Defying the Odds Read Online Free Page B

y’all do to our sheriff?”
     
    Melody turned, raising her eyebrows as she spied Sheriff Conner standing at the counter, waiting to be seated. He wore large, gold-rimmed sunglasses that were stereotypically police officer, but they still didn’t hide the line of stitches above his eyebrow. Bruises decorated his jawline, and his lip was swollen, with another row of black stitches running down the center of it.
     
    His face was painful to see. Melody couldn’t help but wince, feeling terrified to look at his buddy standing next to him. Clay Powers’s broad back was to the counter. His head dipped down, a black baseball hat pulled low over his eyes, hiding his face from view. Against her will, Melody found herself admiring the massive line of his shoulders underneath his jacket. He was one fine specimen of man, his short hair near black, his jaw strong, his nose surprisingly straight considering what he did for a living. At least it had been straight the last time she saw him. She’d be genuinely heartbroken if he’d damaged that nice male nose permanently.
     
    “ Ain’t they pretty?” came a dour female reply behind the sheriff.
     
    “Sure enough.” Mary shook her head, still balancing the tray on her shoulder as she walked around the counter. “But you’re looking mighty nice today, Jules. I like that suit.”
     
    “Thanks. I thought I was going to the office till my dumb-ass brother got his skull beat in—again. Now I’m stuck working at the station all day. I told ’ em the least they could do was buy me breakfast.”
     
    “ Lemme just get these out, and then I’ll get y’all some coffee,” Mary said as she started placing the syrups on each one of the tables. “You’re about five minutes too early.”
     
    “I want the new girl’s section.”
     
    Melody stopped drinking her coffee at the low mumble next to the sheriff, whose buddy still stood there with his back to Melody as if he’d forgotten she existed. But Clay obviously hadn’t, and she took another sip of coffee to hide her smile. She wasn’t just pleased to finally have a customer request her, but this customer in particular caused a fluttering in her stomach that worked at warming her up far more efficiently than the coffee. No matter how she had chastised herself, she thought of the handsome fighter all night after work. She even met up with him in her dreams, when usually it was her ex-husband and nightmares that greeted her when she closed her eyes.
     
    For the first time in a very long time, Melody found herself genuinely attracted to a man, and she savored the feeling. It didn’t even matter if he returned her feelings or not. She was just grateful she could still have them. She’d worried for years that she’d never look at a man again and feel that pulse of sexual excitement currently thrumming through her bloodstream as if it’d never left to begin with.
     
    The sheriff’s eyebrows shot up over his sunglasses as he turned to his friend. “Clay—”
     
    “I’m buying, ain’t I?” Clay interrupted before the sheriff could argue. “Unless you’d like to foot the bill.”
     
    “Hey, Mary, darling,” the sheriff called out. “You mind if we sit in the other section seeing as how Miss Dylan’s in need of work on her truck? I guess Clay figures she needs the cash.”
     
    “Don’t mind at all,” Mary said easily. “She’s got the window booths.”
     
    The sheriff suddenly gasped and rubbed his ribs after a lightning-fast elbow jab from Clay. “Christ, what was that for? You know my ribs are bruised to hell and back.”
     
    “You’re lucky they ain’t broken.” Clay growled and then jabbed him another time for good measure before he turned and walked over to Melody’s section of tables.
     
    Melody winced for the sheriff when he leaned over, grabbing his ribs once more, revealing a beautiful blonde woman behind him. Her shoulder-length hair was thick and wavy. Unlike Melody’s sandy blonde, this