“So.” The girl looked around. “We talked to a nice man just a little while ago. Remember, Jensen?”
“What man?” Grady asked sharply.
Jensen shrugged, trying to recall. “I was sitting here with the girls feeding them junk and braiding their hair and a man walked up to us.”
“What did he say?”
“Small talk,” she said. “He wanted to know if the girls were mine. He asked about you, where you were.”
“What did you tell him?” he asked, frowning.
“That you’re Destiny’s sheriff.”
“Anything else?”
Jen shook her head, but she’d been around the legal system long enough to know when she was being officially questioned. “You joined us right after that and he disappeared. I haven’t seen him since.”
“I want you guys to stay with me,” he told the girls.
“Aw, Dad…”
“There’s too many wackos and weirdos around,” he said sternly.
“Dad, this is Destiny. Nothing bad happens here,” Kasey said.
A muscle in his jaw contracted, but when he spoke, his tone was calm. “Mostly that’s true. But sometimes stuff happens even here.” He looked at each of his daughters in turn.
“We could hang out with Faith and Maggie,” Stacey suggested.
Grady shook his head. “Maggie’s busy with her booth. If she doesn’t have customers, she’ll be packing up. I can’t take a chance.”
Interesting choice of words, Jensen thought, noticing that the worry creases in his forehead deepened. What was going on?
Identical pairs of brown eyes focused on her. “Can we stay with Jensen?”
“I can’t ask her—”
“Of course I’ll keep an eye on them,” she volunteered.
“Awesome,” the two girls said together.
“Wait a second. I didn’t give the all clear,” he reminded them.
“But you’re gonna. Right, Dad?”
He met Jensen’s gaze. “You don’t have to do this. I don’t think boredom killed anyone yet.”
When he looked like that, she wondered how she could say no to anything he asked. It bothered her until she remembered he hadn’t asked. The girls had. But when she saw those two sweet, eager little faces, she couldn’t say no to them, either. Like father, like daughter. She couldn’t resist him—them. She meant them. He wasn’t irresistible. She wouldn’t let him be.
“I’d like spending time with the girls.”
He smiled, and the tension in his face eased a bit. “Okay. I’m going to take you at your word. If you’re sure—”
“I am.”
“No more junk,” he warned.
She put her hand over her heart. “I swear.”
He kissed both of the girls, then left.
“Jensen, my French braid came out.”
“Can you do my hair that way, too?”
“I would be happy to,” she agreed. “I am woman—I can multi-task. But two at once would take more than my two bare hands. So one at a time. Okay?”
“Okay,” they said together, giggling.
As she worked on twisting Stacey’s hair into the intricate style, Jen scanned the arena. The final events had started. She wasn’t sure who should be more grateful to whom. Grady to her for watching the girls while he worked. Or her to him for giving her a distraction against the onslaught of awful memories brought on by the imminent bull-riding competition.
And then there was the question of what was in that lawsuit that Grady O’Connor wouldn’t talk to her about.
After the medical transport chopper left and he dispersed the milling crowd in the arena, Grady hurried into the stands to find his girls and Jensen. Ronnie Slyder was semiconscious after a run-in with the bull he’d ridden to win the competition. The teenager had been airlifted to a hospital twenty miles away. Hannah Morgan, the doctor who was filling in for Doc Holloway at the rodeo and in his office, had gone to the facility with Dev Hart to make sure everything medically possible was done for the kid. As Grady surveyed the area, he noted that the crowd had all but cleared out.
He wasn’t sure whether or not that reassured him. Some creep was suing him, then he’d found out that a stranger had approached his girls and was asking questions. He didn’t like this one bit. All he wanted was to get the girls home.
That was all he wanted until he took one look at Jensen’s tense white face. No matter what he thought of the guy she’d married, Jensen had loved him and he’d been killed in an accident similar to the one tonight. Even though it was ten years ago, she would have to be a robot not to be shook.
He pulled the hand radio from his belt and pushed the button. “Deputy Haines?”
“Yeah, Sheriff?” a voice asked through his receiver.
“Meet me in the bleachers.”
“Right.” There was a click and the line was silent.
Grady walked up the stairs and greeted the girls. “Hey, you guys. Doin’ okay?”
Two identical pairs of solemn brown eyes and one-of-a-kind serious green ones regarded him.
“Is Ronnie going to be okay, Daddy?” Kasey asked.
“I sure hope so, honey. I’m going to check on him as soon as I make arrangements to get you two home.”
They both nodded and he was relieved that he wasn’t going to get an argument. He’d had about all he could deal with tonight.
Deputy Haines walked up the several steps and joined them. He was young, just twenty-one, with black hair and blue eyes and a face that barely needed a razor. But he was trustworthy and would put himself between the girls and trouble. Grady would stake his life on it.
“What’s up, Sheriff?”
“I want you to take my girls home and stay with them until I get there.” He looked at them and noted the big yawns that meant there wouldn’t be any arguments about bedtime. “Kasey, Stacey, I want you guys in bed, and don’t give Deputy Haines any trouble. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” they said, their voices sleepy.
“I’ll take good care of them, Sheriff.”
“I know.”
Grady watched the three as they walked down the stairs. At the far end of the arena a black-and-white SUV belonging to the sheriff’s department was parked, and the three got in and drove away.
With a sigh, he sat next to Jensen. She still hadn’t said a word. “You okay?” he asked.
“Fine.” She reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Her hand shook, putting the lie to the single word.
“Really?”
“Of course,” she said, clamping her teeth together when she started to shiver.
Since the night was far from cold, he knew she was beginning to react. It was as if she’d held it together for the kids. Now that she was no longer responsible for them, she was letting go. Her whole body was trembling. He was really concerned about her.
Grady put his arm around her, pulling her against him. “It must have been awful when Zach died.”
“Yeah.