Chapter 29
Did you really get arrested if no one took your mug shot?
Sophia
“Y ou better get going, Sammy. The po po are out tonight,” I mutter to the seal. He barks at me before hobbling away.
“Come on.” The police officer grasps my arm and leads me to his cruiser.
“Aren’t you going to cuff me?”
“Do you want me to cuff you?”
“If I’m getting an arrest record, I want the full experience.”
He blows out a breath. “You’re not getting an arrest record, but I’ll give you the full experience.”
He slaps cuffs on me.
“I gotta say. This isn’t as fun as when Flynn cuffs me.”
He groans. “I do not need to know what you and Flynn get up to.”
“Why not?” I narrow my eyes on him. “Are you friends with my brother Weston?”
“This is Lucas,” Flynn introduces.
My eyes widen. “You’re Lucas?” I rack my gaze over him. I get Chloe’s attraction to him. He’s got the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on. “It all makes sense now.”
“What makes sense?”
“I’m Sophia. Pleased to meet you.” I grin. “I’d shake your hand but mine are kind of cuffed behind my back at the moment.”
“Sophia as in Chloe’s friend?”
“The one of only. And you’re Chloe’s neighbor. And dad to Natalia.”
“Natalia’s my little girl.”
“Ah.” I sigh. “You’re a proud daddy. I’m surprised Chloe wants to roll in the hay with you. She’s terrified of children.”
His brow wrinkles. “She’s not terrified of Natalia.”
“No. Of course not. I meant…” I trail off before I confess Chloe’s deepest, darkest secrets to the man she’s crushing on. “Never mind. Are you going to cuff Flynn?”
“I didn’t want to cuff you,” he mutters.
“Run for it, Flynn!” I shout. “He’ll never catch you.”
Lucas groans. “Where’s he going to run to? I know where he lives.”
My shoulders slump. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”
“Is she always this crazy?” Lucas asks Flynn.
“No. Sometimes she sleeps. Although, she does talk in her sleep.”
I gasp. “I do not.”
“Last night you mumbled how you missed your train and someone stole your laptop while you were trying to catch a taxi. When you reported the theft, the credit card company stole your identity.”
I kick Flynn since my hands are not currently available. Insisting Lucas cuff me may not have been my best idea. “Now he knows we’re sleeping together.”
Lucas barks out a laugh. “Did you really think you were keeping your relationship a secret?”
“No fair. I can’t raise my hand.”
Flynn runs a hand down his face. “We were trying to keep this quiet.”
Lucas grunts. “And I’m supposed to be the non-native who doesn’t understand how island living works.”
My chest seizes and breathing becomes difficult. Will Flynn call me a mistake if Weston knows we’re involved? Will he dump me?
I glance over at the man I love. No, I have to believe otherwise. I can’t question his motives every time someone on the island reminds him of how little privacy there is.
But I will change the subject.
“I thought you were arresting us? I’ll wait in the squad car.”
I march toward the car but Lucas chases after me. I knew he would. You don’t mess with a police officer’s squad car. Ask me how I know.
No, wait. Don’t. My friends and I never stuck cotton balls to Weston’s squad car in the winter. But if we had, it would have been his fault for telling my date he’d arrest him if he laid a finger on me. The guy ran out of the restaurant and stuck me with the bill. I waited a half hour for him to come out of the restroom.
Lucas opens the rear door and helps me inside. Flynn follows me in.
“What are you doing? You could have run away.”
He growls. “As if I’d let you get arrested without me.”
“Ah. Chivalry isn’t dead.” I lay my head on his shoulder and he wraps his arm around me.
“Our first time being arrested together. I’ll add this to our scrapbook.”
“Scrapbook? Do you scrapbook?”
“I took a class once but it’s not my thing.”
“What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what did you do to get kicked out of class.”
“Me? Get kicked out of class?”
“You totally got kicked out of the class.”
“Fine.” I huff. “I did. But it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t realize the pictures weren’t glued to the pages. I swear I wouldn’t have started the glue fight if I’d known.”
He moans. “Forget I asked.”
“Are all of the women on Smuggler’s Hideaway trouble?” Lucas asks as he starts driving toward Smuggler’s Rest.
“We’re not trouble. And could you please switch on the lights and siren?”
“Not trouble my ass,” he mumbles but he does switch on the lights and siren.
“Whoo hoo!” I shout as we speed toward the police station. “This is better than the mermaid roller coaster at Mermaid Mystical Gardens.”
“That roller coaster is for children.”
I roll my eyes at Flynn. “Not if you eat a whole bag of cotton candy and do a shot of whiskey before you ride it.”
“Let me guess. You wanted to find out if you’d throw up.”
I beam at him. “I didn’t.”
“We’re here,” Lucas announces as he parks his cruiser in back of the police station.
“It’s time for the perp walk. How does my hair look?”
Flynn tucks a strand behind my ear. “Wild.”
“Awesome!”
Lucas opens the door and motions for Flynn to get out before helping me. Getting around with handcuffs on is harder than I thought it would be. I should probably practice.
“Can I apply some lipstick before you snap my picture? And maybe wash my hands, too?”
Lucas grunts. “I’m not taking your picture.”
“I’m not getting a mug shot? Why not? Wait. Does this mean you’re not fingerprinting me either? This is not the full experience.”
“You’re lucky I handcuffed you.”
“Are you at least going to put us in a cell?”
Lucas opens a door and motions me inside.
“Is this an interrogation room?” I ask as I study the room. It’s pretty bare. There’s only one table and four chairs.
“Hold on.” I rush to the mirror on the wall. “Is this a two-way mirror?”
Lucas unlocks my cuffs. “Wait here.”
“For how long?” I shout after him. “Do I get a potty break? Water? Prison gruel?”
He shuts the door behind him without answering any of my questions.
“How rude.”
Flynn pulls out a chair. “Have a seat. We’re going to be here a while.”
“Really?” I plop down. “Do you have experience being arrested?”
“Getting caught smoking in the back of the bus with Stacey wasn’t the only reason I had to work at the hardware store every Saturday for a year.”
I know it wasn’t, but I don’t know all the crap he pulled as a teenager. “Tell me more.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t enjoy revisiting those times.”
I grasp his hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry. I know how difficult it was after your mom died.”
His lips turn up in an almost smile. “My mom was the best.”
“I don’t remember her very well.” I was eleven when she died.
“She used to dance around the kitchen when she was making dinner. She’d sing the lyrics as loud as she could.” He smiles. “She always got the lyrics wrong. I explained how she could look up the lyrics online but she didn’t care.”
“She sounds fun.”
“She was, although her taste in music was appalling.”
“What kind of music did she listen to?”
“She loved Elvis. She listened to his songs over and over again.”
“Are you saying Elvis is appalling?”
“It is when you’re fifteen and your mom is singing the wrong lyrics offkey.”
I smile. “I bet she knew all the lyrics. I bet she sang the wrong ones to drive you crazy.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, she probably knew the lyrics to Stranger in my Own Hometown weren’t ‘I came home from detention, about five or six years ago’.”
I giggle. “She was definitely teasing you.”
“She did enjoy teasing me.”
“Oh yeah? How?”
“When I was little and didn’t want to take a bath, she’d tell me my toes would fall off if I didn’t bathe. And then she’d sneak into my bedroom after I fell asleep and pull on them.”
I grin. “Your mom sounds awesome.”
“She was the best. But your mom is awesome, too.”
“It’s not a contest.” I squeeze his hand. “Thank you for sharing your memories of your mother with me.”
He palms my neck before leaning close and melding his lips to mine. I sigh when his musky flavor hits me. His wood chips and teak oil smell surrounds me and I want to drown in it. I want to drown in him.
The door slams open and Flynn jumps away as Weston marches inside.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Flynn says and I frown. He’s still denying our relationship? Even after tonight?
Weston raises his eyebrows. “It isn’t? You didn’t get arrested with my little sister tonight?”
I glance back and forth between my brother and the man I love. Weston’s nostrils are flaring and a muscle in Flynn’s jaw is ticking. Shit. I want Flynn to tell Weston we’re involved but I don’t want them to come to blows.
“It was my fault. If Rogue hadn’t become attached to me, he wouldn’t have been jealous when I was talking to Sammy.”
My brother pulls his gaze away from Flynn. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
“I’m waiting for the punchline.”
“Punchline?”
“What you said made no sense whatsoever.”
“It’s not Flynn’s fault we got arrested.”
“Flynn should have known better.”
“This is not the Wild West where women couldn’t defend themselves. This is not Flynn’s fault,” I insist.
“Flynn’s standing right here and I’m taking full responsibility.”
“Hey, Weston.” Lucas knocks on the open door before walking inside. “Shall I release your sister?”
“I’m not leaving until Flynn leaves.”
Flynn cups my cheek. “Go ahead. I have a few things to discuss with your brother.”
I wag my finger at Weston. “No bloodshed.”
“No promises,” he mutters as Lucas drags me out of the room.
I open my mouth to protest but Weston slams the door in my face. This is bad. Flynn wasn’t ready to tell Weston about us but now he has no choice. Will he say it was all a mistake? That I’m a mistake?