The Sheriff And The Impostor Bride

So then, why did she feel so guilty for what she had done, for what she was about to do?

She pushed the thought away and herself up off the floor, then made her way to Sabrina’s front window. She glanced out just in time to see Sheriff Riley Hunter’s big utility vehicle—brown again, wouldn’t you know, with a beige star painted on the door—turning out of the trailer park...er, mobile home community...and onto the highway. Then she took a deep breath, raked both hands slowly through her dark hair, and reassessed her predicament.

Nothing was going to change the fact that she had just lied to a police officer, so she was just going to have to deal with that. And there was still that small matter of her having agreed to meet with said police officer at the station in an hour and a half, something Rachel was sure she wouldn’t be able to avoid. Not unless she grabbed her bag and returned to Oklahoma City, where she would be totally ineffective in helping Sabrina. If Rachel didn’t go down to the station as she’d promised, then Riley Hunter and his beautiful brown eyes and lush lower lip would just come back to the trailer park—er, mobile home community—to find her. Or worse, he would call the Wentworths and bring them into the whole sordid mess.

So she figured she had two ways she could go. Either she could meet with the sheriff as she’d promised and come clean with the truth—that she was really Sabrina’s twin, who didn’t have a clue what was going on or where her missing sister might turn up, and sorry about all those whopping fat lies. Or she could keep perpetuating the whopping fat lie that she was her missing sister Sabrina, in the hopes of learning a little bit more about the situation, and a little bit more about the good sheriff’s intentions.

If Riley Hunter was indeed nothing more than a small-town lawman who’d been pulled into this thing as innocently as Rachel had been, then maybe, eventually—once she knew she could trust him—the two of them could put their heads together and find Sabrina.

On the other hand, if Riley Hunter was a hired gun of the Wentworths who was supposed to find Sabrina and return her to Freemont Springs for the Wentworth’s nefarious intention of taking her baby away from her, then posing as Sabrina might buy her sister some time and throw her pursuers off her trail.

Because really, when Rachel got right down to it, just who was Sheriff Riley Hunter anyway? How was she supposed to tell whether he was a legitimate man of the law or the mysterious someone that Sabrina said was after her? Oh, sure, he was cute and everything, and he’d been totally polite and sweet, and it had just been so heart-melting, the way he’d kept calling her “Ma’am,” and—

Rachel stopped herself before her capricious heart had the two of them walking down the aisle to the “Wedding March.” It was bad enough that she’d almost kissed the man a few minutes ago. Kissed him, she recalled with mortification. This, when she didn’t even know if she could trust him. Honestly. No woman on earth was as weak-willed as she was when it came to the opposite sex. She didn’t even know who the heck Riley Hunter was, and already she was half in love with him. And that wasn’t going to do Sabrina one whit of good. Or her, either.

Be strong, Rachel, she commanded herself. You can ignore beautiful brown eyes and a lush lower lip. You can avoid going all gooey inside every time you hear him say, “Ma’am” in that smooth, deep, utterly masculine voice of his. Just remember Sabrina. And don’t look at Sheriff Riley Hunter unless you absolutely have to.

Okay, she finished up her little pep talk to herself. She could do this for Sabrina. She could pretend to be her pregnant twin, especially since Riley Hunter obviously didn’t know that Sabrina was seven months along, and thank goodness for that.

She squared her shoulders, inhaled a deep breath and expelled it in a rush of certainty and good intentions. Just this once, Rachel wanted to be the twin who did the right thing. Just this once, she wanted to be the one who got them out of trouble, instead of into it. Just this once, she’d like to do something to help out Sabrina, the way Sabrina had always been doing something to help out Rachel. Just this once, she needed to do something right.