Too Fast to Fall (Jackson Hole 1.10)

A sudden shadow cut off Luis’s words. “Hello, boys! You’re not conspiring to lie to an innocent woman, are you?”

Luis flashed wide, panicked eyes up at Jenny, whose ponytail was still swaying from her abrupt appearance. “What?” he yelped.

She waved off his alarm. “I’m a bartender. Believe me, I see it every day. Just be kind to her, okay?” Smiling, she tipped her head toward Nate to include him in her advice, but still didn’t seem to recognize him. “You gentlemen want a pitcher?”

Luis shook his head, but Nate said, “Sure.”

Her eyes flickered down his body. “Light?”

Nate was suddenly damn glad for all the hours he put in at the gym to keep in shape over the winter. “Bring us the real thing. We’ll indulge.”

She flashed that smile again. Wide and open enough that it shouldn’t have felt intimate, but did. He’d thought that smile was something secret for him. But no. It was just her. She offered it to everyone in the crowd.

Good to know.

Nate laughed at himself as she turned away, already moving toward the bar to get their pitcher. But while he was still shaking his head at his own foolishness, Jenny jerked to a stop, frozen midstep.

Luis was leaning toward him, but Nate held up a hand and kept his eyes on Jenny as she slowly pivoted.

She frowned and cocked her head. Her eyes narrowed at him. And then her face broke into a grin wider than any she’d ever given to him.

“Deputy Hendricks?” she asked.

He tried not to feel thrilled. “Yes, ma’am.”

She laughed, her blond hair swinging as her chin tipped up. “Oh, my God! I didn’t recognize you without the shades!”

“Yeah, I noticed,” he said dryly.

“It’s not my fault! You look totally different. Not nearly so scary.”

“Still a little scary, though, I gather?”

Instead of answering, she just stood there looking at him for a few long seconds. “My God,” she finally said. “Look at you. You’re a real person.”

“That’s just a rumor.”

“Okay,” she said, still smiling. Then she shook her head. “Okay. Well, the beer’s on the house, Deputy.”

“It’s Nate,” he responded.

Her eyebrows rose. “I like that.”

She liked that. Thank God she finally turned away, because Nate knew he looked far too pleased with her opinion of his name.

“Hey,” his cousin said, the worry in his voice making it clear he’d already dismissed any idea of the cu

te server. “What the hell am I going to do, man?”

Nate kept his eye on Jenny Stone’s swinging hips until she was swallowed by the crowd at the bar before he gave up the vigil and met Luis’s eyes. “No kidding around, are you asking me as a cousin or a cop?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Both?”

“We’ve got two options, but whichever way we do this, I don’t want James around. If you want me to handle this as your cousin, I’ll do that. We send James away to keep him out of the fight, we tear down the greenhouse, burn the plants and put the fear of God in Victor. But that means he’s got to go. You have to be sure Teresa understands that. I can do this on the quiet, but he has to leave.”

“Okay. Yeah. We could do that.”

“But,” Nate added, letting the word hang there.