Chapter 1

1

JOCELYN

" G ood morning!"

I jerk my chin up from my notes to smile back at a woman strolling by with a large paper bag from The Bakery on Main. "Good morning!"

Sitting here on the bench in front of the library is one of the best spots to see most of Old Hemlock Valley's downtown. It's also a good spot for everyone to see you . I'm pleased to note that after being here for just over two weeks, people are becoming even friendlier to me.

A tree is blocking most of the sun, but a few dappled beams dance across my hands and arms as I take notes. All the fresh air and sunshine is relaxing, even though technically I'm hard at work.

Two of my college friends and I are renting a house just outside of town. We've been hired as interns to help Professor Hewitt with his study of how news travels verbally in small towns compared to big cities.

Personally, I'm not sold on his theories. I think it depends more on the people, the news in question and the venue than the general location. But, hey – it's a pleasant enough summer job.

Harper and Nikki seem to have found boyfriends here already, which means I have the house to myself some evenings to work full tilt on my other freelance jobs. Maybe I'll actually get ahead with my tragic finances a bit this month. That would be amazing.

A huge truck slowly rumbles by, then I glance toward a strange noise just to my right.

Giant brown eyes are staring at me. Animal eyes, inches away.

Good lord, it's a goat .

My scream echoes off the nearby store walls as I jump up onto the bench to get away from the creature. What do I do?

It's still staring at me inquisitively as it steps closer. Crap. Do goats bite? Do they attack people? I'm a city girl, and I have no idea?—

"Easy now. I've got her."

A massive lumberjack type appears out of nowhere and gets between me and the animal. He grabs its collar and extends a huge, tanned hand to me. "You all right?"

My hand is splayed over my heart, trying to hold it inside. "Yeah. Sorry."

Looking at his face, my knees wobble again. He's… gorgeous . Like… rugged gorgeous . And there's just so much of him…all muscles and long limbs stretching out a black t-shirt and worn work jeans.

He smiles, his dark eyes warm. He helps me down from the bench, as a prickle of electricity runs through me just from his innocent touch for a few seconds.

I really appreciate that he stays between me and the goat.

"Hold on." He checks the tag on its collar, then shakes his head and pulls out a phone. "Hey Gus, it's Walker. Gertie got out." He looks toward me and smiles. "Gonna tie her to a post in front of the library… Great. You take care now."

He leads the goat over to the bed of a large pickup truck, pulls out a length of rope, then ties the animal to a lamp post at the corner of the library lawn. She instantly starts nibbling the grass as if someone had just laid out her favorite lunch spread.

He walks back while scrubbing his hands on his jeans, then extends one to me again. "Walker Dirty."

I can't stifle the giggle that bubbles up and out of me. "Jocelyn Baker."

He gives my hand a bit of a squeeze before releasing it. "I know. The name's…"

"I'm sorry."

He shrugs his massive beefy shoulders. "No, go ahead and laugh. It's funny. I mean…to other people. Us, we're used to it."

"So, you must be Walker from Valley Auto?"

He sits down and pats the bench beside him. I probably sit a bit too close, but I feel like a planet that just had its orbit skewed by a sudden massive gravitational pull. "Yes. And you must be one of the girls who's been taking endless notes for the past few weeks?"

"Yes."

"What are you studying?"

I know that Harper has already told Griffin, and suspect that Nikki may have told Carson, but I don't feel right revealing the details of our project yet to a guy I just met. "It's a psychology and communications project for one of our professors."

"Ah. So top-secret college stuff, then."

Walker glances back to make sure that Gertie is still happily munching grass where he tied her. I appreciate that he's a take charge guy. He saw a problem, and solved it in seconds, even though it wasn't his problem. Plus, he instinctively got between me and the animal the second he saw that I was afraid.

I've never had anyone stand up for me like that before. Even to a goat.

"So you just sit around here taking notes all day?" he chuckles. Wow, I love the way his deep eyes twinkle. A guy that huge could easily look stern or scary, but he's just utterly charming.

"Pretty much."

"What do you do when you're not doing that?"

I don't want to tell him that I have a whole bunch of freelance gigs that I work on during every available moment, but I can't lie to him either. "Oh, you know. Reading. A few little freelance projects. Occasionally a movie."

"Well, since you're new in town, you might not be aware that West Stoneburg has a drive-in. It's only open Friday and Saturday nights, and they don't put nearly enough butter on the popcorn, but if you're ever?—"

His phone beeps, and his manner changes the second he reads the text. "Sorry, it's an emergency. Gotta run. Scribble down your number fast?"

Without even thinking, I rip a page from my notebook and jot it down. He grabs the page, then flashes me a blinding smile. "Thanks. I'll explain later."

He dashes to his truck, jumping in and taking off at a speed that has to be illegal. Yet the uniformed police officer strolling out of the bakery with a bagel in his hand simply gives him a friendly wave.

I don't know that much about these Dirty boys, just fragments of what I've heard from Nikki and Harper. Apparently they're upstanding citizens, sweet guys, and two of them at least already make my friends incredibly happy.

My friends did not, however, mention the kind of crazy electricity these guys can generate from the tiniest touch. My hand and lower belly are still tingling simply from holding his hand twice. What would happen if those warm, strong hands were to?—

There's a loud bleat behind me, and I twist to see Gertie staring at me. I swear to frick she's raising an eyebrow.

Is a goat seriously chastising me for having dirty thoughts about a Dirty man?