AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Twenty
“I don’t call being in the wrong place at the wrong time heroic.”
One day after making her pact with Dean, Sarah put on her flattest, most bored expression and leaned a hip against the bar, even as Ally’s cheeks took on a sudden red glow, her eyes flaring in disbelief.
“Gee, Sarah, ease up.” Ally flicked an apologetic cringe to Dean sandwiched between her and Aggie, while an out-of-uniform Sheriff Marlin sat farther to the left. “If Dean hadn’t interrupted the Chadley boys, Aggie might not have a nursery left at all. And what about my painted pots? Those things take me ages to make, and they’re kinda spendy to put together too. Those little vandals could have smashed the lot.”
Sarah drummed her fingertips over the bar, her face hot because Dean’s stare refused to leave her whenever the others weren’t looking. “From what I hear, he didn’t do all that much. Besides, who decided to hold this sappy lovefest at my bar, anyway?”
Aggie reached out and gave Dean a firm pat on the back, his smug grin spreading wider the moment Sarah caught his gaze. “I did. The least I owe him is a free drink. Heck, he’s been looking for work, and with Emilia busy taking care of Blaine, I sure could use some extra help at the nursery, don’t cha know?”
Sarah rolled her eyes and shuffled over to the bar’s glossy brass taps to pull that “free drink” for Dean, a row of confused faces narrowed her way.
“You owe him nothing. And will you all stop scowling at me like I’m crazy?” She focused down at the amber liquid rising in the glass she held at a forty-five-degree angle. “Unlike you all, I’m not about to worship some man who would have kept walking if not for one of the Chadleys swinging a bottle at his head.”
She shot Dean a sarcastic look, his eyes lighting at her short-sell on his efforts. “That’s not what hap—”
“Dean, not all of us are gullible.” She shook her head at him. “I know it sucks not being able to convince everyone in this town that you’re a stand-up guy.”
The muscles around his eyes stiffened, hinting that maybe she’d hit a nerve, though his lips still held that jovial upward curve. “I hear those Chadley boys were throwing rocks at people at the soiree too. That they’ve been harassing people for months. Any normal person would show some appreciation, Sarah.”
He held her gaze for a beat too long, his gaze flicking down her body and back up again, like he sought to remind her of how they’d met and just what sort of appreciation he’d received and still wanted.
She mumbled something about never being more glad to be considered abnormal, only for Sheriff Marlin to clear his throat and draw her attention back to the group. “I know you two have your differences, but Dean’s actions might have saved this town a great deal of trouble. After I dropped Mr. Holloway at home, I tracked down the remaining Chadleys. Their mother was in on the idea of them spending the night in the station’s holding cell, and she was mighty glad for the intervention. Maybe this time, they’ll get to acting right.”
The sheriff held his usual warm and even tone, his world-weary brown eyes sending a tight pang to Sarah’s chest. He of all people didn’t deserve her deception, but perhaps the truth of her friends-with-benefits relationship with Dean would hurt Peter more.
No doubt he’d think she was rebounding from Blaine, perhaps even consider her actions dangerous and self-destructive. Maybe he’d be right on both counts, but being with Dean felt good. She just wanted to feel good.
“You see, Sarah?” Ally’s semi-famous wide smile lit up, and she threw her arms around Dean’s broad shoulders, the sudden movement knocking him briefly off-center. “He’s a hero.”
Ally maintained her stronghold, and Sarah clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from spitting forth a hard laugh. Meanwhile, Dean’s eyes widened, and he mouthed what she thought looked like, “Help me!”
Sarah shook her head at Ally, which was really just her attempt at aiding Dean’s escape. “Gross. I think I’m going to vomit.”
She pushed a beer toward a patron farther down the counter, catching the sheriff’s puzzled stare bouncing between her and Dean. His lip pitched at one corner, and the two lines between his brows deepened.
He suspects something.
She swiped up a dish cloth and spun around, making busy with polishing glasses. Long minutes passed while she averted her gaze from the sheriff and Dean, all the while feeling both stares burning into her and for polarizing reasons.
Her heartbeat thundered loud and fast, and nothing she did slowed it down. One awkward and way-too-candid conversation with the sheriff had been bad enough. Maybe her “sworn enemies” charade with Dean wasn’t working after all.
But I wanted it to. For a short while, at least.
“Hey, Sheriff!” Ally’s overly bright voice shattered the strange silence, but Sarah continued her fake interest in the glass in her hand. “Didn’t you say you were looking to retire but couldn’t find someone to take over? I bet Dean would be a perfect candidate.”
Sarah snapped her focus back up, her mouth slipping open. How could Ally be so rude to bring up the sheriff’s retirement?
“Based on what?” The question shot from Sarah’s lips far more abrupt and abrasive than she intended. Especially since she’d intended to say nothing at all. “One act of half-hearted and coincidental bravery?”
The sheriff sent Sarah another quizzical stare before turning his gaze to Dean, then Ally. “I’m sure that would make my wife very happy, Ally, but there’s more to being sheriff than you think. Besides, we don’t know how long Mr. Holloway here will stay in town.”
The sheriff’s subtle change in demeanor had his jaw muscles twitching and his cheeks hardening. She’d seen that look a million times. Every time the sheriff wasn’t all that sold on a person’s character. Though she couldn’t condemn his skepticism, she too didn’t yet know all that much about Dean Holloway. Only that she enjoyed spending time with him, and he seemed to notice things about her that so many didn’t.
Dean sat forward, arms crossed over the bar, his attention fixed on her, and his wicked smile daring her to… to what? Her heart hitched, and she refused to finish that thought.
The dragging seconds had her forgetting to breathe, which then hung doubt over her recent deal with Dean the Devil. Her mind already worked over time to second-guess what every person around her thought—whether they knew of her relationship to this man.
