“I lied. I was all broody. Now I’m hangry and you should find a place where I can shove fried food into my mouth.” And she was suddenly curious about his family.

There was a long honk and the sheriff turned, putting his hands on his lean hips. The man knew how to wear a set of khakis. “Gene Boudreaux? Is that you? You go around. Remy’s trying to decide if he’s joining the party or running back to Dallas. The man needs some space.”

“Does he have to have it in the middle of the damn road?” a man screamed back.

“Oh, I will tase you,” the sheriff promised. “You move around him. You think I won’t?”

A white sedan raced around them.

The sheriff was back and smiling. “Don’t worry about them. You take all the time you need.” He reached up and tipped his hat her way. “You must be Miss Daley. I’m Armand LaVigne. You can call me Armie. Everyone does. Unless I’m arresting you and then I prefer Sheriff.”

Oh, he was a charmer. She reached out her hand and shook his, her fingers brushing over Remy’s as she pulled back. “How did you know my name?”

Armie grinned, looking younger than before. “Everyone knows your name, chère. There’s a parking place on the square being saved for Remy. If you want to run, you should dump your cell phone. Seraphina tracks you on it.”

“She does what?” Remy asked, his voice rising.

“Your sister tracks you. She flips out from time to time when it shows up in some weird foreign country and rushes into my office screaming that I have to go save you because you’ve been kidnapped. I told her there was nothing at all weird about a bodyguard going to Monaco. She didn’t know where that was. We need to work on our education system. Someone needs to teach that girl geography.”

Remy had flushed and it took a lot not to reach out to him. She reminded herself that they weren’t together. They had never really been together. He didn’t deserve her sympathy.

But oh she wanted to give it to him because he was floundering.

“We’ll go and park, Sheriff.” It was obvious someone had to make a decision. Also, hangry. Maybe not angry exactly, but there were definitely some feelings going on that she would like to medicate with fair food. If there was a beer somewhere out there, all the better.

“Why are they doing this?” The question came out on a tone that proved Remy was pretty emotional, too.

Armie leaned over, his eyes serious. “We screwed up the first time you came home, man. It wasn’t a good time for the town, but we should have remembered what you sacrificed. We lost a boy about eighteen months ago.”