Free Southern Spice (Southern Desires Series Book 1) by Jeannette Winters

presence. It had nothing to do with the town. They didn’t need him, and he sure as hell didn’t need them. But as long as Casey was staying at the ranch, he wasn’t going anywhere. And when he returned to the ranch he planned on setting her straight on exactly whose house she was invading. No way was he going to allow a replay of what he found yesterday.
    The tapping continued. Throwing his truck in reverse and running over her toes was out of the question. At least not so close to the sheriff’s office.
    He was tempted to turn up the volume on the radio but instead he shut it off. Being a cold-hearted bastard came naturally to him, but he’d never been intentionally cruel, or so he believed. That didn’t mean he was about to pretend to be happy for the interruption. Stone-faced he turned to meet Sissie’s smiling face, still by the passenger’s side door. Nothing she had to say would be what he wanted or needed to hear, yet he found himself hitting the button to roll down the window. “What can I do for you?” His tone lacked any warmth.
    As usual, she ignored the blunt signs and smiled at him, saying, “Thank you for opening up your home to everyone yesterday. I know it wasn’t easy for you, but you did it anyway, bless your heart.”
    There was no one gullible enough to believe any of that had been his doing. Especially not after the lengths he’d gone to in the past to make sure they knew no one was welcome under any circumstance. So why was she by his truck pretending as though she thought otherwise? What did she want?
    “I hope y’all got the information you needed because there won’t be a second time.” Derrick had worked hard to lose his southern twang, but just a few days on the ranch and it was already slipping back. He had to get back to New York before it was too late. No matter how the words came out, the message was loud and clear.
    Sissie didn’t even blink at his snide remark. Instead, she reached into the truck and touched his arm. “It looks like it’s gonna be another scorcher again today. Hope you and that lady friend of yours have a mighty fine day.”
    Before he could correct Sissie, she turned and walked away from truck, leaving him heated under the collar and not from the temperature. Casey was not his lady friend, not anything to him except an inconvenience. If it wasn’t for that stormy night, their paths probably wouldn’t have ever crossed, and that was more than fine with him. Nothing had been the same since he’d seen those headlights coming toward him. If only I listened to McLean when he said to stay in New York. I should leave now.
    “No, everything is under control. Because of power outages, I am staying in one of the ranches that was not affected by the tornado.” Casey could hear the doubt in JT’s voice. He wasn’t so convinced. One slip up and he’s going to ride my butt forever. This second-guessing is making me crazy. I know my job and do it damn well. When is he going to see that?
    “Maybe I should come down there and give you a hand,” JT said.
    You mean micro-manage every little thing I do? Heck no! “As I said, things are going as expected. There is no need for you to travel all this way. Besides, there is no air conditioning and the heat is close to unbearable. Mr. Nash has only limited space available, and we wouldn’t want to inconvenience him any more than necessary, would we?”
    Casey felt she sold that quite well. JT might be great at his job, but one thing she learned right away: he liked the comfortable life, and she couldn’t imagine him roughing it. No air conditioning was something he had screamed about at a car rental place one day because he thought it wasn’t cranking out fast enough. She was positive he wouldn’t consider coming if it meant him living in sweltering heat night and day.
    After a brief silence, her wish came true. “I expect daily updates and can be there at a moment’s notice if things get out of