Christy Jeffries - The Matchmaking Twins

Her chest grew heavy with guilt and she tugged on her weighted vest as if she could physically relieve the pressure. Here she’d been feeling sorry for herself and the fact that she’d never have a family of her own, yet these poor young children had to grow up without a mom. As much as she’d bonded with the two wild and wonderful boys, was she doing them all a disservice by allowing herself to get too close to them when what they really needed was a mother figure?

She was usually much more empathetic than this, which was why she’d been a good MP and an even better cop in Vegas. It was why she’d made the big move to a small town like Sugar Falls in the first place. She needed to find herself again.

And she needed to get her emotions in check.

She pulled into the dirt lot behind the bleachers and was saved from making any additional commitments by the sudden appearance of the tall, muscular, blond male walking toward them and waving.

Her stomach grew uncomfortable and she almost undid her seat belt, thinking the baton attached to her duty belt had shifted and was digging into her flesh. But she knew the feeling well enough to realize it wasn’t from anything she was wearing. She got that same tightening of her insides every time she saw Captain Luke Gregson.

“Hey, monkeys,” he said to his children as he leaned into the open driver’s-side window. “Did you guys catch any crooks today?” His face was close enough that she could see where he’d cut himself shaving this morning. And she could smell the lemon and oak moss scent of his aftershave.

Button it up, Delgado, she told herself.

“Well, we almost stopped a robbery at the Gas N’ Mart,” one of the kids said from the backseat. But Carmen was so focused on not attaching her nose to the tanned and fragrant skin on Luke’s neck that she couldn’t tell which of the boys was talking. “We were getting our slushies and a man walked in with his hat pulled down past his eyebrows and he was reaching into his back pocket, like he was gonna pull out a gun.”

Luke raised one brow, clearly aware of his children’s fondness for exaggeration. Carmen should interject here, but she was too busy commanding her tummy to relax to get any words out.

“So, me and Caden made a run for him, ’cause we were gonna karate chop him up before he could start shooting down the place.”

“Oh, crap,” Luke muttered, and she finally got her hormones under control so she could explain.

“Don’t worry.” She put her hand up as though she could physically stop his thoughts. Then she returned it to the wheel when she realized how close it was to touching his face. “It was only Scooter Deets, and he was reaching for his wallet, not a gun.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t recognize him ’cause he wasn’t wearing his normal Boise State cap. His new goat chewed a hole clean through it, and now he has to wear a diff’rent one until he goes into the big city next month.”

The big city was Boise. It was only an hour’s drive down the mountain, but it was probably a yearly excursion for a local like Scooter.

“So nobody actually got hurt?” Luke asked. Was it her imagination or was his sudden release of air a little too warm and minty? “There wasn’t any damage?”

“Well, Scooter didn’t really get hurt ’cause we landed on all those chips when we jumped at him. But Mrs. Marconi told Officer Carmen that someone was gonna hafta pay for a new display stand since hers is all bent up now.”

Luke drew his fingers through his short military-cut hair. Carmen had seen the exasperated mannerism several times just this past month and knew the poor dad was once again frustrated at his children’s antics. “Okay, boys. Hop out and go warm up for practice. I already put your gear in the dugout.”

“Do we hafta do extra laps?” Aiden wanted to know as they exited her car.

“You will if you don’t mind your manners and thank Officer Delgado for putting up with you two this afternoon.”

“Thanks, Officer Carmen,” Aiden said. Ever since she’d taken the job with the police department, the twins were the only people in town who called her by her first name. Well, actually her middle name, since Maria Carmen was a mouthful even to her.

“Yeah, thanks,” Caden added. “We’ll see you next Tuesday again. And maybe Saturday for the game, remember?”

After this afternoon, she was looking forward to a little peace and quiet. But would it really be almost a whole week before she’d get to see them again?

“I’ll see you next Tuesday, but I don’t know about Saturday, yet.” Unfortunately, her last sentence wasn’t even heard by the two boys who were now running toward their teammates.

“So, do I really have to pay for a new chip display at the Gas N’ Mart?” Luke asked.

Uh-oh. He was still there. And her little towheaded buffers had made a beeline for the field. She shifted her hips to the right, but because of her holster knocking into the seat belt buckle, she couldn’t scoot any farther away from him.

“It really didn’t look too busted to me,” she said, thankful she was wearing her mirrored aviator sunglasses. Hopefully Luke couldn’t tell that she was barely able to make eye contact with him. “I set it back up and the boys put all the bags that didn’t burst open back on the shelves. I was going to have them clean up the broken chips, but I think Elaine Marconi just wanted us to get out of there at that point. She was annoyed, but she has kids of her own so she didn’t seem too put out. I’ll have the chief let you know if she files a claim for damages.”

There. She’d directed any future conversation through her boss, who also happened to be Luke’s friend. While she loved spending time with his funny and impulsive children, being around the man himself caused the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach to migrate straight to her brain.

“Those boys are going to be the death of me,” he said, voicing aloud the exact thought she’d had forty minutes ago. His forearms now rested on her windowsill, as though he wasn’t planning to shove off anytime soon.

“Anyway, I’m sorry we’re late. It was my fault,” she said quickly, hoping he’d take the hint that she was in a hurry to finish the conversation.

“Don’t worry about it. Listen, I really appreciate you spending time with them after school. I’m sure you have much more important things to do around town than play big sister to a couple of little monkeys.” The way he smiled showed his dimples to advantage and indicated that he used the nickname for his kids out of affection.

But she wasn’t particularly fond of the way he classified her into his sons’ peer age range, as if she wasn’t just a few years younger than Luke, himself. At least he’d said sister, though, and not brother. That was something, right?

As much as she wanted to get far, far away from his sexy grin, politeness dictated she respond. “Actually,” she said, “you may find this hard to believe, but the Sugar Falls PD doesn’t see too much action on the weekdays. Foiling a nonrobbery at the Gas N’ Mart has been the most exciting thing to happen on one of my shifts since last January when those tourists didn’t check out of the Snow Creek Lodge by eleven o’clock.”

She clamped her lips tightly together after she spoke. Why did she do that? Why did she always downplay the importance of her job—the value of her abilities? Shrinks would probably say it was some type of residual defense mechanism from growing up in her oversize machismo family or trying not to stand out in a male-dominated profession.

“Still, I know they’re in good hands with you.” Did the man ever stop smiling? “Coop said you outwrestled half his force in defensive tactics training last week.”