Ruth Herne - The Lawman's Second Chance

He tossed Josh over his shoulder, hauled him inside and scrubbed him clean. He put the donuts up high because Josh wasn’t above helping himself to a second brunch, then went back outside with the preschooler. This might be Emma’s project, but Lisa made it clear that the whole family needed to be on board.

Therefore, sitting in on her session with Emma should be considered a requirement. And that made his Sunday morning that much brighter.

* * *

Lisa needed to leave, ASAP. Before Alex came back with his adorable son, before Becky won her heart by trying so hard to be like her big sister, before Emma grasped her hand one more time.

She needed to leave while she could still control the temptation within, the urge to test the waters with Alex and his beautiful family.

Billboard-size warnings blazed in her head. She’d faced the dragon of cancer head on, out of necessity. She wasn’t a warrior or a hero. She had done what was required to live, but in this weathered yard she was surrounded by the reality of early loss. Three motherless kids. A widowed father. An empty seat at the table. A yawning gap in the car.

Inviting male attention was too risky. She needed to embrace that reality. She gave Emma’s shoulder a quick squeeze and moved toward the road.

“We’re all set? Already?”

The surprise in Alex’s tone stopped her. She turned and planted a smile on her face as he came through the back door. “You snooze, you lose.”

He didn’t feign the look of disappointment, but when she glanced at her watch, he nodded, understanding. “Duty calls.”

“Yes.”

“So. We’re on for tomorrow?”

The way he said it made their 4-H session sound like a date. It wasn’t. “Four o’clock.” She turned and shook Becky’s hand. “Thanks for turning things around, kiddo.”

“You’re welcome.” Becky’s smile and the grip of her fingers said she didn’t want Lisa to go.

Lisa had no choice.

“See you tomorrow, Lisa!” Emma grasped her other hand, then hugged her around the waist, and Lisa couldn’t resist hugging her back. Such a little thing. A hug.

But hugs came with great expectations sometimes, and Lisa wasn’t free to explore those.

Really? That’s what you’re going with? Her conscience prodded. Do you think you’re the only woman who’s gone through this?

No, but she knew the statistics. Better than they were a generation ago, but not great. Not when she held women’s hands in hospice on a regular basis the past few years.

On top of that, how did a woman bring cancer and loss of body parts into casual conversation with a man who appeared interested? Right now, she was an eighth-grader, tongue-tied and awkward.

“I’ll walk you to your car.” Alex turned, still carrying Josh. The four-year-old squirmed to get down, but Alex held tight. “You can’t be in the backyard without me, bud. Not until you’re bigger.”

“Stay with him.” Lisa stopped, faced Alex and put a hand on the little boy’s shoulder. “Give him some play time. He’s been so good this morning.”

“Mostly.” Alex head-bumped the impish boy. His grin made Lisa’s heart soften with yearning. Resolved, she resisted the urge to linger.

She raised her notebook higher. “Emma and I can plug this into the computer tomorrow and see what the landscape program suggests. Then we’ll refine it together.”

“I can’t wait.”

The way he said it...

Smiling. Deliberate. With his gaze trained firmly on hers, a frank invitation to think about him for the next twenty-eight hours...

Made her realize he wasn’t the kind of guy to be put off. And she liked that about him. But she wasn’t the woman he thought she was, and there was no changing that fact. She smiled, turned and headed for her car, sure he was watching this time, because when she climbed into the driver’s seat, he’d come around the corner of the house, just to see her leave. And his smile...

Bright. Wide. Engaging. His easy gleam drew her in. Now what on earth was she going to do about that?

* * *

Alex pulled into the garden store parking lot at 4:05 p.m. Monday afternoon. The traffic off I-86 had slogged with slow-moving tourists visiting the historic villages of Allegany County. Tourists who should be mandated by law to drive faster.

He swallowed a sigh.

Was he nervous?

Of course not.

Then why—

“Hey, guys.”

Not nervous, he decided as he climbed out of the car and answered Lisa’s smile with one of his own. Anxious. Anxious to see her once more. To smile at her.

The thought surprised him because he thought no one would ever appeal to him again. Not after losing Jenny.

But something in his stressed heart felt better whenever Lisa Fitzgerald came around with her saucy grin. He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but now?

He grinned as Emma raced around the car in a desperate attempt to beat Cory and Becky to Lisa’s side. “They insisted on coming,” Emma explained, as if the younger girls were there against her better judgment.

“I do believe I invited them,” Alex corrected her. “And if they’re in the way, I’ll take them on a garden tour so you and Lisa can get your work done. And be nice.” He added the reminder with a lifted brow that said he expected more of her because of her age.

She made a face, impatient.

At him, a New York State police lieutenant. Did the child not realize he carried a gun twenty-four/seven?

He met Lisa’s look over Emma’s head and the sparkle in her eyes that laughed at him, the kids and the situation.

Said she was pretty confident he wouldn’t go to extremes without just cause.

“You got the measurements you needed yesterday?” he asked as the girls went ahead, oohing and aahing over the sea of unrelenting pink. Only today he barely noticed the calamine-lotion wash of shades, because Lisa’s nature compelled him to look at her. And that felt too nice to be denied.

“I did, yes.” She bent and picked up a stray piece of paper from the brick walk, stuffed it in the pocket of some well-fit jeans, and waved the girls to the right. “Head to the bushes first, ladies. I need your opinion on something.”

The girls led the way, Cory and Becky skip-running along, heads bent, giggling and laughing. Emma followed with just enough disdain in her bearing that it was obvious she’d outgrown such childish antics months if not years before.

“Emma was bummed that her time with you was cut short yesterday because of Becky’s tantrum. She made her pay the price for half the day.”

“Poor Becky.”

The direct look he sent her scoffed at her sympathies. “Poor Becky, nothing. Shouldn’t she have outgrown this by now?”

“Ah, she’s eight.” Lisa shrugged it off. “All kids are know-it-all brats at that age. It’s in the rule book.”

“Boys, too?” He looked her way, and she jumped at the chance to best him, and that only made him smile more.

“Boys are brats from day one. At least girls grow out of it.” She turned as they stepped onto the paved lot. “Although Josh has got to be about the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. With that shirt and tie he had on yesterday? Priceless.”

He decided not to tell her that taking Josh anywhere in a shirt and tie made them a total babe magnet. It wasn’t like he intended to use the cute kid to gain female attention, but he would have to be blind not to realize the effect. With Josh in a shirt and tie, women constantly stopped to exclaim how adorable he was.

Josh, not him.

But some of their looks said he wasn’t all that bad himself. Seeing Lisa’s sassy grin, he realized she’d appreciate the boy’s magnetism for the joke it was. Alex was pretty sure not all women would get that.