But small talk was part of the job description when you were the sheriff of a small town, and it didn’t matter if it was your day off or not. If a resident wanted to chat… you chatted.
Keeping his head down, he slipped past a woman holding a baby, and a couple wearing matching berets. He stood in line, whipping out his phone and pretending to study Facebook, in the hopes that it would keep the chattier townsfolk at bay.
“Sheriff?”
He placed the voice immediately, despite only having heard it a few times before. He glanced up. “Hello, Lucas.”
“Hey. How are you?” Lucas was holding two coffees and he smiled in a friendly way at Gideon.
Gideon forced himself not to scowl. It wasn’t Lucas’s fault that Gideon hated him. He didn’t know that Grace was off limits.
She isn’t off limits to him. Because you’re too much of a fucking coward to ask her to be yours.
“Good, thanks. I didn’t realize you were visiting this weekend,” Gideon said.
“Just came up for the night, actually. Had dinner with Connor and Kira and a few friends last night.”
Gideon’s back stiffened. Grace hadn’t mentioned last night that Lucas was at Kira’s place.
Maybe because she was too busy being groped by you. Oh, hey, by the way – tell me again how professional it was to tell Gracie you were going to eat her pussy while you were on goddamn duty?
“Sheriff? You all right?” Lucas was studying him with a faint look of concern. “You kind of look like you’re going to throw up.”
“Bad headache,” he said. “You on your way back to New Cassel?”
“Later this afternoon.” Lucas glanced at the coffees he held in his hands. “Gracie graciously agreed to a coffee date with me this morning.
Fresh new pain lanced across Gideon’s temple. “Grace? You’re on a date with Grace Larken?”
“Yes.”
Gideon followed Lucas’s gaze. Grace was sitting at a table by the window and she looked as nauseous as Gideon felt. She smiled stiffly at him before staring out the window.
Gideon glared at Lucas. He had an insane urge to arrest him for something. Anything that would get him the fuck away from Grace.
Lucas returned his look calmly, seemingly unbothered by the anger pouring out of every pore in Gideon’s body. After a moment, he said, “Good seeing you again, Sheriff.”
Gideon jerked his head in acknowledgment before turning around to face the counter. He shoved his phone into his pocket and stared blankly at the menu board. It was fine that Grace was on a date with that fucking asshole. Perfectly fine. She was a grown woman who could do whatever the hell she wanted because she didn’t belong to him.
She never had and she never would.
* * *
“What the fuck is up your ass this morning?” Preacher put his feet up on the scarred and dented coffee table and sipped at his coffee.
“Nothing.” Gideon paced in front of the large window that overlooked the main street.
Preacher lived in a small studio apartment above the tattoo shop. It was neat and tidy but - Gideon studied the avocado fridge and the orange shag carpet on the floor – it had a serious seventies vibe. “Are you ever going to redo this place? Jesus, I feel like a pot-smoking hippie whenever I walk through the door.”
“Who the fuck cares what it looks like? You’re the only person who ever sees it,” Preacher said.
“The carpet is hideous,” Gideon said. “And if you redid the kitchen, you could actually make room for a stove and stop eating out every fucking meal.”
Preacher laughed and patted his lean stomach. “I hate cooking and Nan’s Diner is just across the street. What do I need a stove for?”
“I can’t believe you still get laid after women see this place,” Gideon said.
“I’ve never brought a woman here and I never will,” Preacher said. “I don’t need them in my goddamn personal space, fucking up the feng shui or whatever that shit is called. Can you stop pacing like a nervous dog and just tell me what the fuck is wrong?”
Gideon stalked to the small couch and sat down, picking moodily at the fabric on the arm. “I fucked up with Grace.”
“Oh yeah? What’d you do this time?”
“I pulled her over last night because she was weaving. I thought she was drunk, but she was,” he took a gulp of hot coffee, wincing when it burned his throat, “she was taking off her bra.”
Preacher laughed. “Grace didn’t seem like the type to just let it all hang out while she was driving. So, what, you arrest her for public nudity?”
“She was still wearing her dress, dickhead. She just,” Gideon made an unhooking motion with his hand,” took it off from under her dress.”
“Okay, so what’s the issue?”
“I made her step out of the car because I thought she was drinking and when she said it was because she was taking off her bra, I might have… temporarily lost my mind.”
He stared into his coffee as Preacher snorted. “Don’t stop now, it seems like it’s just getting to the good stuff.”
“You don’t need to know the details, but I did a body search on her and she felt so fucking good and it was turning her on when I touched her. I knew it was and I was deliberately trying to turn her on. Anyway, at the end of it I told her she had a choice – she could get a ticket for distracted driving or she could get in the back of my car and watch as I…”
Preacher grinned. “Nutted off on her?”
Gideon glared at him. “No. Went down on her.”
“Atta boy.” Preacher raised his coffee to him. “I see you’ve been paying attention to my lectures about always making your woman come first.”
“Knock it off, ass face,” Gideon said. “I do just fine with women without your damn lectures.”
“Oh yeah? When was the last time you fucked a woman?” Preacher said.
“None of your business.”
“You haven’t fucked a woman since you moved here, have you?” Preacher said.
“Did you hear me say it was none of your business, Preacher? Because I feel like I was pretty fucking clear,” Gideon said.
Preacher laughed. “Jesus, I would have thought you’d be in a much better mood this morning. You finally got a taste of Grace. Isn’t that what you’ve been jerking off to for the last three years?”
“It didn’t happen,” he said.
Preacher scuffed at the coffee table with the toe of his boot. “She chose the ticket instead of getting her pussy eaten? Does she know something I don’t know? I mean, just how bad are you at eating pussy?”
“She didn’t choose the ticket,” Gideon said. “We were at my car and she was about to get in when a call came over the radio.”
“Shit,” Preacher said.
“Yeah. It’s for the best though, right?” He stared at his best friend. “What I did was stupid and wrong and so fucking messed up. Tell me it was messed up.”
Preacher shook his head. “Nope. You want Grace and she wants you. Stop being such an asshole and give her what you both want.”
“She’s on a date this morning with Lucas.”