She looked at him, then. As if she didn’t believe him.
“We’ll be doing them a favor. You’d be doing me a favor.” He moistened his lips. “Would you come with me, Evy? Please?”
She searched his face. Not quite buying his explanation.
“I do love kids...” She gulped. “Sure. Why not? I’d love to go. Thanks for asking.”
He smiled. “I’ll pick you up Saturday morning. Bright and early. It’s a date.”
“Okay.” She tucked a loosened strand of blond hair behind her ear.
Following the motion of her hand, his heart beat rapidly. Should he trust his first impressions of Evy Shaw? Sweet, smart, very pretty. Was his initial instinct about her correct?
“You don’t have to wait for me, Charlie.”
“Of course I do. I’ll walk you to your car.”
She slung the purse strap over her shoulder. “Another Southern gentleman thing?”
He followed Evy to the front door. “Let me be one, okay? And for the record, I want to walk you to your car.”
Evy worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she set the alarm on the library. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. Before he did something stupid like touch her. Or kiss her.
Suppose he was wrong about Evy? Could she be hiding behind a mask, the image she wanted him to see? And if so, why?
Who was the real Evy Shaw? Was seeing believing in her case?
Maybe...maybe not. Only time would tell.
On Saturday morning, Charlie leaned across the truck cab and threw open the passenger door. “Hop in.”
The open door dinged. Evy hesitated. “Come on, Shorty.”
She sniffed and placed her shoe on the running board. Putting one hand on the seat and the other on the handle, she hauled herself onto the seat. “I prefer to think of myself as vertically challenged.”
He laughed and jumped out of the truck to come around and close the door for her.
“You didn’t have to do that, Charlie.”
He smiled. “It’s going to be a great day. Buckle up. Safety first.”
She smiled. “Will do, Officer.” She clicked her seat belt in place.
Charlie palmed the wheel as he maneuvered the rural road. “Glad to see you dressed appropriately.”
Evy extended her feet, toes pointed. “You don’t like the way I dress?”
He loved the way she dressed. The pencil skirts, high heels and silky blouses. But his favorite was the baby-blue cardigan she’d worn to the Chinese restaurant, which brought out the blue in her eyes. Charlie scrubbed a hand over his face. Since when did he have favorites where Evy Shaw was concerned?
Charlie stole a quick look at her. He liked her version of casual, too. The pink polka-dot Keds. The lime-green boatneck T-shirt. The cuffed jeans.
Only her ponytail retained her usual weekday appearance. And idly he wondered what her hair would look like spilling over her shoulders...gleaming in the sunshine...
His heartbeat staccato-stepped. “I like the way you dress just fine.”
Evy’s eyebrows rose as his voice went gravelly. He’d surprised her. Surprised him, too. Who would have guessed, in casual Kiptohanock, he’d take a shine to someone like Evy Shaw?
A shine... He lifted his ball cap off his head and resettled it. Where did that come from?
Sounded like something Charlie’s grandfather would’ve said fifty years ago. Evy had a way of bringing out the old-fashioned in him. She smiled at Charlie. And his heart flip-flopped inside his chest.
With effort, he refocused on the road. Was she happy to be riding in a truck with him? Or happy at the prospect of spending the day with the Duers? And if so, why?
Doubt ate at his stomach. He hadn’t always been so unsure of himself. But his confidence where women were concerned had taken a nosedive since his days with Honey.
He pulled into the long gravel driveway of the Keller farmhouse. Passing under the crossbars framing the entrance to the farm, the truck rattled over a cattle guard. Cedars and fencing lined the drive. Horses grazed in the pasture.
She sat forward on the seat. Her gaze flitted from side to side. Taking everything in. “I’ve never been here before.”
“Me neither.”
Her eyes darted to him. “You didn’t volunteer over the summer?”
“Nope. My first time to help out, too.”
“Oh.”
He’d have given a week’s salary to know what was going through that brilliant mind of hers. He didn’t have to wait long.
“Why not?”
He rapped his thumb against the steering wheel. “Too busy.”
“Too busy doing deputy stuff?”
“Something like that.”
He steered the truck beside a bevy of other vehicles outside the hip-roofed barn. “We’re here.” Parking, he allowed the swirl of dust heralding their arrival to settle.
Charlie spotted Sawyer Kole in the corral with a handful of children and a horse. The very pregnant Honey rested against the fence railing. Charlie was nervous. Nervous about what would happen next.
About how Honey would react to Evy being here. About how Sawyer would respond to him being here. Sure enough, when Charlie unfolded himself out of the truck, Sawyer’s arctic-blue eyes narrowed. Evy opened her door and got out.
Following her husband’s belligerent stare, Honey turned. “Charlie? What are—?”
Charlie knew the moment Evy stepped around the truck.
Because Honey went ramrod stiff. “What’s she doing here?”
Her husband refastened his gaze onto Evy. Sawyer took a step forward. Frowned. Halted in his tracks. The lead on the horse hung limply in his hand.
Charlie’s heart pounded. He didn’t like the intense look Sawyer gave Evy. Did they know each other?
Evy inched closer to Charlie. At his elbow, she shrunk into his side. Doing that melding thing she did. For protection? For invisibility?
Broadening his shoulders, Charlie creased the brim of his cap with his hand. “We came to volunteer. Heard you might need a few more hands with so many folks away for Labor Day weekend.”
Sawyer seemed to come to himself. “Don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your friend.” He looped the lead around a fence post and came out of the corral. Wiping his palm on the side of his Wrangler jeans, Sawyer headed their way, hand extended to Evy. “I’m Sawyer.”
Charlie’s gaze bounced between Evy and Kole.
Behind the glasses, those enormous eyes of hers had fixed onto the cowboy. And she moved away from Charlie to grasp hold of Sawyer’s hand.
Charlie’s stomach cramped. Something curled in his chest. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to pick Evy up in his arms, plop her inside his truck and speed away.
Toward hot cups of tea, Chinese food and library books. He shouldn’t have brought her here. She—he—they didn’t belong here.
She’s mine, he wanted to shout. Not yours.
But