Wild Dakota Heart by Lisa Mondello

Author:Lisa Mondello [Mondello, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, War, Romance, Military, Western, cowboy romance, military romance, navy seal, western romance, deals in books, Contemporary Romance, Westerns
Amazon: B00HX0UH0I
Published: 2014-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

He was still in his police uniform when he stepped into the house. Her parents had invited him for dinner and insisted she come, with a warning to be polite. This was Denny’s childhood friend after all.

Yeah, and he was the one responsible for the death of your son. Why was it that she was the only one who remembered that?

Maddie set the dining room table as Ethan greeted her parents in the hallway.

“You look very handsome and official in that uniform,” her mother said.

Ethan seemed to blush. Maddie rolled her eyes and dropped a fork on a napkin by the plates she’d just set down.

“Dinner smells wonderful,” Ethan said.

“I’ll be serving it in just a few minutes. Why don’t you sit down? Dave will be downstairs in a few minutes. He’s upstairs going through some old pictures he wanted to show you.”

Her mother walked into the kitchen and left her alone with Ethan.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Couldn’t be better,” she said dryly.

Ethan chuckled. “Don’t hurt yourself with your enthusiasm.”

She glared at him.

Her mother came into the dining room with a platter of roast beef and scalloped potatoes, handing it to Ethan. “Can you put that in the center of the table? I need to get the serving spoons and salad.”

Ethan did as he was asked just as her father came into the dining room. He held a stack of pictures in his hand, but placed them on the buffet before seating himself at the head of the table.

A few minutes later, the food was served and they fell into quiet conversation about general stuff that Maddie found safe to talk about.

“Don insists I call him by his first name.”

“Well, he’s your boss now,” Julie said. “If he asked you to call him Don, then it’s not a problem.”

She made a face. “Yeah, but it still feels weird. He’s been Mr. McKinnon to me my whole life.”

“What do you think, Ethan?” Dave asked. “Now that you’re a police officer in the town you grew up in, you must have to go on calls occasionally with people you knew. How do you deal with that?”

“Protocol,” Maddie said.

She lifted her gaze from her plate to Ethan, who was sitting across from her. Amusement played in his dark eyes.

Her mother looked confused. “Protocol?”

Ethan put his fork down and wiped his lips with his napkin before speaking. “It would be weird going up to Mr. Stein and calling him Rufus.”

“Mr. Stein. Wasn’t he your English teacher in high school?” Julie asked.

“Yeah, and he’s like a hundred years old by now. I didn’t know his first name was Rufus.”

Ethan shrugged. “It’s easier to just be polite and use formalities.”

Her father chuckled. “That’s quite a change for you. I’d forgotten just how wild you and Denny were in your younger days.”

“We weren’t that wild.”

Her parents both sat back in the chair and laughed harder.

Her mother said, “Didn’t you blow up your mother’s kitchen once?”

Ethan’s eyes grew wide. “That one wasn’t me. That was Sam and Ian.

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