Free Going Cowboy Crazy by Katie Lane

level.
    She walked out and pulled the door closed behind her.
    There were still a lot of questions she wanted to ask—mainly how a man who had trouble remembering things could get elected sheriff—but she figured she would have plenty of time to get answers on the way back to town. Besides, she could think a lot clearer after Slate was fully dressed.
    “Faith, darlin’.” He didn’t even have to yell to be heard through the paper-thin wood of the door.
    “Yes,” she called back.
    “Could you come here for a minute?”
    She cracked open the door and peeked in. “What?”
    He looked back at her from around the edge of the shower curtain, his thick blond hair plastered to his head and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I didn’t mean for you to leave.”
    She blinked. “Excuse me?”
    His brows lifted. “I thought you might want to take a shower.”
    Her face heated up. “With you?”
    “Considering we only have about two more minutes of hot water, I’d say it’s now or never.”
    All the moisture left her mouth. “I can’t fit in there with you.”
    “You’re probably right.” He jerked back the curtain to reveal a thin stream of water trickling down miles of hard, luscious flesh. Hard, luscious flesh that was just as impressive as a monster truck. “But I think we should give it a try.”
    She stared for a second, or maybe more like thirty, before she pulled her head back and jerked the door closed. Then she stared at the door for a good five minutesmore as her immoral slut struggled to get out. But the introverted prude won out and she walked back to the bedroom to get dressed.
    Unfortunately, the image of his naked splendor was burned into the back of her brain and remained there all the way into Bramble.
    “You okay, darlin’?” he asked as they passed the WELCOME TO BRAMBLE sign. “You look almost as green around the gills as Buster.”
    At the mention of the dog, she finally looked over at Slate—something she’d been avoiding even after he was completely dressed. “I’m so sorry about Buster. I didn’t realize the disinfectant wipes would make him sick.”
    “He’ll live. But that has to be the worst case of the runs I’ve ever seen.”
    “Do you think he’ll be okay? Maybe we shouldn’t have left him.” She looked out the back window. “What if he gets dehydrated?”
    “With all the bowls of water you put out, I don’t see that happening. Besides, he’s a dog.”
    She tried to relax back against the seat, but it wasn’t easy. She couldn’t live with herself if she was somehow responsible for another animal’s demise. Her rabbit Powder Puff’s had been devastating enough.
    “Hey.”
    Faith looked over into a pair of twinkling hazel eyes.
    Slate reached over and smoothed a strand of hair off her cheek. “Old Buster will be just fine. He has a stomach of steel.”
    His kind words coupled with the warmth of his fingers made her feel all tingly inside. It wasn’t a sexual feeling as much as a feeling of connection. The feeling thatsomeone on the face of the earth cared about her. Even if it was only for a moment. This feeling bothered her much more than her sexual ones had, and she turned away and tried to change the subject.
    “So how are you going to find my car if the sheriff doesn’t remember where he put it?”
    “I’m sure he’ll remember now that he’s had a good night’s sleep.”
    “How did he take the news that I was Hope’s twin sister?” She couldn’t help but feel nervous about meeting a man she’d more or less lied to.
    “Pretty well, actually.”
    “He wasn’t mad?”
    “No… I wouldn’t say he was mad.”
    Relief washed over her. Obviously, small-town people were a forgiving bunch.
    “What are you doing?” Faith asked a few minutes later when he pulled into the parking lot of Josephine’s Diner, a faded pink train caboose with a lopsided, smoking building attached to the back. It seemed the entire town was sitting in booths in front of