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There he was. Dressed in navy blue, a badge hanging from a chain around his neck. But the cap and the sunglasses were gone. Elodie swallowed hard. “Hello.” It was all she could manage.
“The front door was open,” he said. “I thought it was you this morning.”
“I thought I recognized you, too.”
He grinned in that same sweet boyish way she remembered. “You haven’t changed a bit,” Dev murmured. “Still...beautiful.”
“Devin Cassidy.” Her heart slammed in her chest and her knees trembled. This was crazy. They’d been high school sweethearts, but that had been years ago. Why was she having such a powerful reaction to seeing him again? Other than the fact he was now an absolutely gorgeous specimen of manhood. “You look...older. I mean, you look like a—a grown-up.”
“Elodie,” he replied with a chuckle. “Still the most honest person I’ve ever met.”
“You’re a—a policeman?”
“Chief of police, actually,” he said. “What are you doing back in town?”
Elodie wasn’t sure she wanted to get into the complicated details of her trip. But if she didn’t continue the conversation, he might leave, and she was certain she didn’t want that. In truth, she wanted a nice, long time to just stare at him, to admire the adult he’d become, to take in every little detail of his face until she’d erased the boy in her memories and replaced him with this incredibly sexy man.
“I’m here to tie up some loose ends. The house has been for sale for years and we’ve had no biters, so I’m considering donating it to the town or maybe to the county.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I can’t afford the taxes any longer. And there’s maintenance that needs to be done that can’t be put off. It’s become an anchor around my neck.”
“Instead of abandoning it, you could always stick around and make something of it.”
She laughed softly. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. It just seems to me that a Winchester should be living in this house.”
“Well, there will be one living here for the next week or two,” she said.
“You’re staying here?”
“It’s cheaper than a motel. I can rough it. Your mother is upstairs putting my bedroom back together.” Elodie met his gaze. “Has she been coming here all along?”
Dev shrugged. “I suppose someone should have asked you, but she wasn’t doing any harm. Your family was her life. She started working for your parents when she was a teenager. I think this is the closest thing she’s ever had to a real home and she couldn’t stand to see it neglected.”
“I can’t pay her,” Elodie said.
“That’s the last thing that matters to her,” he replied.
A long silence grew between them. “I—I’d offer you a cool drink, but I haven’t had a chance to shop.” She laughed. “And right now, I have no electricity for the refrigerator.”
His portable radio squawked. He grabbed it and clicked it on. “This is Dev,” he said.
“We’ve got a report of a 10-68 out on Highway 16, just west of Mike Murphy’s place.”
“I’m five minutes away,” Dev said. “I’ve got it. Out.” He smiled at Elodie. “I have to go. Duty calls.”
“I hope it’s not something dangerous,” she said.
“Nope. A 10-68 is livestock in roadway. I suspect one of Mike Murphy’s pigs got loose. He raises particularly brilliant pigs. They always seem to figure out a way to open the gate and run onto the road rather than crawl through the big broken gaps in his fencing and into the field beyond.”
Elodie laughed. “Glad to hear it’s nothing dangerous. I won’t have to worry.” A blush warmed her cheeks. Had that been too forward? After all, they were barely more than strangers now. And yet, it didn’t feel that way. He felt like an old friend, like someone she’d known very well and hadn’t seen for a few years.
“All right,” he said. “I have to get back to work. I’ll stop by later.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.” Oh, now she was assuming he was concerned about her? “Not that I think you’re worried,” Elodie added. “You have more important things to deal with. So don’t—”
He reached out and pressed his finger to her lips. The contact was startling and undeniably intimate. “You’re currently residing in the village of Winchester, where I am the chief of police,” he said. “It’s my responsibility to worry about your well-being.”
Elodie forced a smile. “All right,” she said.
Dev nodded, then strode through the house to the front door. She heard it close behind him, and she sank back against the wall.
It had been twelve years since she’d last seen him and nothing had changed between them. He still had the ability to set her heart racing and turn her brain to mush. It had taken every ounce of her willpower to stop herself from touching him and running her fingers over his handsome face.
She’d met a lot of boys, and then men, since leaving Winchester. She’d had some serious relationships that had ended up imploding in a spectacular fashion. And in the midst of all that pain and turmoil, Elodie had always wondered if she’d left her one true love behind at age sixteen.
The notion was ridiculous, but it had stuck with her over the years. Maybe she’d been fated to love Devin Cassidy, and she’d never be truly happy unless she was with him. Elodie sighed. Or maybe she was searching for something—a sense of belonging, a place for her to finally feel safe and secure again. She was home, but it wasn’t the home she remembered. It was silly to get too attached to Dev simply because he was familiar.
She closed her eyes and let a delicious image of the dark-haired, blue-eyed man drift through her mind. How was it possible that he was still here, still single and— Elodie stopped herself. Was he still single? She hadn’t bothered to check for a wedding band. Surely she would have noticed that.
Elodie opened her eyes and pushed away from the wall. “Mary?” She ran through the house and took the stairs to her bedroom two at a time.
If she wanted to know more about Winchester’s sexy police chief, she’d simply ask his mother.
2 (#ulink_82466c36-eeb7-562a-8de6-9c97492e7935)
“I UNDERSTAND THAT there’s a procedure to turn the power back on,” Dev said, “but I’m asking you to do me this favor. Come on, Jack, I’ll pay the overtime or the upcharge or whatever’s necessary to get your guys out there this afternoon. With all the bad feelings around town about the Winchesters, it’s not safe for Elodie Winchester to stay in that house with the power off. Now, if you want that responsibility on your head, you’ve got it. Anything happens to her, I’ll let everyone know that we talked.”
Dev pushed the grocery cart up to the checkout register and began to unload the groceries as he listened to Jack’s excuses on the other end of the line. He smiled at the young girl behind the register. Erv and Maggie Ronkowski’s daughter. Honor student. Caroline. Played flute in the high school band.
He suddenly remembered that he was supposed to meet Jimmy Joe in front of Zelda’s after school. Dev glanced at his watch. School let out ten minutes ago. Jimmy Joe was probably at the hardware store picking up supplies. If he hurried, he’d make it on time.
“Jack, just get it done. I’ll owe you one.” He switched off his phone and shoved it in his pocket. “Hey there, Caroline,” he said. “How’s it going?”
“Good,” she said. “Would you like paper or plastic?”
“Paper is fine,” he said.
He waited as she called over the manager to check out the wine he’d purchased. The store manager, Eddie Grant, strolled over and began to bag the groceries. “Did you hear that one of the Winchesters is back in town?”
“I did,” Dev said. “Elodie. The youngest daughter.”
“Jeb Baylor was in here talkin’ that he and a bunch of the boys were going to pay her a visit later. They’re all upset about the pension thing and they want some answers.”
“Did they define ‘later’?”
“Yeah, after work. You might want to stop by and calm them down.”
“I’ll do that,” Dev said. He held out his credit card and signed the slip before scooping up the pair of grocery bags. “Thanks, Eddie. You’re a good guy.”
“I remember Elodie,” he said. “She used to come in here and buy candy when she was a kid. She was always really sweet.”
“She still is,” Dev said.
When he got to the cruiser, Dev threw the groceries in the back, then grabbed his radio. “Car zero-one to dispatch.”
“Dispatch,” Sally said. “What can I do for you, Chief?”
“Get Kyle on the radio and have him drive over to the Winchester mansion. There’s talk of some trouble. Have him sit on the place until I get there.”
“Ten-four,” Sally said.
He listened as she made the call, then pulled the cruiser out into traffic. By the time he reached Zelda’s, Jimmy Joe was waiting for him, his purchases scattered on the sidewalk in front of him.
Dev jumped out of the car and jogged across the street. “Nice work,” he said.
“What is all this stuff?”
“Grab the bucket and take it inside to Joanie,” Dev said. “Have her fill it with warm water.”
While he waited for Jimmy Joe, he gave Kyle a call. The officer reported that all was quiet at the Winchester mansion. When Jimmy reappeared, Dev sat him down on a bench. “You’ve got a choice here, James. You owe Feller for those tires and whatever else you took home that night. Now, if you aren’t interested in restitution, I can run you in right now and you’ll have the very first entry on your juvenile record at age sixteen. But if you want to take a different path, I can help you. What’s it going to be?”
The boy thought about the question for a long time, much longer than necessary as far as Dev was concerned. “I—I guess I want to do the right thing.”
“Jobs are hard to come by in this town, so you are now our newest entrepreneur.”
“Yeah?”
“You have a window-washing business.” As he described the steps to washing the huge plate-glass windows of the café, Dev pulled out the scrub brush and then the squeegee, demonstrating how to get the glass to shine in the sunlight.
Dev stood back and watched as Jimmy Joe took care of the other side. The boy quickly corrected his mistakes, and after another squeegee the glass was streak free.
“Done,” Jimmy Joe said.
“Not yet. Now you go inside and you tell Joanie to come out here and look at her window. If she likes the job, ask if she’d pay you for the job.”
“How much?”
“What do you think it’s worth?”
Dev could see the wheels turning in the kid’s head. He stared down the street. “I could wash all these windows. Even the buildings that are closed. It would make them look much better. Ten dollars.”
“Why don’t you do the first job for five and if she asks you back, you’ll charge her ten a week.”
“Every week? That’s forty dollars a month.”
“The car dealership has a lot more windows. You could charge them twenty.”
Dev left Jimmy Joe in front of Zelda’s, adding up his potential profits as he gathered up his new equipment. If Dev was right about the kid, his investment in equipment would pay off in the end. “One at a time,” he murmured to himself as he headed over to the Winchester place.
As he drove onto Wisteria Street, Dev noticed the cluster of cars parked in front of the mansion. Cursing beneath his breath, he hit the lights and the siren and raced up the street, coming to a stop in front of the mansion.
A crowd of men was gathered outside the front gate. Thankfully, someone in the group understood the meaning of “trespassing.” They were shouting at the house, and he saw Elodie and his mother standing on the porch, watching the scene unfold nervously.
He found Kyle in the midst of the small gathering, arguing with a slightly inebriated Jeb Baylor. Dev stepped though the group and nodded at his junior officer. “I told you to call me if there was trouble.”
“I thought I could handle it. They’ve had a few beers and are just letting off a little steam.”
“All right,” Dev said. “Everyone just settle down. Who here is carrying a gun?” Two of the men raised their hands.
“We have permits,” one of the men said.
“That’s fine. Kyle, take the two of them over to the car and check those permits for me. As for the rest of you, I know you’re upset and these wounds run real deep. But Elodie Winchester can’t help you.”
“She and her family walked away with all the cash. They owe us something.”
“You got something. You settled your pension case in court three years ago. It’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Jeb said. “We want answers.”
“Well, Jeb, why don’t you write down your questions and I’ll see if Miss Elodie would be interested in answering them in a more civilized setting. Take the boys here and sit down. Put everything on paper and I’ll talk to her. She says she’s going to be here for at least a week.”
That seemed to pacify the crowd and they gradually dispersed. Kyle walked over, an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry, boss.”
“Two of those guys had guns and they were all drinking. It could have gone bad real quick. Your first duty was to call for backup.”
“It won’t happen again,” he said.
“No, it won’t. Now I’m going to ask you to take my mother home. Stop by the grocery store if she needs to pick up something for dinner.”
Dev grabbed his own grocery bags from the back of the cruiser, then strode up the front walk.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” his mother said. “Those men were very angry.”
“Mom, Kyle is going to take you home.”
“But I have more work to do,” she said.
“No,” Elodie said. “You’ve been wonderful, but Dev is right. It’s time to go home.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Mary said.
Elodie glanced over at Dev, and he gave her a shrug. “Come at ten,” she said. “No earlier.”
“Good,” Mary said. “That will give me a chance to shop for supplies.”
