Cowboy Comes Home. Rachel Lee

and she found herself wondering how often she should walk the puppy. Probably every time it awoke, until she learned its schedule.

      And she’d have to stop off at the store on the way home to get some puppy food and a leash and collar. The prospect gave her something interesting to look forward to.

      In fact, she decided, Dan couldn’t have done a nicer thing for her than dropping that pup into her arms so she couldn’t resist.

      She was thinking about doggie dishes and leashes, and wondering if she could take care of the shopping on her lunch hour, when a battered pickup pulled up out front. She watched with a suddenly pounding heart as Hugh Gallagher climbed out and walked up to the door. Her mouth went dry, and try as she might to tell herself she was overreacting, she couldn’t stop it. Had he come to see her?

      He stepped through the door and gave her a wide, warm smile. “Miss Anna. How are you today?”

      Before she could answer, Jazz, disturbed by the commotion, woke up and gave a squeaky bark. Hugh squatted immediately and looked into the cage. “Who’s this little fella?”

      “That’s…um…that’s Jazz. Reverend Fromberg gave her to me.” Anna sounded as breathless as she felt, and hated herself for it. She wondered why Hugh was here, and was afraid to ask.

      “Jazz? What a cute pup. Irish setter?”

      “Partly.”

      “A mutt, huh? Well, that just means she’ll be really smart, won’t you, girl? Can I take her out?”

      “I guess.”

      She watched as Hugh unlatched the cage and reached in with large, strong hands to lift the little pup gently. Jazz decided she liked him and started licking his chin at once. Anna felt a sharp stab of jealousy, then castigated herself for it.

      Hugh rose and faced her, still holding the squirming puppy. “Dan asked me to come take a look at the church roof. Something about ice damming?”

      “Oh, yes! He asked me to show you where the worst problems were.”

      “Well, get your jacket on and let’s take a stroll. This little gal would probably love to get outside.”

      “I don’t have a leash for her yet.”

      “Just wait a minute. I can rig something with the rope in my truck that’ll do in a pinch.”

      She rose to pull her jacket off the coat tree and found herself fascinated again by the sight of Cowboy walking away from her. He had such a nice…sway was the only word she could think of. Something that riveted her eyes to his flat backside and long legs. She felt a twinge deep inside that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Embarrassed color flooded her cheeks.

      Uh-uh, she told herself. You know better than that, girl.

      She pulled on the jacket and stepped outside, taking care to lock the office door after her.

      It took only a minute for Hugh to fashion a slipknot leash for Jazz. The puppy was ecstatic to be outside and began to run this way and that, giving a squeaky bark of joy. Each time the loop around her neck started to tighten, she came to a swift halt.

      “Smart little gal,” Hugh said, giving Anna a smile. “She won’t give you any trouble.” He handed her the end of the rope. “Now, where exactly were the worst problems?”

      They walked slowly around the church, with Anna pointing out the places where the ice had dammed the snow and caused leaking inside.

      “It was terrible last year,” she told him. “Reverend Fromberg went into the church one morning last winter, and he could hear water dripping everywhere. You couldn’t see where it was dripping, but finally we noticed that it was running down the insides of the window frames.”

      “So it was coming down inside the walls.”

      “Apparently.”

      He nodded. “I’ll have to go up on the roof and see if I can find out what’s keeping the snow from sliding off.

      You’d think with that steep a pitch it wouldn’t be a problem. I’ll also want to get up under the eaves to try to see where the heat is escaping that’s causing the ice to form. Can you leave the church open for a while?”

      “Sure. Just let me know when you’re done so I can lock it up again. I’ll only open the side door, if that’s okay.”

      He gave her a smile. “I only need one door.”

      Jazz had run off most of her energy and had squatted at four or five different points along the way, so Anna figured the puppy was ready to return to the cage for a nap. She unlocked the church’s side door for Hugh, then hurried back to her office.

      She loved this time of year, she found herself thinking as she and the puppy trotted along. The breeze was crisp, carrying a hint of the winter to come, and the light had a buttery color to it, the last golden glow of autumn. Any day now the snow would march down off the white-capped peaks to the west and sprinkle itself all over Conard City like powdered sugar.

      Inside the office, she put Jazz in her cage, then hunted up a bowl and put some water in with the dog. The puppy lapped thirstily, then curled up into a little ball of fur and fell right to sleep.

      Well, that wasn’t too difficult, Anna thought as she settled back at her desk. She’d managed not to babble like a fool to Hugh Gallagher, she’d walked the dog successfully, remembered to give it a drink…hey, she was getting competent.

      Chuckling at her own silliness, she reached for the next letter she needed to type, only to be interrupted by the phone.

      “Anna, it’s Dan. I’m going to be at the hospital a while. Candy had a bad reaction to the anesthetic, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. Say a prayer for her, will you? I don’t know at this point if I’ll be back to the office at all.”

      “I’ll cancel your appointments.”

      “Thanks. Go ahead and take your lunch whenever you want. And close up early if you feel like it. You need some rest, my child.”

      Anna hung up the phone, wondering why she always felt like crying when Dan Fromberg got that gentle note in his voice and called her “my child.” He called a lot of people “my child” when they were laid low by life and were calling on him in his ministerial capacity. Still, it affected her.

      The phone rang again, just as she was getting ready to call and cancel the first appointment. This time it was Sheriff Nate Tate.

      “Hi, sweet pea,” he said in his deep, gravelly voice. For some reason he always called her sweet pea. “Is the boss around?”

      “He’s at the hospital and probably won’t be back in again today.”

      “Somebody get hurt?”

      “A bad reaction to anesthesia.”

      “Not good.” But he knew better than to ask who was involved. “Well, I got a leetle bit of a problem here. Maybe you can help.”

      “Me?”

      He chuckled warmly. “Yes, you, sweet pea. Everyone knows how well you get on with the kids in the youth group, and you’re the closest thing we have around here to a youth counselor.”

      Anna felt a pleasant blush fill her cheeks. “Don’t exaggerate, Sheriff.”

      “I’m not. Do you think you can come over here to the office? I’ve got me a little gal you know in a cell who shouldn’t be in the cell. I really need somebody to talk to her and figure out what’s going on. I’ll tell you more when you get here.”

      “I’ll be right over, but I have to make a couple of phone calls first.”

      “It’s not that big a rush,” he assured her. “This little lady is going to be sitting here a while.”

      It took Anna ten minutes to