At the moment, however, he had to deal with Libby. Again. He watched her moving around the kitchen, her wild hair twisted into thick strands to keep it from her face. “You can stop banging around, Libby, because it’s not going to work. I’m not leaving until we’ve talked.”
Libby slapped a frying pan down on the stove and whirled around to face him, her blue eyes turning wintery in the fluorescent light, her smile looking a little forced. “I’m always happy to talk to you, Sam!” she said with a cheeriness he didn’t believe for a moment. “It’s just that I have a lot of work to do. We’re having a big event here in a couple of weeks, a big event, and Madeline should be here any minute.” She glanced at her watch, then put her hands on her waist. “So! What did you need?”
As if he’d come all this way to ask a favor, or merely to shoot the breeze. He gave her the patient look he usually reserved for mouthy teens. “I’m a professional, remember? I’ve seen it all, heard it all, and you are not fooling me.”
Libby muttered something under her breath.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
“Mind if I sit?”
“Can I stop you?” she asked lightheartedly, then waved to the stool. “Have a seat, Sam. Would you like something? Water?”
He smiled, and Libby’s dark lashes fluttered, as if he’d shined a light on her. He slid onto a stool on the opposite side of the bar from her. “Nothing for me, thanks. You know why I’m here, right?”
“No. Why? To tell me our cows got out? To borrow a hammer?”
“A hammer?” he echoed with a chuckle.
“A tool,” she clarified.
“I’ve got all the tools I need. You know why I’m here, Libby.”
She sighed heavenward. “Well you don’t have to sound like I’m one swan dive away from a straitjacket.”
Sam almost laughed. Sometimes he thought she was one swan dive away from a straitjacket, but honestly, he kind of liked that about her. Libby was never boring or predictable, that was certain. He knew all about her stay at Mountain View Behavioral Health Center. He knew a lot about Libby, and sometimes, he felt as if he knew her in that cosmic way people have of knowing each other from time to time. He got her; he understood her. She was fun, and generous, and eager to be part of life. And she was sexy, all five feet five of her, seemed to get sexier with each year, with wild curly hair and those blue eyes, and lips that made his mouth water.
In a purely hypothetical way, of course, because Sam made it a point not to lust after women who violated restraining orders. Which Libby had done today.
It was a shame that Libby had been dealt such a bad hand.
“I know you’re here because of Gwen,” she said. “But she’s kind of paranoid, don’t you think?” Libby winced a little as if it pained her to make that observation. “Because really, it was just a stupid thing, Sam. And you didn’t have to drive all the way out here to tell me that it was stupid. I mean, thanks and all that, but totally unnecessary. So you can go back to work now,” she said, making a gesture to the door. She smiled as if that was that, and turned around to go back to whatever she’d been doing.
Nothing, as it turned out, other than moving things around on the counter, giving Sam a moment to admire her most excellent backside. Which, again, in his professional capacity as deputy sheriff, he ought not to be doing. But a man couldn’t help but admire the soft, kick-ass curves on this woman. “If you didn’t want me to drive all the way out here, you probably shouldn’t have gone into town this afternoon, do you think?”
Libby laughed and glanced at him over her shoulder. “You’re funny. I’m not prohibited from going to town, Sam. Actually, I can go wherever I want, because FYI, this is a free country.”
He cocked a brow. “You’re not prohibited from going to town, but you are prohibited from being within three hundred yards of your ex.”
“Correct. But I wasn’t within three hundred yards of my ex. I was near my ex’s girlfriend. Or his ex-wife, or whatever we are calling her this week,” she said with a dismissive flick of her wrist.
“Libby . . .” He sighed. “You know, I’ve never said this to you, but I think what happened to you was unfair,” he said.
Something flickered in her eyes, as if the words had nicked her. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth a moment. “Which part? You mean when Ryan kicked me out for no reason one day? Out of the blue? Or because he didn’t have the courage to tell me that the reason wasn’t really me, as he wanted me to believe, but that he was having an affair with Gwen?”
“All of it,” Sam said. “Unfair, every bit.”
“Yeah, well, unfair doesn’t begin to describe it, if you want to know the truth.”
“It sucks, Libby. Nevertheless, you have to stay away from the man and his family.”
She drew a deep breath and then released it in one long sigh. “I know, Sam. I know,” she said, giving in, “but I didn’t go to town to find him, I swear I didn’t. I went to get some bowls for candles.”