Free Firefly Run by Trish Milburn

answer. "I’ll be sure to stop by."
    He also detected a little extra sway in her hips, presumably for his benefit, as she crossed the road.
    "Wonder if she wants fries with that shake," Shelly said from the post office steps. The cattiness in Shelly’s voice surprised him.
    "Bad blood between you two?"
    "No. I just think it’s kinda pitiful that Marianne virtually attacked the only single man in town under the age of sixty."
    "I wouldn’t say she attacked me, more like invited me to browse her merchandise."
    "Lord." Shelly jerked her car door open and tossed her mail in the back seat. As he slid into his seat, she pointed toward the post office. "Be sure to wave at Ina. She’s the latest member of your fan club."
    He offered a halfhearted wave to the older lady craning her neck inside.
    Shelly threw the car into gear and headed toward home at a faster clip than when she’d arrived.
    "Is something wrong?" he asked.
    "Not unless you mind being a minor celebrity."
    "What?" She wasn’t making any sense.
    "Word that an honest to goodness Texas lawman is staying at Firefly Run has spread faster than a wildfire during a drought. You’d think you were Wyatt Earp or something."
    "I don’t think Texas was Wyatt’s neck of the woods."
    "Smart aleck."
    He didn’t goad her further, just sat back and wondered why her knuckles had turned white on the steering wheel and her back sat ramrod straight. Shelly was a champion slumper. She only sat straight when she was peeved.
    She’d been fine when she went into the post office. Had Ina said something to turn her mood south? Her comment about Marianne came back to him. He glanced over at her profile. Was she jealous?
    Even considering such a thing scared him almost beyond reason. His chest tightened until it was painful to breathe. When Shelly parked back in front of her office, he nearly bolted out of the car and back to his previous carpentry task.
    If Shelly was jealous and he was daydreaming about kissing her, they were treading on fragile ground. Somehow, he had to figure out a way to protect her without spending time alone with her. When he smashed yet another finger, he scorched the air with curses. He glanced back toward the office, but she was in the office and out of his view.
    Reed closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and forefinger. As long as no one was hurt, the sooner Eddie made a wrong move that would send him back to prison, the better for everyone involved.
    ****
    Her fit of frustration propelled Shelly through the rest of the day. Only when she closed up the office later than normal did she stop to sink down on the front steps. That’s when the memory of her strange behavior caught up with her.
    What had she been thinking, snapping and pouting like a jealous girlfriend?
    She’d introduced Reed around town to avoid gossip and to take her mind off the disturbing phone call, but she’d only succeeded in stirring up a bevy of female interest. By the time she’d stopped at the post office, Ina had received three calls informing her that Shelly was driving around town with the best looking man Bobcat Ridge had seen since 1978 when Burt Reynolds had come to town for a little R and R. Personally, she thought Reed had ol’ Burt beat by a long shot, but that was beside the point.
    To be honest, all the clucking over Reed had amused her when it was coming from middle-aged mothers and grannies who’d last dated in the 1950s. But when she’d looked out to see big-haired, big-boobed Marianne making goo goo eyes at Reed, jealousy had awakened in her like a long-slumbering dragon. She’d actually been ready to breathe fire when she’d hit the front door of the post office. But somewhere between there and her car, she’d slugged that dragon, if not knocking him out at least making him groggy.
    Now, as she watched the sun sink below the tree line, she wondered why she’d been jealous. Sure, Reed was an attractive man, but he was Reed. She couldn’t actually be