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“ T his is the fifth outbreak of salmonella in the past month, deep in the heart of cattle country.”

The local news anchor highlighted each of the outbreaks on her electronic map of Central Texas.

“Dairy farmers are on edge, and milk prices are on the rise due to the resulting production shortages.”

Johnny Cuba lifted his remote control and turned off the television mounted on the wall across from his desk. Yeah, he was as concerned about the salmonella outbreak as every other dairy farmer, but he was already taking every possible precaution to protect his herd.

In the meantime, there wasn’t much he could do other than stay informed. As his office was plunged into silence once again, his thoughts returned to the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. A few days ago, he’d lent his jacket to her. He knew her name, but he had no way of reaching her. No hotel address. No phone number. Not that he was overly concerned about getting his jacket back. He had another reason entirely for wanting to cross paths with the injured police officer from Dallas again. Correction. Former police officer. She’d been quick to set him straight on that detail.

She might be unemployed, but he wasn’t buying her cock and bull story about driving all the way to Heart Lake merely to rest and recover from the bullet she’d taken in the line of duty. Nope. Every instinct in him as a private investigator told him there was something else going on.

She was too alert. Too watchful. Too aware. And he sure as all get out was aware of her in return. That was the real reason he wanted to see her again. He wanted —no, he needed — to know if she was capable of making him feel the same way he’d felt when she’d plowed into him. Literally. And scalded him with the mug of hot cider she’d been carrying.

He wasn’t accustomed to feeling things. Not any longer. Sure, he put on a good show for others — enough to earn himself a bit of a reputation as a flirt around town, but it had been nothing more than an act before she’d come along.

Fortunately, in a town as small as Heart Lake, the two of them were bound to bump into each other a second time before she hightailed it back to the city.

Or so he hoped, so he could figure out why she’d made him feel things again. Things he’d mistakenly believed he’d never feel again. Things he wasn’t sure he had any right to feel again.

In a burst of restlessness, he snatched up the paperweight he kept on his desk at Lonestar Security. It was a bucking bull made of pure silver. Not cheap. One of his rodeo buddies had given it to him after his final competition — a ride that had earned him a small fortune while nearly ending his life.

He could still taste the grit of dust after landing face down in the ring following his fateful ride. He would never forget the fiery pain shooting through his dislocated collarbone as he attempted to roll to his feet, along with the hot air blowing from the demonic bull’s nostrils. Or the way his hooves had sliced into the dirt only inches from his face.

The screams of horror from the crowd were forever etched into Johnny’s memories. So was the feeling of weightlessness that had overtaken him as the rodeo clowns converged on him, dragging him by his boots to safety. Right up until the gate clanged shut behind them, he’d been convinced he was done for. In that exact moment, he couldn’t have cared less. Six feet under was exactly where he’d wanted to be.

Instead, he’d awakened in a hospital bed with two of his future bosses leaning over him. Their job offer had put more than a thousand miles between him and the small church cemetery where his shattered heart remained buried to this day.

The intercom on his desk crackled to life. “Mr. Cuba, you have a visitor.”

He reached over to press the button on the panel that allowed him to answer. “Who is it?” He laid the silver bull back on a stack of manilla folders. On his darkest days, it was a reminder there was a reason he was still topside. He had a job to do. A community to serve. Clients to seek justice for. It was far better than blubbering his brains out over the twin headstones he’d left behind in Wyoming.

“Miss Ashley Perkins.”

No kidding? He straightened in his chair as the new front desk attendant continued, “She says she has something to return to you. If you’re too busy, she says she can leave it?—”

“I’m not too busy, ma’am,” he cut in. Excitement coursed through him at the thought of coming face-to-face with the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. “Go ahead and send her back to my office.” If he was more of a gentleman, he would’ve offered to meet his unexpected guest at the front of the building, but what was the fun in that? Having her meet him in his office at the back of the building would make their encounter last longer. It would give him more time to analyze the mysterious Ashley Perkins and his equally puzzling reaction to her.

Then again, maybe his initial response to meeting her had been nothing more than a fluke. Maybe he would come face-to-face with her a few moments from now and feel the usual…nothing.

“Sure thing, Mr. Cuba.” The intercom went silent.

He smirked at the phone panel. The attendant’s insistence on calling him Mister never failed to amuse him. A former 9-1-1 operator, the grandmotherly Mrs. Ginger Fairfax was old-school in her skirt suits, stockings, and horn-rimmed glasses. She was also very good at her job. Lonestar Security was fortunate to have someone with her impeccable manners and decades of experience running the front desk.

While he waited for Ashley to make her appearance, he stood and strode to the door of his office to open it. Then he returned to his desk to move his two upholstered guest chairs closer. When he was finished, they were half facing each other. Perfect. He backed up a step, hitched a thigh on the edge of his desk, and waited.

He was nervous, which was weird. Not too long ago, he’d made a small fortune riding bulls for a living. Guys like him didn’t get nervous. Yet here he was, glancing repeatedly at his watch. That’s how he knew it was a full minute-and-a-half before Ashley’s freckled features and tumble of auburn hair popped into view. Yep, he’d been counting the seconds, too.

“Really, Johnny?” She paused in the doorway with an exasperated expression heightening the color of her otherwise creamy features. “You just had to make me walk the length of an entire football field to drop this off?” His brown leather jacket was dangling from one gloved finger. The rest of her was bundled beneath an olive turtleneck sweater, unzipped white puffer coat, and a pair of faded jeans that hugged her feminine figure. She wasn’t overly tall or overly short, too plump or too skinny. She looked just right to him, even though she was wearing suede ankle boots instead of the cowgirl boots worn by most of the local women. It was a dead giveaway that she wasn’t from around here.

He hid a smile. “Maybe I was hoping you’d join me for a cup of coffee.” It was a bold move, but bull riders were known for their bold moves. It was downright expected of them.

She blinked in surprise, but she quickly recovered. Shrugging, she moved into the room. “Sure. Why not? I never turn down coffee.”

He mentally gave himself a high five for extending the invitation as he waved her into one of the chairs in front of him. Because of how close he was perched to the chairs, the puffy fabric of her coat brushed his left knee as she shimmied past him.

The moment she was seated, she tossed his leather jacket at him, assessing him as openly as he was assessing her. “Thanks for letting me borrow your coat. Without it, I would’ve turned into an icicle at the wedding.” It was an outdoor double wedding where two of his dearest friends had married the women of their dreams. He’d been invited. She had not.

“A wedding that you crashed,” he couldn’t resist pointing out as he caught the jacket. Her nearness made his heart thump a little harder, answering the biggest question burning inside him ever since their first encounter. Though she appeared to be making no effort to do so, she’d managed to do what no other woman had been able to do for the past three years. She’d captured his interest.

He’d gone on a few dates after his arrival to Heart Lake, mostly to keep people from wondering why a guy in his late twenties wasn’t interested in dating. However, he’d only been going through the motions. He hadn’t followed any of them up with a second date because his heart wasn’t in it, but now it was. Did that make him a bad person? Disloyal to the memory of the young wife and mother-to-be who’d tragically been torn from his life?

“Whatever.” Ashley sounded distracted as she jammed a hand inside one of her coat pockets and pulled out a cell phone. She bent her head over it, frowning.

“Are you denying you crashed a double wedding for two couples you’d never laid eyes on in your life?” He dropped his jacket on his desk, unaccustomed to being ignored by the female species. The way she was frowning, though, made him wonder if she’d received some bad news.

“Not at all. Um…sorry.” She glanced up from her phone, wrinkling her nose ruefully. “I’m not trying to be rude here. Just had a message come through that I’ve been waiting a few hours for.”

“New boyfriend?” he shot back, hoping to catch her off guard. The first time they’d met, she’d made a salty reference to breaking things off with her fiancé. The breakup had sounded recent.

She rolled her gorgeous hazel eyes at him before answering. “I’ve only been in town for a few days, remember? To rest, not shop for a rebound relationship.”

Her announcement fascinated him. If she wasn’t in a rush to pair off again, it meant she would be single for a while, and he was alright with that. More than alright. Maybe it would give him the time he needed to figure out when and if his own heart would ever be available again.

“Two coffees coming up,” he drawled. “How do you like yours?” His gaze swept over the frown riding the middle of her forehead, underscoring the fact that she must have received bad news. He hoped it wasn’t about her health. There were shadows beneath her eyes and an aura of vulnerability in her heart-shaped features that tugged at his sympathies. Both were a testament to the fact that she was very much still recovering from her injuries, not that she would welcome his sympathy. She’d been shot in the line of duty. That much he knew, though he didn’t have any other details.

“Black. Thanks.” She went back to fiddling with her cell phone.

He exited the room without another word and made his way to the employee lounge a few doors down. He returned with two steaming cups of black coffee, half afraid she wouldn’t be sitting there when he got back.

Not only was she present, her cell phone was no longer in sight.

He wordlessly held out one of the cardboard cups he’d capped and stuck a coffee straw in.

She reached for it with a grateful sigh. “Johnny Cuba, you just made my morning a lot better.”

His heart leaped at her words, but all he did was raise his eyebrows at her. “It’s good coffee. I’ll give you that.” He took a seat in the chair beside her, uncapping his coffee to let it cool some.

She chuckled as she watched him. “It’s probably best if I leave my lid on. We don’t want a repeat of what happened the last time I got near you with a cup of scalding liquid.”

He reached up to run the pads of his fingers over the spot on his chin she’d burned with the hot cider she’d splashed on him. He’d expected it to blister, but it hadn’t. “Whatever you put on the burn did the trick.” She’d produced a tube of something gooey from her pocket and applied it to the affected area.

She looked relieved. “Petroleum jelly.”

He changed the subject. “How’s your vacation going?”

She drew a deep breath and let it out in a way that gave him the impression she was stalling for time to fabricate an answer. “It’s not really a vacation. It’s more of a…” She paused and shook her head. “I just needed to get away from the noise of the city, I guess. That, and my family’s never-ending drama.”

“Oh?” Sensing she’d given him a partial truth, his interest shot upward several more degrees.

She took a sip of her coffee, looking like she was tasting something bitter. “I lost my mom a few years ago. My dad, who I wasn’t even aware was dating again, remarried a few months ago.” She waved a hand. “Unfortunately, the ceremony took place three days after I was shot. I wasn’t in any condition to serve as a bridesmaid, but that’s not the way they tell it.”

“A bridesmaid?” Indignation simmered through his veins on her behalf. “I should think not!” The very idea that her family had expected something like that of her was preposterous.

Her lips tightened. “Like my ex, they’ve convinced themselves I’m wallowing into some sort of post-recovery funk that I’m taking out on the rest of the world.”

As if! He snorted. “That’s crazy! It takes more than a few days to heal from stuff like that.” A lot more time, and not just from the physical part of the wound. After nearly being trampled to death by the last bull he’d ridden, he knew what he was talking about. A person needed time to heal on both the inside and the outside, and the inside part could take a lot longer.

“That’s one of the kindest things anyone has ever said to me.” A faint smile curved Ashley’s lips, drawing his gaze to her mouth. Her full, rosy lips and slight overbite struck him as kissable — very, very kissable, though she’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in stuff like that. Not right now, at any rate. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure he had any business being interested in stuff like that at the moment, either.

He yanked his gaze higher. “That’s two points in my column — for coffee and compliments.” He mentally gave her a dozen points for simply showing up.

“How’s Caro?” she asked suddenly.

“How would I know?” He scowled at her, wondering why she was bringing up the new events director at Chester Farm all of a sudden. He had zero interest in bringing the coy southern belle into their conversation. Caro was cute and fun to be around, but she hadn’t exactly been subtle with the hints she’d dropped about “working their way toward their first date.” Even if he’d been in the market for a girlfriend, he didn’t think it would be wise to work his way toward anything with her. There was something about Caro Madison that stirred his caution. He couldn’t say what it was, only that it was there.

“My bad.” Ashley smirked into her cup of coffee. “I got the impression you two were…” She waved a hand expressively. “You know. Together.”

He grunted. “Nope. She’s almost as new in town as you are.”

“I see.” His injured visitor was still grinning when she glanced up at him again. “Chester Farm seemed like a fun place, even for an uninvited guest like myself.”

“If you’re twelve. Or getting married.” He wasn’t sure why they were still talking about the rustic event center his friends had chosen for their double wedding venue. “They host a big Easter egg hunt every year, plus a big fall festival and an even bigger Christmas lights display. In addition to all of that, they rent out the grounds for weddings, family reunions, anniversary parties, that sort of thing.”

“And Caro Madison has been hired to oversee it all?” Though Ashley had adopted an offhand voice, he sensed there was more to the question than simply making small talk.

“She’s their events manager, yes.” He was ready to talk about something else. Literally anything else. “What about you, Ashley Perkins? What’s next for you after your little vacay in our humble lake community?”

Her smile faded. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Though he sensed she was being a little more honest this time, he wasn’t about to let her off the hook that easily. “What’s your favorite thing about Heart Lake so far?” He needed to keep her talking to figure out what it was about her that intrigued him so much.

Her expression grew teasing. “If I’d known you were calling me back here for an interrogation, I would’ve left your jacket at the front desk.”

“Ouch!” He waggled his eyebrows playfully at her. “You’re tough on a guy’s ego.”

“If you say so.” A merry chuckle rolled out of her —a warm, inviting sound that made him want to join in. “Something tells me your ego is tall enough and wide enough to absorb a few dents.” She spread her hands to emphasize the dimensions she was postulating.

“Double ouch!” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed bantering with someone this much. “So, ah…” His brain scrambled for a reason to ask for her phone number, something that hopefully wouldn’t come across as creepy and scare her off. “If you get bored with our small town, I could jazz things up with a tour of my dairy farm.”

She pursed her lips in consideration. “As nice as your offer sounds, what I know about the dairy industry wouldn’t fit inside a milkshake.”

“Cute.” He winked at her and had the satisfaction of seeing her redden a little. “That’s the whole point of a tour, darling. To moo -ve your knowledge of the dairy business to the next level.” He emphasized the word move with his best imitation of a cow mooing.

Her eyes sparkled as she caught on to what he was doing. “Boy, you’re really milking this!”

He nearly spewed the sip of coffee he’d just finished taking as he let out a loud guffaw. He hastily set his coffee cup on the edge of his desk. “Just trying to churn up some fun for Heart Lake’s newest visitor.”

“ Cheesy ,” she shot back without missing a beat, “but I’ll give you points for effort.”

“I’ll take the points.” He winked at her again, completely entranced by her quick mind and razor-sharp wit. Not everyone in the world understood what a pun was, much less were they able to fire them back at him so quickly. “You won’t be disappointed, because I’m an udder -ly fantastic tour guide.” After growing up on the rodeo circuit, nobody knew more livestock puns than he did. Nobody. At least not until Ashley Perkins had blasted into his office this morning.

“You’d butter be after all of this lead up to my grand tour of the place.” Smiling widely, she wagged a warning finger at him.

He almost blurted, it’s a date , which would’ve made him sound like a desperate cowpoke who didn’t see much action in the romance department. Nothing could’ve been further from the truth. His dating dry spell was entirely his choice.

He leaned over his desk to whisk a business card from the black metal holder resting beside his keyboard. Snatching up a pen, he turned over the card and jotted his personal cell number on the back.

As he held the card out to her, a light knock sounded on the open door. Instead of accepting the card he was holding out, Ashley’s head swung toward the sound.

He lowered his arm in dismay to discover Caro Madison’s high-wattage smile beaming at him from the doorway. She’d traded in her usual Christmas red lipstick this morning for an equally blinding shade of orange. Since the last time he’d seen her, she’d also covered the roots of her brunette hair with a fresh coat of white-blonde dye. He fought the urge to shield his eyes from her brightness as he stood and beckoned her into his office.

“Howdy, Caro! To what do I owe the pleasure?” He chose his words carefully, wanting to make it clear to Ashley he’d been unaware Caro was going to show up unannounced like this.

“Cinnamon rolls. Fresh from Farmer Monty’s kitchen.” Caro, in her elegant black pants suit and herringbone black-and-white coat, was the antithesis of Ashley in her comfy turtleneck sweater and jeans. Despite the chilly February temperature and chance for snow later today, she click-clacked his way on impractical black stiletto pumps to drop the still-warm pastry bag into his hands.

“Wow! Thanks!” Though he was less than thrilled over who was delivering them, there were few things in the world that could rival Monty Chester’s made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls. The old farmer even mixed his own glaze to drizzle over them.

“You’re welcome, cowboy,” she trilled, dropping into the chair he’d vacated. “They’re not the only reason for my visit.”

Yay me… The seat she was settling in had to still be warm from his body heat, a detail he tried to not let bother him. It was impossible, however, not to be bothered by the fact that Ashley was standing and showing every sign of leaving him alone with her.

“Thanks for the coffee.” Ashley raised her to-go cup at Caro. “Nice to see you again.”

“We keep running into each other, don’t we?” Caro’s tone was edged with frost.

“Eh, it’s a small town.” Ashley tossed her ponytail carelessly over her shoulder as she edged closer to the door.

“So small,” Caro agreed, fluttering her lashes at Johnny. “About my other reason for visiting…”

“Hold on a sec.” He held up a finger at her and followed Ashley from the room, hating to end their visit so abruptly.

Stepping outside the door, he increased his stride to catch up to her. “Coward,” he rasped.

Ashley’s feet shuffled to a halt. She spun around to face him, searching his expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Though her voice was bland, there was a suspicious twitch to her lips that told him she was lying.

His gaze narrowed on her. “I think you do.”

She tipped her face innocently up to his. “I’m just getting out of your way, Romeo,” she gestured toward the open door of his office, “so you can get back in there and?—”

“Please stop,” he groaned, glancing worriedly up and down the hallway. Though no one else was in sight, there were security cameras every few feet in the building. With his luck, one of his fellow PIs was listening in on their conversation right this second, laughing his backside off.

“Oh, come on!” Her eyes danced with a delicious brand of amusement. It warmed his heart despite his forthcoming tête-à-tête with Caro that Ashley’s abrupt departure was sentencing him to. “You’ve got a reputation to maintain as the latest and greatest heartthrob of Heart Lake.”

“Says who?” he spluttered, feeling his face turn red.

“I didn’t catch her name,” she snickered, “but I was assured by a complete stranger at the diner last night that the key to your heart is one of the town’s best kept secrets.”

Her explanation made his chest ache. It sounded like the story of his tragic past had finally hit the local gossip channels. Part of his story, at least.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Ashley continued in a gentler voice, “I turned up the volume on my noise-canceling ear pods and only pretended to listen to her after that. I can nod and smile like a pro,” she finished with another one of her infectious chuckles that lifted some of the heaviness in his chest.

Though he appreciated her attempt at humor, he felt compelled to set her straight on one item in particular. “No matter what you hear about me, Ash, my heart isn’t as bullet proof as some folks make it out to be.” Far from it . He was still picking up the pieces of what was left of it.

“I can relate.” Her smile faded as a hand crept unconsciously toward the opposite shoulder.

He could only presume it was where she’d been shot. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “Poor choice of words on my part. Didn’t mean to bring up?—”

“I can handle it.” Her voice was dry as she lowered her hand and stuffed it in the pocket of her coat. “I’m not made of glass.”

“Yeah, but you broke up with the last guy you dated for being insensitive.” The words shot out of him before he could give them more thought. He hadn’t meant to insinuate he was gunning to be the next guy she dated, even though he was. Maybe.

Her eyes widened. “You’re a lot of things, Johnny Cuba. Insensitive is not one of them.”

Her words caught him off guard, but he tried to pass it off as a joke. “Another point in my column?”

“Two more points, since you were nice enough to offer me a tour of your dairy farm.” The engaging way she cocked her head at him made him wonder if she was actually considering taking him up on the offer.

“Johnny?” Caro’s voice carried to them from inside his office.

He held out his business card again, upside down this time so she could see his cell number scrawled on the back. To his relief, she accepted it and tucked it in her pocket.

As he backed away from her, he pretended he was holding his cell phone to his ear. “Call me, and we’ll set up a time.”

“Maybe I will.” Her smile was back as she turned away from him and glided up the hallway.