Page 23 of Kissing the Sheriff

“Yes, you’re right,” she said. “Someone should speak to the captain about it. That land belongs to him.”

“If we pick enough this evening, he’ll take these to Virginia City tomorrow,” Hal Brighton said. “If not the next day. I haven’t seen the captain since this afternoon. If you’re going to speak to him, Cassie, you’ll have to catch him at the saloon.”

“I will.” She looked at Conrad. “Would you like to go with me?”

“But won’t he come by here?” he asked.

“Sometimes he waits and loads his wagon late at night.”

“He drives at night?” Wallis said in surprise. “Seems dangerous, doesn’t it?”

“You don’t know the captain,” Cassie said with a smile.

The conversation changed to Sterling and Letty. Billy’s parents asked if a wedding was being planned. The brothers were vague with their answers. “Are they unsure they’ll suit?” Cassie asked.

Conrad carried a basket of apples to where the others had been placed. “I believe Sterling is waiting on Letty’s decision.”

“He wants her to go to England, doesn’t he?”

“And she wants him to stay,” Conrad said. “But don’t worry, they’ll work out the details and let us know if a wedding needs to be planned.” He wiped his hands on his pants and studied the baskets. “Shall we go see the captain now?”

She smiled as a tingle went up her spine. She shouldn’t be happy he was going with her. It was a simple thing. “Yes. Let’s go.”

They set off through the orchard and she gave him a sidelong glance. “Thank you for straightening up my parlor today.”

“It didn’t take much effort. We waited but you didn’t come. I thought perhaps you had important sheriff’s business to attend to.”

“I had some things to take care of.” She wasn’t going to tell him she was stalling to avoid being around him. But considering the way her belly was doing somersaults, should she be with him now?

“I didn’t want to move too many of your things,” he said as they walked. “I don’t know if you want to get rid of anything, put them in other rooms …”

“My parlor needed cleaning. Dusting, that sort of thing. Really, you’ve done enough already.”

He stopped and looked at her aghast. “My dear woman, I’ve barely begun.”

She pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh. He looked so serious. “There are a few things I could give away. Things that belong to my mother.”

“They have no sentimental value for you?” he asked in all seriousness.

“Not really. She’s been gone a long while and it was just me and Pa.”

“Thus your attachment to his things,” he surmised.

Cassie nodded. “Is it silly?”

“Of course not. He was your father. I daresay, if my father passed suddenly, I’d be fighting my brothers for his things, just to hold onto a part of him. Even if it was an old dusty chair.”

Her heart pinched. “Now that is silly.”

“On the contrary, your father’s chair is quite comfortable.”

“You sat in it?” Why did that alarm her so?

“Billy and I both did. We had to make sure there was no more dust. Billy gave it the bounce test.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, dear me. He didn’t jump up and down on it, did he?”

“What do you think I am, a barbarian?” he said, his hand to his chest. “I did the jumping, not Billy.”