and this blissfully intense, she’d have done it weeks and weeks ago.
She thoroughly enjoyed herself until an all-too-familiar whoop! whoop! of a police warning siren filled the air.
Ward broke the kiss at the same time the bright blue and red lights filled the parking lot.
“Sir,” a man’s voice said over the loudspeaker coming from the police vehicle. “Step away from the truck and keep your hands where I can see them.”
“What in the world?” Ward asked, falling back a step.
Dot rolled her eyes and got out of the truck. “It’s just my stupid brother,” she said.
“Brother?” Ward asked, pausing near the hood of the truck and facing the cruiser.
“Yeah,” Dot said, moving to stand next to him. She folded her arms and cocked her hip, glaring toward the windshield, behind which Tyson sat. “He’s the third thing I didn’t want to tell you about, because he gives every man I go out with a hard time.”
“I didn’t even know you had a brother,” Ward said.
“You’re about to find out why,” Dot said dryly, hating that Tyson had interrupted the best kiss of her life and hoping that later that evening, she and Ward could pick up what they’d been doing before Tyson’s rude intrusion.
Chapter Three
Ward stuck his hands in the pockets of his denim jacket, wishing he’d worn a coat. He’d reasoned that he’d be spending most of his time indoors, and he hated wearing the big parka if he didn’t have to. Since he ran hot most of the time, he usually didn’t have to.
Right now, he looked from Dot’s frowning face to the flashing lights on the cop car.
“I have a younger sister too,” Dot said, her voice seeping right into Ward’s eardrums and embedding itself there. He sure did like this woman, and he hoped he could keep her interest this time.
It’s not that you couldn’t before, he told himself as a tall man unfolded himself from the police vehicle. Ward glanced at Dot again. She has walls up.
Ward had worked his generational family ranch for decades. He knew how to re-landscape a field to be able to feed more cows. He knew how to build and fix fences. He knew how to make a piece of land that was wild into something cultivated, with roads, homes, and flowerbeds.
He could work on Dot until she realized how much she wanted to be with him.
He reached up and wiped his mouth, as if Dot wore lipstick and it would be on his lips now. He certainly didn’t want Tyson to see that.
“Tyson,” Dot said, stepping forward without taking Ward with her. He ended up moving a step or two later, because he wanted to meet this unknown brother. The sister too, if he could. He knew Dot’s parents lived in town and that they’d been in Three Rivers for about six years, same as her.
She lived right around the corner from them, as they were getting up there in years, and the three recipes Dot had admitted to being able to make came from her elderly mother.
“You’re such a loser,” Dot said, swatting at her brother. He stood about six inches taller than her, close to Ward’s height. Tyson flinched away from her hands, but his chuckle indicated he didn’t view her as a threat.
When she linked her arm through his and faced Ward, he could see the similarities in them. Dot had a softer, more feminine face, with beautiful, high cheekbones and those wide, gorgeous hazel eyes. Everything about her seemed tinted a bit orange because of the street lamp in the parking lot, but Ward still found her stunning.
His mouth dry, he said, “I’m Ward Glover,” and extended his hand for her brother to shake.
“Oh, I know who you are,” he said. “My Sergeant married your sister.”
“Brady,” Ward said pleasantly as Tyson shook his hand. “He’s great. They just had their twins tonight.”
Tyson cocked his eyebrows. “And here you are, standing in the parking lot at Small Plates, kissing my sister.”
Ward looked at Dot, who rolled her eyes. “I’m almost forty, Tyson. I can kiss who I want.” She released his arm and switched sides, linking her arm through Ward’s as she stepped to his side and turned to face her brother. “So if you’ll excuse us. I’m starving, and Ward has to get back to the hospital soon.”
She started to move away from him, her hand dropping to Ward’s, who caught it and tightened his hold on her fingers so she couldn’t go too far.
Pure