Single Dad Sheriff (Harlequin American Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t need to bring me coffee,” he reminded her. He was perfectly capable of getting his own. “But thank you.”
    She smiled. “You’re welcome. You’re going to have to get used to it. I’m too old to retrain myself. Sheriff Beuker always had to have his coffee. ’Course the caffeine was probably the only thing keeping him awake.”
    â€œLucky guy,” Chance murmured as he took a sip of the hot, strong drink and nodded in appreciation. He had so many things that kept him awake: memories of the past, worries for the future, and now that damn promise he’d made to Tommy Phillips to find his father. Tommy’s mother was right; it wasn’t a promise he’d had any business making.
    â€œSheriff Beuker slept like an infant,” Eleanor remarked with a smile, “with all the nodding off he did throughout the day.”
    â€œIt’s been a while, but I don’t remember infants sleeping all that much.” Matthew hadn’t. Even as a baby, he’d had boundless energy. His son needed more room to runaround and play than the cramped apartment in Chicago and the crowded city street outside it. “Well, he slept without a care in the world,” she amended with a chuckle.
    The last time Chance had had no cares, he must have been a child. A weary sigh slipped from his lips, and he leaned back in his chair.
    â€œI thought I heard you talking to yourself a little while ago,” Eleanor said, settling into the low-backed leather chair in front of his desk. It wasn’t that she had to stay at hers; the phone hardly ever rang. And the only recent visitor had been Tommy. “Beuker always rambled away to himself, but that was because he was getting senile. What has you talking to yourself, Sheriff Drayton?”
    â€œChance,” he reminded her.
    She smiled again but shook her head. “Sheriff.”
    Two months he’d worked with the woman, and she still refused to use his first name. He pushed his hand through his hair.
    â€œYou have a lot to talk about,” she prodded him, “with everything you have going on.”
    While he hadn’t specifically shared his personal problems with her, she must have taken enough calls from his lawyer that she’d figured out exactly what was going on in his life.
    â€œIt’s actually Tommy Phillips who’s weighing on my mind,” he admitted, disgusted with himself for making that promise to the boy. Had he done it because he really wanted to find Tommy’s dad for him or because he couldn’t be a dad to his own son?
    He suspected it was the latter. But just because he hadn’t had the most altruistic motive behind his promisedidn’t mean he didn’t intend to keep it. He had even gone so far as to pull up the boy’s birth certificate from county records. But Tommy’s father was listed as unknown. Gauging from her reaction when Chance had passed on her son’s request, Jessie Phillips seemed to have every intention of keeping it that way. Hopefully she had a damn good reason. Better than Robyn’s…
    And if she did, he’d have to break his promise to Tommy. Hell, even if she didn’t, Jessie Phillips was still the boy’s mother. What she told her son about his father was her decision. Not Chance’s.
    â€œThat little guy really got to you,” Eleanor mused, staring thoughtfully at him. She had definitely figured out exactly why the boy had gotten to him. But then in addition to the calls, she had to have noticed Matthew’s picture on his desk. In the photo, a class portrait from a couple of years ago, he looked around Tommy’s age. And with his dark hair and navy blue eyes, he looked like Chance.
    â€œTommy Phillips wants a relationship with his dad,” he said, hoping his son wanted the same thing with him. “And he’s too young to understand we can’t always get what we want.” He grimaced as the