Tomorrow's Promise (The Hawks Mountain Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

make it on her own, she had to stand her ground against this controlling man and assert her independence.
    They’d nearly made it to Cole’s car when a black, beat-up sedan pulled up at a crazy angle into a parking spot near them. A man emerged. His beard-shadowed face was flushed, and his clothes showed signs of having been slept in. He staggered a bit before catching his balance.
    Bleary-eyed, he studied Faith. “Well, ain’t you just the purtiest little thing that’s hit these parts in a dog’s age.” He swayed and clutched at the fender of his car. “How’d you get yourself such a cute little thing, Sheriff?”
    Faith drew back. The sight of this man brought back vivid memories of Sloan coming home after a night of partying with his new friends. How his fetid breath reeked of booze, and his drunken snoring would keep her awake for hours.
    The man lurched toward her, his hand outstretched. She recognized him as Jimmy Logan, the town drunk. Some things never changed. “Com’ere, sweet thing, and let me get a better look at ya.”
    Before she could even react, Cole placed himself between them. Carefully, he shifted Lizzie into Faith’s arms, and then turned back to the man. “Jimmy, unless you want to lose a hand, you’d better not touch the young lady or the child. Now, give me your keys.” Cole held out his hand, palm up. Jimmy stared at Cole’s outstretched hand, and then shook his head. “Your keys, Jimmy.” The wobbly man shook his head again. “Jimmy, pretty soon I’m gonna stop asking nice, so you best give me the keys before I lose my sunny disposition.”
    Cole’s soft southern draw had taken on an edge that told Faith he wasn’t kidding. Evidently, Jimmy noticed it as well. As he dropped the keys into Cole’s palm, they jingled noisily, making Lizzie stir and whine in her sleep.
    “Better not loosh them,” he warned Cole. The man’s body rocked back and forth, while his watery eyes squinted in an effort to focus.
    “Of the many times I’ve taken your keys, have I ever lost them?”
    Jimmy considered the question for moment and then shook his head, the movement causing him to sway precariously against the car. “Nah.”
    Cole tucked the keys in his shirt pocket. “I’ll leave them at the office. You can come by for them on your way to work tomorrow morning.”
    Jimmy nodded drunkenly and then staggered toward Keeler’s Market, mumbling something about uppity women and pushy lawmen, and a man needing a drink just to tolerate them.
    Not until they were in the car with Lizzie tucked safely in her car seat did Faith allow herself to think about what had just happened. She wasn’t use to being protected, and Cole’s actions left her with a warm glow she didn’t even want to try to acknowledge, but the possibilities sent her into a shocked silence that lasted for most of the ride to her new home.
    All her life, people had taken her for granted, taken advantage of her, told her what to do, how to do it, and when she was doing it wrong. And, according to Sloan and her mother, that was all the time. Never, not once, had anyone protected and cared for her and Lizzie as Cole had in the short time since they’d met in Doc Amos’ office. Yes, he’d been controlling, but it was a different kind of control, one tempered with caring.
    With that realization, came a flash of stark reality. If she allowed Cole past her defenses, she could get very used to it, and she’d sworn never to become reliant on anyone ever again.
    Or to fall in love.
    Chapter 3
    WHEN THEY PULLED into the driveway of the little cottage Doc had allowed Faith and Lizzie to move into, the tightness around Faith’s nerves eased. With its beds of rainbow-colored flowers, bright red shutters, and the little front porch complete with a rocking chair to lull Lizzie to sleep, the small, white structure seemed to open its arms to her.
    Faith cuddled Lizzie close and entered the building to explore their new home. If the outside made