“‘A Day in the Life of Sheriff MacKade.’” Rafe helped himself to coffee. “The boy’s nuts about you.”
“Good thing.” Shane took another cookie. “Since Devin’s going to marry his mama.”
Rafe bobbled the coffee, spilled it on his hand and swore. “Cassie? Little Cassie?”
“Shane’s getting ahead of himself,” Devin said, in a mild tone that belied the gleam in his eye. “As usual.”
“Hey, you’re the one who said it. Me, I figure you’ve just lost your mind. Like these two.”
“Shut up, Shane.” Jared kept his eyes on Devin’s face. “You and Cassie?”
“So what?”
“So…that’s interesting.”
“Are you speaking as her attorney?” Devin pushed back from the desk. If the phone rang again, he thought he might just rip it out of the wall. To get himself back under control, he went to the coffee.
“He’s got it bad,” Rafe observed. “Didn’t you have a thing for her about ten, twelve years ago?” When Devin didn’t answer, merely poured the coffee, sipped it steely-eyed, Rafe grinned. “Never got over it, did you? Son of a gun. Why, that’s practically poetic, bro. It gets me, right here.” He thumped a hand on his chest.
“Keep ragging me, it’ll get you somewhere else.”
“It’s getting so every day’s Valentine’s Day in Antietam.” In disgust, Shane shoved another cookie in his mouth. “A man’s not safe.”
“Cassie’s a sweetheart,” Rafe said pointedly.
“Sure she is.” Gamely, Shane swallowed, so that he could make his point. “She’s as good as they come, and pretty with it. But why does that mean he has to marry her? You see all this stuff?” With a sweep of his hand, he indicated all the pies, cakes, tarts, cookies. “Women are going to fall all over him, and he’s tossing them off because he’s gone cross-eyed over one woman. It’s not only stupid, it’s…well, it’s selfish.”
Rafe gave Shane a thump on the back of the head that would have felled a grizzly. “Man, I love this guy. He’s going to carry the MacKade legend into the next millennium.”
“Damn right,” Shane agreed. “No woman’s going to tie me down. I mean, with all the flowers out there, why pick one when you can have a bouquet?”
“Now that’s poetry.” Rafe thumped him again. “Let’s go get that beer.”
“You two go on.” Jared stayed where he was. “I need to talk to Devin a minute.”
They left, arguing about who was buying. When the room was quiet again, Devin took his coffee back to his desk. “You got a problem?”
“No.” Jared shifted so that they were face-to-face. “But you might. Have you talked to Cassie about marriage?”
“A little. Why?”
“Joe Dolin.”
“They’re divorced. It’s done.”
“They’re divorced.” Eyes steady, Jared rested a hand on his knee. “But done’s another thing. He’ll get out eventually, Devin. He’ll come back.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Yeah, I figure you can handle Joe, one-on-one. But there’s the law.”
Unconsciously Devin brushed a finger over his badge. “He tries to touch Cassie again, just tries, and I’ll have him back behind bars before he can blink.”
“And that’s part of the problem. You’re the sheriff, but you won’t be objective. You can’t be.”
Devin set his coffee aside, leaned forward. “I’ve been in love with her most of my life. At least it seems that way. And I had to stand back and do little more than nothing while he hurt her. While I knew what he was doing to her inside that house. She wouldn’t let me help, so the law tied my hands. Things are different now, and nothing’s going to stop me from taking care of her. He lifts his hand to her again, and he’s dead. Problem solved.”
Jared nodded. He didn’t take the statement lightly. He knew what it was to need to protect the woman you loved from any sort of harm. And he knew Devin was a man who said exactly what he meant.