“It was my grandmother’s word for anything she wanted to call a bad name, but wouldn’t,” he said. “She was one of the first female peace officers in Wyoming. She worked as a deputy sheriff.”

“What a fascinating person she must have been.”

He nodded. “I was ten. She was gunned down on the job, giving out a speeding ticket to a man who turned out to be a fugitive from a murder charge.” His face tautened. “I think that’s why I wanted to be a lawman. I couldn’t save her, but I hoped I might save somebody else and pass it on.”

She understood at once. “My grandfather was a deputy sheriff in a county south of here, and then in San Antonio for many years,” she said. “His health failed, or he’d probably still have been doing it when...when we lost him,” she said, amending what she’d started to say. “Even so, he worked as a special deputy from time to time. He loved his job.”

“Tad’s father, how did he die?”

“Ben was hit by a speeding car,” she said simply. “It was so unexpected. He could be kind, when he wanted to.”

“Any family living?”

She hesitated. Morris was a stepbrother, not family. “No,” she said softly. “All my people are dead.”

“So are most of mine,” he replied. “I have a cousin who’s a sheriff up in Wyoming. He lives in Catelow, where Brenda and I are from.” He sighed. “He’s had a hard life himself. His wife was a doctor. She caught a deadly virus while treating a patient. She died. Cody never got over that. He keeps to himself. He said he’d rather have her memory than half a dozen modern, man-hating women.”

She sighed. “That’s so sad.”

He looked at her until she raised her eyes. “You don’t date, do you?”

“Most men wouldn’t understand why I’d have to take Tad with me if I went on a date,” she said, and her eyes twinkled.

“It’s a hell of a lot of responsibility,” he said quietly. “You’ve taken care of him for how long?”

“Since I was nineteen,” she said. “I love my brother,” she added quietly. “I’d do anything to keep him safe.”

He nodded. “I’ve taken care of my sister, since she was only a little older than Tad. I understand the lack of a social life.” He chuckled. “I had to take her on dates, too, because I had nobody to leave her with. Odd, how it puts women off.”

“I guess it would put men off, too,” she mused.

His black eyes narrowed. “Don’t you know?”

She grimaced. “I...sort of had a bad experience,” she said hesitantly. “I don’t trust men.”

“It shows,” he said.

She swallowed. “Sorry.”

“It wasn’t an accusation.” He cocked his head as he stared down at her. “Was he prosecuted?”