Page 38

Adeline doesn’t follow me right away, but I don’t stop to urge her.

She’ll come.

And she’ll be asleep in my bed, under my sheets, and I’ll take the couch. My place has three bedrooms, but I don’t have guests, so it’s the only bed in the house.

I can deal with it one night.

Making sure I don’t need to move anything around, I feel Adeline enter my room and her curious eyes scanning everywhere.

“This is your room,” she announces, probably to herself. “I can’t stay⁠—”

“I’ve fallen asleep on my couch several times, Adeline,” I assure her, turning to find her fiddling with her fingers. “It’s just as comfortable as the bed. I promise you.”

“Then I can sleep there. With Pickles.”

I sigh and shake my head. “Can ya come up with another name for the damn dog? He’s a German shepard for God’s sake.”

“So?”

My brows collapse. “So, they’re highly intelligent. Pickles is something ya name a little runt.”

“Pickles is a respectable name.”

“Pickles is somethin’ ya randomly come up with when you’re not creative enough to come up with something else. Ya name dogs like that Duke, Ranger, Axel.”

Her little nose wrinkles up. “Ew.”

“Adeline,” I scold exasperatedly, because this poor animal deserves so much more than to be named after a vegetable. “For the love of God⁠—”

“Are you invested in the dog now, Dodger?”

“Sheriff.”

“Oh, Sheriff? I thought we were on a first-name basis since you’re wantin’ me to stay at your house and sleep in your bed.”

Mindlessly, I shift my weight because my cock just decided to come to life, and it’s conjuring up other ideas, when my radio goes off like a gunshot through a church sermon.

“Sheriff,” Chloe drones. “We got a call at the McClemon’s place. Somethin’ about a roof comin’ off a shed.”

I roll my eyes and hit the button to respond because let’s just say fate doesn’t want me to fuck, apparently. “And what would they like me to do about that in the middle of a storm?”

“Come over and look at it.”

Adeline scoffs when I hit the button again, “I’ll come over—” Her hand swats at my radio, causing me to release the button as she scowls up at me.

“You’re not goin’ nowhere, Henry Abbott. Ya just said I can’t go home because of the storm.”

I wasn’t.

It’d be insane to go back out in that weather, and I’m too busy babysitting Adeline to leave. She might try to walk home with Pickles and drown to death.

“If I get a call⁠—”

“That’s too damn bad, Sheriff.” Her green eyes blaze with so much irritation that I’m taken aback for a second that she’s so damn mad about it, over nothing. “Ya dragged me outta the storm and practically called me an idiot⁠—”

“You were actin’ like an idiot, Adeline,” I shoot back without hesitation. “I swear, for a woman who is smart, you sure do stupid shit for a dog you named Pickles.”

“Sheriff?” Chloe comes back on the radio. “He’s on the other line. What do ya want me to tell him?”