The Librarian's Secret Scandal

Did he know she’d lived in Honey Creek back then? She’d never told him that night, but maybe he found out later. Did he know she’d moved back?

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Emily asked.

Lily had forgotten her assistant had followed her. “Yeah.” She bent to pick up a few books from the first box and turned to place them on a table in alphabetical order by author name.

“Who were you just talking to?”

She sent a look over at Emily, letting her know she was prying too much.

“Sorry,” Emily said.

The sound of someone behind them made Lily turn. So did Emily.

Wes Colton stood on the other side of the boxes, holding a book in his hand. The sight of him stole her breath and shards of excitement chased her bleakness away.

“Looks like you got some new inventory.” His voice was masculine and as appealing as she remembered. Maybe more so.

What was he doing here? Her insurance company was handling the transaction with his SUV. Of course, he had another reason, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to face that.

“Wes.” She hoped she didn’t sound as school girlish as she thought.

Emily glanced from her back to Wes.

He held up the book, the picture of a bare-chested man looking down at the soulful face of a brunette. “Interesting cover art.”

Lily snatched the book from his hand and dropped it back into the box he’d taken it from. “It’s popular fiction.”

He didn’t say anything, just grinned his amusement and something else. Was he flirting with her?

“Uh … I’ll go help at the checkout counter,” Emily said, smiling secretively as she wandered off.

Uncomfortable with the way Emily left them alone and the realization that she’d picked up on Wes’s flirting, too, Lily had to force herself to look at him.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Good. You?” Was he nervous, too, or was this small talk a way for him to get a conversation going?

“Good,” she played along.

He smiled wider. “I came by to see you.”

His announcement dispelled the awkwardness. Gladness expanded and bloomed in her chest.

“I bought a new vehicle in Bozeman yesterday,” he added.

“Oh, that’s good. I hope you like it as much as your last SUV.”

“More so. Cost me a little more than I expected, but it’s worth it.” His gaze floated over her face. “It’s good to see you again.”

Another charge of excitement tickled her. She smiled and saw how he noticed. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Losing herself as she met his smiling eyes, feeling his attraction match her own, it took her a moment to realize how they were behaving. She glanced around. Emily was busy with someone at the checkout counter. There was no one standing near them. No one had noticed them ogling each other.

Reality came down a little harder. Did she really want to encourage Wes? Aside from the folly of him getting involved with what everyone considered the town floozy, she would be no good for any man right now.

The news of her rapist’s release had robbed her of her strength. She was vulnerable again. The same struggle she’d overcome so many years ago was returning. Would she be able to go home and not feel as though she had to lock every door and window and double-check them periodically? She hated that kind of weakness, the power Brandon Gates still had over her. Would she ever be free of that part of her life? It was disheartening.

No. She refused to succumb to irrational fears. He was moving back to North Carolina. That was far away from here, and he’d be foolish to try and make contact with her again. He had to know she’d expose him if he did.

“Don’t worry, our secret is still safe,” Wes said.

He’d given her a brief distraction from her troubles, but they weren’t going to magically go away. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“Would you rather we go back to the prison?”

He was trying be funny, but he had no way of knowing how upsetting the reference was for her. She looked down at the floor.

Wes was quiet for a few beats. “So … how do you like the library?”

Back to safe topics. He had a way of easing her into those and keeping her enchanted.

She glanced around at the dark wood shelves and Emily helping someone else now at the checkout counter. Something about this place made her feel good. It soothed her. Maybe it was her love of books. They’d installed new computers a few months ago. Some of the floor had been carpeted and some refinished with new hardwood. New lighting had been installed, too. It was cozy. Fresh. Clean and bright. “I like it.” She looked back at him. “I like the work, too.”

“How long have you been doing this line of work? I never got a chance to ask you that when you drove me to my office.”

“I went to college after I left Honey Creek. It’s been about ten years now.” He was doing a good job of taking her mind off that phone call, drawing her out of darkness and into the light of his purpose in coming to see her. The Sheriff of Honey Creek County was interested in her.

“It suits you.”

Did it? She took in his chest in his sheriff uniform, his height, and even though he was flirting, he had a commanding presence.

“Being sheriff suits you.” She couldn’t believe she’d said it. “I mean—”

“I know what you mean,” he cut her off. “And I like that.”

Oh, boy…

“Why did you leave the navy?” she asked, more to divert the conversation.

“I wanted to come home.”

“You planned on running for sheriff?”

“Not at first.”

“What did you do in the navy, anyway?” How had he gone from that to law enforcement?

He hesitated and the glint of infatuation left his eyes. She wondered if this was a sore subject.

“I joined the SEALs.”

Her brow rose. She couldn’t help it. “Wow. You passed that training?”

Was he studying her? He seemed as though he was suspicious of her. Did he wonder why she’d asked? Why did it matter?

“I worked with a team for a while,” he finally answered, “but I didn’t like the travel.”

“And the danger?” Did he like that?

“That didn’t bother me so much. I was careful.”

Careful? “You sound so confident.”

“You have to be.”

“Is being sheriff of this little town enough of a stimulus for you?”

“I was young when I joined the SEALs. I don’t need adrenaline rushes to stay interested anymore. So, yes, I like what I do now. And there’s a lot to be said about dodging fewer bullets.”

“You’ve dodged bullets in Honey Creek?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

And he’d dodged them as a SEAL. “Didn’t you like being a SEAL?” He was sure acting strange about it.

“I liked it. I just wanted to come home,” he answered curtly.

She decided not to question him further on that. He obviously didn’t want to talk about it.

“When is your brother going to be released?” she asked instead.

A woman looked at them as she passed. Lily wondered if she’d heard what she’d asked.

Wes didn’t appear to notice, in fact, his tension eased. “I should have the court order in the next week or two.”

“That’s great.”

She could only imagine what it would be like to watch your brother spend so much time in prison for something he didn’t do. There would have to be some kind of effect on Damien. It had to have changed him somehow. Hardened him. Would he be dangerous?

She didn’t want to find out. Instead of continuing to question Wes, she steered clear of the more detailed questions she was dying to ask.

“You must have been pretty young when he was convicted.”

“Eighteen.”

“Is that why you joined the SEALs?” Did he want to learn how to fight? To kill? Had he planned to go after whoever was responsible for wrongly convicting his brother?

He took a moment to answer and she inwardly kicked herself for asking. She hadn’t meant to bring that up again.

“It might have had something to do with it. I never stopped believing Damien was innocent. I didn’t know what to do. Maybe I joined the SEALs because it gave me a sense of control, whereas with Damien’s situation, I’ve never had control.”

“Even though you wanted it.”

“Yes.”

“I think everyone does the things they do in life for a reason, whether they know it or not.”

“You became a librarian for a particular reason?”

“I love to read.”

“Is that the only reason?”

She had to stop herself from fidgeting. She’d admitted to no one what had led her down this path. “It’s what pointed me in that direction.”

“When did you start reading a lot?”

“It wasn’t until later, after … after I left.” Now she was getting really uncomfortable.

“It was probably a good thing you did leave.”

She just looked at him. If only he knew.

“I mean so you could find something to do with your life.”

Did he mean other than being a wild woman?

“Without the pressure of …” He seemed at a loss for words.

“I should really get back to work.”

He looked at her a moment. “Scared you away again, huh?”

“No, it’s not that.” What a lie that was. Brandon’s release was hurtling her back in time. How could she have a normal relationship with any man if every reminder made her feel vulnerable?

“Then have dinner with me. Tonight. What time do you get off?”

“Oh … that’s sweet, but … it’s just not a good time.”

“You’re shooting me down again.” He said it playfully.

“I’m afraid so.” She couldn’t help laughing. “Besides, did you know I’m forty?”

“Wow, your life is over.”

She shook her head. “You’re only thirty-three.”

“Word gets around. You’re old enough to be my sister.”

“Stop that.” But she laughed.

He grinned and she got the distinct impression that he wasn’t about to give up on her. There was something appealing about that. There was something appealing about a man who wasn’t afraid of rejection. It showed boundless ambition and self-confidence. A humble ego.

There was a time in her life when she would have jumped headfirst into a relationship with a younger man, but things had changed.

He backed away. “I’ll be back.”

“People are going to talk,” she said.

Emily had finished with the person at the counter and now watched them.

“Let them.” He backed up some more.

She wasn’t so sure, but his teasing was infectious. “Easy for you to say.”

He took another step back. “It’ll give them something else to talk about besides you.”

“Oh, yeah? How do you figure that?”

“I just got a bug in me to start reading more.”

Meaning he’d be stopping by the library more often. Her first reaction was to tell him no, but the delight he’d made her feel stopped her. She didn’t try to sway him.

Wes left the library wondering if he’d misread the back-and-forth emotions from Lily. Sometimes she flirted with him and at other moments she withdrew. Was it their age difference? He wasn’t that much younger than her. And she had good skin. Hell, he’d probably look older than her when he was forty.

He’d been trying to contact the victims’ officer ever since the morning after Lily had plowed into his truck. She’d seemed to know Lily so he’d called a friend he’d made over the years Damien had been incarcerated and asked for her contact information. The minute he learned she was a victims’ officer, he’d gotten more interested in finding out the real reason Lily had gone to the prison. But the officer had gone on a weeklong vacation the day after Lily had wrecked his SUV. He’d planned to wait to go to the library until after he spoke with her, but the truth was, he couldn’t stay away any longer. What if Lily started thinking he wasn’t interested?

He just hoped she wasn’t messed up with an inmate at Montana State Prison. She said she’d changed but …

It’d been a week. He’d call the victims’ officer again.

He drove to the west side of town and pulled to a stop in front of the Honey Creek County Sheriff’s office. Getting out, he walked into the building, passing the front counter and heading to his office directly behind that, and sat behind his desk. He leaned back and let himself stare at nothing for a while, thinking about Lily. Maybe he should start to worry about how much he was beginning to like her.

The legal pad on his desk caught his eye. It was full of scribbled notes about Mark Walsh’s murder case. He’d jotted them down earlier. Some were centered around the money-laundering angle the FBI was investigating, others were on the note found on the body of the man who murdered Jake Pierson’s partner. Jake was the first FBI agent assigned to the money-laundering investigation and Jim Willis had been his partner. Since this whole thing started, Wes had gotten to know both of them. Jim had been a good friend to both him and Jake. He shouldn’t have died like that, shot by a hit man who was after Jake for information the investigation had uncovered.

The note found on Jake’s partner’s body hadn’t been signed, but it was on a special kind of stationary that had bothered Wes ever since he’d seen it. The stationary was expensive. Not just anyone would use it. He’d been all over town tracking down possible sources. One lead had taken him to the Colton ranch, where he’d found some in his dad’s office. Was that significant? Probably not. The stationary could have been ordered from an office-supply catalog. Anyone could have ordered some. It would be tough narrowing down a suspect that way. And of course, there were no prints on the paper other than those belonging to the hit man.

A knock on the open door brought his head up. Deputy Ryan King stood there. He was a six-foot lean-framed man with fine, light brown hair whose light green eyes kept the women coming around, but he never strayed from his wife.

“Come in,” Wes said.

Ryan closed the door and moved closer to Wes’s desk. “Sorry to bother you, Sheriff. I’m not one to give gossip much thought, but my wife told me something I thought you’d want to hear.”

Leaning back in his chair, Wes waited.

“She goes to that quilting group that meets in town. You know the one?”

“Yes. What about it?”

“Well, Terri said there was talk about you and that Masterson woman spending time together. Someone saw her drop you off here at the office and said you looked like you were getting along really well.”

How long before it got around he’d just left the library? Wes chuckled. Didn’t those women have anything better to do than talk about people?

“Some people take offense to you getting messed up with someone like her,” Ryan said. “You’re the law in this town. If people don’t respect you….”

“It’s been fifteen years since Lily left this town.”

“That doesn’t matter. It’s your integrity in question.”

“She isn’t the same person. She’s grown-up now. People will see that after a while.”

“But if you continue to see her …”

Now he was beginning to get annoyed. “It’s just talk.”

“People are wondering where you were with her, where you could have met her.”

“It doesn’t matter how or where I met her.” He looked pointedly up at his deputy. “I could have met her anywhere in town before that.”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business. It’s just … your reputation.”

“I’ll worry about my own reputation, but thanks for letting me know.”

“Come time for reelection …”

Wes looked up from the pile of papers on his desk and lifted his brow.

Ryan frowned, but relented.

When his deputy had left, Wes couldn’t focus on the mound of work he had to do. Maybe he should pay more attention to what the town was saying. What if something got around that would hurt Lily? What harm would it be to use Ryan as a way of monitoring the gossip? He didn’t care what was being said, but Lily did. And that was reason enough for him.

He picked up his phone and dialed Ryan’s extension.

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