Free Sugar Creek by Toni Blake Page B

the last one?”
    She could see his pointed look even in the dark. “You seem recovered enough to me. Since it didn’t slow you down any.” She could also see that—oh, crap—his eyes were just as gorgeous as usual, even in the dark.
    “You know, Officer Romeo,” she said as he finally pulled the flashlight away to write out the ticket, “you have a lousy way of making someone feel welcome in this silly little town.”
    “It’s not my job to make you feel welcome,” he said without glancing up from his work. “In fact, the sooner you leave, the sooner I can quit writing out all these tickets. My fingers are starting to get tired.”
    She rolled her eyes in response—and just in case he didn’t see, she let out a large harrumph, too.
    And then she noticed, as she always did, how ridiculously broad his shoulders were. And how good-looking he was. He hadn’t shaved in days, and she found herself wanting to touch the dark stubble on his jaw. And suffering that familiar fluttering sensation in her panties again.
    And then—yuck—she remembered that the last time she’d seen the big lug he’d been taking Miss Tan Chickhome to bed. A thought which made her stomach hurt, just as it had then. Ridiculous that she still felt the gnawing ache, but she did.
    “And another thing,” she said, suddenly remembering. “You leave my grandmother alone. Because I know what you’re up to.”
    He looked down at her over his clipboard, completely unfazed. “Oh? What’s that?”
    As she met those dark bedroom eyes, his face illuminated in the glow of the flashlight, she struggled not to let them affect her. “You’re trying to steal her orchard and I won’t allow it.”
    “No, Farris—you’ve got it wrong, as usual. I’m trying to buy her orchard, fair and square. And if she decides to sell it to me, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
    Oh yeah? Well…“Maybe I’ll take it over myself,” she boasted. She didn’t mean it, of course, but it was something to say.
    And at this, he cracked up. Mike Romo. Who’d barely even smiled the entire time she’d known him. He leaned his head back, laughing out loud, looking completely overcome with the hilarity of it all. “That’s a good one, Farris. You tell Edna that one? I bet it’d give her a good laugh, too.”
    She blinked, fuming. “What’s so funny about it?”
    He gave his head a short, definite shake. “You’re not cut out for farm work. And I’m surprised you’re here in Destiny at all, now that I’ve gotten a good look at you.”
    She bit her lip. Despite the blatant insult, something in his last words made her feel a bit warm. “Like the look you took at the Dew Drop Inn the other night? Because from what I saw, you couldn’t take your eyes off me, Romeo.”
    He shrugged, straightforward as ever. “Never said the package wasn’t nice. But what’s inside it isn’t somebody who could run an orchard. And stop calling me Romeo, Farris.”
    “Well, guess what—you’re right. I don’t want to run Edna’s orchard. I’m too busy with my own career, thank you very much.”
    “Race car driver?” he shot back. Oh boy, he was suddenly Mr. Funny tonight.
    “I’m an executive account director at a prestigious ad agency,” she announced, purposely sounding superior and hoping he was impressed, whether or not he let it show. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll stand by and let you wheedle her out of what she’s worked to build her whole life, so I suggest you leave her alone.”
    “Or what?”
    “Or you’ll have the whole Farris clan to deal with.”
    “I’m shaking in my shoes,” he said dryly. “And you keep tossing around words like steal and wheedle, but we suspect Edna is the one who stole that land from my grandfather back in the fifties. So the way I see it, I’m only getting back what was supposed to be mine to begin with—and, frankly, I’m being pretty damn nice about it.”
    He was leaning down now, closer, and she was