Part Time Cowboy (Copper Ridge Book 1) (21 page)

“Boundaries!” she shouted, mainly at Toby but also partly at herself.

If this Eli thing was going to work there would have to be boundaries. Because he’d left her feeling hollow and emotional. She rolled to her side and curled her knees up to her chest, her heart thudding dully.

It was all because she’d been celibate for too long. She was out of practice. The sex had been easy. More than easy, it had been so much better than she’d ever remembered it being. But the surrounding stuff all seemed harder. Deeper. Weirder.

But she would work it out. They would work it out. Because this was way too good to give up.

But she was not meeting him for coffee tomorrow.

* * *

S
HE
COULD
NOT
BELIEVE
she was meeting Eli for coffee. Sadie frowned deeply so that she would appear as angry with herself as she felt and tugged on her sweater sleeves, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she stormed across the street and into the coffee shop.

Where he was not.

Well, eff him and his effing coffee break. Was he not coming? Was that the game? Make Sadie think you were coming to coffee and then not come to coffee the day after you banged her senseless and left her curled up alone in bed with a cat?

As if he could make her feel more pathetic.

No, she wasn’t pathetic. And he wasn’t allowed to make her feel pathetic because she forbade it. She withdrew permission. She was the keeper of her own life, blah blah blah.

She leaned against the counter, tapping her fingertips together while she looked over her shoulder at the closed door, then into the empty dining room.

There was a girl who had to be in high school working behind the counter, pulling espresso shots and chatting with another boy who really was no more than an infant. Or...sixteen, but whatever.

They were flirting. Ugh. Well, someday he would leave her standing in an empty coffee shop. So flirt away, little children.

Bah.

Sadie didn’t know how Cassie, the owner of The Grind, could stand to be around the heady teenage hormones all day. But there she was, smiling away at the register and seemingly un-annoyed by her employees.

It was because Cassie was in love herself, probably, as Sadie had learned during her frequent visits to get coffee. Because Cassie was so in love, she radiated joy and spent much of her time talking about her man, Jake. That love nonsense seemed to blind otherwise rational people to related stupidity.

The door behind her opened, the wind rushing in. She turned and the breath rushed out of her. Eli. He was here. He hadn’t stood her up.

And it shouldn’t matter.

Feeling a bond with him post-sex is okay. It’s not like you’ve ever done it quite like this before.

Ah, yes, her running internal monologue had a point.

Before him she’d always been in an actual dating relationship with the men she slept with. And with that had come companionship and coffee dates and nice talks. And it had all gone a long way in reinforcing her and her ego.

But this was different and so the fact that she didn’t have a firm handle on it really was understandable.

There, pep talk managed. And now she would just enjoy her coffee.

“You came,” she said.

“I’m on time.”

Yes, dammit, he was. And she had been flailing around for no reason at all.

“Of course,” she said. “Coffee?”

“That’s what we’re here for.” He walked to the counter and Cassie smiled.

“Deputy Garrett, the usual?”

“Yep,” he said. “And whatever Sadie would like.”

Her eyebrows shot upward but she didn’t say anything. He was buying her coffee in public. That seemed like a...thing. Like a public declaration, even. Or maybe it was just coffee. Probably it was.

“I’ll have just a coffee. Room for cream. Two raw sugars,” she said.

Eli pulled out his wallet and paid with cash and she almost laughed. He, and everything about the town, was about eight years behind everything else. In fact, now that she looked, she didn’t think the store was set up to take a debit or credit card. Good thing he’d treated, because she didn’t have any cash.

“And how has your day been?” she asked.

“Good. Gave out some speeding tickets, so the answers of those I’ve encountered could be different.”

“I would say,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of speeding tickets.”

“Have you?” he asked.

“What can I say? I’m a rebel.” Too late she realized she was making jokes about not driving safe again. Bah. She should have gotten a biscotti to gnaw on so her stupid mouth would be occupied. Talking to Eli wasn’t safe.

And why was that? Why was she such a mess with him? She was usually really good with men. All small talky and light and flirty like the barista babies behind the counter.

But not now. And not with him.

“Here you go,” Cassie said, handing the cups to Eli. “Have a nice day, Deputy Garrett. You, too, Sadie.” The other woman’s expression was far too meaningful for Sadie’s liking.

“Same to you, Cassie. Tell Jake hi.” He turned and started to walk out of the shop, her coffee in his hand.

“Wait! I need my cream.” He stopped and handed her the cup, which she took from him before turning to face the little bar, popping the white lid off and picking up the thermos to dump a healthy amount of half-and-half into her drink.

She put the lid back on, managing to avoid spilling and looking like a total dork, which, with her shaky sweaty hands, had been a distinct possibility. “Okay, now we can go.”

He shook his head slightly and pushed the door open, holding it for her. It should not have made her stomach feel warm and fuzzy, but it did. She had a serious fuzziness issue where that man was concerned.

“So,” she said, once the door closed behind them. “How did
you
sleep last night?”

He turned, his shoulder stiff, his cup paused midsip. “Fine,” he said.

Fine. Well. Fine. She’d been fine. Totally fine. Not at all shivery or lonely or horny. “Oh, good. Me, too.”

“The way you said it made it seem like maybe
you
didn’t sleep well
.”

“That’s a lot of...meaning you read into my very simple question.”

“Your very simple question with what sounded like specific emphasis.”

“Fine,” she said. “It had emphasis. Specific emphasis. But you’re lying.”

He raised a brow and stopped walking, the wind ruffling his short dark hair. “Really?”

She wasn’t going to stand there and wallow in indignation. She was going to take a chance. To take a chance on the fact that last night had been as amazing for him as it had been for her.

“Uh-huh. Lying. You didn’t sleep well.” She leaned in. “You slept terrible. Naked. Sweaty and tangled up in your blankets. Wishing I was there to touch you. Wishing it was me putting my hand around your cock instead of you.”

She could see the tension work its way through his body, tightening his shoulders, tightening his jaw. The gamble had paid off.

“That’s enough,” he said.

“Oh, no, it’s not nearly enough.”

“I am on patrol.”

She winked. “Yeah, you are.”

“Euphemism?”

She lifted her shoulders. “Could be.”

“For what?”

“Just messing with you.”

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Well, sort of,” she said. “I was going to swing by the diner to talk to Alison about pie.”

And also kind of to check in on Alison, since Sadie was feeling twitchy about the entire situation. Unless someone came into her office to talk touchy situations, she didn’t normally seek them out. But Alison used to be a friend. And this was different.

Though she felt she could be talked out of involvement very easily since it sorely tested her comfort zone.

But then, just about everything she’d done for the past couple of months—signing a long-term lease, sleeping with a man who gave her feelings and dealing with spiderwebs in a house that had been long empty—had tested her comfort zone.

So why not continue the theme?

“Right. You were going to, but...?”

“What is your stance on ride-alongs?” she asked, looking at his patrol car parked down the street.

“It depends on who the person is.”

“Me. Me is the person.”

“Heavily against.”

“Why?” she asked, knowing she sounded whiny, knowing she was using him to help her avoid the Alison thing.

“Because. I’m not going to let a known criminal sit in the front seat of my car.”

“Ha-ha-ha,” she said drily, “you are a clever, clever man. And fine. I’ll go off and do my actual stuff instead of forcing you to spend any more of your precious time in the presence of my adorableness.”

He let out a long breath. “Fine. Come on.”

“I can go?”

“If you promise not to mess with things.”

“I can’t promise that, Eli.”

“Why?” he asked, looking long-suffering now.

“Because if there are buttons, I may not be able to resist the urge to push them.”

“I’ll dump your ass on the roadside and leave you to hitchhike back to town.”

“No, you won’t,” she said, breezing past him. “You’re too nice.”

“I am not.”

“Sure you are,” she said, waiting by the passenger-side door of the car. “You’re so nice you’re letting me come on a ride-along.”

He opened his door and unlocked hers from that side, then got in without waiting for her. She opened the door and climbed in. There was a laptop mounted to the dash, and in the center console were all the buttons, radios and things she generally wanted to mess with, but didn’t, because the car wasn’t moving yet, and at this point he probably would still kick her out.

“That is not evidence of any particular niceness,” he said, starting the car and putting his drink in the cup holder.

“You don’t like it that I think you’re nice?”

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said.

“You’re just annoyed because I have the right idea.”

He pulled the car away from the curb and onto the mostly vacant streets. It wasn’t quite lunchtime and it wasn’t peak tourist season, so the main street of Copper Ridge was quiet.

“So how did you sleep?” he asked. “Real answer this time.”

“Like a baby.”

“So you woke up every few hours crying?”

“Meh,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Or maybe just...wet and aching and wishing it was my hand between your legs instead of your own.”

She snorted, coffee spurting over the hole in the cup lid and down her chin. She lowered the cup and wiped at her face.

“What?” he asked. “Was that not a nice question?”

She was wet and throbbing now. And not just from the slight dribble of hot coffee on her chin.

“No, it was not nice. Or polite. Or gentlemanly.”

“I warned you. Good, sure. Nice, no. Also, not a gentleman.”

“I feel like I’m learning a lesson about still waters running deep. And a little dirtier than expected, to be honest.”

“Are you sad about that?”

She thought back to last night. To his much-better-than-average bedroom skills. “Uh, no. Can’t say that I am.”

“I thought you seemed to enjoy it.”

“Are we allowed to talk about this on a ride-along? Shouldn’t we be talking official sheriff’s department business?”

“We could. Do you have questions?”

“Funniest call you’ve ever gotten?”

“Concerning piglets who scattered in the elementary school.”

“Wow. That is...way to break small-town stereotypes, Copper Ridge.”

He laughed. “A student had brought them in for show-and-tell. And I happened to be there for a Say No to Drugs assembly. So when all hell broke loose I took the call over the radio. So I was the official first responder to the pig debacle.”

“Legend,” she said.

“Pretty much.”

“Did you always know you wanted to do this?”

“Sort of. I mean, at first I thought maybe I’d do state police. Or head up to Portland and work there. Do something in the city. But I always had my eye on law enforcement because I liked the idea that I could...make people follow the rules.” His voice halted a little on the last part.

“You wanted everyone to behave?” she asked.

He cleared his throat. “When I was a teenager I thought...I thought maybe if I were a cop I could make my mom come back. Make my dad quit drinking. It was power to me. Authority that I didn’t have. I mean, I got over the fantasy really quick, but the desire to be able to change things stayed with me.”

She clutched her coffee to her chest, her eyes on the thinning buildings and the increasing trees, the waves in the distance. Something about his words had made her feel raw. Like the admittance of his own childhood fantasies, of change and control, had scratched against hers.