Free Wolf Creek Father (Wolf Creek, Arkansas Book 3) by Penny Richards

trying to hide her plumpness, but all she was doing was enhancing it. She’d looked much slimmer in her cleaning clothes the day before.
    Oh, well, he thought, pulling open the door to his office and stepping inside. Her style or lack of it was no concern of his.
    He found Big Dan Mercer, his deputy, sitting at the desk, reading the latest St. Louis paper.
    “Did you and Miss Grainger get things figured out?”
    “We came up with a plan of sorts,” Colt told him. “It remains to be seen if it works or not.”

Chapter Four
    A llison left her sister’s café, well aware that the sheriff was watching every step she took as she crossed the street. The knowledge made her even more uncomfortable. Only when she rounded the corner to Hattie’s and was certain she was no longer being watched did she relax.
    What a worrisome couple of days! she thought, her mind wandering from one meeting with Colt Garrett to the next. She wasn’t certain which was more troubling—the sheriff’s children or the sheriff himself. She couldn’t deny that she was very aware of him as a man. What woman this side of the grave wouldn’t be? What puzzled her was that he was nothing like Jesse, who had been the yardstick for every man she’d met since he’d said he loved someone else.
    So why was she experiencing this sudden, unexpected awareness? She’d met men just as handsome and with
much
more amiable personalities. Men who had more money than the peace officer of a small Arkansas town. Smarter, better-educated men. But not since her relationship with Jesse had changed from a lifelong friendship to love at the age of sixteen had she met a man whose touch could make her heart race. Truth to tell, even Jesse’s touch had never affected her the way the sheriff’s did.
    Remembering the way she’d reacted when he’d circled her wrist with his fingers, she gave a little frustrated groan and fanned at the heat in her cheeks. This could not be happening! It simply would not do! Not with a man like Colt, who could never love a woman like her. She didn’t think she could withstand another broken heart.
    Pushing her troubling thoughts of him to the back of her mind, she went to the boardinghouse and asked Hattie about an opening for a new piano student. Hattie said there was a spot available, but when she heard who the prospective beginner was, she shook her head.
    “Are you daft, woman? That child is a menace and her brother, too! I heard what they did to you over at the store. Why, I might not have a building standing when she leaves.”
    “I understand how you feel, Hattie,” Allison pleaded, “but this is important. I’ve spoken with her father, and I believe he finally understands the seriousness of the situation. We’ve decided to work together to see if we can find ways to help the children.”
    Arms crossed over her narrow chest, foot tapping an impatient tattoo, Hattie snorted in contempt of the whole notion. Allison poured on the pitiful details and saw Hattie weakening.
    “O’ course, the sheriff is happy to pay for the lessons and we would both really, really appreciate your help with this,” she persisted, knowing that Hattie had a soft spot for Colt.
    “‘We,’ is it?” the boardinghouse proprietor asked. The impatience in her faded blue eyes had been replaced with a twinkle.
    “Don’t start, Hattie,” Allison warned, feeling her face flush hotly. “We’re just working together to help his children.”
    “Of course, dear,” Hattie said with a knowing smile and an innocent lifting of her eyebrows. The effect was ruined by her next sentence and wide smile. “This is an excellent thing, Allison. You need a good man like the sheriff in your life.”
    “He isn’t in my life,” Allison argued. “Except in a marginal way. The children are sort of like a project we’re working on together.”
    “Project?” Hattie snorted again. “That sounds pretty unfeeling, if you ask me.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “What I