Chapter 17
The air outside the station was cooler than I expected when we stepped out. We’d been at it all day long, Tanner and I working in tandem, digging through paperwork and permits, cementing the bits and pieces together.
For hours we peeled back layers of a corporate monster with perfectly clean hands. And now I was too wound up, wired after it all.
Tanner leaned against the passenger side of his SUV, flipping through the folder again like he hadn’t already memorized every line.
He was back in street clothes, ditching his tac vest and uniform in the locker room when his shift ended.
Even though I tried, I couldn’t help but compare the two looks on him, and I struggled to pick my favorite.
My whole life I’d been attracted to both men and women, from a very early age, I remembered struggling to pick one over the other.
When I hit my teens, I realized what that meant.
I was bi, but as an adult living in small-town America, I typically chose women for partners.
Mostly because I didn’t find any of the single men available attractive or interesting enough to bother with.
Or I worked with them. And that was an icky situation I didn’t want to find myself in.
I mean, actually, I kind of kept to the cardinal rule of avoiding the five P’s.
Police.
Physicians.
Paramedics.
Pilots.
And Phirefighters.
Yeah, I know that one didn’t make sense, but I was a quick learner and tried to keep myself from repeating someone else’s mistake. And I’d seen it play out time and time again, and most of the women who dared to date one of the five P’s ended up heartbroken, bitter, and on antibiotics.
No thanks.
But with Tanner—there was something different about him, even though he was a cop. For years, I’d teased him for the fun of it, picking on him like I did the others, but harder. And he never rose to the bait; he never clapped back or joined in.
I used to think it was because he wasn’t interested in me, not even enough to joke around. However, after learning more about who he was, the man under the uniform, I finally figured him out.
He was a gentleman through and through. An honorable man, with a deep-rooted sense of respect. Something about his tightly laced composure made me want to break through it though, I wanted to tear it open and see what kind of animal lay beneath the uniform.
Did he ever let loose? When he was at home, with his girlfriend or date, alone in bed, did he let it all go then?
“You’re not what I expected.” I said, suddenly aware of how close we were standing.
“Yeah?” His eyes flicked to mine. Watching me. Measuring me. “What’d you expect?”
I hesitated, then shrugged. “The golden boy cop with a hero complex. Probably smug. Definitely territorial.”
He didn’t argue with my assessment. He just watched me, with that same impassive, unreadable look on his face. Paired with that infuriating patience that made me feel like I was saying more than I meant to.
“And now?” he asked, giving me his full attention.
“Now,” I looked away across the street, as if it would be less intimate if we weren’t making eye contact. “You’re not the enemy. And I don’t think I like that.”
He smiled softly, almost arrogantly. “Neither are you. And neither do I.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I wasn’t sure why it felt like a truce and a confession at the same time. There was a long pause, it was heavy, but not intense.
“You’re good with her,” I breathed.
“So are you.” He replied evenly.
My jaw flexed in time with my fingers in my jacket pockets.
He tilted his head just a bit, “This isn’t a war, Rhea.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah,” he said simply, looking back down at his paperwork, “Because if it was, I’d already be losing it.”
That hit harder than it probably should have. Not because he was comparing us and our fight for Goldie’s attention that started out for fun and had morphed into something deeper. But because I didn’t want him to lose anymore. I didn’t want to lose either.
I had to stop treating him like a threat and start treating him like an ally. Looking down at the file he had in his hand, then out across the desolate parking lot toward the bakery across town, I changed tactics. “We should hit them back. Hard.”
“We will,” he sighed, glancing out into the sunset with me. “But not tonight.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“Because you need to go see her. You’ve been on edge since this morning, and she grounds you.
Whether you admit it or not.” I opened my mouth, but had nothing to fire back with.
Tanner handed me an extra file he copied today and nodded to my Jeep.
“Take the evidence. Let her know what we found. Let her feel safe.”
I nodded, taking a step back as he went back to studying the evidence we had found today.
“You’re staring, Dalton.” He said, never glancing up from his paperwork until he finally peeked out from under his dark eyelashes and stared at me. “Planning my demise?”
I smirked, rolling my eyes as I took another step back.
“Actually, I was wondering if you looked that serious in bed.” I turned as I said it, so he couldn’t see the grin on my face.
“Or if you ever let it all turn off.” A noise of shock echoed from behind me as I headed to my Jeep, but I just waved my fingers in the air and called over my shoulder.
“Hope you didn’t plan to see our girl tonight, because I’m actually going to take your advice and head over there. ”
As I pulled the handle on my door a few empty spaces down, he finally replied. “And if I showed up to ruin it?” I paused, feeling that there was more to that statement to come before he was done. “Would you tell me to get lost?”
Slowly, I looked over my shoulder at him, and the fire in his eyes was impossible to miss. The last rays of the sun cut across his face as if the universe knew he belonged on a movie poster instead of in a sleepy little town working his life away as a cop.
Forcing my signature cocky persona back into place, I shrugged, letting my eyes travel down his body, where he was still leaning back against the side of his patrol SUV.
“If you want to sit in the corner and watch, I wouldn’t mind teaching you a thing or two.
” He scoffed and shook his head, breaking the intensity between us.
“Night, Dalton.” He replied, standing up and walking to his personal truck, which was parked across from my Jeep. “Tell Goldie I said hi.”
“Hmm.” I hummed as he jumped up into his truck without another word and backed out, driving off out of the lot.
I stood there at my door and watched him leave, wondering silently if he would show up at Goldie’s if I called him and told him to join us after all.
But I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
That was crossing boundaries I had never even contemplated before.
Even if I wanted to right now.
Instead, I made the quick drive across town to Goldie’s cute little home. I didn’t call, and I wasn’t sure she was even home, my bravado with Tanner was all for show when I told him I planned to spend the night with her.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed her until she swung her front door open and smiled at me with a sigh, as if she had been hoping for this moment all day long as well.
“Hi, beautiful,” I said before stepping in and shutting the door behind us. “I hope you don’t mind me crashing your evening.”
She bit her lip and slid her arms around me, staring at me with her big, bright blue eyes, so open and trusting. “I couldn’t be mad at finding you on my doorstep if I tried.”
“Good,” I whispered, kissing her softly and running my hands down the gentle curve of her back to her ass. “Because I need you so badly right now. There’s so much noise in my mind, and my body feels like it’s running on a hamster wheel, and I can’t stop it.”
“I’m here,” she murmured, kissing me back and running her fingers up the back of my neck into my hair. “I’m right here.”