“Gotta eat your veggies first,” Poe grinned, waving about his container of salad. “Makes you grow big and strong.”
His gaze raked over me in a heated way, recognizing I was already big and strong.
He had hair as black as night with a hint of curl. Blue eyes that were pale and piercing. Black Irish all the way, which completely and totally worked for me. Crazy, since Gus, with his beard and quick smile, was gorgeous. So was Kemp, all fair and seemingly gentle.
Oh shit, I was in big trouble lusting after three men. Three friends. Colleagues.
“The sandwich looks great,” I answered, remaining neutral. “Thanks.”
Kemp took one of the halves and placed it on a paper napkin and slid it across the linoleum surface to me.
“So tell us about yourself, how you ended up being sheriff,” Poe asked.
I glanced at his pale eyes and saw he was interested and really wanted to know. He wasn’t one of the guys who patronized me. What’s a gal like you doing with a big gun? Are you a lesbian or something?
“You want me to recap the past ten years?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Tell us anything you want.”
I swallowed. As sheriff, I was the one who asked the questions, did the interrogating. “Well, Gus headed to Minnesota for college, I went to Vermont. Dartmouth. From there, law school. I always wanted to be a lawyer.”
“I remember,” Gus replied. “And I always wanted to be a vet. That’s why we went our separate ways. We were both driven. We had big plans, didn’t we, pixie?”
We had. And now that I was sitting before Gus again, I realized how thankful I was for him. He had wanted me to go after what I wanted and hadn’t held me back. We’d given up us for… well, us.
“Yes. Now look at us.”
“Yeah, but explain the sheriff part,” Poe continued.
It seemed that was what he was really interested in.
“I was an assistant district attorney back east. They wanted closer interaction with
the police department… the new chief thought it would better if someone from the DA’s office could work closely with the cops. Ensure their procedures were accurate so they didn’t have cases fall apart because procedure wasn’t followed.”
“That makes sense,” Gus commented.
I nodded. “It did. My boss was really happy with that. The police wanted a DA to understand them better. So they offered to send someone to the police academy. That was me. To make a long story short, I was looking to move back to Raines because of my mom—she’s fine, but she’s diabetic now, and I felt too far away if something went wrong—and I’m sure she talked to your mother or someone else on the city council and they called me about the position.”
Gus grinned. “Yeah, I have no doubt the mom network certainly helped get your name on the short list. But your resume’s what got you the job.”
Not even the dimmest bulb would hire a sheriff who wasn’t qualified.
“I’m more lawyer than lawman. That’s why I don’t go on calls alone. One of the deputies is always with me. I made that a requirement of employment.”
Poe made a grunt, as if he either was satisfied with the answer or hated it and didn’t want to say.
“What about you?” I asked him, taking a bit of the sandwich, eager to take the spotlight off of me. I’d rather hear about what made him brooding and… well, smoldering. Those pale eyes had me hooked.
“Me? Let’s talk about Gus. I heard you were his first.” Poe speared his salad as if he were commenting on the weather, not his co-worker’s sexual initiation. With me.
The sandwich was halfway to my mouth for a second bite and I froze, glanced at Gus. “Jesus. You told them?”
He grabbed the lasagna container and stuck it in the microwave, then leaned his hip against the counter. “Hell, yeah.”
“Hell, yeah?” I replied.
“I was excited to hear you were back in town.”