“But you can’t do anything without proof.” She sat back with a long sigh. “I know how this game is played, Sheriff, and you’re the one in a bad position. Carrie is very likely going to take the brunt of it, but we can’t force her to talk to us. It’ll be worse now. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, but I’ve seen what happens.”

He hated that he couldn’t give her more. “I’m sorry if I made things tougher for you.”

“I hate the thought of her not getting the medical attention she needs, but honestly, even if she did everything right, she could still end up getting hurt.” She glanced out at the street, seemingly lost in thought.

He wanted to get her mind on something better, but he had one more thing to get out of the way. Perhaps if he apologized, they could talk about more than all the ways he’d screwed up. “I’m sorry Miranda confronted you like that. I went out with her on a few dates. Nothing serious.”

Her eyes were back on him and there was no question she was curious. “Before the accident?”

“Yes.” He didn’t want to talk about that time, but she should know since she was dealing with his past. Not that he’d really known his past was a problem.

“I got that feeling. She seems to think that once Noelle is out of the house, you’ll resume your previous affair.”

“It wasn’t an affair.” He knew he didn’t owe her an explanation and she hadn’t seemed angry about the incident. He was discovering that not much got to her. Still, he found himself nearly falling over trying to explain. “It was a couple of dates. Three, maybe. It never got past a single good-night kiss. I knew there wasn’t anything between us. It was . . . boredom, maybe. I was restless when I first got here. I never intended for it to become a relationship.”

“But you never had that discussion with her? Because she did not sound like a woman who’d been dumped.”

“I was going to talk to her,” he explained. “It’s sad, but I planned that conversation with far more care than I ever planned a date with her. But then Noelle was in the accident and the problem pretty much faded away.”

Lila’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand. Your daughter was in a horrible accident. Where was Miranda?”