Page 19 of Edge of Steele
Please!
Blake cleared his throat.
Here it comes. A big fat no.
“But as a former sheriff,” he said, “I totally understand this guy’s wishes.”
She should’ve thought to play up the sheriff card right up front. “Does that mean you’ll do it?”
“Depends. I can usually commit our resources but not with this. Way too big of a pro bono request to act on my own. I’ll have to get the partners buy-in.”
“I hate to ask this but—”
“You want an answer like yesterday and us on scene within an hour.”
“You read my mind.” She laughed.
“Not hard to do when you think like every law enforcement officer out there.” He chuckled. “We already have a partners’ meeting scheduled in half an hour, and I can get back to you after that.”
“Thanks, Blake. The sheriff and I really appreciate it.” She ended the call and shared the information with Finn.
He raised an eyebrow. “You think they’ll go for it?”
Did she? “It’ll take a lot of resources, but all the partners have a heart to help, so yeah, I do. Or at least I’m hopeful.”
He narrowed his gaze. “What else do we need to do before the meeting?”
“I don’t know about your tasks, but I need to make lodging arrangements and call one of my sisters to see if one of them can pack a bag and bring it down here for me.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Avery and I still live in Felicia’s big house. It’s really more house than we need, but I don’t want to move Avery. Anyway. My point is, we have several spare bedrooms, and you can stay with us.”
Another surprise, but this time she managed to keep her mouth closed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He gritted his teeth. “It’s just a place to sleep, Ryleigh. Nothing else. No big deal.”
“But we’ll be together so much of the time already. Adding even more time isn’t wise.”
“Afraid you’ll fall for all of this again?” He ran his hands over his body and laughed.
“Easy for you to joke like that. You weren’t the one who was hurt.”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
Right.She’d nailed him, and it hurt him. She should feel bad for that. And she did. Somewhere deep down, but the other part of her—the part she would later have to repent for—was glad he was hurting too. Even if he’d been the one to walk away, maybe he didn’t want to and had been heartbroken back then as well. She had to at least admit it was a possibility.
“I want to talk about that.” His tone had grown husky. “Ask for your forgiveness and make it right, but not here in public.”
“I understand.” Or at least she was trying to.
“Then just agree to stay with us and after dinner tonight we can talk.”
She still couldn’t commit. “I’ll think about it.”
He didn’t look away. No surprise. He didn’t like to lose at anything. Even something as simple as her decision of where to stay.
“At this time of year,” he said. “Tourists are flocking to the lake, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find another place on such short notice.”
He had a point, though she didn’t want to admit it. Maybe the Maddox family had room for her at their compound instead. “Like I said. I’ll think about it.”
