To her right was a couple immersed in their own conversation, and a gray-haired man in a booth two down from her spot in the middle of the space. Straight ahead was a woman and her small son at the counter, making quick work of what looked like apple pie. To her left sat one man in the last booth.
He was facing her but looking down at the table. Remi noted first that he had wide, muscled shoulders; second, that he had dark brown hair as messy as hers must be; and, third, that he was, even with his face angled down, attractive. Then, with a little start, Remi realized the fourth and most intriguing detail.
She dripped water across the linoleum and walked right up to a face she hadn’t seen in ages.
“Declan Nash?”
The cowboy hat resting on the table was all the confirmation she needed, but the man still raised his eyes to hers and nodded. Remi couldn’t help feeling a bit of heat as he looked at her directly.
She saw both the boy her father had warned her about when they were kids and the man who had grown up quite nicely.
When he cut a grin and recognition flared behind his green eyes, Remi felt more heat rising in her.
“Well, if it isn’t Remi Hudson.”
Declan surprised her by standing and extending his hand. She felt her eyebrow quirk up as she shook his hand.
The young Declan hadn’t been so formal, especially when it came to her. Why shake the hand of the person you’re competing with or fighting against?
He didn’t make a thing about her questioning look as he motioned to the seat opposite him. Before he officially asked her to sit, he looked behind her.
“Are you here alone?”
She didn’t miss his glance down at her left hand.
So she held that hand up and thumped her ring finger.
“Alone in the diner and single outside of it.”
Declan chuckled as Remi slid across the plastic seat. Her wet leggings made it squeak.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you this close to Overlook since we were, what, nineteen?” He closed the folder on the tabletop and leaned back against his seat. The new position highlighted how the years had been more than kind to the man. His face was all angles and strong. The bump in his nose from the time he broke it after getting into a fight with Cody Callers at a house party when they were sixteen was still visible but, instead of looking awkward as it had then, now it added to the intrigue that was him.
Because, while Remi had known the wild child that was Declan Nash, she hadn’t seen him since graduation day.
“I haven’t seen you since I was eighteen, but I’ve been home quite a few times between then and now. I’m a bit hurt you haven’t noticed. It’s not like Hudson Heartland isn’t the Nash Family Ranch’s next-door neighbor or anything.”
“There’s a good hundred acres or so between the ranches, so forgive me for not having superhero-grade vision,” he teased.
“You’re forgiven, I suppose. Besides, I hear you’ve been busy since you became the sheriff.”
Saying it out loud created the same shock she’d felt the first time her father had told her about the eldest Nash sibling running for sheriff. When he’d won, well, that had been a much stronger shock.
The boy wilder than the horses her father used to tame had become the man put in charge of policing the entire county.
“Don’t worry, you’re not the only one surprised by the news,” he said. “Though I am impressed at your reaction. Last time we saw each other you were more on the reserved side.”
Remi couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“I was a mouse,” she exclaimed. “It took college for me to open up and see the virtue of speaking my mind. Something I assume you can relate to.”
It was Declan’s turn to laugh.
“Being the sheriff has shown me the value of holding your cards close to your chest.”
Remi leaned back to mirror his stance.
“Well, it looks like we might have switched personalities since we last saw each other.”
Even though she said it, Remi didn’t believe it. People couldn’t change their stripes. Not when it came to someone as wild and bold as Declan.
The waitress appeared at their table, took Remi’s order and was kind enough to give her a hand towel to dab off the excess water. Declan was polite enough to keep his eyes north of her potentially see-through shirt. Sure, he’d been wild when they were younger, but his mama had still raised him right when it came to respecting women.
“So what brings you to this diner?” Remi got around to asking. She looked at the folder beneath his hand. “Is it work related?”
Declan took the folder and slid it beneath his cowboy hat.
“I was actually on my way to one of my deputy’s rental cabins for a long weekend.” He pointed out the window. The rain had, of course, lessened a minute or two after she’d entered the diner. “You see that—”
“You mean Fiona?” she finished. Like the cowboy hat, Declan had had that truck for years and years. She’d recognize it anywhere and probably would have earlier had it not been raining so hard when she’d pulled up.
Declan smirked.
“Yeah. Fiona.” He sighed. “She finally decided to have a fit. I was going to call my roadside assistance when the rain died down since, well, I don’t know much about cars.”
“Except stealing them from Rodney Becker’s garage to prove you were smarter than him,” she added.
Declan lowered his voice but there was humor in it.
“Listen here, Huds, you promised you’d take that one to the grave.”
The way Declan said the nickname he’d used for her when they were in high school, all rumbling baritone, made some of the heat at seeing him swirl around again. She held up her hands in surrender.
“I keep my promises. But, may I point out, you’re not in Overlook right now. In fact, you’re
