How much time did he spend with my niece and nephew anyway? “You still have a key to my house?” It occurred to me that I’d never gotten it back.

“Yeah, Violet told me to keep it.”

“What are you doing here, Joe?” I asked with a firmer tone.

“I talked to Mason this afternoon.”

“So? You could have called me.”

“Would you have taken the call?”

Before this afternoon, probably not.

“See?” he said when I didn’t answer. “Look, Rose. I know you’re still angry with me, and you have every right to be, but I’d never let my feelings for you get in the way of protecting you or preventing a crime. Surely you won’t let your animosity for me get in the way of either of those things.”

I knew he was right, but the way he’d wormed his way back into Ashley and Mikey’s life pissed me off. And I was about to throttle Violet for letting him. When Joe realized I was never going back to him, he’d probably leave Henryetta and Fenton County the first chance he got, crushing their little hearts a second time.

But what did I expect? Joe Simmons left broken hearts everywhere he went. Sometimes literally.

I turned away and stared at the house where he was living again. It looked so much quieter now that my friend Heidi Joy and her brood of kids had moved out. But I had to admit that his car looked like it belonged in the gravel driveway.

My hair was still pulled back in a ponytail, but several strands had worked loose. The breeze swept them into my face, so I reached up and tucked them behind my ears before I turned back to him. “So Mason told you about the bank robbery?”

Anger filled his eyes and his hands clenched into fists. “What were you thinking by studying them like that, Rose? I called Taylor after I talked to Mason and he said one of the guys was about to take you in the back and kill you!”

“No, he wasn’t, Joe. He was taking me in the back to—”

His voice softened. “To hurt you, Rose. He was worried you could identify him. You’re at risk…again.”

I shook my head in dismay. “What would you have had me do, Joe? Bury my head into the floor?”

He closed the distance between us and grabbed my upper arms. “Yes. That’s exactly what you should have done. When will you learn to be more careful?”

I looked up at him, my eyes narrowing. “And is that what you would have done? Ignored them?”

Irritation flickered across his face. “No. Of course not. But I’m a law enforcement officer.”

“You don’t carry your gun everywhere you go. At least you didn’t when you were with me. What if you’d been in that bank with no gun? Would you have buried your head into the floor then?”

“No.”

I jerked my arms out of his grasp. “Then don’t ask me to do something you wouldn’t.”

He spun away, cursing under his breath, then turned back to me. “Well, here we are again. You stumbling into danger and getting your life threatened. How many times do we have to go through this same song and dance, Rose?”

I gasped and crossed my arms over my chest. “How dare you? You don’t have to go through anything. What happens to me has nothing to do with you because we are no longer together!”

“I still love you, Rose! Of course this affects me.”

Rage billowed in my chest. “You love me? You slept with Hilary! How many times did you sleep with her, Joe?” The words coming out of my mouth were black and ugly. And totally unlike me.

Joe’s eyes widened before he recovered. “We were split up, Rose. I thought you were with Jonah.”

And the fact that he’d actually believed I was sleeping with my friend Jonah was an insult. But I’d heard it all before…we were just rehashing the conversation we’d had when he visited the nursery for a campaign stop several weeks ago. Tears blurred my eyes and I shook my head. Pushing past him, I marched up the steps to the front porch. “I can’t do this right now. I have too much else on my plate.”

“You can’t walk away from me, Rose,” he called after me. “Your life is in danger.”

I spun around, my hands on my hips. “Then why didn’t you send the mug shots to Mason like he asked? If you really cared about me, you would have already done it.”

“It’s not just the mug shots. You’re out on that farm all alone—”

“I’m not alone! I have Mason.”

His face twisted into an ugly sneer. “You blast me for sleeping with someone else, when I thought there was no hope for us—”

“Not just someone. Hilary!”

“—but you didn’t waste any time setting up house with the assistant district attorney.”

“I didn’t start seeing Mason until after you confirmed you were sleeping with her. Besides, his condo was burned down by Daniel Crocker. He had no other place to stay.”

“Really?” he sneered. “He had no other place to stay?”

I looked up at the ceiling of the porch and took a deep breath before leveling my gaze on him. “What do you want, Joe?” My voice was calmer, making my words sound cold. “You’re standing here insulting me when you claim to want me back. What do you want?”

He bolted up the porch steps, not stopping until he was standing directly in front of me. “I want you.”

I bit my lip and shook my head. “That is a non-issue, so if you’re standing here hoping to plead your case, then turn around, pack up your car, and drive back to El Dorado.”