Holiday in a Stetson. Marie Ferrarella

was laced with amusement. As annoying as he found her attitude, he also found it oddly sexy. “I picked up a few skills in my last job,” she told him. “And I’ve always been rather handy with a nail file.”

      “Like for breaking and entering?” he asked sarcastically.

      “Like for being able to gain access to a residence if the key was missing.” That was the way she preferred to phrase it.

      And, taking Ellie’s small hand in hers, she led the girl into the kitchen, where the warm, welcoming aroma of beef stew greeted them.

      Garrett felt his own stomach rumbling in response, but made no comment about being hungry. Chisholm had completely taken over, he realized. He had to call her on that before she really got carried away. The woman was invading his space, damn it.

      But hunger got in the way of his indignance. For the time being, he chose to put the issue on hold.

      “You make that?” he asked, nodding at the stew.

      “I’d like to take credit,” she admitted amiably, “but my dad’s the cook in our family. Although I can do a fairly good job in a pinch. He sent this over because he knew you’d be hungry after your long trip,” she told Ellie, then looked up at Garrett. “You, too, Sheriff,” she added. “C’mon,” she said to the girl, “I’ll show you where you can wash up. Later, when you’re finished, I’ll show you your new room.”

      “Her room?” Garrett repeated, confused. What room? He didn’t have an extra room. Was she putting the girl into his bedroom? He supposed he could live with that, he thought, turning the matter over in his head. But that was his decision to make, not hers.

      Lani looked at him over her shoulder. “Yes, I thought you could put her up in your den until you get the time to make it over into a second bedroom. By the way, in case you need help, I’m also very handy with tools.”

      “Of course you are,” he murmured under his breath. She seemed to be a jack of all trades—or whatever the female equivalent was called.

      Lani looked at the little girl, still holding on to her hand. “You’ll like it once it’s all fixed up. Right now, it has the smell of old leather about it. But the sofa’s really comfortable,” she declared, as if she had firsthand knowledge of that.

      “I don’t mind the smell of old leather,” Ellie told her solemnly.

      Lani nodded. “Knew you were a trooper the second I saw you.” As the little girl smiled up at her, she continued, “I made the sofa up with sheets and a blanket, just like a real bed.”

      For the moment, Garrett could only listen and stare, too shell-shocked to form a coherent question and shoot it out at her. But he now knew how the Romans had felt when the Barbarians appeared at the city gates—just before they ransacked them.

       Chapter Five

      “I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but would you mind staying a little longer?” Garrett asked later that evening, after they had eaten what had turned out to be an incredible meal.

      Despite that, despite the almost mellow feeling a full stomach generated, it felt to him as if he had to drag every word out of his mouth. He hated asking for a favor, especially from someone he normally considered to be his personal cross to bear.

      Ever since the town council had decided to hire the former San Diego homicide detective and make her his deputy, he’d felt put upon and crowded by her cheerfulness, by what seemed to him to be her overly eager approach to work. Hell, he’d felt put upon and crowded by her very presence.

      But what he now faced was a different set of circumstances, and although Chisholm had, without his permission, invaded his home, shattering his very last bastion of privacy, he had to admit that the blonde steamroller ran interference between him and his niece rather effortlessly and exceedingly well. It was apparent that the little girl was completely taken with her, and right now, he could really use his deputy and her effervescence.

      Lani gazed at him for a long moment, an enigmatic smile on her lips. Then, rather than answer Garrett’s request, she walked over to the window and looked out at the very inky terrain that lay beyond the front yard of the house.

      Now what? he wondered. Subconsciously, he braced himself. “What are you looking for out there?” he asked guardedly.

      Lani continued gazing through the window. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anything out there to see.

      “Just waiting to see what direction the Four Horsemen are coming from,” she told him.

      Why was it that this woman never made any sense when she talked? Was it so much to ask for—that she make sense? At least part of the time?

      “Four horsemen?” he asked impatiently, when she didn’t elaborate.

      Lani turned away from the window. “Of the Apocalypse,” she clarified. “I figure if you’re actually asking me to hang around your house—and you—after hours, the end of the world must be coming.”

      He supposed he had reached that point. And he wasn’t exactly happy about it. Granted, she was very attractive—for a pain in the butt—but her pushy personality completely blotted out any sort of physical reaction a normal man might have to her.

      “Probably,” he agreed. “So, will you stay a little longer?” he pressed, then felt it only fitting to explain why he was asking something so out of character for him. “Ellie seems to like having you around.”

      There was more to it than that and they both knew it. “And you like having me here to deal with her, instead of you having to do so.”

      Garrett looked at Lani darkly. He didn’t want her in his head. He had a hard enough time with her in his office and in his house.

      “I didn’t say that,” he told her.

      “You didn’t have to, Garrett,” she answered with that wide, annoying grin that irritated him to the nth degree. And then she partially redeemed herself by saying, “Yes, I’ll stay. For Ellie’s sake.”

      Well, it sure as hell wasn’t for his sake. He’d been doing just fine without any company whatsoever, much less the company of a woman who never stopped talking. She probably talked in her sleep.

      “That’s all I’m asking,” he retorted.

      It didn’t escape him, even though he made no mention of it, that she had just called him by his first name rather than by his title.

      He supposed that was because they were no longer in the office, but it still felt far too personal. However, mentioning it to her might seem as if he was nitpicking. Moreover, if he said something about it, she might leave, and though he really wasn’t thrilled about the fact, he did need her to stay. He wasn’t any good at dealing with someone who was a few years away from reaching puberty.

      So he resigned himself to putting up with the lack of barriers around him—for now.

      To be honest—and to give the devil her due—he had to marvel at how easily his deputy got along with the solemn little girl. He had the feeling that his niece seemed relieved to have a woman around to talk to. Though she was absolutely nothing like Ellen, Chisholm probably reminded Ellie of her mother, at least to some degree.

      His conscience clear, Garrett eased out of the room and left the two females to whatever it was that they were doing together.

      A few hours later, after an exhausted Ellie had fallen asleep, he told Chisholm she was free to go home. She left shortly thereafter.

      It took him a while to empty his mind of all deputy-related thoughts, so that he could finally drop off to sleep.

      THE NOISE CHEWED into his dreamless sleep like a rodent nibbling away at a cardboard box. Garrett’s eyes flew open.

      Alert, he lay there in the dark and waited to hear if the sound was real, or just