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CHAPTER 1: JUST FRIENDS
Primrose Midraven wanted to surprise her favorite deputy with an unscheduled visit, but she hadn’t planned on catching him alone.
Not that he was completely alone. His two German Shepherds, Rook and Bishop, were sitting as still as statues on either side of him.
She paused by the entrance sign of The Longhorn Grill, wondering why the parking lot around them was empty. She’d walked all the way from the clinic to celebrate his success in launching the reservation’s first-ever volunteer search and rescue team.
However, there was no long line of fellow tribesmen waiting to sign up. There was no one in sight but him and his dogs.
“Did you come to sign up?” Shep Whitaker’s rumbly voice made her jolt and step out from behind the sign.
Abandoning her hiding place, she moved across the asphalt toward him and his dogs. She smoothed her gloved hands over the wisps of hair the wind kept whipping out of the stretchy band holding her ponytail in place. It was a hopeless cause.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “How’d you know I was here?”
Shep still hadn’t looked her way yet. “I heard you. I’m search and rescue qualified, remember? And a policeman. The dogs heard you, too.” He was lounged deep in a lawn chair, with his long legs stretched out in front of him, head tipped back while tossing a wadded-up piece of paper in the air. Alone and apparently bored out of his mind. Since he was off duty this morning, he had a flannel plaid shirt tucked into his jeans instead of his Heart Lake Police Department shirt. No coat.
His dogs were eyeing her with interest, though not so much as a single growl escaped them, probably because they knew her well enough not to see her as a threat to him.
Though she nodded at them, she didn’t bend over to pet them as she reached the white folding table that Shep was using as his sign-up booth. Search and rescue dogs weren’t house pets. It was best to leave them alone.
“Is that your way of saying I sound like a herd of buffalo?” She zipped her bright pink quilted jacket higher as she glanced around the still-empty parking lot. She hoped she was catching the tail-end of the small crowd who’d surely shown up to support such a worthy endeavor.
Shep’s hard mouth quirked upward beneath the brim of his black leather Stetson. “You weren’t quite that loud.” A clipboard rested on the table beside him. Though the breeze was making the papers clipped to it flutter a bit, she could see that not a single name was scrawled on it.
“Gee, thanks.” She wasn’t sure why he looked so happy all of a sudden, since his sign-up session had clearly been a bust. He didn’t smile often, though. And when he did, it never failed to send a tremor through her pulse. Yeah, they were just friends, but she was on the lookout for Mr. Right, and it wasn’t her fault that Deputy Shep Whitaker was seriously hot when he smiled.
His mouth wasn’t even pulled into a full smile, but it was enough to soften his normally stoic features into somethingmore approachable. Not handsome, in the traditional sense. The lines and angles of his face were too chiseled and uncompromising for that. His dark eyes were too dark — almost black — always questioning, always assessing, and sometimes accusing. It was his job to make sure others toed the line.
“If you want to learn how to be stealthy, doc…” He abruptly caught the wad of paper he’d been tossing and sat forward in his lawn chair. His snakeskin boots anchored against the pavement as he leaned forward to rest his forearms on the knees of his jeans.
The ears of his German Shepherds twitched at his abrupt change in position, but both remained seated on their haunches.
The full brunt of his dark gaze swept her at last, and a jolt of awareness tingled through her. “Stop that,” she protested, taking a step back.
“Stop what?” His expression didn’t change. “I haven’t even said what I’m gonna say yet.” The same faint smile continued to tug at his upper lip.
She waved a hand in irritation. “Well, hurry up and spit it out. You’re making me all twitchy with your smolder look.” She wanted to bite her tongue the moment the words left her mouth. Up until this very moment, she’d only privately called it hissmolder look. She held her breath, hoping he’d just ignore the slip up.
His jet-black eyebrows rose. “My what?”
Her heart sank with the realization that he’d totally heard every word of what she’d accidentally blurted out. A wave of warmth enveloped her. “Oh, come on!” She fought to keep her tone light and teasing. “Everyone knows you use that same expression to make ladies’ hearts flutter and criminals tremble in their boots.” His Comanche height and swarthy complexion added to his allure, making her wonder for the bazillionth time how it was possible he was still single.
“I can’t believe you just said that.” He shook his head at her, looking mildly disgusted. “It’s almost like you’re trying to distract me, so I won’t finish what I started to tell you.” He reached for his clipboard and held it out to her. “Sign up for my team, and I’ll personally show you how to creep up on me without being detected.”
She made a face at him, pretending to be offended. “Did you just call me a creep?”
“Sign it,” he repeated flatly, handing her a pen.
One of the dogs emitted a low growl.
“Shut up, Rook.” He gave the dog an are-you-kidding-me look, and the creature grew silent again, flattening his ears a little at the reprimand.
Though Prim didn’t comment on it, she was tickled to pieces by Shep’s insistence that his dogs treat her with respect. She reluctantly accepted the pen he was holding out to her. “You do realize I already work like sixty-hour weeks?” Serving as a P.A. at the only clinic on the poverty-stricken reservation was both the hardest job she’d ever held, and the most rewarding.
He made a pfft sound and angled his head at the clipboard. “I put my fair share of long hours in. Look at the bright side of it. If you sign up as a volunteer for my search and rescue team, we’ll get to hang out more.”
His tone was so matter-of-fact that she caught her breath. It was news to her that Mr. Smoking Hot Deputy Whitaker wanted to spend more time with her.
