The Sheriff's Second Chance

by Leandra Logan

• ISBN13: 9780373751563
• ISBN10: 0373751567
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-02-13
• Publisher: Harlequin

Summary

But when Kelsey Graham stepped off the bus in Maple Junction, Wisconsin, for their high school reunion, Ethan Taggert decided that whoever "they" were, they were wrong. Ten years ago she'd shouldered the blame for a car accident that was not her fault, and she'd been run out of town for it. Now she was back and it was time to set things right.Ethan's now the sheriff of Maple Junction, and he realizes he never should have let Kelsey go the first time. This could be his second (and last?) chance at happiness...if Kelsey will let him help. Maybe, just maybe, she'll see that he's the man she should have been with all along.

Excerpts

It was the end of another school year. Kelsey Graham sat at her broad oak desk at the front of the classroom, sorting through the homemade cards and gifts from her twenty-three first graders. They were technically second graders now, which some of the cards made clear with large numeral twos carefully traced atop heads on stick bodies, and houses with small roofs and giant chimneys. The seven-year-old mind, so full of imagination and hope, never ceased to fascinate and amaze her. Forget television. Give a kid some paper and a box of crayons". It was easy for anyone to dream on such a beautiful day. To gaze beyond the long open windows facing the school courtyard, let the mind wander on the warm breezes scented with peonies and freshly cut grass. Spring into summer plans!she'd quipped to her students this afternoon over homemade cookies and lemonade. Many of the youngsters had announced trips to Disney World, Cape Cod, Hawaii. No surprise in this affluent Philadelphia neighborhood. The most important thing, she'd insisted, as they'd crowded round for a farewell hug, was to enjoy their moms and dads, brothers and sisters. To laugh and play and tell stories, just as they had in the classroom. To take a few photographs to enjoy later on Kelsey's gaze landed back on the empty rows of pint-sized desks and she felt a wistful pang. Last Day Letdown. She recognized the symptoms very well, having suffered from them on this final day of each of the past five school years. Fueled with new purpose, she gripped the edge of the desk, rolled back her chair and stood. She turned and began to dismantle the dancing alphabet display from one of the cork squares flanking the blackboard, dropping the colorful construction-paper pieces into a box on the floor. She'd need a ladder to get at the train of twelve boxcars, designating months of the year, tacked out of reach above the board. As if by telepathy, janitor Marta Lynch appeared with a metal step ladder. Like Kelsey, she was trim and toned, of average height and weight. But Marta was a full decade older than Kelsey's twenty-eight years, and her clipped brown hair needed a routine dye job to cover some pesky gray strands. While Kelsey favored chic outfits like today's navy linen suit with pink nylon shell, peppy Marta wore casual clothing more suited to her job. Today's comical red T-shirt read Don't Wanna Work. A joke, indeed, as she never stopped. "Hi, Kel," Marta chirped. "I figured you'd need your annual boost." This was a pep talk to help Kelsey let go of yet another year's worth of bright faces that had shaped her life. In her own cheery way, Marta tried to steer Kelsey to activities that would make the summer months fly, and fill the void until another classful of kids marched in to give Kelsey's life fresh purpose and direction. "Thanks, Marta," she said through a mouthful of stick pins. "Hey, swallow those and you'll need an ambulance!" Marta propped the ladder against the wall to march over and pull the pins free. There was an informality between Kelsey and all the maintenance staff that allowed this kind of scolding. She'd grown up working in her mother's Cozy Home Cafe back in tiny Maple Junction, Wisconsin where there were no prima donnas among the cooks, potato peelers and dishwashers in the kitchen. Everyone pitched in where needed without a whimper. This democratic approach had not caught fire with most of the faculty here at Hancock Grammar School. The other teachers believed in keeping a lofty distance from the maintenance workers and felt it within their right to make pretentious demands of them. While Kelsey's friendlier approach wasn't a bid to score more perks, it did win her prompt spill cleanup and lightbulb replacements, as well as the latest hydraulic chair every autumn. Marta had taken the pins to an open container on the desk and was perus