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Jessamy looked up then and spotted me.

Her mouth turned into the cutest O ever.

My brows rose as I leveled her with a look.

She ducked her head.

“Say the horse wandered here,” Denver murmured. “Broke out of the fence looking for food.”

I nodded. “I can do that.”

“And tell that dumb fuck of a deputy,” Holly hissed. “The one that went over there today, saw this horse’s state, and didn’t do anything about it, that she’s a damn dumbass.”

Denver caught her by the back of the neck and pulled her to him. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and let her go.

“Heard about it over the scanner,” she admitted. “Got my stuff all ready to go take a look at it myself, but the call never actually came in.”

“That would be Dempsey,” I explained. “Seems she has blinders on when it comes to Jessamy.”

“Well, just because she doesn’t like her doesn’t mean that she can’t open her fucking eyes,” she grumbled as she walked away.

“Caught her trying to sneak the horse into our pasture.” Denver laughed. “She could’ve accomplished it had I not already been up with a sick horse of my own.”

We both watched as Holly got back to work, Jessamy offering moral support to the horse.

“You like her.”

I turned to face my friend, my back against the rails, as Jessamy started heading our way. “What?”

“Jessamy,” he said, giving the arena his back as well. “You like her.”

I thought about that for a long second before answering. “There’s something about her that I can’t stay away from.”

“Town won’t like that.”

No, no they wouldn’t.

Jessamy wasn’t liked.

“I’m not sure what to do about her,” I admitted.

“You want her, it shouldn’t matter.”

I shrugged. “It’s hard to tell the heart to listen to reason. And if I was smart, I’d stay as far away from Jessamy Darling as I could get. But…”

“These allegations that were thrown at you won’t help,” he mused. “You start dating Jessamy, and things will go south for you pretty darn fast. And this is an election year.”

Did I care that this was an election year?

I’d done this job for a long damn time.

I’d spent countless sleepless nights protecting this county from itself.

But I deserved to be happy.

I deserved to be with the woman that drove me mad.

“What if I don’t care about the election?” I admitted.