#TeaserTuesday – Caught egg-handed #MFRWauthor #romance #TheSheriffsSon

Today’s Teaser Tuesday is a new clip from my first book, The Sheriff’s Son. When her former high-school sweetheart-turned-deputy-sheriff unexpectedly marches her young son into her bookstore, Sarah finds she has more to fear from Tanner Jones than their awkward reunion and a revival of painful memories.

“He’s only a child, Tanner. What kind of damage could he have done to your car? Surely not enough to make you so ready to lynch him?”

All right, even she could recognize an overreaction when she heard one. But Tanner had always driven her to extremes. Had made her do things she wouldn’t ordinarily consider–

No time for those thoughts now. Or ever.

She had her child to worry about.

“Lynching?” He laughed, loud and full-throated, tipping his head back, exposing the long lean column of his neck. She jerked her gaze away. “I just wanted to give him a scare, make him think twice before he goes off and does something else he shouldn’t.”

“Just what did he do?”

“Took it upon himself to decorate my car.”

Her heart sank. She sneaked another glance at Tanner. He didn’t look nearly as fierce as he had when he’d first come into the store, Kevin dangling from his fingertips. With any luck, she’d get by with a written warning, instead of a ticket she couldn’t hope to pay. If her son was guilty of the damage.

“You know for a fact it was Kevin?”

“Caught him egg-handed.”

“Eggs?” She sagged in relief. “Is that all?”

“You know what dried egg does to a paint job?” He flipped open his notebook. “‘Kevin Lindstrom,'” he read aloud. “Age?”

“Under eighteen,” she snapped, grabbing at the first words to come to her mind. “That makes him a minor.” Low down in her stomach, a small tremor of guilt and fear began to build. “Wh-why do you want to know?”

His eyes focused on her, and her legs threatened to go out from under her. She knew what Kevin must have felt like, without solid footing beneath him.

“I’m going to keep an eye on that child.”

“He’s my responsibility, thank you.”

He snorted. “And a great job you’re doing, too, aren’t you? Can’t even control your own son.”

“How dare you!”

“I’m a deputy sheriff, that’s how. Seems to me your boy’s hyper, high-strung, and attention-seeking.”

“He’s a typical child,” she shot back.

“Trouble waiting to happen.”