she’d met so far had been so kind Patsy couldn’t quite believe her luck. Suddenly she regarded Sharon Lynn suspiciously. “Justin didn’t put you up to this, did he?”
“Justin didn’t put her up to what?” the very man in question inquired as he came through the door along with a gust of hot, dry air.
“Hiring me,” Patsy explained, meeting his gaze for an instant.
For once, with his sunglasses tucked in his pocket, Justin’s eyes were visible. She could read the shock registered there. Even though she knew it was justified, it hurt nonetheless.
“Really?” he asked, regarding his cousin warily. “Sharon Lynn, could we talk for a minute?” With a glance in Patsy’s direction, he added pointedly, “In the back.”
“No, we cannot,” Sharon Lynn told him. “I’m busy.” She flipped Patsy’s eggs on the grill, reached for the toast and buttered it, then placed it all on a plate and slid it in front of Patsy. “Enjoy. The crowd will start coming in in about ten minutes.”
Patsy nodded. “I’ll be finished.”
Justin slid onto the stool next to her. She wondered if he meant to intimidate her, but he merely advised, “If you gulp that down, you’ll have indigestion. Sharon Lynn doesn’t go light on the grease.”
She glanced at him. “Worried about my health all of a sudden?”
“Obviously she’s expecting to get a full day’s work out of you. I don’t want to see her cheated.” He regarded her meaningfully.
So, there it was, Patsy thought wearily. The trust he’d promised the day before had barely lasted overnight. She leveled a look straight at him and kept it steady. “I thought you were going to give me an honest chance to start over.”
He sighed. “You’re right,” he conceded grudgingly. “I was.”
“Has something changed since last night?”
“He probably had to answer a lot of questions out at White Pines last night at the family poker game,” Sharon Lynn chimed in cheerfully. “It’s made him edgy.”
“I am not edgy,” he retorted. “I’m just trying to look out for you. Obviously I’m wasting my time. You think you know it all.”
Sharon Lynn grinned at him. “When it comes to Patsy, yes, I do think my judgment’s better than yours. After all, I am the one who predicted…”
Justin scowled. “Never mind.”
Patsy stared at the two of them, trying to guess what the unspoken hints were all about. “Predicted what?”
“Nothing,” Sharon Lynn soothed. “Justin’s just the family worrywart. Why don’t you get back here and fix him some scrambled eggs and a couple of pancakes? I’ll pour him some nice strong black coffee. That ought to improve his mood.”
To Patsy’s surprise, he didn’t argue. Instead he turned his attention to Billy.
“So, young man, what are you up to over there? Has any of that cereal actually made it into your mouth?”
Billy promptly abandoned the mess he was making and reached for Justin. “Up?” he pleaded
Patsy envisioned all the goo on Billy’s hands being transferred to Justin’s starched uniform shirt and winced. “No, baby. I don’t think so.”
To her amazement, Justin ignored her and accommodated Billy. He scooped him up, apparently oblivious to the mess the baby was bound to make of his clothes. Apparently a whole lot more bonding than she’d been aware of had gone on the day before.
“He’s fine where he is. You don’t have to do that,” she told Justin, eyeing him nervously as Billy patted his cheeks with sticky hands.
“It’s not a problem.”
“But—”
“I said it’s not a problem.”
And that, she concluded, was that.
After that, she didn’t have time to worry about it. As Sharon Lynn had predicted, the counter began to fill up with regulars eager for a little breakfast and a lot of chitchat over the latest local gossip. Several speculative looks were cast her way. Ignoring them and the gentle banter that ensued, she concentrated on filling orders as quickly as Sharon Lynn passed them to her.
Even though she never once looked back, she was aware of the precise instant that Justin Adams slid off his stool and left. The prickling sensation at the back of her neck vanished and the tension in her shoulders eased.
When the crowd began to thin out, Sharon Lynn introduced her to the handful of remaining customers. At the sight of a burly man in uniform, her nerves jumped.
“This is the sheriff, Tate Owens, Justin’s boss. Don’t mind the scowl. He looks less fierce once he’s had a couple of doughnuts.”
“I wish,” the man said, casting a longing gaze toward the already depleted display on the counter. “Juice and dry toast for me today. The doc put me on a diet yesterday. He’s grumbling about my cholesterol again.”
“How about some oatmeal?” Sharon Lynn suggested.
“Not without cream and lots of brown sugar,” he lamented. “No, I’ll stick with the toast today and some of that blackberry jam, if you have it.”
“I keep it back here just for you,” Sharon Lynn said.
Patsy noted where Sharon Lynn kept it, so she could supply it on request if she was here alone. She was about to gather up Billy and slip into the back room for a break, when the sheriff spoke directly to her.
“You’re new in town.”
She met his gaze evenly, fighting the sick sensation in the pit of her stomach. “Yes. My son and I got here yesterday.”
“Didn’t take you long to find work,” he observed.
“No. Sharon Lynn’s been very kind.”
He nodded. “Welcome to Los Piños, then. You run into any problems, let me know.”
The offer was made with such absolute sincerity that for a fleeting instant Patsy had the absurd desire to unburden herself to this man. Who knew, maybe she’d be lucky one more time and he would see what she’d been up against. Maybe he could protect her from Will. She sighed with regret. She couldn’t take a chance that it would go the other way.
Instead, she smiled noncommittally. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”
“You’re from Oklahoma,” he noted conversationally. “What part?”
She named her old hometown, rather than Oklahoma City. “I doubt you’ve ever heard of it. It’s tiny, not even as big as Los Piños.”
“Must be,” he said, his expression thoughtful. “I grew up around Oklahoma City myself and I never heard of it. Of course, my memory’s not what it used to be, either. Haven’t been home in years, not since my folks died about ten years back.”
When he’d mentioned Oklahoma City, Patsy’s heart had slammed against her ribs. It hadn’t eased back into a normal rhythm until he’d said how long it had been since he’d been back.
Ten years ago Will had been just starting law school. His face—and hers—hadn’t been on the front pages of the local papers until much more recently. She doubted that a mayor’s race in Oklahoma City would make the local paper here in Los Piños.
“Do you still stay in touch with old friends?” she asked carefully.
“Nope. My friends and family are here now. Haven’t heard from a soul back that way. Skipped my high school reunions. Couldn’t think of what I’d have to say to people I hadn’t seen in years.”
“Too