Saving the Sheriff: A Three River Ranch Novella (Entangled Bliss) by Roxanne Snopek Read Free Book Online

storm hits.” He gathered the dishes into a pile. They’d have to heat another pot of water for washing, so he’d leave them in the sink for now. When he came back, Frankie was still sitting and watching him pensively.
    “What?” She’d lost the wariness of the previous night, he noticed. Was she naive? Or had she judged him to be worth trusting?
    “Oh, nothing.” She rose from the floor in one graceful motion. The dog, naturally, scrambled to her side, awaiting further instructions. “Do you think Rory would mind if I borrowed some jeans and socks?”
    “I think she’d be mad if you didn’t. I was going to tell you to do that anyway.”
    “What?” She looked down at herself. “Not a fan of the yoga-elf?”
    “Oh, you’re rockin’ it, all right.” He gestured vaguely toward her lower half. “It just doesn’t scream ranch-hand.”
    Frankie laughed, a tinkling, musical sound. “Meet you outside?”
    Red crossed his arms. “I’ll wait for you right here.”
    “I forgot! I’m your prisoner.” She batted wide blue-gray eyes at him and he felt himself flush. “Don’t worry, Sheriff, I’m not going on the lam, not in this weather. Who’d keep me from freezing to death during the long, cold nights?”
    Before he could drum up a response, she disappeared down the hall, her laughter drifting back to him, making him feel unaccountably…good.
    …
    Sheriff Red was flirting with her!
    Frankie pulled thick wooly socks onto her frozen tootsies, then rubbed them briskly between her hands. Interesting how cold her extremities were, while…other parts…were toasty and tingling.
    Sheriff Rudolph LeClair was definitely in pain and pretending he wasn’t, acting the tough guy, while hurt oozed out of him every time he moved. She could barely keep from gathering him into her arms for a hug.
    She imagined his big body against hers, how his chest would rise and fall beneath her fingers.
    Holy moly, Frankie. There goes the imagination again. Just because he looks all stern and wounded doesn’t mean you need to leap in and make him all better. Besides, no sane woman wants a man that requires fixing.
    Wait! Who said anything about anyone wanting anybody?
    Stop, rewind, delete, delete, delete. You’re overtired, lonely, stressed and it’s made you certifiably fruit-and-nut-bar crazy.
    His tough lawman act was just that, an act to hide some kind of pain. She didn’t want him. She felt sorry for him, that was all. And she wasn’t about to let him drag her down into his sad little life. Not when there was so much good in the world!
    She pulled open a beautiful distressed pine wardrobe, trying not to feel like the felon Red accused her of being. It was wrong, though, rifling through stuff that wasn’t hers.
    But when she saw the waffle-weave long johns, she yelped with joy. She had to meet this Rory, she thought, as she pulled them over her legs. A pair of old-looking blue jeans went over them, then a snug undershirt, t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt on top.
    Runway model she wasn’t, she decided, when she looked in the mirror. But if Rory had a pair of, what did they call them—shit-kickers—and a down-filled parka, she’d be able to take whatever Red threw at her.
    He’d donned his heavy outerwear and was waiting at the door. Mistral got up, tail wagging, and nudged her with her shaggy muzzle.
    “You wanna come with us, don’t you, honey? Of course we’ll take you!” She bent down and ruffled the dog’s ears, her legs feeling like sausages from all the layers.
    “Nope.” Red pulled a knitted cap low on his forehead.
    “Why not?” Frankie looked up at him. “This is her place, she knows it better than you do.”
    “She’s safer inside. Rory made it patently clear that if anything happens to this dog, it’s my head on a platter. She loves that mutt and I’m not about to give her a chance to run off.”
    “What are you talking about? You let her outside to do her business, don’t you?”
    He looked