Molly's Man (Haven, Texas 4)

He might have chased after her if he’d had any clue where she’d disappeared to. He guessed she’d called those friends of hers since she didn’t have her car. Feeling light-headed from lack of sleep, he’d quickly checked on Russ before going home.

Today, he’d find the redhead and give her a piece of his mind. First, she hadn’t even bothered to get checked out. Second, he’d given her an order to stay put. While she hadn’t been in the accident there was something about the way she’d walked that had set off alarm bells. He’d been too tired to really figure it out last night and now he wondered what she’d been hiding from him.

Filled with irritation, he put her out of his mind. After getting home last night he’d found it hard to sleep. For some reason Rebecca had snuck into his dreams, and he’d woken up thinking she was near.

That hadn’t happened to him in a long time. He guessed he could blame it on the accident last night. Even though he’d attended many vehicular accidents since her death, they were never easy for him. But at least there’d been no fatalities this time.

He’d just received a call that Russ was conscious, so he’d decided to go see him before heading into the office. As he stopped at the nurse’s station, he heard a low, husky laugh coming from the room across the hallway. His body tightened.

It couldn’t be, could it?

The nurse glanced up at him. “Mr. Barrett has a visitor at the moment, but I’m sure they won’t mind you stopping in, Sheriff.”

He walked into the room, pausing at the sight in front of him. Russ was sitting up in bed. He was pale, and his right eye was nearly swollen shut, but there was a big grin on his face as he looked over to Molly, sprawled on the recliner next to the bed.

One ankle rested on her knee as she sat back and dug her hand into a bag of . . . yep, pork rinds. At nine in the morning.

Wow, she really did like the stuff. He grimaced thinking about all that fat and salt she was eating. He wouldn’t touch that stuff with a ten-foot pole.

“Well, hello there, Sheriff.” She looked up at him with a smile before popping some rinds into her mouth. Damn it, how was that attractive? It really shouldn’t be. She had her hair tied up in a high ponytail today and wore an emerald-green shirt and a pair of worn jeans with heavy boots. She looked relaxed and happy.

“Molly. Russ.” He nodded over at the other man. “Heard you’re feeling better.”

“Much better since meeting Miss Molly.”

Molly reached over and patted the older man’s hand. “Oh, Russ, you flirt, you.”

Russ smiled. Jake raised his eyebrows. Russ wasn’t known for his happy personality. Cantankerous, old fool was the term usually used to describe him. So, either that hit on the head had him still feeling fuzzy or his change in good mood was because of Molly.

Somehow, he figured it was the latter.

Then Russ turned to him with a scowl. “Sheriff, you want to explain to me why Miss Molly here was out in the cold rain trying to rescue me? Why the hell didn’t you send her back to the car to wait? She shouldn’t have been out in that storm, trying to get my old ass out of trouble.”

Jake clenched his teeth against a sharp retort. What was wrong with him? Normally very little annoyed him.

He’d known the redhead less than twenty-four hours, and already she’d managed to infuriate him, worry him, and stirred him in a way no one had since Rebecca.

“I tried, Russ,” he managed to say. “She’s rather stubborn.”

Russ snorted. “Ain’t met a person on this earth that could out-stubborn you. This little girl had no place being there, and you know it.”

“Are all the men in Haven this sexist and protective?” Molly asked.

He stiffened at the question, expecting her disapproval and scorn. It was an attitude he’d encountered often from people who didn’t live here. The men of Haven might be a tad overprotective and they might enforce rules that were set to keep their women safe, but the women in this town had them wrapped around their little fingers. Any male citizen of Haven would fall over themselves to ensure the women had everything they needed or desired. Women came first. Always.

But strangers didn’t always see it that way, and he didn’t expect Molly to understand.

“Yep,” Russ told her. “We protect our women folk.”

He waited for the explosion. She looked from Russ to him. “Well, good.”

“Good?” he asked, one eyebrow rising.

“Did I surprise you, Sheriff? Do you want me to give you some spiel about how you’re a misogynistic Neanderthal who ought to drag his knuckles back to his cave? I can do that if you want, but I prefer not to be too predictable.”

“I don’t think there’s any chance of that.”

“Why, thank you, I do believe that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me. Of course, the bar is set pretty low.” She leaned in towards Russ, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper. “I think the sheriff believes I’ll cause trouble in his quiet town.”