“Hey, Sheriff.” She sent him a wink and a grin. “You look hungry. Busy night?”

When he paused at the loaded question, she burst out laughing. “Now that’s the same look I got from Holly when I asked her. Sort of embarrassment, satisfaction and bafflement all at once. Imagine that. Wonder what put that look there?”

“Very funny.”

“Yeah.” She sobered. “Did you hear? We got an offer on this place. They said all the employees can stay on. All two of us, that is, me and Steve.”

“I’m very happy for you, Dora.”

“But you’re not happy for you.”

He tried to look casual and probably failed miserably.

“I know.” She sighed. “She’s outside.” She hitched her head toward the back door. “She’s talking to Buster, the dog she doesn’t own, while being watched by Harry, the cat that’s not hers.”

“Thanks.” He stepped outside, into the small yard where Marge used to grow herbs.

Holly was hunkered down by an empty bowl, a hose in one hand, her other embedded in Buster’s fur.

He was licking her cheek.

“Hey, that’s my job,” Riley said.

Holly didn’t move, didn’t turn to face him, and that’s when he realized she was crying.

Crying.

His stomach somewhere near his shoes, he stepped off the steps and came around, watching as Buster licked off another tear.

Before he could say a word, there came a ringing, which he realized originated from the cell phone hooked on her belt.

She sniffed, kept her gaze averted, and answered the phone. “Hello? Yes, Mother, I heard about the offer. An inspection this afternoon?…Of course I’ll be ready, but I wanted to talk to you…I know, you’re busy, but this is really important…It’s just that I’ve come so far with the café, I was hoping you’d come out and see…”

The hose in her hand filled up the empty water bowl. It stared to overfill. Buster played in it.

Riley stood stock-still, anticipation humming through him because it sounded like Holly didn’t want to rush out of town.

“I know it’s not convenient,” Holly said. “But it’s not like I’m in the Sahara Desert. Yes, I realize you have to get off the phone now, but I just wanted to tell you, I don’t think it’s the right time to sell. I really want to-”

Riley held his breath, willing her to just get it over with, to put him out of his misery and say she couldn’t wait to leave this rinky-dink town. But even as he thought it, his heart ached.

He didn’t want her to say it at all. He wanted the opposite. Somehow, some way, he’d come to realize she was nothing like his mother, was nothing like the woman he’d thought, who could never handle a place like Little Paradise.

Holly could handle it, she had handled it.

She belonged here.

“Mother? Hello? Hello? Dammit!” Holly yanked the phone from her ear and hit a series of numbers, waiting impatiently.

Riley waited, too. Could she really want to stay?

“Mother,” Holly said in relief a moment later. “I just wanted to tell you, the café is in great shape now.” She spoke at the speed of light. “I was thinking we could actually sort of keep it in the family… Yes, I know you’re not interested in the food business, but- Yes, I also know I’ve always gotten bored with things in the past and never saw them through, but this is different…Mother, you’re not listening very well-”

Riley grabbed the phone from Holly’s ear and put on his most polite voice. “Hello, Mrs. Stone. This is Riley McMann, sheriff of Little Paradise.”

Holly stared at him in horror. “What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Trust me,” he whispered back, but she grabbed at the phone.

“Trust you to ruin my life?” she whispered furiously. “No, thank you.”

He merely used his height to his advantage.

Holly gave up and closed her eyes. “My life is over.” She meant it. Her mother would not understand that Riley was trying to help her.

Holly hardly understood it herself.

“Yes, ma’am, I do realize you were talking to your daughter,” she heard him say. “But I think you should know, Holly has done a marvelous job here. She’s changed the serving style and it really works. She got a huge spread in the paper this morning and the café is- No, she’s not paying me to say this!” Shocked, he looked over at Holly.

Holly couldn’t help it, she laughed coldly. “That’s my mother.”

“Look, Mrs. Stone, I’m trying to tell you-” His jaw tightened. “Yes, I’m really the sheriff-”

Oh, her mother was in rare form this morning. Now she’d insulted Riley, the only man in Holly’s entire life to…to what? To get past her defenses? To make her see herself in a way she’d never seen herself before? To make her want things she had no business wanting, things like a white wedding dress and a picket fence?

Last night had been the most amazing-and terrifying-night of her life. Riley had shown her things she’d never dreamed of. He’d coaxed her in that soft, sexy voice to both say and do things she’d never imagined, and all that before the most incredible sexual experience of her life.

His kitchen would never be the same.

She would never be the same.

And now it was over.

Miserable, Holly watched the water from the hose fall into the dog’s dish and overflow.

She shouldn’t feel so surprised that the café had sold, but she did. She felt as if her world had just slipped out from beneath her feet.

And it made no sense. All along she’d known she would leave here. It’d been simply a temporary phase in her life until she figured out what she really wanted to do.

Only it was occurring to her, this was what she wanted to do.

Her timing had always left a lot to be desired.

Riley handed her back the phone, his eyes dark, his mouth grim. “She’s gone. She…didn’t want to talk right now.”

“Right. She probably had something much more important to do than discuss my life.”

“I’ve got to tell you, Holly. I don’t think I like your mother very much.”

She let out a little laugh. “Don’t worry. The feeling is probably mutual.”

“You were crying.”

“Was not.”

“Holly.”

Oh, Lord. Her heart was beating fast and it had nothing to do with her phone conversation and everything to do with him. He looked good. He wore faded jeans and his uniform shirt, which stretched across his broad chest. He looked every inch a rough-and-tumble male.

Now he was squatting down before her, trying to see her face, and she couldn’t allow that. Couldn’t allow him to see her pain. She concentrated on the water flowing from the bowl to the ground, on her silly dog-yes, her silly dog-who was attempting to lap at the flow coming from the hose and was instead managing to get himself all wet.

“Look at me,” Riley said. “Please?”

“I’m busy.” How was she going to walk away from the most wonderful, warm, sexy, gorgeous man on the planet?

She trembled at the thought.

Buster decided he’d had enough water, and with a wiggle that started at his nose and ended at his tail, he shook.

Water flew all over Riley.

Buster panted and smiled, his mission complete.

Riley stroked the dog, then lifted Holly’s chin, forcing her to look at him.

“You’re wet,” she said inanely.

“I’ll dry. You wanted your parents to acknowledge what you’ve done here.”

No sense lying. She lifted a negligent shoulder.

“You wanted them to respect it, and you.”

“I’m sure that sounds stupid to a man who the entire town loves and respects.”

“Oh, Holly.” His eyes were fathomless, and filled with things that made her hurt all the more. “Don’t you see?” he asked her. “No one can give you love and respect until you give it to yourself.”

“Look, I’m…really busy here.”

He didn’t budge, didn’t do anything but look at her with his heart in his gaze, his voice low and unbearably familiar. “Do you, Holly? Do you respect what you’ve done with your life? Are you happy?”

No. A small part of her had been sure she would screw it all up. That she would make a mess of everything and then move on, just as she always had.

And an even smaller part of her resented him for making her face it.

“I know you’re hurting,” he said quietly. “I hate it that you are. But can’t you just admit that you’re upset because you don’t want it to be over?”

Dammit, it was enough she was going to have to leave here, the one place in the entire world that had ever felt like home. It was even worse that she was going to have to leave him.

But to be forced to admit it? Out loud? Never.

She’d leave with her pride intact, thank you very much. “I’m fine. I did a great job. It’ll look good on my résumé.” She even smiled at him, though it was so brittle she was certain she would shatter apart if he so much as touched her. “And I especially had a lovely time getting to know you.”

His eyes narrowed. “That sounded like a goodbye.”

“It was.”

“No.”

“No?” She managed a laugh. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t really up for discussion.”

He let out a breath and shook his head. “You’re really going to do it to me. God. I didn’t think you could, but you are. You’re going to walk away. My mother did that, you know. To my father. It’s why I treated you so cavalierly when you first came. I took one look at you and pegged you as an uncaring sophisticate, out for a good time. Like her.”

She felt her heart constrict. “Oh, Riley. I’m sorry.”

“You’re not like her,” he said flatly. “Not at all. You’re sweet and caring and warm. I know that now. But I don’t think you know it.”

She concentrated on Buster, on how the big, silly oaf was reveling in the growing puddle of water, rolling on his back and frolicking in it as if he were a pup. “I’m trying to make this easier on both of us,” she said.