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He jerked back to the moment. “Mrs. Douglas,” he replied. “You said you brought my property survey. And the building permit?”
She looked startled and for a fleeting second he wondered whether she’d felt the same awareness that was galloping through his body. Then she gave him a more cautious smile. “The survey was easy. There’s a small problem with the building permit.”
She met his gaze directly, and he noted that she was tall, only four inches or so shorter than his own just over six-foot-three height. Perfect height to kiss without contorting himself. A wisp of wind caught her hair and turned a curl loose. He found himself longing to tuck it back in. To feel that smooth skin and see whether her hair was as silky as it looked.
She sure as hell wasn’t like any mayor he’d ever seen.
“And the building permit?” he asked, trying to divert the thoughts. Mind over matter. Or body.
“The city clerk said you didn’t bring a copy of the deed, and she checked with the county. The property is listed as belonging to David Hannity.”
“Dave Hannity is dead,” he said, barely keeping his voice steady. Even after nearly eight months, the words hurt like hell. “He left the cabin to me. An attorney in the county seat—Laine Mabry—just settled probate. The deed should have been transferred by now. I’ll check with him.”
“Good. Once we have a copy of the deed, there shouldn’t be a problem.”
He expected her to leave then, but she didn’t, and he was surprised he really didn’t want her to go. She challenged him. Intrigued him. He really had been too long without a woman.
Her gaze rested for a moment on the scar on his face. He could tell from her expression that she wanted to ask more questions. Still, she refrained, and that interested him, too, as did the way she stood her ground despite his scowl and lack of manners.
“The survey?” he prompted, silently cursing himself.
She lifted the briefcase and steadied it on the brick barbecue pit. She opened it and fished out a large piece of rolled draft paper.
Their hands touched, and he felt a surge of electricity streak through him. She suddenly backed away and bumped against the barbecue pit. He automatically reached out, steadying her. She smelled like fresh flowers, and he felt the calluses on her hand again. Oddly enough, that was sexy to him. Damn if she wasn’t sexy in every way.
He didn’t let go, and she didn’t pull away.
A flame leaped between them. He felt its heat sear him. She leaned against him for the barest of seconds, then pulled away. Confusion suddenly clouded her eyes.
What in the hell just happened? He must be more nuts than usual. She wore a ring, and he never played in someone else’s yard. Never. He’d seen too many guys open Dear John letters and knew what it did to them. He was no angel, but he’d sworn never to cause that kind of pain. And he didn’t think much of a woman who could. Maybe that was why he always preferred one-night stands with unattached women.
She looked at him with wide eyes now. He watched as she tried to compose herself. When she finally spoke, there was a catch in her throat. “Dave Hannity... I knew him years ago. Not well. He was older. Then he just seemed to disappear....”
That brought him back to reality. Dave was a subject he couldn’t—wouldn’t—discuss.
“You said inherited,” she continued. “What happened to him?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters that I didn’t know. I liked him. I know my husband did.”
He didn’t answer immediately, hoping his silence would send her away.
When it was clear that it wouldn’t, he said simply, “He was in the army. He died in Afghanistan.”
“He must have been a good friend,” she said softly.
“Excuse me, Mayor Douglas, but I don’t know why that’s any of your business.”
She stiffened. “You’re right, of course, Mr. Manning. It’s not.” She started to turn, then swung back. “You said you have a dog.”
“Is that against the law?” He bristled again.
“Of course not.” Her smile faded. “But we do have some ordinances regarding animals,” she continued after a few seconds, as if she’d caught her breath. “Dogs have to be on a leash or...”
“Under the voice control of an individual,” he finished. “Amos is under voice control when we walk.”
The colors of her eyes seemed to change with her emotions. “I hope you’ll learn to like us,” she said. There was a not-so-veiled challenge in her tone. She wasn’t all sweetness. There was some spice, too.
“Not bloody likely,” he muttered, using an expression he’d learned from British counterparts. It was, he felt, appropriate at the moment as he tried to tamp down that sexual electricity that still hovered in the air. She looked so damn...intriguing. He sensed there was fire under that proper facade. He saw flashes of it in her eyes.
He reminded himself that she was married. And, God help him, a mayor. He’d never liked authority of any kind. Even in the army, he’d been a maverick and probably wouldn’t have lasted long if an officer hadn’t seen his independence as something that could be useful in Special Forces.
Mayor Eve Douglas was the last thing he needed.
He turned and limped inside, leaving her standing there.
But despite himself, he watched her through the newly cleaned window as she walked, ramrod straight, toward an elderly pickup truck. She stepped gracefully into the truck, not an easy thing to do.
A mud-splattered pickup truck? The mayor? Of course, it was a small town, but...
None of his business. He turned away. He tried to channel the persisting need into anger. Anger came easily these days. Right now, it was all he had to hold on to.
He went into his bedroom, where Amos still lay under the bed. The dog hadn’t even moved to see who was outside. A year ago, he would have been at full alert, eager and ready to inspect the newcomer.
The two of them were aliens in this place. They were military castoffs, and neither of them knew how to adapt. Josh lowered himself to the floor and sat next to the dog. He put his hand on Amos’s back and rubbed it. He knew it would be plain hell getting up, but right now he figured they needed each other.
“What in the hell are we doing here?” he whispered.
* * *
AFTER LEAVING MR. Manning’s property, Eve sat in her pickup for a while. Waiting...for what? Then she saw movement inside the cabin. Drat, what was she doing? She started the truck and drove out onto Lake Road, resisting the temptation to look back. One thing for sure, Josh Manning was no squatter. From the look of him, and what little she’d seen of the cabin, he’d been working like a demon.
She wasn’t sure what else he was. Her hand still burned from his touch, and her heart was hammering. She couldn’t remember that ever happening before. She was just flustered, she assured herself. He’d been rude and abrupt and...overwhelming.
She saw him now as he’d stood whacking at weeds, the ridges of his muscles straining under the damp T-shirt that clung to him, his sandy hair uncombed. There had been something elemental about him, something untamed and restless, and yet she’d also sensed control when he went to the trouble to harness it.
His face, partially covered with a beard the color of gold, was hawklike with guarded emerald-green eyes that assessed her as if she was prey. She completely understood why June had been frightened. He had nearly apologized about June, but not quite. It was probably as much of an apology as anyone would receive.
But she hadn’t been frightened. Stunned at her body’s reactions to him, yes, but physically afraid? No.
And why did she still ache inside? She hadn’t been attracted to another man since Russ died four years earlier, nor even before that. And this man was the polar opposite of her husband. Russ had been her best friend as well as lover: warm and funny and very easy to love. He’d been everyone’s big brother, and his students adored him. This man was a hostile loner. And a rather unkempt one at that.
When she reached the road, she drove past a few houses, then stopped the truck. She tried to regain her composure. It wasn’t easy. She’d never been so affected by a man, and it didn’t make sense. It certainly wasn’t because she was lonely. Although she missed Russ with all her heart, she had a good life with her son, Nick, their small ranch and her job.
Still, she couldn’t deny the attraction that had streaked between them when he had taken her hand and steadied her. So much strength there.
Nonsense. She didn’t believe in looks across a crowded room...or a weed patch. And it wasn’t that she didn’t have enough problems already.
She realized she hadn’t seen the dog Marilyn had mentioned. And it was strange that a large dog would not have barked at a stranger’s presence. But Joshua Manning knew the law, had obviously checked into it, and she had no legal reason to demand anything. Especially with only Marilyn’s vivid imagination to go on.
Go. Just leave. She turned the key in the ignition, but her thoughts went back to when he’d mentioned Dave Hannity. There had been pain in his eyes. It had been there only for the briefest of seconds, but in that time she’d felt its impact.
He hadn’t said so, but she was sure he’d been in the service. That was probably why he limped. There was still pain in that leg. She’d seen that, too. She’d seen it in Russ when he’d been recovering from a football injury to his knee, the one that had ended his career as a college quarterback.
She wanted to look back, but she was too far away now. Her world had just been rocked, and she didn’t know why or how. She only knew she had to stay away from him. He aroused feelings she didn’t want or need. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel until they hurt. Then she drove toward the main road. Going to the office.
To a safe place.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN EVE ARRIVED at the office, Tom was waiting for her. Although it was only midmorning, he looked tired.
His appearance worried her. “Should you be here?”
“I’m going crazy at home,” he said. “Maggie’s hovering around like I’m an invalid. Hell, Eve, I’m not ready for a rocking chair. Two days of doing nothing, and I’m going nuts. Besides, I’m still chief until you replace me.”
Eve was torn. Tom had been her father’s close friend for years, and as a detective with the county sheriff’s department had investigated his murder three years ago. A native of Covenant Falls, he had taken her father’s place as police chief after the funeral and hoped to find her father’s murderers, but he hadn’t. She knew he still fretted about that.
In those three years, he’d become even more a member of her family, rooting for Nick at Little League games, serving as her sounding board and being part of every family celebration. He was someone she didn’t want to lose. Couldn’t lose. But she also knew him well enough to realize he would not do well sitting at home.
“You look a bit flushed yourself,” he said. “Are you and Nick all right?”
She feared the flush was deepening. “Guess it’s from running around this morning. And Nick is fine. Only two more weeks of school, then I’ll be worrying all day long. I can’t keep him off that bike.”
“Your dad used to say the same about you.”
She didn’t have an answer for that.
He changed the subject. “I hear you couldn’t agree on a replacement for me.”
She sighed. The meeting yesterday had been contentious. One of the deputies vying for the job was the nephew of the council president. “In the first place, no one could replace you. But then Al, Ed and Nancy want Sam. I don’t think he’s ready. He’s a little too fast to assume the worst.” She didn’t add that her husband had coached Sam Clark on the Covenant Falls High football team and thought him a bully.
“I agree,” Tom said. “He has seniority over the other officers, but I purposely didn’t promote him to sergeant because I question his judgment.” He sighed heavily. “I think your father hired him for the same reason you have to keep him. You need Al’s support for your budget, and he controls three of the five votes on the council. Or, I should say, owns them. I could keep Sam under control, but if we can’t find someone too strong for the council to ignore, you’ll have a fight on your hands.”
Eve knew he was right. “You just have to find me that person at a salary we can pay. We couldn’t afford you if you didn’t have the county retirement.”
Tom shrugged. “You don’t get paid nearly enough for all the work you do. Grady Dillard just sat in that chair and drank with his cronies. You’ve put life back in Covenant Falls.”
“Our newest resident isn’t very impressed.” The words escaped before she could stop them. Why did Joshua Manning linger in her head?
Linger? No, dominate. It was annoying. Confounding. Maddening.
Tom raised an eyebrow and nearly looked like the man he’d been before all the heart attacks. “The guy at the Hannity place?”
“You’ve heard?”
“Marilyn called me, too. I don’t take her too seriously.” His face hardened. “Also had a burglary call this morning. That’s why I came in.”
“Where?”
“Maude’s. Someone broke into her diner last night. Took the late-night cash. About three hundred dollars or so, she said.”
Eve groaned. If she hadn’t stopped at the Hannity place, she would have heard the news sooner. The amount wasn’t much to a lot of people, but it was to Maude. And it was the first burglary in months. There had been vandalism in some of the cabins around the lake, but nothing more than that. Not in the past year.
“Could be teenagers,” Tom said, “but most of the locals are good kids.”
She suddenly knew who would be blamed. “Any suspects?”
He shrugged. “Not yet, but rumors are circulating, probably helped by Sam. He wants to talk to the new guy. I said no. I wanted to talk to you first.”
“His name is Joshua Manning, and I talked to him this morning. He didn’t say much, except he inherited the cabin from David Hannity, and that David had been in the army. I had the impression he’s ex-military, too, although he didn’t say so. He’s fixing up the place. I can’t see him breaking into a restaurant for a few hundred dollars.”
“You have good instincts, Eve, but if you want, I’ll quietly check him out.”
Eve hesitated. She was reluctant to invade the man’s privacy, and if it wasn’t for the burglary, she would have said no. But she knew how rumors spread in town. Too many would put together the arrival of an unfriendly and admittedly scruffy-looking resident with the first major crime of the year. Better to quash them fast.
“You said you thought he was former military. Why?” Tom was a Vietnam veteran, and she knew he had a soft spot for other present and former servicemen.
She shrugged. Casually, she hoped. “He’s not very talkative. In fact, he avoided saying much of anything about himself. Said it was none of my business, but everything points to it.”
Tom looked quizzical. “He said that to you, and you didn’t bash him?”
“Well, he was right. It really wasn’t my business, and bashing wouldn’t be very becoming of a mayor, would it?” She decided to change the subject. “But he does have a pronounced limp and a fairly recent scar on his face. It follows that he served with David.”
“Or he’s a relative,” Tom said. “Didn’t I tell you not to take things for granted?”
Something else she had learned as mayor. She nodded. “That could be.” She winced at the memory of how Joshua Manning had controlled the conversation and how completely inept she’d felt. She hated that.
Not to mention that she still felt all tingly inside when she thought about him. That was unacceptable.
“Want me to pay a visit?”
“I think he’s had enough of visits. Why don’t you just check with the attorney who handled the probate? You know everyone in this county. And run a quick background check. That should satisfy Sam.” She didn’t like the idea of having to satisfy Sam, but she knew him well enough to realize he might go snooping on his own. Especially if Tom wasn’t around to control him.
Tom nodded. “I’ll do that.”
“I don’t want you to do too much.”
“Just a few phone calls. I swear.”
“If you feel...”
“I’ll call the doc,” he replied.
She hesitated, worried about burdening him more, then said, “And while you’re at it, could you find out what happened to Dave Hannity? Russ used to run with him, and I would like to know. His disappearance was one of the town’s big mysteries after his uncle drowned.”
“Will do. I’m kinda interested myself.”
