the driver’s seat.

“My keys! You can’t leave the keys in my car.”

“I thought you said it didn’t run,” he replied.

Was he kidding her?

“That doesn’t mean that there isn’t stuff in there that I can afford to lose. You need to lock it up and bring the keys with you.”

“I don’t have to do anything for you,” he sneered as he gazed back at her. “I don’t do nice things for criminals.”

“I am not a criminal! I could sue you for this!”