Free Her Minnesota Man (A Christian Romance Novel) by Brenda Coulter

Jeb about it—and he was standing right behind her.
    She'd planned to get a good supper in his belly before breaking the news. And she'd meant to avoid disclosing that she'd chased the housebreakers and ended up hurt. She didn't want Jeb driving himself crazy imagining how much worse it all might have been.
    So this was going to be tricky. He wasn't good with strangers to begin with, and things could go downhill fast if Laney was forced to give her carefully edited account of the break-in in front of a third party who knew every detail and who might say something awkward.
    "Officer Sayers." She fixed a bright smile on her face and opened the storm door. "Come in."
    "Evening, Ms. Ryland." The cop stepped inside, glanced at Jeb and nodded politely, and then returned his attention to Laney. "I just stopped by to—" His head whipped back toward Jeb.
    Wonderful.
    "What can I do for you?" Laney asked, still smiling determinedly.
    "Uh   .   .   ." With an obvious effort, he dragged his gaze away from Jeb. "I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I'd make sure you haven't had any further trouble."
    Laney's smile slipped, but at least she refrained from rolling her eyes. So he'd stopped by to flirt with her some more, had he?
    He'd certainly turned on the charm the other night, but only after he'd learned who owned the house next door. Laney hadn't been fooled; it was hardly the first time someone had attempted to further an acquaintance with her in the hope of scoring an introduction to Jackson Bell.
    Predictably, the words "further trouble" had galvanized Jeb. He'd just moved to her side like a well-trained attack dog.
    Their arms were almost touching, so Laney eased back a little and extended her elbow to give his ribs a surreptitious poke. When he frowned down at her, she murmured, "I'll explain later" before turning back to beam at Officer Sayers.
    "We're just fine here," she said. "But it was nice of you to stop by."
    "No problem." He darted another look at Jeb but made no move to leave. "So how's that injured shoulder doing?"
    "Injured?" Jeb rumbled like an awakening volcano. "I thought you just pulled a muscle."
    Laney swallowed a groan of pure exasperation. "I did, Jeb. And it's no big deal." Trying for a nonchalant shrug, she ruined the effect by wincing at a stab of pain. Seeing his ferocious scowl, she hastily added, "Okay, it hurts. But it'll be better tomorrow."
    "You were lucky," Officer Sayers said. "I just hope you understand that confronting those guys with a baseball bat wasn't your best move."
    "What's he talking about?" This time Jeb's rumble was loud enough to reverberate in the high-ceilinged entryway.
    "It was just a couple of boys," Laney said dismissively. "High school kids."
    "What did they do?" Jeb demanded.
    "Hardly anything. They broke into your house, but I scared them off. So they didn't—"
    "You went after a bunch of burglars with a baseball bat?"
    Laney's patience unraveled. "It wasn't a 'bunch of burglars', Jeb. It was two skinny teenage boys who were probably just after your guitars and some other souvenirs. They broke one of the bay windows, but I had it replaced and—"
    "I don't care about the window!" he bellowed.
    Officer Sayers stiffened visibly. When he opened his mouth, Laney forgot her manners and signaled with a sharply upraised hand that she didn't need protecting from Jeb.
    "What did they do to you?" Jeb's voice had gone ominously quiet.
    "When they were running away, one of them knocked me down," Laney said. "I fell on the bat and wrenched my shoulder."
    Like a man suffering agonies, he pressed a hand over his eyes and groaned.
    "I'm fine," Laney insisted.
    Muscles twitched in Jeb's lean jaw as he lowered his hand and impaled her with a look. "It was a stupid thing to do. Why didn't you just call the police?"
    "I think she's learned her lesson," Officer Sayers ventured.
    "I have." Laney nodded emphatically. "I can't believe I did something that dumb."
    Jeb just stared at her, his