The Billionaire's Matchmaker(27)

Her door burst open and Gabby raced inside, her blond hair with the hot pink streak billowing around her. “Oh my God! I saw Sheriff O’Neil leaving! Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine.”

She ran over and took Charlie from Marney’s arms. “You’re shaking.” She studied her face. “And your face is red—” she stopped. Her mouth fell open slightly. “Oh, my gosh! You’re attracted to him.”

Marney stepped away, unlocked her main display case, and dropped her keys into her purse. Damn Gabby and her sixth sense about people. “Don’t be absurd.”

But Gabby was already on the phone. She said, “Jenny, don’t ask questions. Just get over to Marney’s shop.” She disconnected the call, pushed another speed dial button, and gave Mia the same instructions. Within two minutes, petite, blue-eyed Mia and sensibly-dressed Jenny had joined Gabby in front of Marney’s display case.

Gabby didn’t waste a second. “I saw Sheriff O’Neil coming out of Marney’s shop this morning.” She grinned. “I think our Marney has a crush on him.”

Marney’s face heated. Without being able to tell them that she’d seen Dell at the fundraiser, their morning “meeting” had no explanation. But she absolutely didn’t want her friends thinking she had the hots for him. Because she didn’t. Not really. He presented a sort of challenge, but she’d already dismissed it. “Dell was just checking to see if everything had been okay at my house over the weekend. I told him it was, and he left.”

Gabby laughed. Jenny giggled. Mia, her normally reserved friend, shook her head. “You don’t think it’s a big deal that our handsome Sheriff checked up on you?”

The conversation would have been so much easier if she could just tell her friends who he was. But she’d promised, so she had to find another way out of this.

“Has any one of you stopped to realize he’s bossy—like my ex? Even if he wanted to get involved with me, and I don’t think he does, I don’t want to get involved with another man like Doug. I followed his every instruction for four years of marriage, and he cheated on me. Then because I was the one who insisted on a divorce, he held out until he got the condo. Wouldn’t I just be an idiot to get involved with another man like that?”





Chapter Three



The next morning, as Marney walked out of her office to give Claudette a new box of bracelets to display in the main case, a small crowd of people raced by her shop window. She didn’t think much of it, until the wail of the ambulance echoed around her. From the sound if it, it stopped only a few feet up the street.

“What the heck?”

Claudette, a university student with brown hair and big blue eyes who worked a few hours every day to earn tuition, almost bounced out of her skin. “Let me go find out what’s happening!”

“You’re busy.” She ambled to the window just in time to see an elderly woman on a gurney being rolled into the street from the little grocery store a few doors down. She stood on tiptoes. “I think it’s Mrs. Baker.”

“Oh, go find out!” Claudette cried. “Be nosy for once!”

Marney stayed at the window a few minutes but really couldn’t see over the crowd. And she was as curious as Claudette. She pushed open her shop door and stepped onto the street.

“He just dropped to his knees and started giving Mrs. Baker CPR.”

Marney listened to the chatter around her, not surprised a Good Samaritan had jumped in to save the town’s favorite church lady.

“He always goes above and beyond the Sheriff job.”

As she realized it was Dell they were talking about, she noticed him standing by the ambulance.

“You’ll be fine,” he crooned, patting Mrs. Baker’s hand as the crew shoved the stretcher into the vehicle. With an IV in her arm and an oxygen mask over her face, it was clear she’d been in real trouble. “I’ll check on you later.”

The ambulance doors closed, and Dell turned away. Several people patted his back and offered congratulations. He brushed them off and headed down the street.

Marney bit her lower lip, turned back to her shop and shoved open the door. “It was Mrs. Baker. She must have had a heart attack because Sheriff O’Neil gave her CPR and she’s on her way to the hospital.”

Claudette sighed dreamily. “He’s such a good guy.”

She absently said, “Yeah, he is,” as she picked up Charlie, who’d trotted over, apparently done with his morning nap. She walked into her office and closed the door.

She scratched Charlie’s head lightly. “There is much, much more to that guy that meets the eye.”

Charlie barked.

“It’s too bad he’s so bossy.”

Charlie barked in agreement.

…

Unable to stop thinking about Dell O’Neil, Marney left work early and indulged in her other passion after jewelry design: cooking. Specifically, making her own pasta.

She worked for hours preparing sauce from scratch and perfect fettuccini noodles. After the first ten minutes of sauce prep, Charlie had deserted her, scampering away, she presumed, for another nap. But that was fine. She needed to be alone, to clear her head, to stop thinking about Dell O’Neil. He might be good-hearted, but he was bossy and controlling. And she’d had her fill of that with Doug. Everything he wanted came first. Everything she wanted came second. She’d be an idiot to give up her freedom for that.