“The speed limit went from seventy to forty-five? Are you kidding me?”

His lips curled up in a slightly crooked, wholly devastating smile. “That’s what speed limits do, ma’am. They go up. They go down. You look familiar. Have you been through town before?”

She wasn’t falling for his charm. Maybe invoking her brother-in-law’s name would work some magic on him. “I’m Lila Daley. Remy Guidry is my brother-in-law.”

That smile went flat, his whole body going back into cop mode. “The last time someone came into town looking for Remy, I got shot. You planning on shooting up the town?”

She winced inwardly. She remembered Lisa saying something about an incident that had led to a police officer being shot in the line of duty. “Sorry about that. No. I’m taking over the clinic in town. I’m your friendly neighborhood nurse practitioner. Next time you get shot, I will totally sew you up.”

He stared at her and she wished she could see his eyes. “You’re taking over for Doc Hamet?”

How to explain? “Sort of. I’m going to run the clinic, but he kind of supervises.” A handful of states let nurse practitioners handle their own practices, but Louisiana wasn’t one of them. Neither was Texas. She would have an enormous amount of freedom, but it would be in conjunction with the doctor who had served the parish for over forty years.

She intended to learn a lot from him.

“So you’re his new nurse,” the cop said. “I didn’t know he’d fired the old one.”

“No. I’m a nurse practitioner. I’m like a general practitioner, but I can’t prescribe certain controlled substances. I can perform some surgeries. I spent over a decade working as a trauma RN before I finished getting my NP. I assure you I can handle the parish’s medical needs.”

“I don’t think you understand the parish, but I’m willing to help out. You have to be better than the doc we have now. You have to catch the man early or not at all, if you know what I mean.”

She gave him what she hoped was a friendly smile. “All right, then. Sorry about the misunderstanding. I’ll be on my way. I was hoping to get everything in the new house before it gets dark.”

“License and registration.”

She gritted her teeth and reached for her purse. “The only reason I sped up was to get away from that freaking alligator.” A thought occurred to her as she opened the Chanel wallet her brother had given her for Christmas. “Did you put that alligator out there as part of your speed trap?”