of hair stylists, dermatologists, dentists, and plastic surgeons. Dixie intended to be just like her mother.
Although it was hard to find a team of professionals in a town that didn’t even have a nail salon. And the hair salon they did have didn’t exactly meet Dixie’s high standards for hair care. Which was why, in the last six months of living in Simple, Dixie had been forced to handle her own personal crises.
Holstering the gun, she walked to the Miss USA tote bag that hung on a hook by the door and searched through it until she found the skin-tightening facial mask she’d ordered from Amazon. Since she wouldn’t have anything else to do while she let the mask do its job of exfoliating, she also pulled out her pedicure kit.
“Alexa, play me some Kelsea Ballerini,” she called to the black cylinder setting on the filing cabinet. But as soon as Miss Me More came on, the white Persian cat sleeping on the purple satin pillow on the desk got to her feet and started arching and hissing. Dixie looked up at the ceiling in silent prayer. “Fine, Queenie! Alexa, play Luke Bryan.” When Drunk on You came on, Queenie stopped hissing and nestled back down in her pillow and closed her eyes contentedly.
Dixie sat in the chair behind the desk. “I don’t know what you have against women singers, but you need to get over it. No one likes a bitch who can’t get along with other bitches. I won the title of Miss Congeniality twice because I followed mama’s golden rule—‘Don’t let misters get in the way of sisters.’” She took off her hat and tossed it to the desk before she opened the mask package. “Although I must admit that I do love me some Luke. Did I tell you I met him when I was at that pageant in Memphis?”
By the time Dixie finished retelling the story, her face was covered in a cooling mask that left only her eyes and mouth uncovered and her feet were propped up on the desk getting a coat of pretty coral nail polish. Luke had moved on from his speakers going boom-boom to knocking boots.
“Shoot!” Dixie said as she once again got polish outside her toenails. Coloring within the lines had never been her forte. She grabbed a tissue to wipe it off when a sharp rap sounded on the office door.
Dixie froze in stunned surprise. No one ever came to Sheriff Willaby’s office—except for the mailman and the cleaning lady. But the mailman put the mail in the slot of the front door and left with only a wave, and the cleaning lady came on Friday nights. If someone in town needed the sheriff, they usually called. And even that was infrequent.
Sheriff Willaby was not a favorite with the townsfolk of Simple. Probably because he was an arrogant, misogynistic bully—something Dixie had figured out in their very first phone interview. But since she’d had no intentions of working for him longer than a few months, she’d figured she could handle him. Handling men was her forte. Within weeks, she’d wrapped the sheriff around her little finger. Although it was still hard to work for such a petty, small-minded man and she wasn’t the least upset when he’d been suspended for a sexist comment he’d made on his social media page.
And she could end up suspended just like the sheriff if she didn’t move quickly.
“Just a second!” she yelled as she scooped up Queenie and shoved her and the purple pillow into the cat carrier. After slipping the carrier under the desk, she quickly peeled off the mask and threw it into the trash before using the tissue she still had in her hand to wipe off her face as she wheeled the chair over to the filing cabinet and unplugged Alexa. Then she wheeled back and shoveled all her pedicure supplies into the top desk drawer. Once she slammed it shut, she pulled on her hat, pinned a smile on her face, and called in a breathy voice, “Come in.”
There was a long stretch of silence, and she thought that whomever it was had given up and left. But just as she was about to relax, the door opened. A man stood in the doorway. A big man. And Dixie was no wilting violet. Even in short-heeled cowboy boots, she was usually as tall, if not taller, than most men. While all her pageant friends complained about being