Clover Addison noticed the neon yellow ticket fluttering quite merrily beneath her windshield wiper, but she chose to ignore it.
What she couldn't ignore was the fact that Sheriff Smith was an annoying, power-happy, unreasonable —
She muttered descriptions of her nemesis under her breath as she walked the block to his office, carrying the peace offering she hoped would put an end to his vendetta. She cut off the stream of adjectives and pasted on the cheeriest smile she could manage as she opened up the sheriff's office door and walked in.
The office was empty.
"Sheriff?" she called, then added, "Mrs. Andrews?"
Mrs. Andrews was a fixture at the sheriff's office. She'd been there before Sheriff Smith, and would probably be there long after he left. "Mrs. Andrews?"
The door at the back of the office opened and, rather than sweet Mrs. Andrews, Sheriff Smith walked out.
Maybe he'd done poor Mrs. Andrews in. Or locked her up in the back for painting her nails at work.
Yeah, it would be just like Sheriff Lincoln Smith to lock up a poor old lady for painting her nails.
"Miss Addison, what can I do for you today?" Sheriff Smith asked as he came to the front counter, eying her warily.
Clover kept her smile in place. "Sheriff, I hoped I'd find you here. I came to discuss our problem. And I brought you this as a peace offering." She slid a plate of chocolate cake across the counter toward the big man.
Big wasn't the most accurate description. Towering. That was better. He had to be at least six-three. Maybe more. Clover was on the tall side for a woman, but she had to crane her neck to make eye contact.
If she didn't really dislike the man, she'd probably admit craning was a small price to pay in order to look at him. He was gorgeous in a Mel Gibson, Lethal Weapon, wild-child sort of way. His hair was dark and wavy, but darker still were his eyes. Eyes that, now that she thought of it, weren't crinkling with delight at the sight of her chocolate cake.
As a matter of fact, those dark eyes had narrowed, and the little lines that creased the sides of them looked more like frown lines than smile lines.
"You do like chocolate cake, don't you?" she asked.
"What did you want to say, Miss Addison?" he countered, ignoring her question.
"I want to discuss this problem we're having."
"We are not having a problem. You are having a problem obeying the parking restrictions in your alley."
"They're stupid restrictions. None of the other alleys in town are no-parking zones. Business owners park in them all the time."
"That's neither here nor there. The fact is that you break the law every time you park in your alley. And as the sheriff, seeing that the law is upheld is my job."
"But Sheriff Martin never —"
"I am not Sheriff Martin."
"Yeah, you can say that again." She sighed and looked at the tall man. "You're not going to be reasonable, are you?"
"I am always reasonable. I pride myself on my reasonableness. But any reasonable person would tell you that it's my job to uphold the laws of Hiho, Ohio, not make them. If you break the regulations, you'll get a ticket. A ticket you must pay."
"Fine." She turned and started to walk out of the office.
"Miss Addison, your cake."
She wanted to turn around and smash the cake into his know-it-all face. Just thinking about it made her smile as she said, "I made it for you, hoping it would sweeten your disposition."
She turned and started to leave again, sure that no cake, not even her famous death-by-chocolate one, would sweeten Sheriff Smith enough to make him even semihuman.
"Miss Addison?" he called again.
She turned and sighed. "Yes?"
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave." His frown lines totally disappeared as he shot her an actual smile.
Clover's knees felt suspiciously weak. She'd thought he'd looked good before, but smiling…well, he was a sight to behold. She realized he was staring at her. She should probably say something, but she couldn't remember what they'd been talking about, so she settled for, "What?"
"Clover Addison…" he said, his smile even broader, her name almost a caress as it whispered past his lips.
Clover's knees were more than weak; they were practically gelatin. Her heart was racing. Her palms were sweating. And she had an overwhelming urge to throw herself into the handsome man's arms and say, Kiss me.
She held her breath as he finished his sentence, sure that he felt their chemical reaction as well.
"…you're under arrest."
Linc couldn't help but grin as the bane of his existence stammered out, "Wh-wh-what?"
"You are under arrest," he repeated as succinctly as possible.
"Don't be absurd." She tried to look angry, but he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.
She had great eyes — not that Linc would ever tell her that. As a matter of fact, with her tall, blond, Scandinavian looks, he'd say that Clover Addison was a knockout — that is, he'd say it if no one was around to hear him.
"You can't arrest me," she added and started walking toward the door.
"I think you better stop before I'm forced to resort to physical restraints and add resisting arrest to your string of charges."
She turned around and faced him, not the least bit intimidated by him. He liked that about her, although he wasn't about to tell her that either.
"What am I under arrest for?" she asked.
"Let's see," he said as he held up his hand ready to count off all her infractions. "There's the charge of bribing an officer."
"Bribing?" she asked.
"The cake. And then there's attempted murder."
"What?" she gasped.
"I have high blood pressure and my cholesterol is through the roof. The whole town knows that's why I quit the Columbus force and took this job. I needed something less stressful. You, of course, have done your best to make this job as stressful as possible, which in and of itself could be considered an attempt on my life. But now you've brought me this artery-clogging nightmare?" He nodded at the luscious chocolate creation she'd brought. "I think that warrants the attempted murder charge."
She finally started to look intimidated as she murmured, "You're not just crazy, you are totally, certifiably insane."
"And then, of course," he said, ignoring her comment, "there's the little matter of over two hundred dollars in unpaid parking fines."
Intimidation was replaced by anger. Clover practically shouted, "I'm not paying those as a matter of principle."
"The law's the law. That's something you don't seem to be able to grasp."
"But —"
"Are you going to come along peacefully, or do I need to draw my weapon?"
"You just wait until this hits the Herald," she threatened.
"Ah, but the Hiho Herald is a weekly paper. By the time next week rolls around, the town will have something more interesting to buzz about."
He led her to one of the two cells that lined the back wall of the Hiho Municipal Police Department.
"I get one phone call," she said as she stepped inside the cell.
"Who are you going to call?" he asked.
"My lawyer, Rob Pawley, not that it's any of your business."
Linc grinned. "Sorry, he's out fishing today. I saw him leave at five."
"Then I'll called Judge Handshaw."
"He was with Rob." Linc knew he was grinning like a fool, but this was more fun than he'd had in…he didn't know how long. If he hadn't spent the past few weeks immersed in Hiho's centennial celebration, he would have had it out with Clover long before this.
"District Justice Hammer?" she asked weakly.
"Him, too. Their little party read like the Hiho law review."
She sighed. "Since you obviously have been playing detective as well as sheriff, when will they be back?"
Linc couldn't resist a small chuckle. "Tomorrow. You could always write that check for the unpaid parking fines. I'd be able to let you go with just a warning. Oh, and you'd better just tack on today's ten-dollar ticket. That way we won't have to do this again. That's two hundred and ten dollars."
"What about the bribery and attempted murder charges?"
"If you promise not to offer me artery-clogging food again, I think I can drop those. All it will take is one little check."
"Two hundred and ten dollars isn't little. But even if it was simply ten dollars, I wouldn't pay it. It's the principle of the thing."
"Suit yourself," Linc said with a shrug.
He shut the cell door, which made a satisfying clang.
He was going to teach Clover Addison a lesson. The law was the law. It wasn't something to be obeyed only when it was convenient.
He turned and started walking back toward his desk.
"Hey, you're not serious about leaving me in here, are you?" she called.
He turned and knew he was grinning again, but he couldn't help it. "'Fraid so."
"What if I have to…well, you know, use the facilities?"
She blushed. Linc might have said it was endearing if it was anyone else but Clover. No, endearing wasn't a description he'd use for her. Annoying. That was a more apt word.
"I'll let you out long enough to use my bathroom. See, I can be reasonable. You should give it a try. Just write the check, Clover."
"No," she said as she eyed the cot.
Linc wondered what was going on in her mind as she studied the bed. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to figure her out. She'd gone and started this one-woman protest over parking. How hard was it to find someplace else to park?
"Could I at least have a chair?" she asked.
"You can sit on the cot."
"I don't think so. I don't know who slept on it last."
Linc sighed. The woman was going to drive him mad.
He dragged a chair back, unlocked the cell, pushed it in, then relocked the door. He stood at the bars and looked at her. "Are you sure you don't want to write that check?"
She gripped the bars of her cell and said, "There aren't many things I'm sure of in life. I'm sure the sun will rise in the morning and that you're the most annoying, power-happy, unreasonable man that ever walked this earth. And I'm absolutely certain I am not going to write that check."
Linc raked his hand through his hair at her declaration of war, much to Clover's delight.
That was a good sign. Not quite as good as the exasperated sigh he'd heaved a second before, but a good sign that she was annoying him nonetheless.
"I am going to win this battle," he said. "You're just being difficult."
She was difficult? That made Clover smile. "You know what they say about the pot calling the kettle black. You stop by my alley every day, just hoping to give me a ticket. That's what I'd call being difficult."
"You're blatantly breaking the law. It's my job to see to it you don't."
"It's an alley, for goodness' sake. It's not as if I'm parking in the middle of Main Street. It's a wide alley at that. You and I know that even with me parked there, there's plenty of room for traffic. My car takes up less space than most of the Dumpsters."
"Like I said, I don't make the laws, I just enforce them. I don't have to like them, don't have to agree with them. My duty is simply to see to it they're followed." He turned and walked back to his desk.
Clover sat down on the chair and tried to figure out what to do next to annoy Lincoln Smith, Supercop.
She hummed and chewed on her lip as she thought.
He looked up from whatever he was typing into the computer. "Hey, I'm working here. Cut out the humming."
He didn't like the humming? Well, what would he think of…
Show tunes!
She started with Les Mis. It was one of her favorite musicals, and she had a sense of pride at knowing the whole thing by heart.
Every single word.
She hadn't even made it to the end of the first song when he sighed again. An even more frustrated sigh than last time.
Two. That's two sighs. One hair-rake.
Who said spending the day in jail was boring? She was going to have a very good time.
Clover finished Les Mis and was working on some other musical. Linc wasn't much of a fan of Broadway tunes, but obviously Clover was.
"Hey," he called. "You're just giving me more ammunition for that attempted murder charge."
He ran his fingers through his hair and caught her staring at him and grinning.
What was it about this woman that drove him absolutely nuts?
She didn't stop singing long enough to respond; instead she just winked at him and shot him another impish grin as she continued.
He wouldn't tell her, but that grin did something to him. If it were any other woman looking at him like that…
He shook his head. It wasn't any other woman. It was Clover Addison, bane of his existence. He'd better remember that for as long as she was here. This woman was more trouble than the entire Hiho Centennial Celebration had been.
"I'm going over to Pete's to get lunch," he said, anxious to make his escape. "Want anything?"
That stopped her. "Meatloaf, if they have it."
"Fine." He headed toward the door.
"Are you going to leave me in here?" she asked. "What if there's a fire?"
"I'm practically across the street. I'll come running if I see smoke."
"Seriously, I don't think it's wise to leave me in here to burn. I mean, you're new to Hiho. People won't forget burning a member of one of the town's oldest families."
He sighed.
Which made her smile and mouth something he couldn't quite make out. It looked liked she'd mouthed the word twenty. What the heck would that mean?
He would never figure this woman out, and so he didn't waste time trying. He said, "Fine. I'll unlock your cell, but don't you dare get out of it unless there's a fire."
"Okay. I promise."
He turned the key in the lock and started for the door.
"Thanks," she said. "I didn't want to whine about it, but I'm a little claustrophobic."
"The cell is at the back of a huge room. It's not as if I locked you in a closet."
"It's not the size part, but the locked part. It's hard to deal with."
"You're hard to deal with," he said under his breath. "Listen, if you write me the check, I'll not only let you out, but let I'll take you to Pete's and treat you to lunch."
The idea of eating lunch with Clover wasn't as horrible as it should be. As a matter of fact, sharing a meal with Clover might be fun.
Oh, man, her singing must have completely driven him over the edge of sanity if he was thinking about the words fun and Clover in the same sentence.
"Sorry," she said. "I can't write a check. It's a matter of principle."
"And it's a matter of principle that made me give you all those tickets."
"So you're suggesting we're alike?" She looked as if she was considering the possibility and it didn't seem to sit well with her if her frown was any indication.
"More alike than I thought," he said, no happier at the realization than she apparently was.
"I'm not sure that's a compliment," Clover said.
"To be honest, neither am I."
She shook her head. "You know this is ridiculous?"
"Yes, it is. Write the check, pay for your tickets and leave."
"Pay the fine. Pay the fine," she parroted. "You're a broken record."
"Speaking of broken records…don't you know anything but show tunes?"
"No, I don't. You locked me up in this germ-infested cell with nothing to do. Singing keeps me occupied."
"I'll go by the store and bring you something to do if you'll stop. Paperwork? A book perhaps? I'll check on Janice while I'm there and see how she's doing."
"Fine. Tell Janice to send me the bills and my laptop. I'll work on those."
"How about your checkbook?" he asked with a grin.
"She can send it, but the only thing I'm paying is bills."
"You are one stubborn woman." Linc found himself actually chuckling. He didn't want to admit it, but he'd be disappointed if Clover gave in.
"Takes one to know one. Not the woman part. I mean, anyone would know right off you're not a woman. You're so…tall."
"Thanks, I think," he said. "I mean it's nice you've noticed I'm not a woman."
"Of course I noticed. You're rather noticeable."
"Really?" he asked, liking the sound of her noticing him. "In what way?"
"Well, like I said you're tall."
"And?"
"Maybe some women would find you good-looking. Really, if you weren't so hung-up on this whole parking thing, I'd …" She cut herself off.
"You'd what?" Linc very much wanted to know just what she'd do if the parking war didn't stand between them.
"Nothing. Go get me my lunch."
Linc walked toward the door. "I'll have Pete run it over. After I eat I have some errands. My calls are going to be forwarded to my cell phone, and I'm trusting you to stay put. You can get out of the cell if there's a fire or to use the bathroom, but nothing else. Okay?"
"Fine."
"Oh, and Clover, when I get back, I'd like to continue talking about just what you'd do if it weren't for this parking thing."
Two hours.
Clover had been sitting in her cell for two hours.
But who was counting?
Not her.
Pete had brought her meatloaf, and had been nice enough not to laugh at her predicament. Then Janice had brought over a whole stack of paperwork and had commiserated.
And now…nothing. Clover was totally alone and forgotten. Left to rot in a jail cell. All alone.
Her paperwork was caught up. Her bills were paid. She kept eying her checkbook. Two hundred dollars.
No, two hundred and ten.
Maybe she should just write the check.
She was still mulling over the idea of caving in, when the door opened and Linc came waltzing in, looking totally pleased with himself.
"What did you do now?" she asked. "Lock up some local nuns? Stop and harass some hopscotchers for graffiti?"
"I took a trip out to the lake."
"What?" she asked, sure that she'd heard him wrong.
"It was tough, but I found our intrepid fishermen," he said. "We discussed your case."
He'd discussed it with the judge, the district justice and the local lawyer?
She was doomed. He'd probably persuaded them to give her hard time. Although, sitting in a cell and staring at Linc wouldn't be all that hard. He was easy on the eyes, just tough to deal with.
"And?" she finally asked. The suspense was killing her.
"We came up with a fair solution. You pay half the charges. One hundred and five dollars. They promise to look into why there are parking restrictions in your alley. If there's no safety issue, they'll give you a special permit so that you can park there. If there's a logical reason why parking isn't permitted, you agree to make other arrangements."
"That sounds fair," she said slowly. Too fair. Suspiciously fair. "That's all?"
"That's all of their requirements. There's still the little matter of the attempted murder charges."
"You weren't serious about that," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. Linc Smith was anything but predictable. His going out to the lake was proof of that.
"Oh, but I'm very, very serious," he said. "I'd be willing to drop the charges with just a couple of conditions."
"Like what?"
"First, that cake looked great, but I really can't eat it. So you make me something heart-friendly to make up for tempting me with what I can't have."
"Fine," she said slowly. "I'm pretty sure I can come up with something."
"Not just a dessert. A whole meal."
A little more work, but worth it if it got her out of here. Staying here was dangerous to her sanity, because right now, looking at Linc, she was wondering what it would be like to kiss him. And kissing Linc would be plain old nuts. "Okay. A whole meal. Deal. Now let me out."
"Two more things. One, you eat the meal with me."
"Eat a meal together?" She was lucky she was in a cell, because her knees felt weak again and she grabbed onto the bars for support. "You mean like a date?"
He nodded and smiled. "Just like a date."
"What's the other condition?" she asked, not responding to the whole date thing. She didn't know what to say to that just yet.
"You come out of the cell and kiss me."
If she didn't know what to say to a date, she certainly didn't know what to say to a kiss. "Wh-wh-what?" she stammered.
"Kiss me." He swung open the cell door and stepped inside, right next to her. So close that she could smell his aftershave.
"Think of it as an experiment," he said. "Maybe it will be horrible and that will be that. We'll share that dinner and try to be friendly. But I don't think so."
"You don't think we can be friendly?"
"I think we can be more than that. I think —"
Clover didn't let him finish the sentence. She couldn't. She wanted to kiss him, though she still wasn't sure why. He was annoying. Opinionated. Stubborn.
But as her lips pressed to his she realized he was also right. They could be much more than friends, given half a chance.
Much, much more.
Reluctantly, she broke off the kiss and stood back.
"Wow."
"Yeah, wow," he said. "About those attempted murder charges?"
"Yes?"
"You keep kissing me like that and I just might have more grounds. But I guess I'm willing to take my chances. I've decided courting you is worth the danger. How about you?" He touched her hair as he asked the question.
It was just the smallest caress, but it made Clover crave more. "Chances sound good."
He sighed.
There was no exasperation in it, just plain old satisfaction. Maybe it was time to switch the game from racking up exasperated sighs to counting ones more like that.
"Twenty-one," she said as she stepped into his open arms and kissed him again.
The End