The Cop. Jan Hudson

delivery and a few groceries from one of those online places. Here, he was worried about his mother. She ran up and down those stairs a dozen times a day checking on him, and she was no spring chicken anymore. Cole thought again about taking his brother Frank up on his offer to stay with the twins and him, but he didn’t want to impose, especially now that Frank was engaged. J.J.’s place was out—stairs again—and he was engaged, too. In fact, J.J. and Mary Beth were getting married in a few days. They had plenty going on without having to worry about their gimpy brother.

      Nope, that wasn’t an option.

      Hell, he knew he needed to go to PT. The sooner he got able to tend to himself, the sooner he could be out of everybody’s hair. Cole wasn’t used to being dependent on anybody, and he didn’t like being helpless. Not a damned bit.

      He was just going to have to try to get down those stairs by himself.

      KELLY DROPPED BY the Twilight Tearoom at the end of the lunch hour and had a quick bite as she sometimes did when she had time. In the odd spare moments she’d had since she’d seen Cole Outlaw that morning, thoughts of him had preyed on her mind. In some ways he looked very much like his brothers, J.J. and Frank, both patients of hers. Tall, dark, handsome. But life had carved a different character into his features, his bearing—and she found him stunningly seductive. Odd, since she’d never had such feelings about a patient before—not that he was actually her patient.

      Of course she’d noticed that his brothers were good-looking guys, but being around them had never assaulted her senses and jolted her libido. The family patriarch, old Judge John Outlaw, thought naming his sons for notorious characters was politically smart—they’d have a leg up on opponents or in business. The tradition had continued through his grandsons. Of all the current crop of Outlaws named for famous desperados, Cole Younger Outlaw came closest to living up to his name. He might have been a cop, but he was as menacing as any gunslinger who ever lived. And, she admitted, turned her on like crazy. Interesting. Very interesting. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue these unusual feelings or not.

      When Kelly finished her chicken quesadillas, the tables were almost empty, and she went back into the kitchen to talk with Mary Beth Parker. Mary Beth owned the tearoom and the adjacent Twilight Inn, a small motel she had restored. She and J. J. Outlaw, the current county sheriff, were getting married on Saturday.

      “Got a second?” Kelly asked as she stuck her head in.

      “Sure,” Mary Beth said, wiping her hands and coming to the door. “What’s up?”

      “Do you have a vacancy at the inn?” she asked quietly.

      Mary Beth grinned. “Need a place for a rendezvous?”

      Kelly rolled her eyes at her friend and patient. “I wish. No, I’m trying to find a place for Cole to stay while he recuperates.”

      “I thought he was staying with Miss Nonie and Wes.”

      “He is, but he needs to be on the ground floor…and he needs a place where he feels some independence but where his family could drop in with casseroles occasionally. The inn would be ideal. And I thought that since he’s family…well, that the cost wouldn’t be too prohibitive.”

      “That wouldn’t be a problem, but we’re full. Besides our regular guests, tomorrow I’m expecting out-of-town friends for the wedding.”

      Kelly sighed. “So much for that.”

      “Wait a minute. I may have another solution.”

      When Mary Beth told her the idea, Kelly grinned. “Perfect. Can you talk to him this afternoon? And maybe it would be best to present the notion to him in a…delicate way.”

      “The male ego thing, you mean?”

      “Exactly.”

      “Gotcha.”

      COLE HADN’T MADE IT past the third step when he had to sit down on the stairs and catch his breath. Three steps was one better than he’d done that morning. Shaking and sweating from his effort, he muttered a string of oaths that would have shocked his mother if she’d heard them. He felt as useless as hip pockets on a hog.

      After resting several minutes, he was about ready to try again when he saw J.J. and Mary Beth coming upstairs.

      “Hey, big brother,” J.J. said. “Whatcha doing sitting out here?”

      “Waiting for a bus,” Cole said.

      “Need any help?”

      “Nope.”

      “Mary Beth wants to ask you something.”

      “Ask away.”

      “It’s a big favor,” Mary Beth said, “and if you don’t feel up to it, just say so. I have a problem. You know that I own the Twilight Inn and Tearoom.”

      She looked as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs, and Cole tried not to grin at his future sister-in-law, a pretty blonde who J.J. had been crazy about since they were kids. “Yes. Heard that you inherited it and fixed it up.”

      “Right. It was a mess. The problem now is that Katy and I—you know my daughter, Katy?”

      He smiled. “The little blond imp who wanted to see my bullet holes.”

      “Yes, sorry about that, Cole. Anyhow, Katy and I are moving from the manager’s apartment to the new house. We’re trying to get settled before the wedding, but the person who was supposed to move in and take over as night manager has backed out, and I’m in a predicament. I was wondering if—oh, no, forget it. It’s too much of an imposition.”

      “What is?” Cole asked.

      “She was hoping that you might be able to fill in for a few weeks,” J.J. said.

      “Just till after the Christmas holidays,” Mary Beth said. “I’m sure I can find another college student then who’ll take over the job for room and board. But you’re probably not up to it yet, Cole. It was a crazy idea. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”

      “Whoa, darlin’,” Cole said. “What does a night manager have to do?”

      “Not a lot, actually,” Mary Beth said. “Answer the phone in the evening and check in an occasional traveler who rings the bell for a room at night. You don’t even have to stay up. Basically just be there for security and to handle emergencies. The only emergency we’ve had was when the toilet overflowed in Unit Three. I had to call the plumber at midnight. The domino bunch takes care of the day shift.”

      “The domino bunch?”

      “Four old geezers who work around the motel for lunch and a place to play dominoes,” J.J. said. “I imagine you know all of them.”

      Cole was naturally suspicious, but he didn’t care if it was a put-up job or not. Mary Beth’s offer sounded like an answer to his prayers. “I’ll be your temporary night manager.”

      “Are you sure you feel like it?” Mary Beth asked.

      “I’m sure.”

      Mary Beth knelt on the stairs and threw her arms around Cole. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, planting kisses on his face.

      “Hey, there,” J.J. grumbled, “that’s enough of that.”

      Cole laughed for the second time that day. “When do I start?”

      Chapter Two

      Shortly after lunch Kelly tapped on Cole’s bedroom door. The biggest and burliest of the hospital’s physical therapists stood behind her with a wheelchair.

      When the door opened, Cole scowled at her. “What are you doing here?”

      He still hadn’t shaved, and he had on well-worn gray sweats that looked even worse than the ones he’d worn