Loving a Lawman by Amy Lillard Read Free Book Online Page B

got something to say, Dusty, why don’t you just come right on out and say it?”
    â€œAll right.” He limped over to stand toe-to-toe with him. A couple of years younger, a few pounds heavier. Not quite as tall, but looking him square in the face and not backing down an inch. That was one of the things Seth admired most about his chief deputy.
    â€œWhy don’t you stop pretending like you don’t love Jessie and go for the direct approach for a change?”
    Seth was so stunned he couldn’t reply.
    For a minute anyway.
    Then he scoffed. “I don’t love Jessie. Well, I mean I do . . . but more like a . . . a sister.”
    â€œCan it, Seth. I’m a cop too. Remember? Maybe I didn’t train at UT or get hired on at fancy-schmancy San Diego like some people, but ASU ain’t so bad. They taught me how to spot signs and clues. I know enough to see when a man’s got it bad, and you, my friend, have got it bad.”
    â€œWhatever.” Not quite the snappy comeback he would have liked, but Dusty had taken him by surprise. He thought he’d kept his feelings for Jessie well hidden. He’d never made an improper move toward her, never told another soul how much he wanted her for his own.
    As he mulled this over, Dusty clumped over to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup. He took a tentative sip, then grimaced. “As if loving your brother’s girl ain’t enough.”
    Seth exhaled heavily, felt his nostrils flare. “I never said I loved her.” And he didn’t. She was the one thing he couldn’thave, and for that reason and that reason alone he wanted her all the more.
    â€œYou don’t have to. But don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”
    Now, how could he answer that? If he said thanks, he would be admitting he did indeed have a thing for his brother’s girl. And if he said he didn’t have a secret that needed to be kept safe, then Dusty—with his bulldog tenacity that made him such a damn fine deputy but right now was slowly driving Seth out of his cotton-pickin’ mind—would keep up the line of conversation until he found a chink in Seth’s mental armor.
    So he took the easy way out and just glared at him.
    â€œYou’ve been drinking your own coffee this morning. That’s enough to make any man spoil for a fight. Whatcha say we go over to the Chuck Wagon and get us some decent joe?”
    â€œJessie’s there.”
    Dusty slapped him on the shoulder like the old friend he was.
    â€œGood,” he said. “Then you can start working on that direct-approach thing I was telling you about.”
    â€œDirect approach? You mean flirting with anything in a skirt.”
    Dusty smiled. “Call it what you like, but keep this in mind: how’s a girl gonna know you’re interested unless you tell her?”
    Seth shook his head. “I have work to do.” He dropped back into his chair, his deputy’s gaze boring through him. He did have work to do. A lot of it. He was a busy man. He had to get Johnson Jones out of there, type up the witnesses’ statements from all three of last night’s big happenings, and go check on the kittens Chase had left in his apartment. Not to mention, he needed to feed Sadie and let the poor pooch know that despite his brother’s quest to fill Seth’s life with as many animals as possible, she was still number one in hisheart. Yeah, he was a busy, busy man. Much too busy to walk all the way across the street for a cup of coffee. Much, much too busy. And his reasons for not going had nothing—absolutely nothing—to do with Jessie McAllen, despite what he had said. Not to mention the fact that she was mad enough to spit nails, and he didn’t want to be anywhere in range when she let loose.
    â€œSuit yourself,” Dusty replied, but instead of making his way to the door, he came up behind Seth and