To Kiss a Cowgirl by Jeannie Watt

Author:Jeannie Watt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

AS DYLAN APPROACHED LANESBURG, the city he’d protected and served for the past decade, he had no sense of homecoming. No sense that he was back where he belonged.

All he felt was stress. Jaw-clenching, stomach-knotting stress. The doctor, the exam, the Lindsey/Pat/mortgage business. And yet he was also thinking of Jolie. Wondering how she was doing with Gordy and Mike, who’d assured Dylan that he’d stop by the store, now that he was more ambulatory, and make certain that Jolie was handling matters all right on her own.

Dylan had mentioned that she was quite capable, but when Mike persisted, Dylan figured he was doing it more to get out of the house than for any other reason. He had been a captive for a long time while that hip of his healed.

What he didn’t think about was Jess Moody’s offer. Maybe because it was too easy of an out and Dylan avoided easy outs.

Or maybe he didn’t trust easy outs. There was always a price to pay, and in his experience, the easier something appeared, the steeper the price eventually became.

He pulled into the motel, checked in, stashed his bag in his room then headed straight to his doctor’s appointment. Where he waited. And waited some more. Flexing his leg, assuring himself he’d hit the point where he could run and carry a load. Do the stuff he needed to be able to do physically to reclaim his old job.

Finally he got called into Dr. Burke’s office and within ten minutes had exactly what he’d hoped for—a release and an “attaboy” for sticking with the therapy program.

Too easy, which made him feel edgy.

He spent the next hour at the station, talking to the captain and nailing down exactly what his future would be with or without the detective’s badge. Passing the exam meant that opportunities for transfer would open up and if he didn’t want to stay in Lanesburg he would have options.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” he said to the captain, “are you hinting that I should pursue other options?”

The captain’s gaze shifted down for a brief second then back up again.

“I know about Pat and Lindsey,” Dylan said before the captain could answer. “It won’t affect me.”

“How can it not?” the captain asked. “Realistically it will. Under the circumstances.”

Dylan shook his head. “This can’t be the first time something like this has happened.”

“No,” the captain agreed. “But I’ve never seen anything good come of it.”

“Nothing will happen.”

The captain fell silent again and Dylan’s mouth tightened. How was he supposed to convince this guy of his ability to remain professional when he’d already made up his mind? Then it struck him. Under the circumstances. Personnel being reassigned. “Pat’s getting promoted?”

“He’d be your immediate supervisor if you remain in your old position.”

“Which means if I don’t pass the exam you’d keep me in Logistics.” A nod. “And even then you’d like for me to transfer.”

“You could transfer even if you do pass the exam. I’ll do what I can to help.

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