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Authors: Carol Grace

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Brady hung his Stetson and his raincoat on the coat-rack and turned to follow Suzy to the last empty booth, when somebody slapped him on the back. A tall well-built man with an even tan beamed at him, showing gleaming white teeth.
“Hey there, pardner. You must be Sheriff Wilson. Name’s Staples. Gonna give you a run for your money. In the meantime put ’er there.” He held out his hand. Brady shook it with distaste. Distaste for his phony Western drawl, his cold-fish handshake and his artificial tan.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” Brady said, emphasizing the word
new.
He realized that everyone at the counter had stopped eating to watch the two rivals meet for the first time.
“Yep. Fell in love with this little town last year on my way to Idaho on vacation. Found you’ve got better
hunting and fishing right here. So now I’m a citizen of the garden spot of Nevada. A full-fledged Harmonian.”
Brady glanced around to see if the other customers were as turned off as he was by this impostor. But they were staring at him with undisguised interest bordering on fascination.
“Good to meet you,” Brady mumbled, and made his way to the booth, greeting friends along the way.
“So that’s him,” Suzy said when he slid onto the vinyl bench opposite her.
“Yeah, what did you think?” he asked.
“I thought you were very civil to him,” she said, raising her coffee cup to her lips.
“I couldn’t very well haul off and punch the guy in his effete face and tell him to get out of town, could I? I’d have to apprehend myself. After all, I’m the sheriff. At least for the next month. But I could arrest him for vagrancy if he hangs around here much longer,” Brady said glaring at his rival across the crowded diner.
“And hold him in the jail until after the election?”
He nodded. “Remind me to take that book off the shelf and look up some of those old local laws and infractions that have been on the books since the last century.”
“Not that you’d stoop to anything underhanded.”
“Of course not. I’m the law. The law is me. Or is it I? But these are desperate times. And desperate times call for desperate measures.” He reached across the table and clasped Suzy’s slender fingers between his two broad hands, pressing hard to emphasize his point “I cannot lose this election,” he said, staring at her intensely. “I can’t go back to the my old beat in the city. I won’t.”
“Was it that bad?” she asked, her eyebrows drawn together.
“It was that bad,” he said. “It was drug busts and police corruption and domestic violence and juvenile delinquents.” He dropped Suzy’s hands and rubbed his eyes as if he could erase the vision of a lifeless young body lying in an alley in a pool of blood. Of wounded officers, like his partner, carried off in an ambulance. But he couldn’t. These images were engraved in his mind forever.
Working in the toughest precinct in the city, he was surrounded by wasted lives and broken marriages. His own life was saved by his move to Harmony. But his own marriage was over before it had ever begun. Then he came to Harmony and put the pieces of his life back together again. He let the wide-open spaces and the big sky heal his wounded psyche. He couldn’t go back. He loved Harmony and the people in it. But he’d never forget how it was back there. “It was hell,” he said.
“Does that mean Harmony is heaven?” she asked.
“Damn right. Why do you think the furniture king moved here? Because it’s heaven on earth. Beautiful country, nice people, good hunting and fishing and no crime to speak of. Isn’t that right, Dottie?” he asked glancing up as the waitress set a bowl of oatmeal, studded with raisins, floating in a pool of rich cream, in front of Suzy. Brady did a double take. “Hey, what about me?” he demanded.
“What’ll it be, Sheriff, the usual? Eggs over easy and bacon, hash browns and whole wheat toast?”
“Right Gotta keep my strength up. I’m in a race for my life.”
“Aren’t you being a little melodramatic?” Suzy asked as Dottie jotted his order on her pad and went to
the kitchen. “After all you’re the incumbent. You’ve got friends. You’ve got looks and you’ve got charm.”
“Charm? You think so?” If Suzy didn’t know him better she would have thought he was rattled by her compliment. Or maybe it was the steam off the hot cof fee that had turned his ears red. He paused a moment, then continued. “You know what else I’ve got? A secret weapon. I’ve got you. For now.” He looked around the room. “Well, seen anyone?”
She paused, hating to concede defeat.
“I didn’t think so,” he said smugly.
“Look, there’s Tally.” Suzy pushed her empty bowl aside and stood up. She couldn’t sit there and watch Brady gloat over her lack of success. “I’m going over to say hello.” Suzy made her way to the counter where her best friend since high school was having coffee. Squeezing onto the next stool, Suzy rested her elbows on the counter and sighed loudly.
“Did you tell him?” Tally asked.
“I told him. But it didn’t do any good.”
“What do you mean? He can’t hold you there against your will,” Tally said.
“Will.
That’s the key word. I don’t have any. Not when it comes to Brady. I let him talk me into staying unless I found an eligible man here today in the diner.”
“What?” Tally said.
“I know, I know. It was crazy. Don’t bother to look,” Suzy said, seeing her friend turn to scan the crowd. “I knew before we came there wouldn’t be anybody. That’s the way my life has been going.”
“Can you ask for an extension?” Tally asked. “Jed’s got a friend coming to town on the weekend. Unmarried. Available. I was going to set you up with him.”
Suzy shook her head. “We shook on it. Besides the
agreement was that it has to be somebody here in the diner, since this is where I want to work. You still think it’s a good idea, don’t you?” she asked anxiously. “For me to quit and work here.”
“Considering your goal of finding a marriageable man, yes. Where else would you find a conglomeration of men all in one place?”
“That’s what I think. Needless to say, Brady doesn’t agree with me.”
“Of course not. He wants to keep you with him. Men can be so selfish,” Tally said.
“You don’t mean Jed, do you?” Suzy asked, referring to Tally’s husband, a Harmony High School classmate of theirs, who had left town for fifteen years, then had come back to marry and settle down.
“Of course not. Jed is perfect. But he wasn’t always perfect,” Tally admitted. “It took some doing.”
“Brady claims I won’t find anyone good enough for me here,” Suzy said. “Who’s this friend of Jed’s?
“Somebody in the pilot’s association. He’s flying in on Saturday along with some other old friends of Jed’s. We’re having a little dinner party Saturday night. To celebrate the brand-new, remodeled dining room, I’m. bringing out my best china. Can you come?”
“Of course. Oh, no, wait a minute. My mother’s got her bridge group Saturday night.”
“So bring Travis along. You can put him to bed in the guest room.”
“No, wait,” Suzy said with a gleam in her eye. “Brady said he’d baby-sit for me if I had a date, probably assuming I’d never have one. I’m going to call his bluff.”
Tally smiled conspiratorially. “I’ll send Allan to pick you up in Jed’s car. To make it look real. It is real,”
she reminded Suzy. “This guy is to die for, single, too. The only thing is—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Suzy said. “He’s a man. I have a date. That’s all that counts.” She slid off the stool, took her coat from the rack and met Brady at the cash register where he was paying the bill.
He shot her an inquiring look.
“Okay, you win,” she said grimly, reaching into her purse for the money to pay for her breakfast. “There were no eligible men here today. But there weren’t any gunslingers, either.”
“So they’re taking the day off to polish their Winchesters. But hey, you win, too,” he said, pushing her hand away as she tried to pay for her share of the bilL “You win some time to think over this ill-advised scheme.”
“I don’t need to think it over. After the election I’m going to work at the diner. Unless, of course, I’ve found Mr. Right by then. Which reminds me,” she said as they left the diner and started back under dry but leaden skies, “I need a baby-sitter for Saturday night.”
He turned to give her a blank stare.
“You said you’d baby-sit for me if I went out on dates. I’m going out on a date.”
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and grasped Suzy’s arm. “With who?”
“No one you know.” No one she knew, either. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters. You deserve the best,” Brady said.
“I’m not looking for the best. I’m just looking for—”
“I know. A faceless, nameless guy who eats all his
meals in a diner. Who’ll support you so you can stay home and play wife and mother.”
Suzy took a deep breath and pulled her arm away. He was not going to talk her out of getting married. And he was not going to get out of his promise.
“You said you’d baby-sit for me. Are you are a man of your word, or is that just your slogan?” she asked.
“Yes I’m a man of my word, and no, that’s not just a slogan.”
He took her by the elbow and they walked briskly in step toward the office. “Just let me know what time Saturday night,” he said, holding the front door open for her. Brady felt a glow of satisfaction as he returned to his office. He’d faced the enemy this morning and felt confident he could win. Especially with Suzy at his side. He’d headed off a disaster by preventing her from leaving him when he most needed her. One Saturday night of baby-sitting was a small price to pay for her skills, her loyalty and her political savvy. After all, how hard could it be to take care of a one-year-old baby for a few hours?
Chapter Two
T
he week sped by. Suzy gave in to Brady and put her dreams on hold until after the election. But every morning when she dropped Travis off at her mother’s she promised her son this schedule wouldn’t last.
“Someday,” she said as she lifted him out of his car seat on Friday morning and lugged his diaper bag, baby food and sack of toys to her mother’s front door, “someday soon you and I will be stay-at-homes. Instead of working in an office, I’ll help you build skyscrapers of Lego, we’ll watch “Sesame Street” and play in the park.”
Suzy smiled at the picture in her mind, conveniently overlooking the time in between while she’d be working at the diner and looking for Daddy Right. In her dreams she was already a full-time mom. No more cold cereal on the run. No more coming home at six o’clock too tired to even play peekaboo with Travis.
She could see it all so clearly. What was not so clear was the face of the mystery man who would make all
this possible. All she knew was he was solid and dependable. He didn’t have to be good-looking. In fact, she would prefer he wasn’t. She didn’t want anything to distract her from finding the perfect father for Travis. Anything distracting, like personal magnetism or rugged good looks, which could cloud her judgment and which Travis’s biological father had oozing from every pore.
Travis gurgled happily as if he was looking forward to their new life as much as she was. “Mama,” he said, yanking on her earring with one pudgy finger and tossing it into the bushes.
“Ouch, Travis,” she said. “Mommy needs that earring. Mommy has to look nice for the Rotary luncheon where they’re going to endorse Brady for sheriff.” She sighed and pushed her mother’s front door open. “Never mind. It’s too late to look for it now.” She exchanged a brief greeting with her mother, handed Travis over to her and watched anxiously while his face screwed into a frown and he let out a howl of protest when he realized she was leaving. “Mama, Mama, Mama,” he yelled, holding out his arms.
“Go on,” her mother said over the noise. “This is just for your benefit To make you feel guilty. He’ll stop as soon as you leave.”
Suzy nodded but hesitated on the front step. Her chest tightened, a pang of guilt hit her in the ribs as his cries carried clear out into the morning air. But she didn’t linger. She couldn’t. As it was she was going to be late for work. And she still had to drop off some important bills at the post office.
Since she was already running behind, she grabbed a coffee to go from the diner. But in her haste she spilled half of it on her skirt before she finally arrived at her office. Brady was waiting for her. The drawers to his
file cabinet were opened wide. His desk was piled high with papers.
“There you are,” he said, glowering, as she opened the front door. “Do you realize what time it is? Do you know what day this is? Do you have any idea where my speech is?” He stepped forward to take a close look at her. “Do you know you’re only wearing one earring?”
“Yes, yes, yes and yes. I’m sorry. I can’t do it,” she said, setting the foam cup on the file cabinet and dabbing a tissue at the stain on her skirt. “I just can’t”
“Can’t do it? Can’t do what? Can’t find my speech? Can’t find your other earring?”
She shook her head wearily “I can’t be a good secretary and a good mother too. I told you I couldn’t. I told you I wanted to quit. I told you...”
“Hold it. Just hold it,” Brady said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You’re not a good secretary. You’re a great secretary. Probably a great mother, too, for all I know. What I do know is that it isn’t going to be easier to be a good waitress and a good mother at the same time. So why not give up that crazy idea and just stay here with me?” He gave her his most charming, slightly crooked smile, and she almost gave in. Almost, but not quite.
She pulled out of his grasp and reminded herself of her goals. “Stay here with you?” she asked incredulously. “For how long? Until you retire? Until Travis goes off to college? Until I’m old and gray and I have nothing to show for it but a tiny retirement fund and no one to share it with? No thanks.”
Brady leaned against his desk and observed her carefully. Perhaps trying to picture her tangle of blond curls
turned gray. Crows-feet around her eyes. His concern over his speech for the Rotary apparently forgotten.
“What
will
you do when Travis goes off to college?” he asked. “What will you do when you’re old and gray?” He seemed genuinely curious about her future.
“That depends,” she said, snagging her coffee from the file cabinet and taking a sip. “On my future husband. We might drive across country in our RV or we might just sit on our front porch in our rocking chairs playing gin rummy.”
Brady shook his head in disgust at this picture. “Gin rummy, rocking chairs. With your husband. Your future husband. I didn’t know you played gin rummy.”
“I don’t, but maybe I will. If he wants to. My husband, that is.”
“Aren’t you getting a little obsessive about getting married?”
Her smile disappeared. “Call it obsessive if you want. I call it determined. Determined to give my son a father. Is that so wrong?”
“Of course it’s not wrong. I just think you’re going about it in the wrong way. Why don’t you just relax, let it happen, let nature take its course instead of making it a...a campaign.”
She tossed her empty cup into the waste basket. “But it is a campaign,” she insisted. “To me it’s just as important as your reelection campaign is to you. I don’t question your motives or your reasons for wanting what you want. I respect them. I help you go after them.”
“Which is what I pay you for,” he reminded her dryly.
“Yes, yes, okay. You pay me and I’m grateful.” She walked to the door of her office, then turned and looked at him. “By the way, what will you be doing when I’m
in my rocking chair? No, don’t tell me, you’ll still be the sheriff, in this same office at this same desk. I can see it now. Papers everywhere. Your poor browbeaten secretary trying to straighten out your files.” She shook her head in dismay.
“Browbeaten? Do I browbeat you?” he demanded.
“No. But only because I won’t let you.”
“That’s why you can’t leave. You’re the only person who can give as well as she can take.”
Suzy opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off. “Now, where’s my speech?” he asked.
Suzy found both the speech and the tie he was supposed to wear. Cleaned the stain off her skirt and then listened to Brady practice his speech on the way to the meeting in the community center. Listening to him, watching him as he drove and spoke at the same time, she wondered again how anyone could not vote for him. He was so earnest, so sincere in wanting the best for the people in their town. The kind of person you could trust, rely on, lean on.
Good-looking too, a man with character in his face. Eyes that had looked at the world with skepticism and also tolerance. A broken nose from a fight with a drug dealer long before he’d ever come to Harmony. A mouth that could laugh at himself as well as the absurdities of life. Yes, if she didn’t need to find a man to marry, she’d stay with him. Work for him for as long as he needed her. Despite his stubbornness and his temper.
Brady felt Suzy’s eyes on him. He stopped talking, glanced at her and missed the turn onto Forest Avenue.
“What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking that you don’t need to worry about winning this election.”
“Yeah, right. You’re saying that so you can get out of your promise.”
“I’m saying that because you’re good at your job.”
“I’m good at my job because you run my office,” he insisted. He couldn’t imagine being sheriff without Suzy at his side. She was cool, calm and collected in the midst of crisis. An escaped prisoner from the county jail, a fight in the saloon on Main Street, ranchers stealing horses. Nothing bothered her. She was easy to look at, too, he had noted more than once. With her wavy blond hair and hazel eyes flecked with green and her sunny smile.
She should have no trouble finding a husband. She didn’t need to launch a campaign. Which was too bad for him. Because if she wasn’t quite so easy on the eyes, he’d have a better chance of keeping her around. Ah, well, for now she was here. Thank God. Because as they mingled with the crowd before lunch, she occasionally whispered forgotten names in his ear, reminding him who were the potential big donors. And during his speech, he sought her gaze more than once, seeing encouragement there. Encouragement and warmth and something else, something that made him feel that everything was going to be all right.
Back in the office he was restless. So restless he couldn’t stay seated behind his desk. He wandered into Suzy’s office in time to hear her answer the phone.
“Oh, hi, Hal,” she said. “Yes, he’s here.” She handed him the phone. “It’s your chief deputy.” He sat on the edge of Suzy’s desk and discussed the plans for a poker game at his house on Saturday night.
“Wait a minute,” Suzy interrupted. “Not Saturday.”
He put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Why not?”
“Because you said you’d baby-sit for me.”
“Not on Saturday. Saturday is poker night at my house.”
“You promised.”
She was right. He remembered now. He sighed loudly. “Sorry, Hal. I forgot I have a previous commitment.”
“On Saturday?” Hal’s tone was incredulous.
“Yes, on Saturday. What about tonight?”
But Hal was taking his wife to a movie and reported that the other married men had plans, too. Brady hung up, disgusted.
“You’re sure you have to go to this dinner thing on Saturday?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Tally’s counting on me. She’s been planning it for weeks.”
“Wives,” he muttered.
“What’s wrong- with wives?” Suzy asked, looking up over a file folder.
“They make plans. Why are they always making plans? Why can’t they be more spontaneous?”
Suzy put the folder down and braced her hands on the edge of the desk. “If you’re trying to weasel out of baby-sitting for me...”
“Of course not.” Baby-sitting. Instead of playing poker. He hoped Hal hadn’t heard. He walked across the room and stood in the doorway between their offices.
“I said I’d do it and I will. What time do you want me there?”
 
At seven o’clock on Saturday night Suzy had Travis in bed and asleep. She was dressed and ready to go when Brady pulled up in front of her house. When she opened the door he was standing on her welcome mat.
He took one look at her and stepped backward, his mouth hanging open in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” she asked startled.
“That dress. I thought... I’ve never seen you in a dress. Not like that. I thought you were just going to dinner at Tally and Jed’s.” He couldn’t take his eyes off Suzy’s dress. It was made of some black material that hugged her curves like it was pasted to them. Cut low in a V in front, it revealed a tantalizing glimpse of creamy white breasts. He found himself unexpectedly short of breath.
“I am,” she said calmly, as if she had no idea of how she looked in the dress. “But it’s a special occasion. They’ve invited friends from out of town.” She smoothed the skirt, then looked up at Brady, small worry lines forming between her eyebrows. “Why? Do you think it isn’t appropriate? Maybe I ought to change.”
“No, no, don’t change. What have you done to your hair, anyway? You look...you look—” He searched his mind for the right word.
Spectacular. Dazzling.
Sexy. “You look nice,” he finished lamely. “Very nice.”
“Well, thank you, she said with a grateful smile. “I was afraid for a minute I—I mean the way you looked at me like I’d suddenly changed into a vam pire.”
 
He shrugged. “Don’t pay any attention to me. I don’t know anything about clothes.” He did know, however, hat in that dress, Suzy looked gorgeous. As she walked him through the house, he followed, unable to drag his eyes from her gently swaying hips, her long legs in sheer black stockings. He had a hard time,keeping his mind on her instructions. How to heat a bottle, how to
change a diaper, where to find the pediatrician’s number.
Instead he had to keep reminding himself that this woman in the black dress was really just good-old Suzy, his secretary, his right arm and his key to winning the election. That’s why he was there, baby-sitting on a Saturday night, instead of playing poker. But why did he keep staring at her, wondering what, if anything, she was wearing under that dress? As if he’d never seen a beautiful woman in a black dress before with her blond hair swept up revealing a slender, delicate neck.
“Okay, fine,” he said after she’d repeated every instruction at least once. “I got it. You can go now.”
Suzy glanced out the front window. “I can’t leave yet. I’m being picked up.”
“Picked up?” he repeated. “By who?”
“My date. I have a date, remember? His name is Allan. He’s an old friend of Jed’s who’s flying in for the party. That’s all I know about him.”

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