A Little Country Christmas - Carolyn Brown Page 0,37
Chicago suburb he’d hoped to use as a stepping-stone to his own mayoral seat someday. So someday had come sooner than expected, and maybe it wasn’t exactly the big city he’d planned on, but he was here. Trying to make a difference. And Deputy Garcia was—she was so—so—
He growled under his breath. She acted like she knew everything about him and his agenda when she’d barely said two words to him back in their teen years. Now she was all sharp-tongued and angry at him for wanting to do his job. Christmas had nothing to do with it. And those damned caramel-colored eyes of hers that had looked away all those years ago when he—a pretty well-liked guy at their high school, if he did say so himself—had tried to say hi to her in the halls now held his gaze until he was the one who turned and walked away. Okay, so maybe he ran away, but he was out for a morning run. He couldn’t fault himself for that part.
Leave it alone, Coop, he told himself. Nothing good will come from finding her attractive. Even if he had then. Even if he did now.
She still wants nothing to do with you.
He laughed, shook his head, and continued running up the road, back toward what was once his family’s home but was now a house and stable in disrepair. He hoped the pilot light had stayed lit on the hot water heater so he didn’t have to take another cold shower.
Baby steps, right? Little by little he’d get the place up and running again. He owed his parents that much—and the town too. Grinch or not, he had Meadow Valley’s best interests at heart. Maybe that wasn’t what sent him hightailing it out of Chicago, but it’s what pushed him to run for the open seat when Mayor Grady passed away.
Peyton made it to the steps of his childhood home clocking in at four miles. Sweat dripped down the back of his neck, and his T-shirt clung to his chest—both signs of a good ol’ stress-purging run.
He kicked off his shoes inside the door and stripped off his clothes on the way down the hall to the bathroom, a perk of living alone. He might be mayor, but that didn’t mean he was a neat freak. He’d get to the laundry when he was good and ready.
Naked, mentally exhausted but also cleansed, he squared his shoulders and turned the shower on, pushing the lever as far toward the H as it would go.
He waited a good fifteen seconds and then let out a relieved breath when the room began to fill with steam.
“Well done, Mayor Cooper,” he said to no one in particular. If Mr. Big-City Politician could fix a hot water heater, there was no telling what else he was capable of, right?
He stepped into the hot spray and let the water wash away his encounter with Deputy Garcia. Daniela Garcia. Dani, if he remembered correctly.
He closed his eyes and braced a palm against the cool tile of the shower wall.
Dani Garcia, with caramel eyes and unbridled disdain for the man who avoided what most thought to be the happiest time of year.
Sure. One long, hot shower would definitely erase it all from his mind. At least that was what he kept telling himself.
So imagine his surprise when he showed up to the Meadow Valley town hall—his running gear replaced by his navy suit and silver tie—to find the unforgettable Deputy Garcia sitting in full uniform on the bench outside his door, her jaw set and eyes narrowed as she muttered something to the man on the bench beside her. Deputy Teddy Crawford was the only other officer who worked in the sheriff’s office aside from Sheriff Thompson himself.
Peyton approached his office assistant, Keith—a twenty-two-year-old local with political aspirations of his own—and rested an elbow on his desk.
“Do I have a meeting with the deputies?” he asked softly. Dani still hadn’t noticed his arrival.
Keith shook his head. “They just barged in here…Well, she was more the one to barge. Deputy Crawford at least wished me a good morning and tipped his hat. But you apparently did a number on her.”
“What?” Peyton whisper-shouted. “Did a number? Did she say—I mean, what, exactly, did she say?”
Keith sighed. “All she said was that the sheriff sent them over and that you’d know why they were here.”