Authors: Linda Bridey
Tags: #Romance, #Historical, #Victorian, #Western, #Historical Romance, #Westerns
He grimaced when he saw Jessie sitting at the counter. Mitch went up to the counter and gave his order to Alice.
“Hello, Sheriff,” Jessie said.
“Jessie,” Mitch said.
“How’s your sweetheart?” Jessie said.
“She’s fine,” Mitch said.
“That’s good. She has a dangerous job,” Jessie said.
Mitch laughed. “Yeah, but she can handle it.”
“I never figured you for liking a woman like that,” Jessie said.
“You don’t know me very well,” Mitch said. “How would you know what I like and what I don’t?”
Jessie glanced at Mitch. “What does that mean?”
Mitch turned to face Jessie, “It means that I’ve never been your favorite person. Probably because I didn’t kiss your ass like other people do.”
The smile Jessie gave him was sly. “You’re just mad because I have a lot of friends.”
Mitch said, “I’d rather have a few good friends I can count on than a bunch of fake friends who wouldn’t help you when the chips are down.”
“My friends help me all the time,” Jessie said.
“They wouldn’t if you weren’t mayor,” Mitch said. “You’d be out in the cold.”
Jessie’s face tightened. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I’ll be reelected then.”
“Are you sure about that?” Mitch goaded him. “I hear that Patrick Davenport is going to run. I’d watch my back if I were you.”
Alice brought the sheriff his food and Mitch left without another word to Jessie. The mayor fumed as he finished his meal, but then brightened when he thought about all of his plans.
Mitch was still smiling as he entered the office and gave Boonie his food. The prisoner took it and thanked the sheriff. When Mitch went back out to the main part of the building, he heard something but couldn’t figure out where it had come from.
“Pssst! Mitch!”
He recognized Sammi’s voice. “Where are you?”
Then he saw her hand coming out of the slightly ajar storeroom door. She crooked a finger at him. “Lock the door,” she whispered.
Mitch grinned as he stepped to the door and locked it. He drew the blinds and joined Sammi in the storeroom. Mitch took her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers in a heated kiss.
A few minutes later, someone knocked on the sheriff’s office door. Mitch and Sammi groaned in tandem and laughed. Mitch hurriedly stepped outside the storeroom. He straightened his shirt before unlocking and opening the front door.
“Hey, Mitch,” Joe said. “What’s with the locked door?”
“I got Boonie in the back and I had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want Hector coming in and letting him out again like he did last time,” Mitch lied. Hector was Boonie’s son.
“Oh, ok,” Joe said as he gave Mitch the once over. Mitch’s usually neat hair was a little ruffled and Joe detected the faint scent of Florida water, something that was normally worn by women. Joe had had his share of quick trysts and knew what he had looked like after some of them. He snickered and then it turned into a full belly laugh.
Joe still laughed as he took a small comb from his suit jacket pocket and handed it to Mitch. “Hey, Sammi!” Joe said loudly.
Mitch clapped a hand over Joe’s mouth. “Shut up, Joe! I just told you that Boonie’s in the back!” Mitch whisper-yelled at his friend.
Sammi opened the storeroom door and stepped out. She didn’t see any harm in coming out since it was just Joe. Joe’s eyes bugged out when he saw what Sammi wore. He pulled Mitch’s hand from his face and whispered, “Oh crap. No wonder you had to jump her.”
Mitch punched Joe in the arm and Joe grabbed it.
“Stop looking at her like that,” Mitch warned Joe.
“It’s hard not to,” Joe said.
Sammi turned around and said, “So you like?”
“Hell yeah, I like. Oh wow. I think Lacey needs a pair of them. Well, maybe not right now, but maybe a couple of months after she has the baby,” Joe said.
“What did you want, Joe?” Mitch said with a hard stare at Joe.
Joe lowered his voice again as he said, “We’re gonna meet out at Dean’s again tomorrow night for a last minute strategy session. Be there at seven. See ya then. Mitch, keep that comb. I have plenty. You never know when you might need it.” He winked at them and stepped out the door.
Sammi gave Mitch a kiss on the cheek and said, “You do need to comb your hair a little. See ya tonight.”
Work was fairly quiet that night for Sammi since Joe and company had entertained everyone for quite some time. She was disappointed when Mitch had left a little early, but turned her mind back to her job and having fun with her friends. When the night was over, she made her way home. Owl tailed her faithfully and made sure she arrived safely at her cottage.
Sammi lit a lamp and locked her door. She turned around to see a long box with a bow on it sitting on her sofa. “Mitch?” she called out. There was no answer. She looked in her bedroom, but it was empty. She went back out to the box and smiled. Slowly she undid the ribbon and lifted the lid off the box. A Maynard Carbine First Model was nestled in tissue paper. Sammi put a hand to her mouth.
It was a beautiful rifle and there had been a limited number of them manufactured, so she understood how rare the gun was. Reverently she picked it up and caressed the barrel of the breech access weapon. The shorter twenty inch barrel made it easier to shoot when mounted on a horse. She put the stock against her shoulder and checked out the sights. They were perfect. Sammi knew if she practiced hard enough, she could hit something six hundred yards away with the carbine.
As she placed the gun back in the box, Sammi saw a smaller box inside it. She opened it up and saw a diamond ring lying on a bed of velvet. There was a note that said, “Will you marry me? If the answer is yes, come to my house as soon as you find this.”
Sammi let out an excited squeal and couldn’t ever remember making that kind of sound before. Already Mitch knew her well enough to realize that she wouldn’t want some long drawn out romantic dinner at the end of which he would propose to her. The rifle and ring combination was the perfect proposal for a woman like her.
She snatched up the ring box, locked up, and sprinted to Mitch’s house. The front door was unlocked and Sammi entered without knocking. She found another note stuck to the newel post with one of her knives. If anyone else had ever taken one of her knives without her permission, Sammi would have made them sorry. She was willing to make an exception in Mitch’s case. There was nothing on the note but a big arrow pointing upstairs.
Candlelight flickered in the doorway of what Sammi knew was Mitch’s room. She took the stairs two at a time and burst into his room. She stopped and stared at all of the candles that lined his dresser and long bureau. The effect was very romantic. Then she looked at the bed. Mitch calmly sat up against the headboard in nothing but his underwear.
“Hi, Sammi,” he said. He cocked his head at her and asked, “What brings you by?”
“Yes! Yes! I’ll marry you!” she shouted. She hurried over to the bed and held the box out to Mitch.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took the box from her. With a smile, he opened the lid and took out the ring. Mitch threw the box over his shoulder and it landed somewhere on the floor on the other side of the bed. Sammi laughed. Mitch placed a palm against her stomach and pushed her back.
Kneeling on one knee in front of her he said, “I know you already answered me, but I’m gonna ask again anyway. You are the toughest, sexiest, most fun woman I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Sammi. Will you marry me?”
Sammi couldn’t speak because tears of joy constricted her throat. She vehemently nodded in response to his question. Mitch slipped the ring on her finger and gazed up into her blue eyes that brimmed with tears. Mitch rose and took her face in his hands and kissed her softly. The tears spilled over her cheeks as Sammi closed her eyes and put her hands on his chest. She surrendered everything within her to Mitch; something Sammi had never done with anyone before.
Mitch undressed her slowly, memorizing each moment. He didn’t want to forget a single minute of this night. As he laid her down on the bed and joined her, Sammi whispered, “I love you, Mitch.”
He looked into her beautiful eyes. “You don’t—“
“Shut up,” she said gently. “I have since the night I told you everything about me and you accepted me for who and what I am. I never thought I’d find anyone who would do that. I couldn’t tell you before now because I didn’t know how. I’ve never said those words to any man before. I love you.”
“I do accept you and I want you just as you are,” Mitch said.
Sammi smiled and said, “Make love to me, Mitch.”
Mitch smiled back and fulfilled her request.
For once, Mitch slept later than Sammi. The scent of coffee coaxed him from slumber. Opening his eyes, Mitch looked over at Sammi’s side of the bed and found it empty. He sat up and put his feet on the floor and remembered that he was now an engaged man. He grinned as he remembered Sammi’s enthusiastic response to his proposal. It wasn’t every woman who’d be so thrilled by a rifle and a ring, but that was his Sammi.
My Sammi.
Mitch loved how that sounded.
“Hey, Sheriff! Get that sweet ass down here for breakfast!” Sammi yelled up the stairs.
Mitch laughed as he pulled on underwear and pants. As he descended the stairs, Mitch smelled something delicious cooking and his mouth watered. He found Sammi in the kitchen dressed in one of his shirts.
“Good morning,” Mitch said.
“’Morning,” Sammi said and turned back to the stove. “How’d you sleep, Sheriff?”
Mitch came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. “Well, what sleep I did get was excellent,” he said and kissed the side of her head.
“I know the feeling,” she said as she flipped an omelet.
Mitch watched the engagement ring flash in the light as her hands moved and felt a possessive pride that she was his fiancée. “Hey, where’d you get that pretty ring?” he asked.
“From the most wonderful, handsome, thoughtful man on the planet,” she said.
“Oh? Who would that be?” Mitch asked.
“Boonie. I don’t know where he got that kind of money, but--‘”
Mitch tickled her and she stomped on his foot. He was glad that she was in her bare feet instead of wearing her boots. “Ow!”
Sammi laughed and said, “Behave or I’ll burn your omelet.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mitch said and sat at the table.
Sammi soon dished up their omelets and poured coffee for them. She sat down and caught Mitch watching her. “What?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You amaze me.”
“Why?”
“You bust heads and toss people out on their cans by night and cook by day,” Mitch said.
Sammi smiled and said, “You forgot the time in between there where I make fantastic love to the sheriff.”
Mitch smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm. “How could I forget that part?”
“I don’t know. I think that’s a pretty hard part to forget,” Sammi said as she took a bite of omelet.
Mitch did the same and said, “Delicious and the omelet isn’t bad, either.”
Sammi threw a piece of omelet at him. He dodged it and it landed somewhere on the floor. “Stop that,” he said just as another piece hit him in the forehead. “Sammi!”
A third piece hit his chest and stuck there. Sammi giggled and got ready to throw another piece at him, but he came around the table after her. Just when he thought he had her, Sammi ducked and slid under the table to the other side and started running. Sammi led Mitch on a wild chase through the huge house before he caught her in one of the bedrooms.
Sammi showed him just how tricky she could be even though she was dressed only in a shirt. A wrestling match ensued which involved a lot of laughing. It was a playful fight on both parts and became foreplay for a different type of wrestling match.
Monday morning dawned and the square began to fill up. Everyone was curious as to what Joe Dwyer was calling a meeting about. They grew even more curious as Seth and company set up their instruments.
Joe was more nervous than he’d ever been in his life except for the night he’d begged Lacey’s forgiveness. As he sat in the Sheriff’s office with Lacey, his right leg bounced up and down. Then he got up and paced and then sat down again.
Lacey put a hand on his arm. “Joe, calm down, honey,” she said.
He looked into her beautiful dark eyes and said, “I don’t know if I can, darlin’. I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Joe, you listen to me. You are just what this town needs. You’re fair, generous, smart, and caring; all things that Jessie isn’t. The people out there in that square know it. Plus, you’re tenacious when you go after something. You got me back, didn’t you? The man who went all the way to Walhalla to buy my horse and steal my things from my room for me, is the same man who’s going to do so much good for this town, including me and our baby,” Lacey said and squeezed his hand.
Joe put his hand on her stomach and felt the baby kick as if in agreement with Lacey. His nerves abated and he smiled at her. “So are you ready to become the first lady of Dawson, Mrs. Dwyer?”
She smiled and said, “Why, yes, Mr. Dwyer, I am.”
He stood and held his hand out to her. “Shall we?”
Tessa stood with Dean and Jack as Joe jumped up onto the gazebo. She thought he looked dashing in his pinstriped gray suit with a vivid cobalt blue tie. Marcus had helped pick out his wardrobe using psychological statistics regarding how people responded to various colors. Joe had wanted to wear a red tie, but Marcus convinced him that he needed to look a little more serious for this occasion.
Tessa was nervous about how her speech would be received. She and Joe had worked hard on it. Tessa wanted it to sound as true to the way Joe normally spoke as possible and yet convey deep emotion. Dean looked over at his wife and saw her tense expression. He took her hand and squeezed it. Leaning over he whispered his encouragement in her ear. She smiled gratefully at him.
Joe took a steadying breath before turning his megawatt smile on full force and saying, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!”
The crowd responded in kind.