Kiss Me, Katie!Hug Me, Holly! by Shalvis Jill

Author:Shalvis, Jill [Shalvis, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373441082
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2000-12-02T07:00:00+00:00

1

WHEN SHERIFF Riley McMann’s stomach rumbled for the third time in as many minutes, he finally gave in and looked at his watch.

Two o’clock. No wonder. He hadn’t eaten since dawn, when he’d been called out of bed to help rescue a cow from a ravine.

Just one example of his fine, exemplary duties.

Actually, he preferred climbing down a sharp, rocky cliff, eating dust, and nearly being kicked in the head by a panicked cow that was going to end up as the Tuesday special than doing paperwork, as he was now. Maybe being sheriff in a ranching community like Little Paradise wasn’t exactly challenging law enforcement, but he got to be outside most of his day, which he loved.

The slow-paced country life also gave him plenty of opportunity to work his own small ranch, which he also loved.

His stomach went off again.

With a sigh, he shoved away the mountain of paperwork surrounding him, stretched his long legs and wished he’d remembered to pack a lunch that morning.

He could have asked Maria to do it. After all, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect lunch to be a regular housekeeper’s chore.

But Maria was no regular housekeeper.

So he was hungry. Very hungry. With longing, he glanced through his small office window across the street at Café Nirvana, the one and only restaurant in town.

It had been there since the beginning of time. At least since the beginning of Little Paradise. But after fifty years of feeding the town, Marge and Edward Mendoza were calling it quits. They’d put the place on the market for their retirement money so they could move to Montana and be with family.

It was rumored that their daughter, who cleaned house for some rich doctors out in California, had arranged for someone to run the café until the place sold. No one had shown up yet, but supposedly they were due to arrive any day now. Riley, who liked a change as much as any other guy, had to admit he wished this was one thing that didn’t have to change.

Café Nirvana was the heart and soul of Little Paradise.

“Oh, stop staring at it and go on over there.” This from Jud, his sixty-five-year-old deputy, who came into the office. He hitched up his continuously falling pants. “I can hear your stomach growling from the front room.”

“I don’t have time for lunch.”

“Yeah, you never know when another cow emergency is going to come up.”

“I have paperwork,” Riley said with dignity.

Jud stepped around the potted cactus that currently sported a string of popcorn, making it the office Christmas tree. He shook his head. “You’ve had paperwork since the day you set your butt in that chair two years ago when your dad retired. He spent twenty-five years fighting that paperwork. It’s never going to change.”

True enough. Riley’s stomach growled loudly. Pork chops sounded good. So did meat loaf. So did…anything. “What’s the special over there today?”

Jud looked out the window and let out a long, soft whistle. “Looks like leggy blonde. Curves on the side.

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