She’d been smart and talented even back then.
Other than that, Madeline had been nothing but a good citizen of the Azalea community, and the only thing that had bothered him about her was that she’d spent far too many years with that spoiled asshole, Josh Cantor.
She’d broken up with him now—at last—and hadn’t dated anyone since. He wasn’t sure why he was glad about that fact. She was young and pretty and smart and kindhearted. Guys should be falling all over themselves to get her.
They weren’t though. Maybe they still felt like she belonged to Josh. Or maybe they were all just clueless boys who couldn’t see what was right in front of them.
He wasn’t sure why pulling Madeline over for speeding had gotten her stuck in his mind the way it had. He’d always liked her. For the past year, he’d been thinking more than he should about how pretty she was. But he’d never once considered asking her out or spending time with her. She’d never entered the category in his mind of available options for dating.
But ever since Saturday, he was having trouble thinking of anything except her. He kept picturing her in the car. Her mesmerizing gray eyes that always seemed filled with secrets he desperately wanted to know. Her poignant expression, hinting at deep feeling she never showed to the world. The way her soft hair swept forward to cover her face, like she was trying to hide something intimate from him. He kept hearing the wistful note in her voice and wanting to answer it.
Someone should be taking care of that woman. Someone should be making her happy. Someone should be proving to her over and over again how special she was.
Whenever he thought about Josh and how he’d treated her—taking her for granted, assuming she’d always be there when he wanted her but she’d never get in the way otherwise—Ken grew increasingly angry.
Angry.
There was no reason for it. Madeline and Josh had been broken up for months, and Josh had moved on to a pretty, younger woman with blonder hair and not nearly the depth and intelligence Madeline possessed.
But it still bothered Ken unduly that Josh had left Madeline feeling unappreciated. Kind of lost.
She’d said she wanted to feel free.
Ken kept brooding over how he could help her get there again.
On Monday evening, after he’d finished at work, he still hadn’t managed to shake her out of his thoughts. During the daylight hours, he did at least manage to keep his broodings PG-rated.
He should go home, take a shower, and get some dinner. Stop by to see his daughters and make sure they or his ex-wife didn’t need anything. Then he should watch some TV and go to bed early. Start fresh tomorrow without a pair of haunted gray eyes and a soft, lush figure filling his consciousness.
Instead, he stopped by the library.
Madeline usually worked a Monday evening shift. He wasn’t sure why he had that random piece of information in his brain, but he did.
To his disappointment, she wasn’t sitting behind the checkout desk as she often was. Instead, it was Laurel Hilton, who’d gone to school with his mother.
“Good evening, Sheriff Harley,” she said with a smile as he approached. “Good to see you here. How can I help you?”
One of the things he’d discovered about being the sheriff in a small, rural county was that people treated him like he was important. He’d gotten some of that when he was a deputy, but it had definitely increased ever since he’d become sheriff. People made way for him when he entered a building. They went out of their way to help him. They were always trying to pay for his meals or give him baked goods.
He tried not to take advantage of their instinctive respect for his position since he knew it wasn’t really about him.
“Good evening, Mrs. Hilton,” he said, coming up to lean against the checkout counter with a friendly smile. “How’s Baker doing lately?”
Baker was her beloved Siamese cat.
“He’s getting fat and lazy, but I can’t say as I blame him. Can I help you with anything tonight?”
“Is Ms. Jenkins working today?” He kept his tone intentionally casual.
“She’s in the back. Let me go get her for you.” Not for a moment did Laurel look curious or suspicious. She obviously had no flicker of thought about Ken wanting to talk to Madeline about anything that wasn’t perfectly innocuous.
It made Ken rather guilty and resentful. He was only thirty-six. He wasn’t married anymore. It wouldn’t be out of line for him to ask a woman like Madeline out.
She was younger than him but not inappropriately so. Yet it clearly never even crossed Laurel’s mind that his mind might be on romance rather than on books.
He wasn’t going to ask out Madeline, of course. He was just going to ask her about Westerns, as she’d offered.
In less than two minutes, Madeline appeared with her soft smile. Her hair was pulled back in a slightly messy bun. She wore black pants and a gray top that matched her eyes. The fabric emphasized her figure. He couldn’t help but notice that she had really good breasts. Very good. Full and round and lush and...
Ken cleared his throat and wrenched his eyes back to her face. “Hey there.”
“Hey! Did you come to check out our Westerns?”
Well, that was easy. Like Laurel, it clearly never occurred to Madeline that he might want anything else from her. “Yep. If you have a minute.”
“Of course I do. Come and I’ll show you.”
He followed her into the back room where the
