The Sheriff 0f Wickham Falls (Wickham Falls Weddings Book 3) Read online

  You can search the world over...

  But sometimes love is right next door.

  Deputy Sheriff Seth Collier is content to serve and protect the citizens of Wickham Falls...until the sexy ex-marine meets his new next-door neighbor. Dr. Natalia Hawkins left the big-city ER for a small-town practice. And while Seth is everything her nasty ex wasn’t...Natalia’s head says to leave him in the friend zone. But her heart says this may be a second chance at love.

  He held up his left hand when Natalia opened her mouth.

  “Don’t say it,” he warned softly.

  “Don’t say what?” she said, as she struggled not to smile.

  “You were going to mention my hitting my hand instead of the nail.”

  “That’s called an accident,” she said, rather than tease him about his mishap with the hammer. “Give me about twenty minutes to put everything away and for me to change my clothes, and then we can begin painting. I’ll leave the door unlocked for you.”

  Her eyes met Seth’s. The magnetism coming off him in waves held her captive until Natalia dropped her gaze. She could feel pinpoints of heat stinging her face and she was grateful for her darker complexion to conceal what would’ve been an obvious blush. And she also prayed he hadn’t caught her staring at him like a starstruck groupie coming face-to-face with her idol.

  Seth gave her a mock salute. “I’ll see you later.”

  Natalia exhaled an audible breath of relief when Seth walked out of the kitchen. She had relocated to Wickham Falls to become a small-town doctor, and had no intention of falling under the spell of her sexy neighbor.

  * * *

  WICKHAM FALLS WEDDINGS:

  Small-town heroes, bighearted love!

  Dear Reader,

  As a fiction writer I am given immense power to tell stories without being labeled a habitual liar or diagnosed as delusional. Once I decided to create fictional Wickham Falls I wasn’t certain whether I would have enough in the creative tank to continue to write about this small town nestled in West Virginia’s coal country, or the colorful characters that whisper in my ear they want their stories told. But as an obedient author I listened and promised I would do that with The Sheriff of Wickham Falls.

  Seth Collier, like so many young men in the Falls, graduates high school and joins the military. However, after two decades the former MP returns to the Falls to become a deputy sheriff and swears an oath to protect and serve. What he doesn’t count on is meeting a woman who will make him rethink his view about marriage.

  ER trauma doctor Natalia Hawkins is facing imminent burnout from working long hours in an overcrowded, understaffed Philadelphia municipal hospital. Unfortunately, the chaos in her professional life is compounded by a toxic relationship with her live-in fiancé. Leaving it all behind, Natalia decides to fulfill her dream as a small-town doctor when she accepts a position to join a medical practice in Wickham Falls, West Virginia.

  It doesn’t take Natalia long to realize living and working in the Falls fills a void, while she finds it more and more difficult to ignore her hunky lawman neighbor. But she still questions if she is doomed never to have a happily-ever-after.

  Seth and Natalia are two evenly matched, strong-willed, passionate characters that will pull you in from the first page and not let go until the last.

  Happy reading!

  Rochelle Alers

  The Sheriff of Wickham Falls

  Rochelle Alers

  Since 1988, national bestselling author Rochelle Alers has written more than eighty books and short stories. She has earned numerous honors, including the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Iota Theta Zeta Chapter. A full-time writer, she lives in a charming hamlet on Long Island. Rochelle can be contacted through her website, www.rochellealers.org.

  Books by Rochelle Alers

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Wickham Falls Weddings

  Home to Wickham Falls

  Her Wickham Falls SEAL

  American Heroes

  Claiming the Captain’s Baby

  Harlequin Kimani Romance

  The Eatons

  Sweet Silver Bells

  Sweet Southern Nights

  Sweet Destiny

  Kimani Arabesque

  The Wainwright Legacy

  Here I Am

  Because of You

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  The Sheriff of Wickham Falls is dedicated to

  my three brothers and late father—

  all of whom honorably served in the US military.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from The Little Maverick Matchmaker by Stella Bagwell

  Excerpt from The Texas Cowboy’s Quadruplets by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Chapter One

  Tap! Tap! Tap!

  Natalia Hawkins opened one eye and then the other, and stared up at the ceiling in her bedroom; staccato tapping had jolted her out of her much-needed sleep, and she wasn’t ready to accept that she’d moved into a house with a woodpecker living in a tree on the property.

  Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

  There it was again. After sitting up and sweeping off the sheet and lightweight blanket, Natalia swung her legs over the side of the bed. As soon as her bare feet touched the floor, she knew she would be up for the day. As a former ER doctor working in an overcrowded, understaffed Philadelphia municipal hospital, she was used to performing her duties on limited amounts of sleep.

  She had believed Wickham Falls, a remote town in the Appalachian Mountains boasting a population of less than five thousand residents, was a place where she would no longer be jolted awake by honking horns from bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic, the wailing of emergency vehicles’ sirens or her name coming through the hospital’s loudspeakers. She had left the noise of a large metropolitan city behind to get a peaceful night’s sleep, only to be awakened by an annoying bird.

  Natalia opened the blinds and bright early morning sunlight flooded the space. Her gaze lingered on boxes lined up against a wall that were filled with linens, blankets, clothes and shoes. There also were boxes in the smaller bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom, and living and dining rooms. It had taken less than six weeks for her to box up her life to leave behind all that was familiar to move and become a small-town family doctor—something she had always wanted, even before graduating medical school.

  Slipping her feet into a pair of fluffy yellow SpongeBob slippers that were a Christmas gift from her eight-year-old niece, she walked out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Although the compact one-story house was larger than her condo in the luxurious high-rise building in Philadelphia, it did not have the open floor plan or panoramic views to which Natali
a had become accustomed. That no longer mattered because as soon as she opened the door to walk into the house, it became her sanctuary. She did not have to gird herself for a confrontation with her fiancé who had managed to find fault in everything. After a while, Natalia preferred sleeping at the hospital rather than come home to a hostile environment that had become even worse instead of getting better. And thanks to his duplicity, Daryl made it very easy for Natalia to make a clean break with her place of birth to follow and fulfill her dream to live and work in a small town.

  She brushed her teeth and then washed her face as she stared at her reflection in the oval mirror over the pedestal sink. Even though she didn’t look any different than she had in years, Natalia knew she wasn’t the same woman who’d gotten her wish to become a doctor, and fall in love with a man she had thought of as perfect. She was still dedicated to her profession; however, her personal life had been filled with angst and turmoil. Her fiancé abruptly moved out of the condo four months ago, taking her engagement ring and the dog he’d given her as a gift for her birthday.

  Natalia wasn’t as upset about losing her ring as she had been about Daryl Owens taking Oreo, the dark-brown-and-white toy poodle that had been her constant companion. She’d promptly contacted the building’s management to change the locks on the unit because she didn’t want Daryl to return and renew what had become a toxic relationship where despite living under the same roof, they argued constantly and hadn’t made love in months. The first night Natalia went to bed and woke up alone signaled a new beginning for her. And it took only a few days to realize she had been reborn and she didn’t have to monitor every word or action because Daryl would invariably challenge and ridicule her.

  Walking out of the bathroom, Natalia returned to the bedroom to make the bed. Normally she would head for the kitchen to brew a cup of coffee but that would have to be put off until she unpacked the coffee maker. She’d carefully planned her day to go into town for breakfast, and then stop at the hardware store to pick up paint, brushes and rollers to paint the kitchen. Shopping for groceries to stock the refrigerator and pantry was next on her to-do list, followed by unpacking as many boxes as she could to make her new home appear lived-in.

  She fluffed up her pillows and positioned them against the wrought iron headboard, and had just opened the windows to let in fresh air when she heard a string of explosive expletives. Peering out the window, she saw a man holding his hand as he continued to spew curses, this time under his breath.

  Instinct galvanized her into action as Natalia raced to the front door to see if the man had been seriously injured. She met a pair of light brown eyes in a face the color of golden-brown autumn leaves. He was tall, at least six inches above her five-five height, and powerfully built as evidenced by the white T-shirt stretched over a muscled chest and broad shoulders.

  “Please, let me see your hand.”

  * * *

  Seth Collier stared at the woman who seemingly had appeared out of nowhere. The pain in his left thumb intensified, throbbing as if it had its own heartbeat. “Who are you?” he asked her.

  “I’m a doctor, and it appears as if you’ve injured your hand.”

  “You don’t say,” Seth drawled sarcastically. He’d accidently hit his thumb with the hammer when attempting to drive the last nail into the post for the birdhouse, fearing he had broken it. His gaze went from the face of the slightly built woman with a short natural hairstyle and a flawless complexion that looked like chocolate mousse to her chest. He had an unobstructed view of firm breasts in a floral tank top she had paired with red cotton lounging pajama pants. He averted his eyes before she caught him ogling her like a voyeur.

  “Do you want me to look at your hand? There is a possibility that you have broken a bone.”

  Seth extended his hand at the same time he bit down on his lower lip; the pain had intensified. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d injured himself while wielding a hammer. His general contractor father had taught him everything he needed to know about handling tools, but it was apparent he had temporarily forgotten the very important safety precautions. Seth blamed the accident on inattentiveness rather than fatigue. He’d left Savannah, Georgia, before midnight after spending a week with his mother and sisters, to drive back to Wickham Falls to arrive home at dawn. As soon as he pulled into his driveway, he saw the white BMW SUV parked next to the house that had been vacant for a year. His neighbor, who had planned to rent his house because he was out of the country, had asked him to watch his property. Not only was Seth surprised that someone had moved in, but as one of Wickham Falls’ deputy sheriffs, there was very little that went on in the town that he wasn’t aware of.

  The second thing he noticed was the birdhouse he had put up once he’d moved back to The Falls was down again. Seth knew the boys who lived in the house on the street behind his tended to jump the fence rather than walk around the block, and in doing so knocked over the birdhouse. He had held off talking to their grandparents, who had taken in the boys while their parents were going through a contentious divorce, but now he knew he had to warn them about trespassing and vandalizing his property.

  “Does that hurt?”

  “No,” he said, as the doctor massaged his fingers. It wasn’t his hand but his thumb he’d injured, and thankfully he was right-handed or he wouldn’t be able to perform his duties. Seth had another two days before he was scheduled to return to work.

  “Try opening and closing your hand,” she said in a quiet voice. Seth complied. “Lucky for you, you haven’t broken any bones. I’m going to spray your thumb with a solution that will temporarily numb the pain. You hit your thumb rather hard, so you’re going to experience some swelling. I recommend you apply ice several times a day to keep that down. Don’t move. I’ll be right back with the spray.”

  Despite the discomfort in his thumb, Seth found that he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the sensual sway of her hips in the cotton pajama pants. He walked over to where she had parked her vehicle. The parking sticker from a Philadelphia medical center attached to the windshield with a caduceus verified she probably worked at a hospital. A hint of a smile touched the corners of his mouth. In that instant, having a medical professional as a neighbor was very convenient, otherwise he would have to wait for Dr. Henry Franklin to open his office or drive six miles to the county hospital.

  The pretty physician returned, this time wearing an oversize T-shirt with a faded University of Pennsylvania logo. So, he mused, she was an Ivy Leaguer, blessed with both beauty and brains. Seth hoped she hadn’t noticed him staring at her breasts. He did not want her to believe she had moved next door to a pervert.

  She sprayed his hand with an icy liquid, which miraculously alleviated the pain. “Now don’t forget to ice it.”

  Seth flexed his thumb. Smiling, he said, “How much do I owe you?”

  “Nothing, unless you wake me up again before seven in the morning with that annoying hammering.”

  Seth managed to look contrite. “I’m sorry about that. The kids who live on Woodfield Road hopped my fence and knocked over the birdhouse. I was attempting to repair it.”

  “You could’ve waited until later in the day to repair it,” she admonished in a quiet voice.

  He stared at her back as she turned and walked away. “What’s your name, miss?” he called out.

  She stopped, but did not turn around. “Dr. Hawkins.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Hawkins.” When she didn’t acknowledge his offer of gratitude as she entered her house, he muttered “you’re welcome” under his breath.

  Things usually moved at a snail’s pace in The Falls, but it was apparent it had only taken less than two weeks for him to get a new neighbor. And when Natalia identified herself as a doctor, Seth wondered if she was going to take over Dr. Franklin’s practice or join the staff at the county hospital.

  After walking back to his driveway, he pic
ked up the birdhouse and rested it against the side of the house. He wanted to delay putting it up again until he spoke to the grandparents of the teenage boys who used his backyard as a shortcut. Recalling Dr. Hawkins’s recommendation that he apply ice to his thumb, Seth opened the side door and went inside to follow her instructions.

  * * *

  Natalia parked the SUV in front of the hardware store. Downtown Wickham Falls reminded her of many of the bucolic East coast towns that were settled when the States were still British colonies. Vehicles were parked diagonally to maximize space along the four-block-long business district. Both sides of the three blocks were lined with mom-and-pop shops, a local bank, a supermarket, the post office, the fire department and government buildings that included the town hall, courthouse, sheriff’s department and jail. Dr. Franklin’s medical office was a one-story building flanked by a law office and a barbershop.

  During her first trip to Wickham Falls in early March when she interviewed with Dr. Franklin, she had noticed there were no chain drugstores, big-box warehouses or fast-food restaurants. Not having easy access to delicatessens or coffee shops had her second-guessing whether she wanted to relocate to a town where she would have to get into her car and drive miles to find the nearest strip mall. It was only after contacting a local realtor and touring the town that Natalia was able to appreciate its quaint charm. It no longer mattered that railroad tracks dissected Main Street, or that there were only two stoplights: one in front of the fire department, and another near the school campus.

  The woman had shown her two vacant homes that were up for sale, but Natalia knew she wasn’t ready to purchase a house, and then she asked if there were any that she could rent perhaps with the option to buy after a year. And within minutes of walking into the one-story, refurbished, furnished home with stark-white walls and updated appliances, she knew it would suit her needs. The owner had secured a two-year post teaching English at a Japanese university and had decided to rent the house in lieu of selling it. He’d been gone a year, which now allowed Natalia the next twelve months to decide on a permanent residence.