The Best Bride. Сьюзен Мэллери
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If she started questioning herself, she might never stop. Six months ago her world had come crashing in on her. She’d managed to collect the pieces and assemble them into a life, but the structure was fragile, and this emergency was enough to send the whole thing crumbling again. The logistics of her condition whirled around in her head. How was she going to take care of Mandy when she was supposed to stay off her feet for a week and not drive for three weeks? What about feeding her, and registering her for school, buying her new shoes, and a hundred other things she’d planned to do over the long holiday weekend? What about taking her out to watch the ducks and playing tag and—
The sound of footsteps in the hallway caught her attention. She glanced over at her partially closed door and watched as it was pushed open. Sheriff Travis Haynes entered the room and smiled at her. She stared at him, surprise and a tiny spurt of pleasure temporarily hiding her worries. He’d told her he would come by today and visit, but she hadn’t expected him to. He’d done too much already. Still, except for Rebecca and Mandy, he was the only other person she knew in Glenwood, and she couldn’t help being pleased to see him.
Gratitude, she told herself firmly, trying to find the reason for the sudden surge of good spirits. Gratitude and nothing else.
“Hi,” she said, managing a shaky smile. She pulled the sheet up to her shoulders and self-consciously touched the straggly ends of her hair. They hadn’t let her have a shower yet, and she felt grungy. She’d planned to insist on getting cleaned up later that morning. She hadn’t expected visitors so early.
“Hi, yourself.” Travis crossed the room in three long strides and pulled a plastic chair close to the bed. “May I?”
“Please.”
His khaki, short-sleeved uniform looked freshly pressed. A badge and a name tag had been pinned above the left breast pocket. He stood about six feet tall, with dark curly hair and a trimmed mustache that outlined his upper lip. He was the kind of man who, as her aunt Amanda used to say, made a woman get a crick in her neck just watching him stroll by.
As he settled himself in the chair, he tossed his beige Stetson across the bed. It sailed through the air and landed dead center on the table in front of the window.
“Neat trick,” she said, trying to ignore the way his brown eyes twinkled when he looked at her. “You have to practice much?”
“Every day. I sit in my office, tossing my hat across the room. It impresses the ladies.” He had a smooth, low voice, like liquid chocolate.
“Really?”
“Aren’t you impressed, darlin’?”
Some, but she wasn’t about to admit it. Once she’d let a man charm her and impress her and seduce her. Never again, she reminded herself. She’d learned a hard lesson from Sam Proctor. “I didn’t expect you to visit,” she said. “I’m sure you have other things you should be doing.”
“You’re the most important item on my agenda,” he said, leaning back in the chair and resting one ankle on the opposite knee. The movement emphasized the muscles in his thighs.
She looked away. “Oh?”
“How are you feeling?”
“A little sore, but better than I was. The doctor says I’m healing nicely.” She shifted in the hospital bed. “They gave me something to make me sleep, and that helped. I never got to thank you yesterday.”
“Just doing my job.”
She waved at the IV still attached to her hand. “They said that if I’d waited another couple of hours, the appendix might have burst. If I’d gone to the walk-in medical clinic like I’d planned, I might have gotten to the hospital too late.”
“So it all worked out. You’ll be released tomorrow.”
“That’s what they told me.” She glanced at him sitting in the white plastic chair. He looked tanned and handsome and disgustingly healthy, while her insides felt as if a herd of buffalo had trampled through them.
“Where are you going to go when they release you?” he asked.
“Back to the motel.” It wasn’t a great solution, but it was the best one she’d been able to think of. Where else could she go?
“And then?”
“And then I’ll get better and go to work. That is, if I still have a job. I need to call Rebecca and tell her what happened.” She forced herself to meet his gaze, and prayed her expression looked as calm and confident as she’d made herself sound. She didn’t want to foist her troubles on anyone, especially not this handsome stranger. One rescue per weekend was quite enough.
He folded his arms over his chest. His shirt stretched tightly across his broad shoulders. He had a solid look about him. He was the kind of man who could physically work for hours without tiring. He looked dependable. She shook her head. Looks could be deceiving.
Then he smiled. She told herself not to notice, that he was obviously an accomplished ladies’ man, but that didn’t stop her rather battered insides from responding favorably to the flash of white teeth.
“I have good news, bad news and good news,” he said. “Which do you want first?”
She panicked. “Is Mandy—”
He cut her off. “She’s fine. That’s the first good news. The bad news is there’s an outbreak of chicken pox at the children’s home. I didn’t know if Mandy’d had chicken pox, so I couldn’t leave her there last night. Rebecca figured the last thing you’d need in your condition is a sick kid.”
Elizabeth frowned. “If she’s not at the home, where is she?”
“Downstairs, watching a clown make balloon animals.” He shrugged. “They were having a party and she wanted to see what was going on. I thought you and I should talk first anyway.”
“So where did Mandy spend the night?”
“With me. I called my housekeeper, and she took care of the basics of bathing and dressing. But I fed her breakfast.” He looked sheepish and proud all at once.
“You?” Why on earth would he volunteer to take home her daughter? “Chicken pox? I can’t believe this is all happening. Mandy hasn’t had them yet. Thank God she wasn’t exposed to them. I don’t know what to say except thank you.” She had a sudden thought. “I hope it wasn’t too inconvenient for your wife.”
“I’m not married.”
She told herself she wasn’t pleased by that fact. It was just a piece of information. It didn’t mean anything. The last thing she needed in her life was a man. “I don’t know how to repay you for all you’ve done.”
“I’m responsible for the welfare of the people of this town,” he said, and grinned again. “You are our newest citizen.”
“You’re very kind.” She relaxed. Mandy was safe. Nothing else mattered.
The slow, sexy grin faded. “You’re going to need help when they release you. Tell me who to call, Elizabeth.”
She turned her head and stared out the window. “There’s no one to call. I told you, my parents are on a cruise in the Orient. They’re probably halfway between Australia and Hong Kong right now.”
She didn’t bother mentioning that she deliberately hadn’t paid attention to her parents’ travel plans. She didn’t even know the name of the ship or the cruise line. In the past six months, she’d cut herself off from her family. She couldn’t bear to tell them the ugly, disgusting truth about her life. She couldn’t bear to see the shock and the shame in their eyes and to relive it all over again. She just wanted to forget everything. And she’d been on her way to doing just that. If only she hadn’t had to have surgery.
“Then a friend from Los Angeles.”
“No.” All her