Teresa Medeiros: Nobody's Darling

“Neither would I,” Dix murmured, brushing a tear from her cheek.

She shot him a fierce glare. “If you tell any of the guys down at the station you saw me cry, this will be your last Thanksgiving dinner at the Darling house. Come to think of it, it’ll probably be your last Thanksgiving dinner anywhere.”

He patted her shoulder. “You can blackmail me by threatening to tell them I always break down when Linus reads the Christmas story during A Charlie Broom Christmas‘.”

Esmerelda felt a pang of regret when she realized they’d nearly reached the bottom of the trunk. A single faded photograph remained, more fragile than the rest, as if it had been lovingly handled many times throughout the years. This one was a more candid shot of Billy taken outside a window with the words Sheriff’s Office stenciled on the glass.

A tin star was pinned to his vest and he was grinning openly, his thumbs hooked in the gunbelt draped around his lean hips. He wasn’t looking directly at the camera, but at someone who stood just to the left of the photographer. From the loving heat in his eyes, Esme knew exactly who that someone was. She sighed, imagining what it must have felt like to be that woman.

“He sure was a good-looking man. I can see why my grandmother was willing to give up everything for him.”

“Stop lusting after your own grandpa. You’re making me jealous.”

“Why, Dix, I didn’t know you cared.”

If she had caught the look he gave her in that moment, she would have known just how much.

But she’d gone back to gazing dreamily at the picture… at the lazy smile crooking Billy’s lips… the devilish spark in his long-lashed eyes…

Esme recoiled, blinking frantically. Shaken, she glanced over her shoulder at Dix. “I would have almost sworn he winked at me. Did you see…?”

“No, I most certainly did not,” Dix said, but his face was nearly as white as hers.

Esme slowly turned the picture over, her hands beginning to tremble again. Inscribed across the back of the photograph, in a woman’s elegant script, were two words. The ink might have faded, but the sentiment would surely endure forever.

Dix’s strong, warm arms went around her. He rested his cheek against hers as they whispered in unison, “My Darling.”

USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author TERESA MEDEIROS was recently chosen one of the Top Ten Favorite Romance Authors by Affaire de Coeur magazine and won the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historical Love and Laughter. A former Army brat and registered nurse, she wrote her first novel at the age of twenty-one and has since gone on to win the hearts of critics and readers alike. The author of thirteen novels, Teresa makes her home in Kentucky with her husband and two cats. Readers can visit her website at www.teresamedeiros.com.