Page 72 of Kissing the Sheriff

She laughed. “No, it’s something. What?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “I confess that I bring Billy in here with me so he can talk to Alma while I get whatever I need.”

“You what?”

He shrugged. “She talks and talks and talks.”

“Yes. But that’s because she has no one else to talk to. She and her pa were very close.”

“Oh, I see.” He looked somberly at the counter. “And he was one of your father’s deputies.”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “Forgive me. I should be more sympathetic.”

“You didn’t know until yesterday who Pa’s deputies were. Alma’s always been a talker but that doesn’t make her a bad person.”

“No, of course not.” His ears went pink.

Cassie didn’t say anymore. Alma could drive anyone a little loco, but that’s just who she was.

Alma returned with several rolls of wallpaper in her arms. “Here we are. These are the ones that would go well with the yellow paint Conrad purchased.” She set the rolls on the counter.

Cassie examined each. “I like this one.” The pattern was made up of tiny orange and blue flowers on a yellow background.

Conrad set it aside. “Phileas said we’d need at least five rolls.”

“Five?” Cassie said in surprise. “That much?”

“He wants to do the upstairs landing in the same combination as the dining room.”

She looked at the paper again. “Of course, he’s the expert.”

“Indeed,” Conrad said with a smile. “Alma, do you have enough?”

“I have four of each of these. If you need more, I’ll have to order it and it takes a couple of weeks. I ordered these before you arrived in town.”

“Were you expecting people to start fixing their places up?” he asked.

“I wanted to do a few things upstairs in my living quarters and couldn’t make up my mind what pattern I wanted. So I ordered all of these and figured someone could make use of the rest.”

Cassie and Conrad exchanged the same smile. “Lucky for us you did,” Cassie said, her smile fading. “But I’m afraid Conrad may be gone before he has a chance to finish putting it up in my house.”

Conrad took her hand. “Not to fear. We’re not leaving until we’ve completed whatever we’ve started. If that means we stay an extra week, then so be it.”

Cassie’s heart melted at his words. If only she could get him to stay longer. Much longer.

* * *

Conrad purchasedthe wallpaper and they left the general store. Cassie was quiet on the walk back and he nudged her with his elbow. “Want to watch Billy panic when I show him this?”

She laughed. “This is terrible to say, but yes. He makes wallpaper sound like some monster that’s going to eat him.”

“Who knew paper could be so frightening?” He looked at her longer than he should but couldn’t help it. He liked to see her smile and wouldn’t mind spending the entire day with her. But alas, she had … hey, wait a minute. He gave her the most serious look he could muster. “So, when do I begin going on rounds with you?”

She stopped. “What?”

“You know, check on things? As your new deputy, isn’t it part of my duty to accompany you on rounds?”