LITMIR.BIZ

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hearin’ aid when Miss Dottie walked in.”

      Stanley frowned. His entire face dipping in a cascade of wrinkles, he punctuated the frown by spitting out another husk. “App needs his blood pressure raised once a year. Keeps him kickin’.”

      “Yeah, well, when he comes in here one day and kicks your—well, I ain’t goin’ there ’cause we have a lady in our presence, but you know what I’m talkin’ about. I ain’t gonna feel sorry for you at-tal.”

      Dottie watched Sam retreat behind the swinging doors. She was beginning to worry about the two gentlemen; she certainly couldn’t eat. And then suddenly the door opened and Applegate strode back in, sat back down and grabbed a handful of seeds like nothing had happened.

      “You old fool,” he said. “I was halfway to my truck when I remembered what day it was.”

      “I get you every year.” Stanley chuckled and rubbed his hands together.

      Applegate frowned. Dottie couldn’t help but think the man looked like a prune. Poor man. “You just wait till next April Fools’ day. I’m gonna git you next year.”

      “Ain’t happened yet.”

      April Fools’! Dottie couldn’t believe she’d forgotten today was the first day of April. Sheriff Brady was smiling when she looked back at him.

      “Whew, I thought they were really breaking up a longtime friendship,” she said. This time she was the one leaning over the table.

      “It happens every year. Keeps them alive, anyway. You better eat those eggs before they get cold and Sam gets upset with you.”

      Dottie grimaced, said a quick silent prayer then lifted her fork and dug in. Mule Hollow was truly starting out as an interesting place to spend a few days.

      And she’d been here less than twelve hours.

      “So, you were on your way to California before you picked Cassie up?”

      “That’s right. My brother is a pastor in Los Angeles and he’s involved with a foundation for women at risk—battered women, unwed mothers. I spent two weeks at the place and now I’m moving out there to be kind of a housemother to them.” Just thinking about it always made a happy face in her heart, not that it was a mother’s role she would be playing, but more that of a survivor and mentor. Someone who’d been down a similar road. “I’m going to keep the place up and teach the ladies some business skills. The plan is for me to reopen my candy business there and employ the women on a rotating basis. I can’t wait.”

      Sheriff Brady placed his elbows on the table, linked his hands and rested his chin on his thumbs. “That’s a great plan. You have a great heart.”

      Dottie shook her head. “When you’ve looked death in the face like I have and God brings you through…let me tell you, it’d be weird not to want to give back. I’m just making good on a promise I made to Him.”

      “Like I said, you have a good heart. Thousands of people make that same promise when faced with trying times. But as soon as they’re back on their feet, they forget about it.”

      Thinking back to those dark hours before she was rescued, Dottie shuddered. “I’ll never forget about what God delivered me from. Never. I look at life in an entirely new light. And I’m trying my hardest to live life in a new light.” And she was. No looking back. Only up. Even the nightmare’s return couldn’t change that.

      When she left the diner, Brady walked with her. As they approached the RV she was surprised to see cowboys everywhere working on different projects. It looked like a scene from Lonesome Dove.

      And Cassie was right in the big middle of it. The kid was flitting from one group to the next, introducing herself and offering her hand in introduction. It looked suspiciously like speed dating.

      “I wonder if any of those guys know what she’s up to?”

      “Oh, most of these guys are ready to settle down. Maybe not the younger ones, but for the most part all of them are thrilled with this campaign to get women out here to them. The odds of finding a wife out in this town looked pretty dismal after a while. Many of the guys actually had to move on to other places because they refused to live alone. Or shall we say they refused to live bunked up with a bunch of other rowdy bachelors for the rest of their lives.”

      Dottie couldn’t blame them. But still, watching the serious look in Cassie’s eyes, she couldn’t help feeling the girl was looking at this as if she was picking out a pair of shoes or something. And that just wasn’t right.

      Dottie had never been in love, but she wanted the man God intended for her to marry. That would be the most important thing she could look for but undeniably there would have to be chemistry between them. One didn’t just stand the men up in a line and say that’s him. There had to be more to it than that and she hoped Cassie would realize this and take her time looking for Mr. Right.

      Sheriff Brady came to a halt in front of her RV. He placed his hands on his hips, emphasizing his broad shoulders and lean, muscular build. Dottie found herself studying his profile.

      Why wasn’t this guy married?

      He was good-looking, nice, seemed great on the outside…and, well…

      Oh, come on, Dottie! Get honest here.

      All right already, she grumbled to herself. The man had chemistry coming out his ears. His name was probably listed under the word in the dictionary.

      He seemed to have it all, and yet he was still single. What did that mean?

      Chapter Four

      It was only eight o’clock in the morning, but after the hour spent at the diner, it felt much later. Now standing beside her RV with Sheriff Brady, Dottie was bewildered by her reactions to the man.

      Flustered, she tugged open the RV’s door and grabbed her bag of candy from the dash. Despite the heavy breakfast she’d eaten she needed to settle her nerves and to focus. And that meant sugar!

      “Want one?” She held out the half-full bag of colorful gelatin-looking bunnies.

      “No, thanks,” Brady said, looking as if she’d offered him a bag of worms.

      “Don’t tell Sam,” she whispered, plopping a couple into her mouth and letting the tangy little treats melt away.

      “Your secret is safe with me,” he said, dipping his chin. “You do know that kind of stuff will kill you.”

      “Mmm, thanks for the warning. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I get the urge to down the entire bag in one sitting.”

      His eyebrows met in a V. “Tell me you don’t do that.”

      She tried to look ashamed.

      She really tried. And maybe she should actually be ashamed.

      “Come on, tell me you haven’t eaten an entire bag of those things!”

      “Well…” She fidgeted from foot to foot. “Sometimes. But not often,” she said, rapid-fire, gushing, and maybe feeling just a tad ashamed. “I want to live a long life. I just have to have a few of these a day.”

      Liar.

      He shook his head and the corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly in that cute way of his. Pushing his hat back, he stared up at the top of the RV. It was obviously an attempt to hide the full-blown grin Dottie could see building. “How’d you get all of that up there?” he asked.

      She smushed a bunny between her fingers and held it out to him in an audacious attempt to make him break into a full-out smile. He complied instead with a scowl, which was acceptable, too, and she rewarded herself promptly for having achieved said goal by tossing the yellow bunny into her own mouth with learned accuracy. Two points! Yesss!

      “Believe me,” she said before chewing. “It was not easy. Thank goodness

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