Epilogue #3
She gave him an almost sad smile. He wanted to return it. They used to tease about who was right. She was brilliant, and truthfully ‘right’ most of the time, but it had been a fun tease between them.
She let out a sad little sigh, whirled, and hurried down the sidewalk with her bags of candy. She looked small and beautiful and in need of his love and protection. He should kiss her right now, on the street, and see if it was as incredible as their kiss at eighteen had been.
Oh boy. He was thinking like a sap. He was not kissing her. She didn’t seem to even want to be friends. What happened to small talk, catching up? They could talk and laugh for hours and then could he move in for a kiss. He groaned and rolled his eyes at himself.
She swung open the back door of a silver Nissan Maxima.
“Maho Terrence as I live and breathe.” Mrs. Emmaline Parkinson, the eighty-year old town gossip, stopped next to the car.
“You’re back, my angel girl, and did I see you flirting with our mesmerizing sheriff?
” Emmaline pumped her eyebrows at Jaxon over Maho’s shoulder.
“That fine-looking man does get the blood bumping.”
“Does he?” Maho stood straight and didn’t so much as glance back at him. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Jaxon rolled his eyes and turned into the candy shop, flinging the door open and rushing inside.
“You just missed your granny. Does she know you’re here?”
The door shut on Maho’s answer.
Sallie stood at the counter. He’d seen her in the shop when he looked in earlier but had completely forgotten his purpose of buying chocolate and asking her to dinner when faced with the love of his life finally returning to him.
Love of his life? If anyone knew how pathetic he was inside they’d laugh and never stop. He’d be the laughing stock of the island instead of the heroic and hot sheriff. He pasted on his ‘enticing’ smile for Sallie.
“Hi, Sallie. I am needing something sweet today.” He gifted her with his ‘charming smolder’, hoping she thought she was the something sweet. Nothing was as sweet as Maho’s lips …
Enough! he yelled in his own mind.
“Hi, Jaxon.” She gave him a cautious smile. “You and Maho? I can’t believe she’s back. She’s more gorgeous than ever, and everybody knows how brilliant she is.” Her blue eyes looked anxious about his response.
Obachan bragged about her ‘brilliant grandchildren’ to anyone who would listen. Anyone but Jaxon. She had compassion in her tiny body and seemed to sense Maho had rejected him, or maybe her granddaughter had told her the story. How humiliating.
“She is gorgeous and brilliant, but there is no me and Maho,” he grunted out, losing his smile and having to force it back on. “Sallie … can I get half a pound of salted caramel chocolates and would you go to dinner with me tonight?”
Sallie’s smile brightened. “Yes to both.”
Jaxon felt a fraction better as he left the sweet shop, eating a delicious caramel chocolate and with plans to pick Sallie up at her house at six o’clock. Maybe the beautiful blonde could help him shove Maho from his mind.
All good feelings fled as he saw Maho still on the sidewalk, leaning against her car as if she were drained, and being interrogated by Emmaline.
All the angst of her being back and acting as if it were his fault they hadn’t ended up together made his gut churn.
He shoved another no-longer appealing chocolate in and strode the other direction up the street.
“Whoo-ee,” he heard Emmaline whistle. “Obachan calls him a handsome devil for a reason. Watching that man strut away is better than anything on my television.”
Jaxon glanced over his shoulder. Emmaline was studying him with a teasing grin. Maho was resolutely looking the other direction.
He winked at Emmaline and wished Maho thought he was a ‘handsome devil’.
Maybe it was only old ladies who fell to his charms. No, Sallie, and any other single lady around, was interested.
Just not the one he wanted. He’d do better to focus on Sallie—beautiful, sweet, and planning to stay on the island.
Why was Maho back anyway? Just to visit Obachan or to torment him?
He didn’t need to get his heart broken by Maho Terrence again.
In fact, he refused to.
“Sheriff!” Trevor Naples called.
“Trevor … Sara. Harriett.” He nodded to their mother and then squatted down to greet two of his favorite children.
“Hi Sheriff.” Sara grinned and blushed, looking shyly away then back to his face. “Can you come visit our class again?”
He grinned up at their mother. “I’m sure I could arrange that with Miss Peterson.”
London Peterson was recently moved to the island and taught second grade. A gorgeous brunette from Georgia, and one of the only twenty-something singles he hadn’t dated. If things didn’t work out with Sallie, he had options.
He didn’t need Maho.
Sara threw her arms around his neck and whispered, “Thank you, Sheriff.”
He hugged her, straightened, and handed over his bag of candy. “I bought you something,” he said to Sara, “but you have to share with your mom and brother.”
It’d be better for him not to eat the candy. Especially as the only sweetness he was longing for had just rejected him. Again.
“Yay!” Sara and Trevor both cheered.
“You spoil us,” Harriett said.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Maho watching. Her mouth and dark eyes were soft.
She straightened when she saw him looking, gave him a sassy glare, and turned, hurrying around her car to slide in her driver’s seat.
It took all of Jaxon’s strength not to chase after her, put his hand on the car door, stop her from leaving, pull her into his arms …
No. He didn’t need Maho.
But it was pathetic how much he wanted her back in his life.
* * *
Keep reading The Charming Sheriff on .