Her Honor-bound Lawman

He caught up with her before she opened her door. “Emma, what’s wrong?”

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s just hunky-dory. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know where I should live. I don’t even know my birth date. And on top of all that, Dr. Weisensale suggested again that maybe I don’t want to remember any of that. If I don’t want to remember my past, doesn’t that make you wonder what kind of past I have?”

“I’m sure your past is very respectable.” Tucker tried to be soothing.

“Respectable? I don’t feel as if my present is respectable. Aunt Gertie took me in. Now you’ve taken me in. And Dr. Weisensale told his receptionist there was no charge for today. He thinks I’m a charity case. I’m not, Tucker. I want to get a job. I want to work. I want to—” She bit her lower lip, and he could see her chin quiver.

Clasping her by the shoulders, he gazed into her beautiful green eyes that were shiny with tears. “I know this is frustrating for you. I wish I could do more to help.”

“I don’t want you to do more to help. I want to help myself. I asked about hypnotism, but Dr. Weisensale wants me to give it another month. A month, Tucker.”

“Is staying with me so bad?” he teased, thinking about her spending another month under his roof…in the bedroom beside his.

She let out a breath with a sigh and then gave him a weak smile. “No, of course not.”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and protect her. He wanted to set his lips on hers and taste her again. But instead, he lifted her chin with his thumb. “I think you need some perspective, time out of the house to enjoy yourself. Why don’t we go to the diner for a quick supper, then catch a movie?”

“A movie?”

“Yeah. I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie theater. And I know you can’t, either,” he said with a grin.

She looked startled for a moment, and then she laughed. “You’re right about that. All right, Sheriff Malone, you’re on. The blue-plate special and a movie. That should give me exactly the perspective I need.”

Her eyes were sparkling now, and her lips turned up in the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. Quickly he released her, then opened the door for her. When she climbed inside, he shut it, wondering what in the hell he’d just gotten himself into.

As usual, Vern’s Diner was bustling with a full capacity crowd. Tucker and Emma stood inside for a moment, searching for an empty table or booth. From a few feet away, Tucker felt glances on them.

A woman leaned over to the man who was with her and asked him, “Isn’t that the woman who doesn’t know who she is?”

Tucker could tell that Emma had overheard the comment, too. A shadow passed over her face, and he moved closer to her. “Maybe we should go to Chez Stork up the street. It would be quieter.”

Chez Stork wasn’t only quieter, but a lot more expensive and very elite. There was an aura of intimacy there that Tucker would rather avoid. But he didn’t want Emma to feel uncomfortable.

Emma gazed up at him, her green eyes serious. “Would you rather leave? Just because I’m the talk of the town doesn’t mean you should be.”

“Talk doesn’t bother me.”

Emma nodded to a booth that had just been vacated. “Then let’s get that table before somebody else does.”

Tucker had never met a woman quite like Emma. She was feminine in every sense of the word and yet there was a strength in her that he had to admire. She was so different from Denise. But he put that thought out of his head as they walked toward the booth.

Almost there, Tucker spotted Ben Crowe, his wife Gwen and the nine-year-old boy they were going to adopt, Nathan.

Emma stopped and smiled at Gwen. “Hi, there. How are you feeling?”

“Very big. But I guess that’s to be expected at this stage,” the pretty blonde said with a laugh.

Ben addressed Emma and Tucker. “Coming out to eat was the only way I could get her to stop unpacking boxes.”

Ben and Gwen had lived in her cottage since their wedding two weeks ago and now were moving into Ben’s ranch house. Ever since Nathan had gotten into some trouble with older boys last month, Tucker and Ben had become more friendly.

“Do you need any help moving?” Tucker asked.

Ben shook his head. “Thanks for asking, but we finished up today. Now if I can just convince my wife that she has to take it easy until she has this baby…”

“I’m going to have a brother or sister,” Nathan proudly informed them. “Ben’s going to adopt both of us.”

Ben ruffled Nathan’s hair. “I sure am. And we’d better get going if you want to put the finishing touches on that science project.”

Tucker tipped his hat to them. “Take care. And Gwen, if you need a proper escort to the hospital, just give a yell.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said with a grin.

After Tucker and Emma settled into the booth, Emma leaned toward him and whispered, “We’re giving a shower for Gwen at the day-care center on Monday evening.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”

Leaning back again, she said, “It was nice of you to offer to help them move.”

Tucker shrugged and picked up the menu, but he could feel Emma’s eyes on him. “What?” he asked when he looked up and she didn’t avert her gaze.

“What do you do for fun?” she asked.

“In my spare time I work on the house—outside work in the summer, inside in the winter. I’m going to drywall the basement, maybe get some exercise equipment.”

“I didn’t ask how you fill your spare time. What do you do for fun?”

“Isn’t fun enjoyment? I enjoy working on the house.”

She shook her head in exasperation. “Fun doesn’t have a goal. It’s just something that makes you laugh and relaxes you and has no purpose except to make you feel good.”

He thought about it for a few moments. “I play poker once a month with some of the guys from the department.”

She waited, but when he didn’t add anything else, she asked, “That’s it?”

“Entertainment’s a little limited in Storkville.”

“But Omaha’s less than an hour away. Do you date?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“That’s none of your business, Emma.” He didn’t want to get into that…not with her. A man dated for two reasons—to get his needs met or in the hopes that the dating would progress into something more. He wouldn’t use a woman simply to meet a physical need, and he didn’t want anything more.

Emma looked hurt by his blunt reply and leaned back against the booth, opening her menu.

An awkward silence fell over them and it lasted throughout supper. Emma commented on the good taste of the fried chicken. Tucker mentioned that the diner had great coconut cream pie. But neither of them ordered dessert. At the cash register Tucker paid their bill and after he received his change, Emma said, “We don’t have to go to the movies, if you have something else you’d rather do.”