The Texas Ranger's Reward (Undercover Heroes) by Rebecca Winters

they visited the
ice cream shop. Casey showed his sore arm to the salesgirl, who put extra
candies on his ice cream. They all thanked her warmly.
    On the way home Casey said, “She sure was nice.” He glanced at
Melissa. “Can you come to our house and see Dexter?”
    Melissa knew what his father wanted her to say. “Do you know,
I’d like that, but I have other plans I can’t break. Thank you so much, though.”
Deep down she wanted to go to his house more than anything, but she didn’t dare
take advantage of the situation.
    “Can you come tomorrow?”
    By now Travis had pulled the truck in front of her town house.
“Melissa will be busy.”
    “Oh.”
    “We’ll make arrangements for that another time.”
    “Okay.” But he sounded downhearted.
    She opened the door. “When you get home, be sure and put some
disinfectant on your arm.”
    His head whipped around to his father. “Do we have any?”
    “I’m not sure. If we don’t, I’ll buy some.”
    “But it will hurt.”
    Melissa had an idea. “If you’ll wait just a moment, I’ll get
some for you that doesn’t sting.” Leaving the truck door open, she darted into
her condo. Once inside, she grabbed the can off her bathroom shelf and in
seconds was back. Casey had opened his door and undone his seat belt, and now he
waited for her on the end of the seat.
    “Can you stick out your arm? This is a spray. It’ll feel cool.”
He nervously extended it. She pressed the nozzle and covered the long scrape
with the mist.
    “Hey! That didn’t even hurt!”
    “Nope, and now you’re going to be good as new. I’m very proud
of you.”
    Without warning, he reached out and gave her a hug. Luckily,
she’d been standing right next to the seat. She hugged him back, then stepped
away and shut the door. Her gaze flicked to his father. “See ya,” she said, not
daring to prolong this. She’d taken her cue from Travis.
    “I’ll be in touch about tomorrow,” he assured her.
    “See ya soon!” Casey exclaimed.
    She chuckled as she walked back inside. Kids. They never gave
up when they wanted something. She was crazy about them, but her feelings for
Casey were growing deeper. Naturally, the loss of his mother had a lot to with
her desire to comfort him, but that wasn’t the only reason.
    He was an endearing child in his own right. Fun to talk to.
Bright, adorable. A son his father loved with a fierceness she’d noticed from
the start. Casey was the reason Travis got up in the morning. She could see why,
and she envied him.
    After checking her mailbox, she let herself inside the condo
without looking back. Because of their hike in the heat, she decided a shower
was in order.
    Later, when she’d dressed, she felt restless. For once she
didn’t turn to her painting. Vaguely disturbed without knowing why, she phoned
her brother and asked if he’d come over to her place. He told her it would have
to be later that night, because he was up at the cabin right then having a look
around.
    She was surprised and relieved. John was the one person she
felt she could talk to about Travis. Her brother might be able to give her
insight into how to handle the fact that Travis resented her looking like his
deceased wife.
    Without a good talk, she feared that when she eventually went
to bed, she would lie awake half the night waiting for tomorrow to come. It had
been years since she’d found herself wanting to be with a man again. But he
wasn’t just any man. Since the movie with Casey, she’d thought of his father as
her own personal Texas Ranger.

Chapter Five
    Travis drove away from the town house and headed
downtown. He needed to run by the forensics lab to drop off the soil samples,
fingerprint tapes and cast he’d taken.
    En route he remembered what he’d wanted to ask Melissa before
he’d received that phone call from the school, and everything else had gone out
of his mind. He needed a list of any people who’d been in their cabin this year
besides