Gloria

Deputy Walsh wasn’t the only one, either. Gloria thought that, by now, the visitors might have slowed down. At least once a day, if not more than that, one of the local guys came by to make sure she was doing okay. And it was always—always—a guy. And they were always—always—single.

Gloria wasn’t that naive. She realized that, in a town with less than two hundred people, there would inevitably be bachelors who might be interested in the new girl. Coffee dates, offers to go to the pizza place, even take a ride out of town… it seemed as if every eligible man in Hamlet had come to say hi.

Most of them took the hint that she hadn’t come to the small town in search of a husband. She was upbeat and friendly back, and sent nearly all of them away with a hand-packed quart of ice cream, but there were a few who she just couldn’t shake.

Hopefully the deputy wasn’t one of them. Bringing her the communicator was a nice gesture. And, considering how interested she was in her gruff neighbor, that was all she wanted it to be.

Maybe that was why Franklin was so attractive to her. Unlike some of the other men in town, he couldn’t be bothered by her presence. He didn’t come up with excuses to knock on her door—not like she did.

Gloria felt her smile waver.

Yeah. She thought about the bolt she purposely removed, then hid out of sight.

She was just as bad as the guys, wasn’t she?

“So, about that coffee date—”

“What? Oh. Yes. We’re still gonna have to do that sometime, deputy.”

“Mason. You can call me Mason.”

Oh, boy. “Sure. I can do that. Anyway, thanks for this. It never even occurred to me to try to pick one up.” Probably because she didn’t have anyone in Hamlet that she needed to contact so badly, she’d use a walkie talkie. “I’ll make sure to use it.”

“It’s important for some of the more remote residents to have one,” the deputy said, sounding stern. “Out here, on the mountains alone, what would you do if you needed help?”

Her thought was out before she even finished thinking it. “I can always run next door. Franklin would help me if I needed it.”

She’d only known the guy for little more than a week. The snow tires had sealed it, though. He’d help her, she was sure of it, then he’d scowl when she tried to say ‘thank you’.

Deputy Walsh didn’t scowl, but he did frown. “The mechanic. That’s right. I forgot he lived up here.”

“Uh-huh,” Gloria said brightly. Feeling a little devilish, and hoping the deputy might take the hint, she added, “And he’s been so good to me. So you don’t have to worry about going out of your way to patrol up here. Especially now that I have this.” She waggled the communicator his way. “You’re a great deputy. Your department should be proud.”

“Oh. Well, um, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

The second the cruiser’s tail lights finally disappeared down the mountain path, the deputy begrudgingly leaving despite multiple attempts to convince Gloria to let him inside, Franklin’s door opened. If she didn’t know any better, she might have thought that he’d been waiting for the deputy to leave to pounce.

Too bad that was impossible. The way he’d been avoiding her the last few days, Gloria would sooner believe that he only popped his head out because he thought the sound was Gloria heading out, not the deputy.

He had his coat on and his boots. Jerking his head toward the path in the distance, he asked, “Was that the new sheriff?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Deputy Walsh.”

“Oh. What was he doing up here?”

Huh. So the deputy didn’t often patro

l up in the mountains as often as he claimed. Color her surprised.

“He brought me a radio. Said the department had an extra and since I could need one in the future, he might as well give me this one.”

“How… nice.”

“I thought so.”

Ah, look. There was the scowl she was beginning to expect. Did he even realize he was doing it half the time or was it just something about Gloria? She didn’t want to think that, and the faint lines around his eyes probably weren’t laugh lines, but she wasn’t that annoying, was she?