She kept the words scrolling through her mind to herself, although she wanted to blurt them out. Starting a fight or causing even more tension to circulate the air wouldn’t help her to forget him. She only had to pretend Deke didn’t exist. Ignore his very presence. She could feel his gaze on her. His searing green-eyed gaze. Yet he didn’t say a word, not even hello. After three weeks of not saying one word to him—after throwing a cupcake at him—he finally got the message she wanted nothing to do with him.

In the beginning, she had tried to talk to him as if he hadn’t torn her heart out and stomped on it like he was doing a happy jig. Well, she wasn’t always cordial with him, but she had graced him with words on occasion. Then it hit her one day. Why? Why give him the time of day when he hadn’t given her feelings any thought? So, ignoring commenced.

None of it made her feel any better.

Not that she’d ever let anyone know that, though.

She brightened her smile because Danny’s smile was just so infectious she couldn’t resist. Hopefully, it would twist the knife into Deke’s heart a little that she wouldn’t smile at him.

“Why so chipper today?”

Danny shrugged, yet his grin widened. “Kat and I have been tossing baby names back and forth and I found a winner.”

Oh, that was totally worthy of a beaming smile. “Share. I need to know. Boy or girl?”

Danny made a sign of a zipper across his lips. “Not telling. Not until I have official confirmation from Kat it is a winner. And it’s a boy name if we have a boy. This waiting business to find out is ridiculous.”

“A few more months and you can find out. You can do it,” she encouraged. Although she was dying to know herself. It had been a while since someone had a baby in town. She wasn’t the only one ready to ooh and aah and steal the baby for some cuddling time.

“I brought fresh doughnuts from the bakery. They’re in the break room. Agent Wheeler is already here waiting with the sheriff, Bolt, and Pepper.”

“Thanks.” Danny winked and headed toward the hallway.

Charlotte went back to the task at her desk, inputting reports from the past week.

“How long are we going to do this?” the silky, soft voice said from a few feet away. The same voice that she dreamt about nightly. The bastard.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get him out of her mind—or dreams.

But she swore after he ripped out her heart—sure, a bit dramatic as they only shared one night of passion, but still—she would never let him get close to her again. Fool her once. Shame on him. Fool her twice. Well, shame on her. And there would be no shame on her part whatsoever.

“You’re honestly going to ignore me forever?”

Yep. She had every intention of never speaking to him again. Her mother loved to call her stubborn. So had her third, fifth, eighth, and eleventh-grade teachers. Her one aunt on her father’s side as well. Oh, and the sheriff knew he’d never win an argument with her either.

Would she ignore him forever?

Oh, yes. Because she was stubborn as hell.

She felt him shift closer to the counter, yet she didn’t look up.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte. I know I acted badly about leaving like that. But I’m sorry. I hope we can move past this and be friends.”

Friends?

Oh, he kept digging himself deeper and deeper into the trenches of hell.

Her fingers stiffened on the keyboard, then she returned to her task, lest she let him know he affected her. Which he did. The asshole.

It wasn’t the first time he had apologized. Telling her they could remain friends.

Nope. She wasn’t interested. That single word always grated on her nerves. Friends? Like they could just go back to being friends after such an intensely passionate night they shared.

She wasn’t a one-night stand kind of girl. While she knew he had that playboy persona about him, she honestly had been blindsided when she woke up and he was gone. Not even a word good-bye. Hell, he didn’t even call her or swing by the office to say anything to her. She hadn’t seen him for four full days after the fact, and even then, the bastard had the audacity to ignore what transpired between them. Didn’t make one comment about the glorious night of sex they had. She had never in a million years thought he’d treat her so callously and as if she were nothing more than a woman he met off the street.

Well, if he could ignore that, she could ignore him altogether.

People said she was the town sweetheart. Willing to help anyone out, no matter day or night. Charlotte to the rescue on—well, on most problems someone might have. She wasn’t sure she agreed with the title of ‘town sweetheart’, but she never dissuaded anyone from using it. It felt nice being thought of in such a way. But people also knew if you crossed her, watch out. She knew how to draw blood without even inflicting a wound.

“Yo, Deke, you coming?” Danny hollered from across the way.

She heard him sigh heavily, still leaning over the counter.

“You have no idea…” He blew out a breath.

Then she heard his footsteps trail away.

She had no idea about what. Oh, how she wished he would’ve finished that sentence. It could mean so many things.

But then she decided she didn’t care. Anything he had to say would be nothing but sweet lies. She would not fall for his charms again.

She didn’t look up and toward the way he disappeared until she knew he was far enough away from her.

She saw the back of his black, shaggy hair before he completely disappeared from her view.

Special Agent Deke Sumnter of the FBI. The bane of her existence. The only man to destroy her heart.

Ugh. And that was saying something. Because she rarely dated, especially in such a small town. Everyone knew everyone and it was easy to pass on a date already knowing a person’s history. The few times she fell into the trap of dating, it didn’t end well. Men always wanted one thing from her: sex. A nice set of racks—as one man put it—usually was the reason. Although, he was the one—and only—man to ever say that straight to her face. No one talked to her like that and walked away without a limp, holding his hands over his crown jewels to save them from another hit. Treat her with respect or see her wrath. She didn’t feel an ounce of empathy for his pain, considering he hadn’t thought of her feelings when he talked to her so disgustingly.

That was one reason she usually kept dating light and never had sex until at least date nine or ten. Someone wanted in her pants, they could work for it. With conversation and a willingness to wait and that sex wasn’t the only thing they wanted.

Like an idiot, she broke her own rule for a man who had weaseled his way inside her heart with finesse. Hell, he hadn’t even taken her out on one date. She slept with him with nothing more than seeing him every day coming into the sheriff’s department, or at Logan’s house for some sort of gathering.

She thought she knew him.

She thought he’d never treat her like nothing more than a piece of meat.

She thought she saw a spark of—well, she wouldn’t exactly say love, but affection in his gaze every time he looked her way.

Somehow, she wasn’t sure how or when, but she had stupidly fallen in love with him. When he put the moves on her, she didn’t resist. She couldn’t.

She could now.

A sharp, brisk wind shivered across her body as the door to the office opened. Even though it was coming to the end of March, the air still held a bit of a bite to it. Today was exceptionally chilly with the extra wind.

She smiled and stood up when Aubrey rushed inside, probably to escape the cold. Aubrey was not a fan of the cold—for multiple reasons. One, from living in Florida. Two, because being held in a cold, underground dungeon for three months could do that to a person.

But, thankfully, she escaped, found Logan, the town’s wonderful sheriff, and they fell in love. Charlotte considered Aubrey one of her best friends. She’d do anything for her. And she’d been through so much. The first thing she had needed was good friends to help her through her turmoil.

“What’s up?”

Aubrey scoffed as she set a brown paper bag on the counter. “It’s been that kind of morning. Nothing is going right for me. But I don’t have time to get into it. Logan forgot his lunch.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Aubrey was already walking back toward the exit. “Thank you so much. You’re coming over this weekend to talk wedding stuff, right?”

“Definitely. Is Kat up to it?”

Kat was even-tempered, unless you upset her, but lately, her hormones had been putting her attitude all out of whack. A person never knew how she’d respond to something.

They were currently planning two weddings—Aubrey’s and Kat’s. Not on the same day, but they had a lot to do until the big days. Charlotte felt honored she was involved in both. Aubrey had asked her to be a bridesmaid, and Kat had asked her to be her maid of honor. She took her duties very seriously.

Aubrey and Logan planned on tying the knot in early June. And Danny and Kat were thinking next year after the baby was born. Kat couldn’t decide on a specific date. Charlotte chalked it up to her out-of-whack hormones. Kat was usually levelheaded and good at making decisions without backtracking and changing her mind. She had already picked a different date three separate times.

“She has no choice. Gotta go. Tell Pepper she does not have to bring anything. She texted me asking about it, and I’ll have everything ready. I haven’t had time to text her back.”

Then Aubrey was out the door, letting in more cold wind.

Being around Kat was like walking on eggshells lately. And being around Aubrey was like seeing a whole new person. Each day, she got more outspoken, more like her old self. At least, according to Danny and the man she didn’t want to think about since nobody in town had known the old Aubrey. Charlotte was happy to see the changes in her because she didn’t like seeing the scared, unsure Aubrey that she first met. She loved the new her emerging.

Charlotte made a quick note to share the message with Pepper. She might like seeing this new and improved Aubrey emerge, but why was she on edge and distracted this morning? Enough so that she didn’t even have time to send Pepper a quick text in return. Well, whatever it was, Charlotte wouldn’t worry about it yet. Everyone was entitled to a harried day now and again. She wrote Logan’s name on the brown paper bag, then stood up to head to the break room.

Where everyone else was.

Crap.

That’s where they decided to have their morning meeting. To continue organizing the heavy work of bringing down the Cheetah gang. Since Agent Wheeler had arrived in town, Deke and Danny had been helping here instead of heading to the FBI field office in the Cities where they usually worked.

She liked to keep her interactions—even if she didn’t speak to him—short and almost nonexistent with Deke

No biggie.

She could do this.

Walk in the break room, put the bag in the fridge. Walk back out. She didn’t have to say a word to anyone. Well, she’d tell Logan it was his lunch and that would be that.

Yep.

She could do this.

Heading toward the break room, she told herself on an obsessive, harrowing loop she could do this without looking in his direction. Even if she heard his soft, silky voice.

She walked into the room. The first thing she heard was his laughter mingled with Agent Wheeler’s, the gorgeous woman from the DEA helping on the Cheetah case. Ugh. And she couldn’t even hate Agent Wheeler as she was such a super nice woman. There were a few times she thought about warning her away from Deke. Not in a jealous, vindictive way. But more in the watch out, he’ll hurt you way.

“You’re something else, Tiffany,” Deke said with another chuckle mixed in.

Charlotte couldn’t resist. The sound of his laughter, the tone of his voice, even the simple words he said had her shifting her attention from the fridge toward him.

What did that even mean? She missed the beginning of the conversation. All she knew was, she’d bet every last dollar she owned he’d already slept with her or wanted to.

Because that’s all the man knew. How to have sex and mess with a woman’s heart.

He suddenly looked her way, and she felt like the rest of the world had slipped away. It was just the two of them.

She wanted to scream and cry.

From how much she wanted to hurt him—and kiss him.

Copyright © 2021 Amanda Siegrist.

***

To keep reading, click on your favorite retailer below.