Kissing in the Dark Read Free Page B

eyes; he seemed to appreciate her boldness, as if there weren’t many people who would dare to shove something beneath his nose. Her nerves had made her careless. She hadn’t meant to challenge him. But apparently she had, and apparently he’d liked it.
    She plopped the small glob of ointment into a jar and handed it to him. “Two or three applications should ease your muscle pain. After you rub it into your shoulder, you’ll feel a soothing warmth in that area.”
    “What if it doesn’t work?” He braced his large, long-fingered hand on the counter. “Will I get my money back?”
    “You haven’t paid me anything.”
    “I intend to.”
    “I’ll refuse it. This is the only way I can thank you for being so kind to Adam today.”
    “I wasn’t being kind.”
    “The way you treated him was more than fair. In my book, that’s being kind.”
    “I would have done the same for any boy.”
    “But you did it for my brother, and that’s what matters to me. Please, take the balm.”
    “What other treatments do you offer?”
    He seemed sincere, but she sensed he was digging for something. The pleasantly warm day suddenly felt close and hot with this giant of a man leaning on her counter asking too many questions.
    .”It would depend on the severity of your problem. But I would first suggest that you see a doctor.” She closed the jar of balm and placed it back on the self.
    “I’ve seen the doctor. He says there’s nothing to be done for my shoulder but to rest it.”
    “Then it is more than a sore muscle?”
    His lip quirked up again. “You have a knack for recalling details. I could use your help when questioning suspects.”
    She’d hoped to put him off with her nosy question, but instead of urging him out the door, she’d invited his closer observation. “Forgive me for taking up your time.” She stepped around the counter and called toward the back of the greenhouse, “Adam! Come up here, and bring Cora and the handcuffs with you.”
    Adam swept Cora into his arms, pushed through a maze of plants, and deposited the girl a few feet from the sheriff.
    “Cora, give the sheriff his handcuffs,” Faith said, then frowned as Cora duckwalked across the plank floor. “Why are you walking so oddly?”
    Cora leaned back on her heels, pressed her brown gingham dress to her knees, and lifted the toes of her tiny brown shoes. “I hooked ‘em on my own self.”
    The metal handcuffs were locked around Cora’s skinny ankles. A quiet chuckle rumbled in the sheriff’s chest, his thick-lashed eyes crinkling at the outside edges as he looked down at her.
    Cora squatted, grabbed the chain between her ankles, and grinned up at him. “Aunt Iris says to keep these on me until I get married.”
    With her hands between her ankles, and her knobby knees jutting upward, Cora looked like a little brown frog. Her stockings were twisted around her ankles, her hair in wild disarray, but Faith could not have adored her more.
    Nor could the sheriff, if the tender look in his eyes meant anything.
    “She reminds me of my niece Rebecca at that age,” he said. “Too smart, too curious, and a smile so bright she could melt a heart of ice.” He sighed and shook his head. “Rebecca turned thirteen last week.”
    With Cora’s rosy face beaming up at them, Faith understood the sheriff’s melancholy. She wanted Cora to stay an innocent, if precocious, little girl forever.
    Faith spied her Aunt Iris around the corner, and cringed as Iris lunged from behind a cluster of lemongrass to tickle Cora’s ribs.
    “There you are, you little imp!”
    Cora screeched with laughter and threw herself against the sheriff’s legs.
    Iris, who had crouched to grab Cora’s ribs, took her time looking up the long length of the sheriff’s body. By the time her frank, appraising eyes lifted to his face, Faith’s own cheeks were burning with embarrassment.
    “Mercy . . .” Iris said, rising to her feet with a fluid grace Faith envied. Iris carried