Chapter Three
Dan
She was all I could think about.
I compartmentalized fine when I was on a call, my brain focused on processing a situation and people’s emotions, anticipating their reactions.
But running radar?
Doing paperwork?
I drifted into thinking about Lila’s smile. The way her brown eyes crinkled at the edges and glinted with mischief when she laughed. How soft and shiny her hair was, the way the color made me think of wheat under the sun.
And how pretty she was. How she made me laugh and the way her whole body gentled when she looked at me.
Nobody had ever looked at me like she did.
Of course, I’d never looked at anyone the way I did her, either. There had been girls who were pretty, women whose smiles I’d returned.
But no one who laughed and glowed like Lila.
I’d heard her before I saw her that first night at the Millhouse back in the summer. And from that first time I heard her laugh, that first glimpse of her . . . I’d been smitten.
She’d been with a couple of friends. Cookie, one of the FTOs from Dougherty County PD had hit on her, and she’d shot him down. Women liked him, so when he walked away from her, the pressure in my chest released like a balloon deflating.
I’d watched her, my burger forgotten, trying not to be obvious because Lydia and EmmaLee would give me hell. A couple of times, my gaze tangled with hers as she glanced in my direction.
While I drank her in, I wondered what I was scared of. Fear couldn’t be worse than missing out on meeting her.
If I could walk up to a car at a traffic stop, I could risk talking to her.
I didn’t even tell Lydia and EmmaLee what I was doing, just left the table and walked over to the end of the bar where she and her friends picked at a snack sampler.
She looked up, brown eyes warm and open. I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Hey.” I stuck out my hand. “I’m Dan.”
And she’d smiled at me as she took my hand, friendliness blooming on her face. One of her friends nudged the other.
“Lila.”
“Pretty name.” My neck burned hot.
Okay, maybe this was more dangerous than a traffic stop.
Her smile widened, eyes twinkling. Oh, my God. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen in my whole entire life.
“I’ll tell my mama you approve.” A dimple appeared at one corner of my mouth. “It’s my grandma’s name. She’s Lila Beth and I’m just Lila.”
“Don’t think you could ever be just Lila.” Could I get any hotter? Sweat prickled over my body. I cleared my throat. “But repeating names is a Southern tradition. Like my buddy Chuck. He’s really Charles. His uncle is Charles and–”
Shut the fuck up, Dan.
Her eyes sparkled, the corners creased with good humor. “Is Dan a family name?”
I shook my head. “No.”
My father had picked out my name and Lydia, Biblical names while he was fucking around on Mama. Real good godly example there.
I couldn’t tell her that.
She waited, cordial gaze on me, and what the hell was I supposed to do now?
Traffic stops had a rhythm to them, even if they went sideways. I’d been trained in what to do in various scenarios. I had practical knowledge I could walk out.
Here, I had no clue.
“Do you play darts?” Desperation roughened my voice. I resisted the urge to wipe my palms down my thighs.
“I do.” One corner of her lips tipped higher. “Grandaddy taught me.”
I released a shaky breath and tilted my head toward an empty board. “Want to play?”
She glanced over her shoulder, exchanging some look I didn’t understand with her friends, then she grinned at me. “Sure.”
Darts were my thing, but she proceeded to beat me two out of three games. I’d left the Millhouse with her number in my phone and plans to take her out the following Friday night.
That had been the longest week of my life, waiting to see her again.
In the past few months, she’d become everything while I worked to be the best boyfriend I could be.
Still thinking about her – specifically how she’d felt in my arms Saturday night, the way she’d come apart under my mouth and hands and how damn glad I was that had worked – I wheeled into the lot at the Hickory House.
Chuck and I met for lunch once a week and took turns buying.
Not gonna lie, I’d picked his brain more than once on what being a good boyfriend looked like, since he and Deanne made love and marriage look easy.
I logged in my stop for lunch and killed the ignition, a chilly wind tickling my nose and ears when I stepped out. I hunched into my duty jacket, hurrying across the lot to the entrance, a blast of heated air and the rich smell of smoked meats greeting me when I swung the door open.
Not seeing Chuck yet, which was weird because he was never late, I snagged an available table and set my campaign hat on the empty chair next to mine, jacket slung over the back. Hell, it was hot in here, sweat prickling along the back of my neck.
My phone buzzed, a pair of text notifications flashing on the screen when I tugged it from my pocket. I tapped on My Pretty Girl first, her profile picture and the very thought of her giving me a warm thrill.
Enjoy your lunch with Chuck
I toggled over to his text before replying.
Hey man, need a raincheck
Sending back a thumbs-up, I returned my attention to mine and Lila’s text thread.
Chuck bailed on me
Poor baby, having to eat all alone
Smiling, I shook my head. I wasn’t much for teasing people, but she made an art out of it. Not mean teasing, just . . . humorous. Affectionate.
I ran my thumb around the edge of my phone. Would it be okay to tell her I wished she was here? Was that clingy?
“Hey!” Nicole’s bright voice interrupted my reverie. I glanced up to meet her wide smile. “Eating by yourself?”
I stretched my feet out under the table, resting my phone on my thigh. “Chuck cancelled.”
“Oh, poo.” Nicole poked out her bottom lip in an expression far too sad for the situation. My brows dipped. Her reaction made no sense. She wrapped her hand around the chair opposite me, tugging it back from the table. “I’ll join you so you’re not by yourself.”
My frown deepened. I was fine by myself. I spent the entire day in a squad car, alone, so lunch wasn’t–
“Y’all ready to order?” Mrs. Gail stopped by the table, pad in hand, avid gaze darting between us. What was that look about?
“I want the chicken salad and sweet tea.” Fingers of both hands pressed to the edge of the table, Nicole leaned forward with breathless eagerness. The chicken salad couldn’t be that good, right? “What about you, Danny?”
Danny? Why the hell did she keep calling me that? Nobody called me anything but Dan. Well, Mama called me Daniel when she was peeved, but it had been months–
“What are you having, hon?” Mrs. Gail’s pen hovered over her order pad.
“A pulled pork sandwich with fries.” My regular order, a spot of consistency in a situation growing weirder by the second. I tucked my phone under the edge of my campaign hat. “And water, please.”
“We’ll get it right out.” With one last look between us and a smug smile, Mrs. Gail sauntered away.
“So.” Nicole flicked her hair over her shoulder and slanted a wide smile at me. “Layla seems nice.”
Layla. Layla? I cast about for who the heck that was. I didn’t know a Layla . . . wait, was that Chuck’s little sister’s friend she brought to church sometimes? Maybe the hostess at Old Mexico? No, that was Lola.
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“You guess?” Nicole laughed again, a shrill note in the sound grating over my nerves, like my radio squelched too loud. Her knee nudged mine. “Silly, she’s your girlfriend.”
What? She meant Lila?
“Her name is Lila.” I pulled my legs back, tucking my feet under my chair. “She’s great.”
Amazing. Perfect. A wonder.
And she wanted me.
That was a wonder in itself.
Nicole’s mouth flexed, lips sucking like she tasted something sour. “I didn’t even know you were dating.”
I shook my head. “Why would you?”
She blinked, taken aback. “Well, we’re friends–”
“No. We’re not.” Friends? We lived next door to one another, and I gave her a ride when she needed one because it was logical if we were headed in the same direction and I tried to be decent. Chuck was my friend. And Josh. Maybe EmmaLee.
Nicole was kinda . . . maybe on the same level as Chuck’s brothers. I’d speak to Tick or Del, help ‘em change a tire or offer a ride if needed, but we weren’t friends.
“Oh.” Nicole shrank into her chair, biting her lip. Yeah, that reaction was completely out of proportion to the conversation. Was she that needy?
Hell, is that what my reaction looked like when Lila didn’t have time for me? My chest locked up. I’d read about that, too, how a romantic partner shouldn’t be too needy or clingy, how a certain amount of distance was healthy, and I tried because I wanted to be where she was, all the time–
A heavy plastic glass of water hit the table in front of me, condensation dripping down the sides. Gail placed a matching glass of sweet tea in front of Nicole and gave us a grin that made me think of that shark opening its jaws on that documentary I’d gone to sleep to the night before.
“Your food’ll be out in a minute.” Mrs. Gail lingered a moment, watching us with that greedy set to her mouth that knotted up my belly. I hated that feeling, the same one I still got every time I walked up to an unfamiliar car on a traffic stop.
After a moment, she wandered away, a hint of disappointment hanging about her.
Nicole fiddled with her fork, eyes on the table. “Do you want to be friends?”
Frowning, I tilted my head to the left. Doubt we had anything in common, and I really didn’t have time–
“I could use one right now.” Biting her lip, Nicole flicked a glance up at me, her eyes filling with tears. I fought down a surge of irritation. Women looked at me like that right before I wrote them a ticket, almost every single time. She blinked hard, lashes fluttering. “I’m having a tough time.”
“Yeah?” I squeezed a lemon into my water and sprinkled one pack of sugar over the ice.
“I broke up with this guy from Thomasville.” She sniffled, twisting her fingers together. “He’s been acting weird, texting and calling. I think he rode by the house last night, too, real slow. I just . . . he makes me nervous.”
My brows tugged together. Not sure I liked that. If she was around on the weekends, Lydia usually went for her runs after dark because she liked the quiet then. Didn’t want her caught up in any kind of mess if this guy went sideways with Nicole. “You have a doorbell camera, right?”
“Yes.” She blinked again. How much mascara did she have on her lashes, anyway?
Lila used it – I’d watched her put it on while we got dressed when I’d stayed over once – but hers was not that .
. . thick. Heavy. Fake. Sniffling, Nicole reached for a napkin and dabbed the tip of her nose. “I’m glad you’re next door.”
Not sure what help that was to her. I’d played a round of Kingdom Come with EmmaLee and Lydia, then FaceTimed with Lila until she fell asleep before turning on a documentary on great whites, so I didn’t know if this guy really had driven by or not.
“Would you keep an eye out for me?”
“Yeah, sure.” Leaning back in my chair, I shrugged. “Do a walk around when I get home from my shift.”
Nicole lit up, her whole body vibrating. “Thank you.”
She laid her hand over mine.
I jerked my hand away, dropping it to my lap. Didn’t feel bad when her face fell, either. You didn’t go around touching people without permission. She didn’t get a bye because she was scared.
Her own hands in her lap, she looked at me with wide, glassy eyes. She moistened her lips, a slow circle of her tongue from one corner to the other and back. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, sure.” I cast a desperate glance toward the kitchen, regretting letting her sit down with me.
I’d done my neighborly duty by offering to check her house, right?
I coughed into my fist and pushed my chair back to stand.
Her wide eyes flew to my face. I shrugged, tucking my phone in my pocket before gathering my jacket and hat. “Gonna grab my food and take it to go.”
She deflated, shrinking into the chair. “Okay. I’ll see you tonight?”
“I’ll check your yard perimeter when I get off shift. Enjoy your lunch.”
If she replied, I missed it, tugging out my wallet and heading for the register.
Maybe if I was lucky, I could catch Lila between her sales calls and sneak in a little FaceTime while I ate in my squad car. A grin spread over my face at the idea.
A five minute call wasn’t clingy, right?