Lawson was glad Dallas had finally caved about driving. He still owed her a ticket, which he hadn’t quite been able to write out yet, but there was no way he wanted her behind the wheel of a car until she had her legs back under her. And okay, he’d admit it. He liked the idea of her sticking around town a few days.

He made small talk during the short drive, pointing out Main Street amenities, the doughnut shop, a diner, and a couple fast food places in case she got hungry.

“They’re within walking distance of the hotel, but you can order in, too. Which I recommend.”

“Why?” She turned, smiling.

She had a gorgeous smile. Fact of the matter, she was more gorgeous today than she’d been yesterday. Which, he supposed, wasn’t exactly a compliment.

“Think I’m too wimpy to walk a couple of blocks?”

He smiled back. “Really want me to answer that?”

A chuckle bubbled up. “No. But I do want you to know I’m normally a very strong, independent person.”

“Duly noted. We all need a little help now and then.”

She turned back toward the road, suddenly serious, and murmured, “Isn’t that the truth?”

He’d been curious about her before. Now he wanted to know her. She intrigued him. Stirred him up a little too, and he hadn’t let anyone stir him in a long time.

At the hotel, he nodded to Rod Brinks, the desk clerk, and stood close while Dallas, pale and shaky, checked in. She’d walked the few feet from the entrance where he’d parked, but he could see the effort had taken most of her strength. The meds the hospital had administered must have been powerful.

“Give her a first-floor room, Rod,” Lawson said. “Miss Langley’s been in the hospital.”

Rod’s bespeckled face wreathed in appropriate sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. Is there anything special you’d like brought to your room?”

“Maybe some bottled water?”

With a smile, the clerk reached behind him into a small cooler and took out two bottles. “Here you go. Welcome to Best Western, Calypso.”

Lawson reached in and took the water, hefted her bag, and followed her down the hall like a bellman. A very watchful bellman. She’s was doing pretty well, but he didn’t want her fainting on him again.

At Room 5, Dallas paused to swipe the key. “Is this part of the job too, Sheriff? Delivering pathetic women to their hotel rooms?”

“Better than having them on my roads.” He winked to let her know he kidded. Sort of.

The lock clicked, and she leaned her weight against the door. It didn’t budge. Lawson reached around her and pushed.

She groaned. “Wimpy.”

He grinned at her back and followed her in, sweeping the room with his eyes as he set the bag and water on the end of the bed. She sat next to them, clearly relieved to be off her feet.

“Anything I can do for you before I leave?”

“No.” She offered a hand. Long slim fingers clasped his. Soft fingers. “Thank you for everything, Sheriff. I’m sorry to be such a bother.”

A rush of heat shot through Lawson’s body as he gazed down into her face. He had the oddest desire to sit down beside her and learn everything there was to know about Dallas Langley. He wanted to listen to her voice, watch her talk, make her laugh.

Reluctantly, he withdrew his hand. Enough of this nonsense. Didn’t he have enough female trouble at the moment?

“I’ll stop by in the morning to take you to your car.” He reached inside his jacket for the business cards he kept handy. “Call if I can be of further assistance.”

Sounding and feeling stiff and a tad bit awkward, he exited the room.

Dallas kicked off her shoes and crawled onto the bed, propping two pillows at her back. She took a long drink from the water bottle and relaxed, the handsome sheriff in the front of her thoughts.

The hospital meds must have affected her thinking. Either that, or she was seriously crushing on a cop she’d barely met.

“Probably both,” she muttered and tilted her head back. A vague pulse tapped at the base of her skull, and she realized she hadn’t had the prescription filled.

“Should be okay. I probably have enough meds in me to last a week.” She hoped.

The last thing she wanted to do was leave this room. Just getting here had wiped her out. The ride had been pleasant, though, listening to the sheriff rumble about his town and the good people.

She’d almost asked him about Wyatt Caldwell. Almost. Maybe tomorrow, she would. He would know if the Caldwells were worth knowing. She still didn’t know what she’d do if they were, indeed, kin. What did they want? Why would they be interested, at this point, in making contact with a half sister they’d never met? A half sister who probably meant their father had cheated on their mother. Not a pleasant thought.

“Half sister.” She rolled the words through her mind. Yesterday, she’d been too shocked to thoroughly consider what this meant.

She probably should have called Mom, but she’d been afraid of hurting her. Stephanie Langley wasn’t sensitive about much, but she’d always gotten upset anytime Dallas asked about her birth father.

The left side of Dallas’s head started to thud again. Stress was a trigger. And her stress wasn’t going away any time soon.

Lawson left the hotel with Dallas’s classy fragrance in his nostrils and an odd feeling in his chest. He’d also left the clerk with instructions--and a twenty-dollar gratuity—to check on Miss Langley’s well-being in a few hours.

The rest of his morning was spent in paperwork and meetings, though two blond females weren’t far from his thoughts.

He’d been uncertain about leaving Madison alone at the ranch, but when he’d said so, she’d scoffed. Bryce left her alone all the time, let her drive a car at his convenience and then hitchhike on the interstate. What harm could come to her at a ranch?

Now at his desk inside the courthouse, Lawson found a free minute to make contact with his half brother. No answer. He left a message. Thirty minutes later, he left another. When that didn’t produce a response, he texted.

“Respond, or I’m filing child abandonment charges.”

The reply was instantaneous. “I didn’t abandon her. She’s with her beloved uncle.”

“She doesn’t even know me.”

“Time to get acquainted.”

Lawson ground his back teeth. “She belongs with her father.”

“She’s better off with you.”

He had a point. Bryce’s half-homeless, totally irresponsible, vagabond lifestyle wasn’t good for anyone.

“If she stays here, she needs to be in school.”

“So enroll her.”

In other words, Bryce had no intention of returning any time soon. Maybe never.

“Get back here ASAP!”

“Sure thing. Gotta run now.”

Lawson texted a few more, terse commands but received no more answers. He shouldn’t be surprised. Still, this was epic idiocy on Bryce’s part. Maybe on his part too. After all, he’d just inherited someone else’s problem.

His conscience twanged like a tuning fork. Madison wasn’t a problem. She was a human being with thoughts and feelings, a confused, angry, wounded kid.

“Could use a little direction, Lord,” he murmured. And then he shoved the cell phone into his pocket with enough force to rip the pocket.

At noon, he radioed his intention to dispatch, picked up a pizza, and cruised out to the ranch. He found Madison sprawled on his comfy old couch watching, surprisingly, a cooking show. When he came in, she didn’t bother to get up. Just eyed him with enough suspicion and uncertainty to give his heart a pinch.

“Pizza,” he said, holding up the brown-and-red cardboard box.

“Not pepperoni, I hope.”

Struck out again. “You can take the pepperoni off, Madison. It’s still a cheese pizza.”

“I guess.”

She followed him into the kitchen for a slice. And, he noticed with some glee, she did not toss the pepperoni.

“I talked to your dad today.”

Gray eyes flashed at him. “No way.”

“I’m an officer of the law. There’s always a way to get people to talk.”

“Oh.” She shoved a bite in her mouth, letting the mozzarella string down her chin. “He’s not coming, is he?”

Her resigned tone let him know exactly how little she expected from her father.

“You’re staying with me for a while.”

She reeled in the mozzarella. “And you are just thrilled out of your gourd.”

He wasn’t touching that remark with the famous ten-foot pole.

“Tomorrow, we’ll get you enrolled in school.” And begin laying some ground rules for life with the local sheriff.

Madison rolled her eyes and groaned but didn’t argue.

His cell buzzed. He answered without looking. “Hawk here.”

“Sheriff, this is Rob at Best Western. You said to call if the lady in room five, Miss Langley, needed anything.”

“What’s going on? Is she sick again?”

“Headache, I think. She asked me about getting a prescription filled but no one in town delivers. I’d go after it myself, but I can’t leave the desk. She’s going to walk to the pharmacy, but she looks kind of weak and sickly to me.”

“Be there in a few. Thanks, Rob.” He hung up, replaced the phone, and started for the door. If he left now, he could fill the script before his lunch hour ended. “Gotta get going.”

As he started to exit the house, Madison called, “Hey!”

He pivoted. She came from the kitchen holding out a paper towel with two pizza slices. “You didn’t eat.”

The simple kindness felt like a giant step in the right direction.

If she wasn’t careful, Dallas was going to change her mind about cops. At least about small-town, sheriff-type cops in cowboy hats.

He’d not only taken her to fill the prescription, he’d stopped at a local diner for a bowl of chicken soup with plenty of crackers. At her request, of course, but he could have said no. That he hadn’t said a lot about him.

This was after he’d pulled alongside her and threatened to arrest her if she didn’t get in the car and stop fainting on his sidewalks. She’d laughed and gratefully gotten in. Even though the pharmacy was only two blocks from the hotel, the ride was a big relief. She was the weakest she’d ever been after one of these episodes.

Currently, Lawson Hawk stood inside her hotel room door, hat in hand, looking too good to be a cop. He’d refused to sit, though there were two chairs. Professional distance, she supposed. And rightly so. What would his constituents think about him visiting a stranger in her hotel room? Gossip was the avocation of small towns and, often, larger ones. She was living proof.

“Do you always chauffer visitors?” she asked.

“Only those I find throwing up on my town’s sidewalks.”

She grimaced. “You didn’t have to remind of me of that little indelicacy.”

His eyes twinkled. “If the town makes you sick, we’re obligated to look after you. City ordinance.” But he smiled to let her know he joked.

Imagine that, a cop with a sense of humor.

“Give my thanks to the city. Not that Calypso is responsible for my migraines, but the hospitality is exceptional.”

“Glad to oblige. You do look a little better this afternoon. Not so pale.”

“I feel better. Still weak, as you pointed out when threatening to handcuff and arrest me.” She paused for a smile and was rewarded with his in return. Her stomach executed a tingly jitterbug. “I napped a long time, which helped, but when I awoke, the distant drumming was growing louder.”

“So, you thought the medicine could stop the headache before it got crazy?”

“Exactly.” She opened the pill bottle and downed one tablet with a sip of soup. “Mm. This soup is really good.”

“The sandwich shop makes it fresh from scratch daily. A bachelor sheriff knows where to find the good stuff.”

“No Mrs. Sheriff at home?”

“I’m too busy for a wife. She’d die of loneliness.”

Not only a bachelor, but a confirmed, died in the wool bachelor without a thought of marriage. Good. She didn’t like cops anyway. And she worried she could easily like this one too much.

She still had big plans for the future. True, they were stalled out at the moment, but once the trouble in Texas settled down, she’d start over. Somewhere.

“I have to get back to work.”

“I’ll see you in the morning?” Did she sound over-eager? “To get my car, I mean.”

“Nearly forgot about that. I should have taken you while we were out.”

“Tomorrow’s fine. After the soup and the pain meds, I’ll want to sleep anyway.”

“First thing in the morning, I have to take my niece to enroll in school. She’s staying with me for a while, but I can pick you up before then.”

Dallas was a little disappointed. She’d planned to invite him to lunch or breakfast after retrieving her car. To repay his kindness. Maybe it was a blessing, though. After the nightmare with Aaron, she didn’t want to get involved.

Who was she kidding? She was disappointed because something she couldn’t name vibrated between them every time Lawson came around. Something magic and thrilling.

Either that or the migraine had stolen her last brain cell.

Probably that.

“Anytime is fine,” she said. “Shoot me a text. I’ll be ready.”

“I’ll need your number.” Nothing flirtatious in the request. Strictly business.

“Of course.” She rattled it off while he typed it into his contacts.

“Got it.” He put the cell phone away and patted his shirt pocket. “You take care now.”

“I will. And thank you again.”

The handsome sheriff hesitated as if he wanted to say more, then nodded and left. The heavy hotel door clanged shut behind him.

Madison did not want to cooperate.

“School stinks. Kids hate me.” She sat on the couch, arms folded, hair like something out of a brush pile.

Lawson stood in front of her, hands on his hips. “They won’t if you’ll lose the attitude and show them some consideration. Calypso is filled with good people.”

Madison rolled her eyes. She was an expert at that. “Not too good, Sherlock, or they wouldn’t need cops.”

He wasn’t going to argue. As he did with belligerent citizens, he demanded. “Get up. Get your clothes on, your hair combed. We leave in fifteen minutes.”

To keep his cool, he went out to check on the horses. Sadie, an aging buckskin mare, stayed close to the barn and to her barn buddy, Tripp, a sweet palomino gelding. Lawson pampered them with extra feed and a rub down. After breaking a few blocks of hay and filling the water trough, he was sufficiently calm to return to the house.

Madison stood in the middle of the living room, the backpack on her shoulder. She looked presentable.

“Ready?”

“I guess.”

With an inward sigh, he led the way to the car. Madison’s attitude had to change. The problem was, short of handcuffing her and tossing her in juvie, he didn’t know how to break through the wall she’d built around herself. She had issues. But who didn’t?

“Gotta stop by the hotel first.”

“Why?” She slammed inside and put on her seatbelt. “Someone get robbed?”

“The sick woman I told you about needs a ride to her car.” Not that she couldn’t walk or call the one taxi in town, but he’d offered, she’d accepted, and he wasn’t complaining. She intrigued him.

Yes, it was unusual for him to do pick-up and delivery for anyone other prisoners, but he considered this a community service. Made the town seem friendly.

When they arrived at the hotel, Dallas came out as if she’d been watching for them. Lawson’s stomach took a nose dive. The gorgeous blonde no longer appeared ill and wan. She looked high class. Way too high class for him. And pretty enough to be on TV. Leggy and slender with the posture perfect walk of a model.

Lawson shook his head to clear it. He wasn’t in the market for romance. Not this week anyway. He had his hands full with his niece.

Nevertheless, he got out of the SUV and opened the back door for Dallas. “Sorry about the wire cage.”

She stooped low and slid onto the backseat, then looked up at him. “I have to admit, this is my first ride in the backseat of a police car.”

“Good to know.” He leaned in, hands on either side of the door. “Though I do owe you a speeding ticket.”

“Seriously?”

She looked so shocked, he allowed the inward smile to bloom on his lips. “Sixty in a thirty-five the day I found you defacing our pristine sidewalk.”

She scrunched up her face—and looked mighty cute doing it. “Will an apology help?”

Another of those smiles might. “Possibly.”

“How about an offer to buy your dinner?”

Was she flirting? “Sounds like bribing an officer of the court to me, doesn’t it to you, Madison?”

Madison had turned in the seat and listened to the conversation with open curiosity. “Depends on how good the dinner is.”

The unexpected levity brought a bark of laughter. The kid had a sense of humor?

Dallas grinned. “Your niece is brilliant. And she’s invited to dinner, too. I promise it’ll be good—if you recommend the restaurant.” She leaned toward the mesh wire separating the backseat from the front. “I’m Dallas.”

“I’m Madison.” The teen managed to look surly, as if she hated her name.

“Ah. The sheriff’s niece who’s enrolling in school today.”

“He told you about me?”

“Yes, but he forgot to mention how pretty you are.”

Madison turned two shades of pink. “Thanks.”

“First day in a new place is uncomfortable. Are you nervous?”

Lawson left them talking, closed the door and returned to the driver’s side. When he got in, they were still talking, though some of Madison’s snarky replies made him wince. Hadn’t Bryce taught her anything?

When they arrived at Dallas’s car, he had to get out and open her door. Backdoors were prisoner proof and didn’t open from the inside.

Lawson offered a hand. Not because he wanted to touch her, though that was a nice bonus. But the seat was scooped so low, she needed the lift or she’d have to crawl out on hands and knees. Another intentional means of subduing prisoners.

Dallas got out, and they stood close in the open door, the wind swirling around their feet. Her expensive fragrance teased his senses.

Lawson cleared his throat. “About that dinner. I’m free tonight.”

“Rain check, maybe? I can’t tonight.” She fidgeted, glanced away. “I have an important phone call to make.”

What did a phone call have to do with dinner, which, after all, had been her idea in the first place? An idea he’d latched onto like a snapping turtle.

“Right. I understand.” A brush off was a brush off.

“I don’t think you do, and I can’t explain yet.” Her blue eyes were troubled. “I may need your advice.”

“Advice is free. You have my card.” He stepped to the side and waited until she entered her Equinox and started the engine. As she backed out, she waved.

And a disappointed Lawson figured that would be the last time he’d see Dallas Langley.