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that bad?” she asked, her eyebrows drawn together.
    “It was that bad,” he said. “It was drug busts and police corruption and domestic violence and juvenile delinquents.” He dropped Suzy’s hands and rubbed his eyes as if he could erase the vision of a lifeless young body lying in an alley in a pool of blood. Of wounded officers, like his partner, carried off in an ambulance. But he couldn’t. These images were engraved in his mind forever.
    Working in the toughest precinct in the city, he was surrounded by wasted lives and broken marriages. His own life was saved by his move to Harmony. But his own marriage was over before it had ever begun. Then he came to Harmony and put the pieces of his life back together again. He let the wide-open spaces and the big sky heal his wounded psyche. He couldn’t go back. He loved Harmony and the people in it. But he’d never forget how it was back there. “It was hell,” he said.
    “Does that mean Harmony is heaven?” she asked.
    “Damn right. Why do you think the furniture king moved here? Because it’s heaven on earth. Beautiful country, nice people, good hunting and fishing and no crime to speak of. Isn’t that right, Dottie?” he asked glancing up as the waitress set a bowl of oatmeal, studded with raisins, floating in a pool of rich cream, in front of Suzy. Brady did a double take. “Hey, what about me?” he demanded.
    “What’ll it be, Sheriff, the usual? Eggs over easy and bacon, hash browns and whole wheat toast?”
    “Right Gotta keep my strength up. I’m in a race for my life.”
    “Aren’t you being a little melodramatic?” Suzy asked as Dottie jotted his order on her pad and went to
     the kitchen. “After all you’re the incumbent. You’ve got friends. You’ve got looks and you’ve got charm.”
    “Charm? You think so?” If Suzy didn’t know him better she would have thought he was rattled by her compliment. Or maybe it was the steam off the hot cof fee that had turned his ears red. He paused a moment, then continued. “You know what else I’ve got? A secret weapon. I’ve got you. For now.” He looked around the room. “Well, seen anyone?”
    She paused, hating to concede defeat.
    “I didn’t think so,” he said smugly.
    “Look, there’s Tally.” Suzy pushed her empty bowl aside and stood up. She couldn’t sit there and watch Brady gloat over her lack of success. “I’m going over to say hello.” Suzy made her way to the counter where her best friend since high school was having coffee. Squeezing onto the next stool, Suzy rested her elbows on the counter and sighed loudly.
    “Did you tell him?” Tally asked.
    “I told him. But it didn’t do any good.”
    “What do you mean? He can’t hold you there against your will,” Tally said.
    “Will. That’s the key word. I don’t have any. Not when it comes to Brady. I let him talk me into staying unless I found an eligible man here today in the diner.”
    “What?” Tally said.
    “I know, I know. It was crazy. Don’t bother to look,” Suzy said, seeing her friend turn to scan the crowd. “I knew before we came there wouldn’t be anybody. That’s the way my life has been going.”
    “Can you ask for an extension?” Tally asked. “Jed’s got a friend coming to town on the weekend. Unmarried. Available. I was going to set you up with him.”
    Suzy shook her head. “We shook on it. Besides the
     agreement was that it has to be somebody here in the diner, since this is where I want to work. You still think it’s a good idea, don’t you?” she asked anxiously. “For me to quit and work here.”
    “Considering your goal of finding a marriageable man, yes. Where else would you find a conglomeration of men all in one place?”
    “That’s what I think. Needless to say, Brady doesn’t agree with me.”
    “Of course not. He wants to keep you with him. Men can be so selfish,” Tally said.
    “You don’t mean Jed, do you?” Suzy asked, referring to Tally’s