Santa's Sweetheart (The Christmas Tree Ranch #4)(15)
Jess chuckled. “It wouldn’t take a child psychologist to see through that. I’m betting that Maggie staged the whole act to get you and her dad together. So, did it work?”
“Hardly. The scheme might’ve worked better if he hadn’t hit my car in the parking lot. Believe me, when I saw that crumpled fender, the last thing on my mind was romance.”
“But that’s just what it sounds like!” Wynette was an avid reader of romance novels. “People in books meet that way, and it always works out fine. He could turn out to be the love of your life, Grace.”
“Don’t count on it.” Grace pried herself off the couch. “He’s going to have the car towed and fixed and have a rental waiting for me at the school by the end of the day. But that will be the end of it. We won’t be seeing each other again—not socially, at least. So now that I’ve shared my uninteresting story, I’m going to my room to decompress.”
“Not so fast,” Jess said with a knowing smile. “It’s almost nine o’clock. You didn’t spend that much time standing around in the parking lot talking about your car.”
Grace sighed. “All right. We took Maggie to Buckaroo’s for treats—chocolate shake for her, apple pie and coffee for the sheriff and me, just to save you the trouble of asking. Then Maggie wanted to go and get a Christmas tree. Since I needed a tree for my classroom, I went along. If you’ve been to the tree lot, you know it’s halfway to Cottonwood Springs, so we spent an hour just driving there and back. We dropped my tree off at the school, and he drove me home. End of story.”
“But we know he walked you to the door.” Wynette wasn’t giving up. “After all that, I can’t believe he wouldn’t ask you for a date.”
“Unless you didn’t give him a chance,” Jess added.
“As I told you, nothing happened. We shook hands and agreed to be distant friends. And speaking of friends, I’m going to need a ride to school tomorrow. Jess, could you do the honors?”
“No problem. It’s right on the way to work. Will you need a ride home?”
“I’d better not need one. Sam promised me the rental car would be in the parking lot with the keys in the school office. If he’s a man of his word, I should be fine.”
Before Wynette and Jess could pry any more answers out of her, Grace escaped down the hallway. She liked her roommates, and she knew that the grilling they’d given her was all in fun. But between the damage to her beloved Honda and the strain of resisting her attraction to the handsome sheriff, she’d been through an emotional wringer. All she wanted to do was check tomorrow’s lesson plans, undress, brush her teeth, and curl up in bed with the bestselling mystery book she was currently reading.
She’d never told her roommates about her track record of broken relationships. If she were to open up, they’d at least understand why she mustn’t get involved with Sam. But the past was a closed book. Branding Iron was her chance for a fresh start. She couldn’t afford to mess it up by falling in love—not even with a man like Big Sam Delaney.
*
By the next morning, the storm had moved on, leaving frigid blue skies and a landscape brushed with frosted white. Sam scraped the icy coating off the windows of the Jeep, buckled Maggie into the backseat, and dropped her off at school before heading to work.
The first part of last night’s talk had gone all right, he thought. When he’d explained that she couldn’t expect special treatment from Miss Chapman, she’d looked at him as if he were in kindergarten.
“I know that already, Daddy,” she’d said. “And there’s another thing, besides what you just said. If the kids in my class think I’m the teacher’s pet, they won’t like me. I don’t want that to happen. Neither does Miss Chapman. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
The rest of their talk had been harder. When Sam had told her that he and Miss Chapman wouldn’t be dating, she’d almost cried.
“But Daddy, I know she likes you. And I know you like her. I could see that last night.”
“We do like each other, as friends,” he said. “But when we were in Buckaroo’s yesterday, we could tell that people were whispering about us. I’m the sheriff, and she’s a teacher. The wrong kind of talk could be bad for both of us. So we decided it would be best not to give folks anything to gossip about.”
That wasn’t the whole story, but it was the best he could do for Maggie. The truth was, he’d sensed a resistance in Grace that he couldn’t explain. The fear of damaging gossip had been a handy excuse, a cover-up for something deeper. At the time, he’d had little choice except to let it go. But being curious was part of his job as a lawman. Maybe she was hiding some secret from her past.
Or, what the hell, maybe she just didn’t like him.
He would call the body shop and rental companies first thing when he got to work, Sam resolved. Once he’d spoken with his insurance company and arranged for the tow and the rental car delivery, he would put Miss Grace Chapman firmly out of his mind and focus on his work.
Whatever Grace was hiding, unless it was criminal, it was none of his concern. And using the database to check on her would be crossing a line—one he had no business crossing.
Preoccupied, he parked in his slot outside the city and county building and strode down the hall to the sheriff’s office. Helen was already at her desk. She greeted him with a smile and brought his usual cup of hot coffee.