fields of yellow-brown stubble spread on both sides of the road. The flat horizon was broken only by a distant barn and a silo. Jess was a city girl. It was as if she’d set foot on some alien planet, peopled only by distant farms and rude boys in pickups.
The cold November breeze whipped tendrils of russet hair around her face. She clutched her light denim jacket around her ribs. The sooner she got the car off the road, the sooner she could get back inside. Without the engine to run the heater, the car wouldn’t stay warm long, but at least she’d be out of the wind.
Bracing her arms above the rear bumper, she planted her sneaker-clad feet on the asphalt. At five-foot-three and a hundred nineteen pounds, Jess was no Wonder Woman. Determination—or more likely desperation—would have to make up for her lack of muscle power.
The road’s narrow, graveled shoulder sloped down to a grassy barrow pit. If she could push as much as one front wheel onto the incline, the car’s momentum should do the rest. How hard could it be?
Steeling her resolve, she threw her whole weight against the car. Her jaw clenched. Her muscles strained. Nothing moved.
Spent for the moment, she straightened to catch her breath. Maybe she was doing this wrong. It might work better to brace her back against the car and push with her legs. At least it was worth a try.
Jess turned around. Only then did she see the big tan SUV that had pulled up a dozen yards behind her, the lights atop its cab flashing red and blue.
And only then did she see the big, tan person climbing out of it. He strode toward her, a take-charge expression on his face. Wearing a khaki uniform topped by a leather jacket with a sheepskin collar, along with a pistol holstered at one lean hip, he looked capable of lifting her car with one hand. He was also flat-out gorgeous, with dark brown hair, a square-jawed face and stern coppery eyes.
But she wasn’t looking for gorgeous here, Jess reminded herself. In her roller-coaster life, the hot-looking men she’d known had turned out to be nothing but bad news. Besides, there was no way a male as spectacular as this long, tall lawman wouldn’t have some woman’s brand on him.
“Having trouble, Miss?” His drawl was pure Texas honey.
Jess willed herself not to sound like a helpless whiner. “My car broke down. I was about to push it off the road, so nobody would hit it.”
A faint smile deepened the dimple in his left cheek. “Could you use some help, or should I just leave you to it?”
“As long as you’re here, I guess you might as well give me a hand.” Jess spoke through chattering teeth.
“Here.” He stripped off his leather jacket and laid it around her shoulders. It was toasty warm. Man warm. Now that he’d taken it off, she could see the badge on his khaki shirt and the name tag below it.
Sheriff Ben Marsden.
“What seems to be the trouble with the car?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It just stopped dead and it won’t start. It can’t be out of gas. I filled the tank a couple of hours ago.”
“Well, let’s get it off the road. Then I’ll take a quick look under the hood. Maybe it’ll be an easy fix.”
Ben Marsden was definitely a breed apart from the brusque city cops Jess had encountered. Following his directions, she climbed back into the driver’s seat to steer while he pushed. The car rolled forward as if Superman was behind that bumper. No surprise there.
“That’s far enough.” She heard his voice through the open window. “Now pull the handbrake and pop the hood release.”
By the time Jess climbed out of the car he had the hood up and was peering into the Pontiac’s dim interior with the aid of a pocket flashlight. After a minute or two, he closed the hood and switched off the flashlight. “I can’t see anything wrong,” he said. “But it smells like you might have a fuel leak—maybe a broken line. Nothing I can do here, but it shouldn’t be too expensive to fix. There’s a good, honest mechanic in town. Want me to call him for a tow?”
Jess thought a moment, then reluctantly nodded. She’d promised herself not to break into the fifty thousand dollars she’d inherited from her adoptive father—money she’d set aside for a new start. But the cash she’d saved from her