Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
TEMPERANCE
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hayes clipped, stomping toward me. Reaching for my hand, he uncurled my fingers and pulled out the little card, smoothing it out the best he could to read the words scrawled on it.
“Ex-boyfriend?” he asked, his tone hard and cold in a way I didn’t understand. But at that moment I didn’t have it in me to worry about that. I had something more pressing to stress over.
“Not even close,” I grumbled. I crossed the living room and picked up the discarded bear claw, opening my mouth like an anaconda unhinging its jaw and shoving half the damn thing inside.
“He’s a doctor at the hospital where I work,” I said through puffed cheeks.
I chomped and swallowed before picking up the coffee to wash it down.
I was so angry I couldn’t even enjoy the wonder that was Muffin Top’s incredible coffee.
“We went on three dates. Three! And when I realized he was a complete and total asshole, I ended it,” I ranted, growing increasingly pissed.
Unable to stand still, I started pacing the length of the room.
“He was the reason I needed to drink last night, you know. I had to change my number before I came back to Hope Valley because of him, and that son of a bitch still managed to track it down. And now the flowers? Jesus Christ, Hayes!” I cried frantically.
“I never told him where I was, let alone my aunt’s address! How the hell did he find me?”
“Hey, hey.” Hayes came close, pulling me against him and wrapping me in his strong embrace. “Shh. It’s okay. It’ll all be okay.”
I looped my arms around him and pressed in deeper, needing his warmth to fight off the chill seeping its way into my bones.
Turning my head, I rested her cheek against my chest and whispered, “I never told him my favorite flower, Hayes. Never.”
“Fuck,” he growled viciously, and I couldn’t help but cower into him like I was hoping his body would absorb me.
“How’d he know?” I asked in a weak, pathetic voice.
“I don’t know,” he gritted, “but I’m sure as fuck gonna find out.”
Hayes
“So, you think this guy’s gonna be trouble?”
I forced my attention from the window of the conference room where Temperance was currently sitting with Leo Drake and Micah Langford, two more detectives on the force.
Before I left her house earlier, I made her promise me she’d come in and file a restraining order against the prick harassing her, but I was smart enough to know there was no way in hell I could handle it myself as an objective third party, so I’d punted it to my colleagues, knowing I could trust them to take care of her.
At Trick’s question, that red started creeping into my vision again.
I wanted to find the motherfucker who’d scared Tempie so goddamn bad that she’d practically tried to fuse herself to me back at the farmhouse.
She’d been shaking like a leaf as she clung to me like her life depended on it, and I could kill this prick for putting that fear in her.
“No,” I answered firmly. “He won’t be a problem ’cause I won’t fuckin’ let him be.”
“Gotta say, man, I don’t have a good feeling about this one.
Five women have filed complaints on this guy.
Three for harassment, two for stalking. Each complaint was dead in the water before anything was done, and then the asshole moved on to another state.
Guy like this? He could easily snap, brother. Wouldn’t take much to set him off.”
Looking back at conference room, I watched as Tempie stood, shaking hands with Micah and Leo. “He shows his face in this town, I’ll rip his goddamn head off,” I stated, meaning every word. Perry Frasier wasn’t going to get anywhere near Temperance. I’d make sure of that.
Tempie started out of the conference room but stopped at the edge of the stairs, her eyes scanning the bullpen in search of something.
I felt a tightening in my chest and groin the moment those pale blues landed on me and her lips quirked up in a smile.
Fuck me, I was losing my mind. All rational thought fled when it came to her.
No matter how many times I tried to keep a straight head, just one look at her and everything scrambled.
And now that I knew there was a threat to her out there, all bets were off.
I was well and truly fucked.
Her gaze remained pinned on mine as she moved through the bullpen, and it wasn’t lost on me that nearly every one of the assholes I worked with was watching her. I knew exactly what they were thinking, and seeing the appreciation and want on their faces set my teeth on edge.
“Hey,” she said softly once she reached my desk.
“Hey back. Everything go okay in there?”
“Oh, yeah. It was good. They were really helpful” She stopped talking, shifting uneasily from foot to foot as she cast a glance at Trick.
Reading the situation, he stood and announced, “I need caffeine. Think I’ll head over to Muffin Top for a pick-me-up. You want anything?”
I shook my head and bit back my grin at his obviousness. “Nah, I’m good.”
Tempie watched him turn on his boots and disappear from sight before looking back at me. “So, I just wanted to say thank you for everything. I mean, I’m sure you didn’t expect to walk into a full-blown drama when you dropped my car off earlier.”
“It’s not a problem, sweetheart. Really.
” And it wasn’t. No matter the number of warnings I gave myself, no matter the determination to keep my heart locked far away from this woman in front of me, I just couldn’t seem to help myself.
I’d barely spent more than a handful of minutes in her presence in twenty-one years, and already I craved more.
More of her time, more of her shy little blushes, more of that sweet voice saying my name as her eyes flickered.
I knew I was on thin ice that was already cracking, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
She ran her tongue across her bottom lip, and a shaft of desire shot through me as I looked to those full pink lips.
“Well, it meant a lot to me nonetheless, and I’d like to show my appreciation by making you dinner tonight.” Her cheeks suddenly grew flushed and I grew even harder at the sight of it as she continued, “That is, if you’re free. Um, I mean, if you don’t already have plans.”
Well fuck me, I hadn’t been expecting that.
Temperance
Oh god.
I was so nervous.
Why the hell was I so nervous? My palms were clammy and sweat was dripping down the small of my back, making me very uncomfortable.
Hayes’s forehead wrinkled as he asked, “You wanna make me dinner?”
“Well….” Why was I making this so damn difficult? It was just a nice gesture, after all. I only wanted to thank him for being so supportive and helpful. “Yeah. I basically lost it this morning, and you were there for me while I had my freak-out. That meant a lot to me, and I want to say thank you.”
He gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher. “Sweetheart, you just said it yourself, you had an emotional breakdown this morning. And aren’t you about to go work a shift at a diner that’s pretty much packed from open to close?”
My stomach dropped to the floor. I felt like the dorky teenage girl who’d just asked out the captain of the football team and was about to be shot down in front of the entire high school cafeteria.
“Um….”
“Tell you what,” he said before I could shoot up a prayer for God to strike me with lightning just so I could be put out of my misery. “Since you’ve already had a rough day, and it’s only eleven in the morning, why don’t I make you dinner tonight?”
“I….” What’s happening right now? “You’re going to cook for me?”
Those perfectly straight white teeth made an appearance as his lips parted in a sexy grin. “You sound surprised.”
“Well, yeah, actually. I’m just a little surprised. You can cook?”
“I’m a forty-year-old single man,” he replied with humor laced through his words. “And a cop, which means I don’t exactly have unlimited funds. It was either learn to cook or starve.”
“Oh.” A nervous giggle burst from my lips. “Well okay then.”
“Let’s say seven? I’ll text you my address.”
“Yeah, all right. I’ll see you then.” My smile probably looked ridiculous, but I just couldn’t help it.
Hayes Walker was making me dinner tonight.
And I couldn’t... freaking... wait.
What had started off as a day from hell had taken a surprising turn.
I knew I shouldn’t have been so excited at the aspect of dinner with Hayes.
That was just going down a road that would inevitably lead to nowhere good—I lived in a totally different state, after all.
But the longer I spent in Hope Valley, and the more time I spent around Hayes, the more it reminded me of all the amazing things I’d left behind.
I’d spent so many years closed off, feeling completely alone in a city of millions, that I found myself chasing the feelings only Hayes had ever been able to bring out in me.
And damn, but I didn’t want to stop, even knowing it would more than likely hurt me.
“Hey, sweetie.” Sally came scurrying from behind the register at the diner and pulled me into a tight hug, her tone full of worry as she asked, “How are you? Everything okay?”
My arms were pinned to my sides as I looked down at her in confusion. “Yeah, everything’s good. Why do you ask?” I managed to pull from her death grip and pointed at the creases between her eyes. “And why are you making that face?”
“Word around town is that you were seen at the police station this morning. I’ve been worried sick.”
“Word around—jeez, Sal, that literally just happened! How does everyone already know that?”
“Sue Ellen Mayfield works the front desk at the station. Didn’t you see her?”
“Crap,” I muttered, knowing from childhood the kind of shit that came with Sue Ellen Mayfield. “No. Hayes met me at the doors and walked me in so I wasn’t really paying attention. I take it Sue Ellen’s just as nosy now as she was when we were kids.”
“Oh no,” Sally said with an ominous shake of her head. “That girl’s so much worse now. And she’s hitched herself to Harley Madison, so what’s usually just harmless gossip has a tendency to end up nasty. Those two are a piece of work.”
I felt my lip curl in indignation at the sound of Harley’s name. I didn’t like that girl in elementary or middle school, and by the time we reached high school, that dislike grew into full-blown hatred.
Not a day passed where she didn’t throw herself at Hayes, even though she knew we were together.
She was spoiled rotten, expecting to get everything she wanted no matter who she had to step on in the process.
Unfortunately for her, Hayes barely even noticed she was alive most days, and had a talent for looking right through her.
The bitch didn’t stand a chance with him but that didn’t stop her from trying.
“Well, there’s nothing to turn nasty,” I assured Sally. “I just had some business to take care of at the station. It was no big deal.”
I could tell by her expression that she wasn’t reassured. “You sure?”
“Positive. There’s just this guy back in Chicago who’s been hassling me, but it’s taken care of now. Nothing to worry about.”
“All right, darlin’. If you say so, I’ll let it go so you get to work.”
I gave her a bright smile, hoping it would help ease her concern. “All right, Sal.” Then I moved down the back hall to the office to stash my coat and purse, and grabbed an apron.
“Hey there, Ralph,” I called out in greeting as I started past the kitchen toward the front of the diner, wrapping the strings around my waist and tying my apron in place.
“Hey, darlin’ girl!” he shouted in return from the passthrough.
My shift started off good. I smiled and chatted with the diners.
I listened as they filled me in on everything happening in town and laughed when the hilariously cantankerous Ms. McClintock came in and spouted her brand of blunt wisdom.
The woman had been old as the hills and just as salty back when I was in high school, and she’d only gotten more entertaining over the years.
I was still riding the high of my last conversation with Hayes, thinking this was going to be an easy shift to get through, when the bell over the door chimed and I turned to see my high school nemesis walking into the diner like she owned to place.
It was as if speaking of the devil suddenly made her appear out of thin air.
And I knew my easy afternoon had just taken a nose dive straight to hell.