Need You for Keeps (Heroes of St. Helena, #1)(7)

“It’s grapefruit juice,” Shay said, and Jonah raised a brow.

She sat silent, letting that lie grow and grow until she felt the urge to reach up and touch her nose. “And other stuff,” she mumbled.

“It’s the other stuff that concerns me.” The cuffs clanked against his hip and Shay considered offering him some of that “other stuff.”

Personally, she thought Jonah could use a little loosening up—good cop with a touch of wild side was way more appealing than an uptight sheriff.

“If you arrest her, then you’ve got to take all of us in,” Clovis Owens, a portly woman in a Booty Patrol T-shirt, shouted.

“Grandma,” Harper warned, and when Clovis crossed her arms in outright defiance, she added, “Last time they took you in, I had to post five hundred bucks in bail.”

“A man should know better than to touch a lady’s cane without permission,” the older woman defended, then looked back at Jonah. “And you should know better than to think we are going anywhere without our man candy.”

That elicited a few supportive amens and a damn straight, and soon fifty wrinkled hands were fist pumping bills in the air in protest, all hollering, “We want”—double fist pump—“man candy.”

Jonah merely looked at the sky and let out a sigh. Shay noticed the lines of exhaustion bracketing his mouth and felt herself soften. Being a superhero was hard work, and Jonah worked harder than anyone she knew for his town.

“I’ll go without a fight as long as you promise me a hot cup of coffee. A latte, something decadent and sweet, not that crap you carry around,” she added, and that got a little smile out of him.

“As much as that would make my day, I’ll have to take a rain check.” She considered asking him if he’d ever call to collect, then thought better of it. With her bold life choices, not to mention her colorful past, the last person she should be spending time with was a no-frills-drip guy who carried a badge.

As though reading her mind, Jonah chuckled, then held a couple of bills of his own over his head, waving it at the crowd and silencing them. “My aunt is recovering from surgery as you all know.”

“Lucinda had those bunions removed,” Nora added, and the crowd bobbed their heads. “Nasty things.”

Jonah grimaced as though he’d gotten an up-close-and-personal look at those bunions and agreed. “The only way to keep her off her feet was if I promised to get her a calendar.”

“Such a nice man you’ve grown into, Jonah,” June Whitney, the town’s crocheting queen, said, fanning herself at the sight of Jonah flapping bills like he was about to take it all off for charity.

Nora moved even closer.

“So if you all won’t mind my snagging one,” he said to the crowd, then pinned Shay with his sharp gaze, “I’ll be on my way.”

“As long as you leave some for us and don’t arrest the girl,” June agreed.

He flashed that practiced smile that would secure him the race for sheriff, then handed Shay a couple of tens. “Deal.”

An excited hum vibrated through the crowd and Harper wisely started handing out calendars before the sheriff changed his mind.

“Thank you,” Shay said, picking up a calendar and, forgoing the discreet bag, handing it to him. “It almost makes up for locking me in a cage for days on end.”

“You locked yourself in that cage,” he corrected quietly, looking down at the cover—and a half-naked Deputy Warren—and shook his head. “And I’m sure you were released within fifteen minutes of my leaving.”

Ten. But he didn’t need to know that. “You didn’t even come back to check on me, so how would you know?”

“Because when I left I called Peggy and told her you were locked in.” Which explained why her boss had shown up on her day off. “Then I paid her twenty bucks to take her time getting there.”

“Well, you blew good money, Sheriff, because she let me right out.” She’d also brought Shay dinner and helped her spruce up Tripod for today, since he was the man of the hour.

That grin went full and he snatched back his twenty. “Good, then we’re even.” Without another word, Jonah collected every last drop of alcohol and headed back toward the sheriff’s department.

“That was interesting,” Harper said, adjusting her glasses to get a twenty-twenty on the sheriff’s retreating backside.

“Interesting?” Emerson said, coming up behind them. “Hell, that was verbal foreplay.”

“That was police harassment,” Shay corrected.

“If that was harassment, then Deputy Hot Ass can harass me anytime he wants.” Emerson laughed.

“Deputy Tight Ass.” There was a difference, one Shay needed to remember. “And he just likes to annoy me.”

Truth be told, she liked when he chose to annoy her. It felt like flirting without all the pressure.

“So are you going to ask him to take it all off for charity?” Harper asked.

She already had. He’d turned her down. In retrospect it was a good thing, she thought, shuddering at the memory of the last guy she had gotten naked with.

There had been sex, which led to more sex, which led to feelings, and finally Lance moving in. Shay had thought it was a forever kind of situation. Turned out, Lance didn’t believe in forever all that much, although he did believe that half of everything Shay owned was his when he left.