Free Showdown in West Texas by Amanda Stevens

worst of all, he’d made Grace doubt herself. How could a woman with a future as bright as hers have been so blindly stupid?
    Grace had learned a hard lesson from that unseemly mess, and now she was determined to keep the stain of misconduct and bad judgment from touching her current position. She had a chance to start over here in Jericho Pass. It might be her only chance. She wasn’t about to blow it.
    So she was attracted to Dale Walsh. Big deal. Why make a mountain out of a molehill? It had been Grace’sexperience that the initial spark usually fizzled out pretty quickly after spending time in a man’s company. She doubted Walsh would be an exception.
    And if she couldn’t manage to keep her personal life separate from her professional one after everything she’d been through in Austin, well, then, she had no business wearing a badge anyway.
    Grace fluffed her pillow, rolled over and decided she was going to fall asleep right then and there if it killed her. She’d just drifted off when the creaking of the windmill awakened her.
    Except…she wasn’t at the ranch.
    Her eyes flew open, but she remained still as she listened again for the sound.
    There it was!
    The creak came, not from a windmill, she realized, but from the settling of a floorboard beneath a stealthy footfall.
    Grace was facing the balcony, and she saw a shadow outside the glass door. Sliding open the nightstand drawer, she removed her gun as she climbed out of bed and slipped quietly across the room. But by the time she got to the door, the shadow had moved on.
    She put her ear to the glass and listened for footsteps. After a moment, she could pick out the steady creak of the floorboards as someone walked away from her room.
    Twisting the latch, she eased back the door and stepped out on the balcony. Even in the dim lighting, she could easily pick out the silhouette of a man two rooms down from hers. He had his hand on the doorknob.
    He must have sensed her presence because his other hand went behind him, as if he were reaching for a weapon.
    Grace drew a bead. “Freeze!”
    His hand stilled, but his head slowly rotated to face her. “It’s Dale Walsh, Sheriff.”
    He moved out of the shadows then and Grace caught her breath. He had on nothing but a pair of jeans and he carried nothing in his hands but an ice bucket.
    Quickly, she dropped her weapon to her side. “Sorry. I heard a noise and came out to investigate.”
    He held up the ice bucket. “Just getting some ice. Sorry to disturb you.”
    â€œNo, it’s okay. I’m not usually so jumpy. Strange bed and all that…” She trailed off awkwardly.
    For a moment, neither of them said anything else, and the waiting silence strangely excited Grace. She tried not to stare, but there he was right in front of her, all sunburned skin and blazing blue eyes. She couldn’t help noticing that her earlier assessment had been right on the money. Despite his lean build, Dale Walsh did have some serious guns.
    â€œI didn’t know you were staying here,” she finally said.
    â€œI didn’t know you were staying here, either.”
    As he propped a hand on the wall beside her, Grace suddenly became aware of her own bedtime attire—cotton pajama bottoms and a thin knit tank top that, even in the dimmest of lighting, would clearly reveal the outline of her breasts.
    Hardly the outfit she would have favored for her second meeting with Dale Walsh.
    She resisted the urge to cover herself with her arms, which of course would only call more attention to the area she wished to hide. “I only moved in today. I’ve been staying out at my family’s ranch since I got back to town, but that didn’t work out so well.”
    â€œI hear that. An hour or two at a time is about all I can take of my sister’s constant chatter, and you don’t even want to get me started on my mother.”
    â€œI’ll take