Made For Loving You

Chapter 1-2

“Deputy Brooks!”

Ty tried not to wince as Crystal Blue proclaimed his presence to the entirety of the lunch crowd at the diner. Not that there was anyone there who didn’t already know who he was. Probably. Eden’s Ridge and the rest of Stone County was a small town. He’d grown up in one much like it within spitting distance over the state line in Georgia, so he understood that, even at more than a year in residence, he was still news and still carried the mantle of New Guy. What he hadn’t been prepared for was being considered fresh meat. The diner’s cheerful proprietress seemed determined to matchmake him, despite all his protestations that he wasn’t looking for a woman. Or a man. She’d run a few of those in his direction, too.

She had that gleam in her eyes as he approached the counter, and he abruptly wished he’d gotten takeout from Elvira’s Tavern. Denver wouldn’t try to marry him off with his patty melt.

“Crystal. Is my order ready? I’ve got some business down in Cummings.” Why couldn’t there be a convenient call from dispatch to back him up on that?

“Nearly. Have a seat, sugar.” She gestured toward the lone empty spot of the counter, right next to a woman in a trim pencil skirt and blouse, head down as she worked on her phone.

He had a bad feeling as he slid onto the stool.

Crystal began to swipe at a nonexistent spot on the counter. “Have you met our Celeste?”

The woman looked up, dark eyes going wide as a deer in the headlights.

Ty could relate. “I don’t believe so.”

“Celeste is the head of our Chamber of Commerce.”

He nodded to the woman, understanding he had to say something. “Ma’am.”

Crystal beamed. “Don’t these former military men have lovely manners?” Ty noted she didn’t bother introducing him. It was understood that everyone knew who he was.

“Um, yeah. Hi.” A faint flush rose beneath the tawny copper of her cheeks, and she flashed an awkward smile that told him she wasn’t any more prepared for this ambush than he was.

“You two both love the patty melt on sourdough with curly fries,” Crystal announced, preening as if she’d brokered world peace.

She was matchmaking by food preferences now?

As Ty tried to come up with a polite, noncommittal response, an arm slung around his shoulders. He recognized the weight and feel of it before the other man even began to speak. “Reckon you’re too late, Crystal. Ty here was seen in the company of a mysterious brunette at Harrison and Ivy’s wedding. Could be he’s off the market.’’

Damn Sebastian.

Ty had been avoiding this for two weeks. It seemed his time was up. He turned a silent glare on the man who’d had his back on more missions than he could count. It was really too bad Ty was gonna have to kill him.

“Is that true?” Crystal vibrated with equal parts affront and interest.

Ty thought of the brunette in question, startled to realize how much he wanted to say yes. But what he had with Paisley wasn’t a relationship. It was... Well, he didn’t know what the hell it was. He wasn’t willing to share with the class either way.

“My food, Crystal? I really need to go.”

With a pout, she handed over the bag. Ty made as dignified a beeline for the exit as he could manage.

Sebastian followed him out the door. “So, who is she?”

The girl he’d once been willing to do anything for. Including letting her go when his life path would have broken her, no matter how much it had hurt him to do it.

“Just a wedding fling.”

Even saying it made him want to wince. Paisley Parish wasn’t just anything, but he wasn’t opening up that vein with Sebastian.

“Well, whatever it is, we’re all happy to see you get back out there. Garrett would be proud that you’re starting to live again.”

The familiar rush of shame and guilt swept over him, as it always did whenever anyone mentioned the best friend he’d failed to protect. Garrett would be anything but proud. He’d be lining up to kick Ty’s a*s for the casual, no strings arrangement he’d agreed to. Paisley was a forever girl, not a fling. When they’d both been preparing to go into the Army with an eye toward Special Forces, Garrett had called Ty a fool for breaking things off with Paisley instead of marrying her as Garrett had his own long-time girlfriend. From this side of it, with Garrett dead and Bethany a widow, it was hard not to think that, on this at least, he’d made the right call.

Ty didn’t know if he was making the right call now, keeping in touch with Paisley. He hadn’t planned to. Then again, nothing had gone according to his plan since he’d run into her at that wedding reception. He’d been riding on nostalgia and l**t and the embers of other feelings he’d thought long dead and buried. His entire adult life had been spent running headlong into situations where others feared to tread, yet somehow this felt more dangerous.

After losing Garrett in the line of duty and separating from the Army, Ty wasn’t in any shape for a relationship. He lived for the job now. It was the thing that had salvaged his sanity, if not his soul. That made him a s**t bet for someone like her. All he had to give her was the physical. Knowing she deserved so much more than that, he’d tried to walk away from her. Again.

But Paisley hadn’t asked for more than the physical. And when push came to shove, he hadn’t been strong enough to do what he’d done at eighteen. He was enough of a selfish bastard to take her at her word because being with her was the first thing he’d done in two years that had made him feel anything but numbness or raging grief. Garrett would’ve been taking him to task for using her. Or advising him to call the damned preacher.

But Garrett wasn’t here. There was, for now, only Sebastian, who was lounging against Ty’s squad car, grinning.

Shit. How long had he been standing here thinking about Paisley?

“What?”

“Nothin’. I just think you’re mooning an awful lot over something that’s just a wedding fling.” The grin got broader, taking on a Cheshire Cat cast at the prospect that another of their circle had been hit with the love stick.

“Don’t be a dumbass. I’m not mooning.”

“Sure, you’re not.” He clapped Ty on the shoulder. “So, when are you going to see her again?”

“What makes you think I’m going to see her again?”

“Because, until you got ambushed by Crystal in there, that was the most relaxed I’ve seen you in…hell, maybe a decade. Certainly, recent memory. Seems a shame not to repeat the experience.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. And Ty would’ve been lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about her. Constantly. They’d been texting. He’d held himself back from calling her, as much to see if he could as to stick to the terms he’d agreed to. But he’d sooner be waterboarded than admit it to the asshat masquerading as his friend.

The radio at his shoulder crackled. “Deputy Brooks, this is dispatch.”

Grunting, Ty dragged open the door to his Sheriff’s Department cruiser and tossed in his food as he reached for the call button. “Dispatch, this is Brooks. Go ahead, Essie.”

“We’ve got at situation down at 583 Westinghouse Road.”

“What kind of situation?”

“Probable domestic dispute. Clyde is en route for backup.”

“On my way.”

Sebastian’s smile had disappeared. “Be careful, brother.”

“Always am.” He slid into the driver’s seat, nodding as Sebastian double tapped the hood in farewell.

Flipping on the light bar, he headed out to save the day.