Chapter 12
TWELVE
CROIS
When he’d started to pursue Harmony, Crois knew that their schedules were going to be one of the biggest issues in their relationship, but he’d underestimated just how big of a problem it was going to be.
Harmony wasn’t a woman who was particularly eager to be in a relationship.
Crois had a feeling that she was using their schedules as a buffer between them.
While it was frustrating, he didn’t once let it change how determined he was to give their relationship the best chance he could. He was just struggling to open up more… communication between them.
He needed more time with her.
More chances to spend time alone.
Over lunch in a local park, Crois asked Pilar a question that had been on his mind. “I was wondering…”
Pilar looked up from her fries. “Hmm?”
“I know I said that I wouldn’t need a plus one for the wedding, but-”
Pilar started to choke and horrified, Crois turned and gave her a few hard smacks on her back freeing the offending piece of perfected fried and salted fry.
It disappeared off the side of the picnic table and while Crois was still cringing at the situation, Pilar had turned toward him and poked him in the arm.
“That’s great! And I know exactly who you’re asking!”
Crois hadn’t expected Pilar to be so… excited about the situation.
“Well, I’d like to ask her but I’m not sure how she’d react to it.”
Pilar frowned at him, or his words, he wasn’t sure. “What’s going on?”
He sighed and shook his head. “We’re getting closer, but between my schedule and hers, we haven’t spent all that much time together. And I feel like I can be a little overwhelming at times.”
“You?” Pilar laughed and then sobered almost immediately. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you… really.”
“That’s not really helping me.”
She nodded. “I know. Maybe this will give you a chance to get closer.”
“I’m trying. I just feel like the harder I try; the worse off things are.”
“Maybe,” she sighed, “you just need to get out of your own way.”
“Get out of my own…”
Before he could finish his thought, he heard the squeal of a car making a U turn.
He looked up and saw a CCPD SUV pulling up into a spot beside their cruiser.
“Who’s that?”
Pilar looked up and sighed, rolling her eyes. “My soon-to-be brother-in-law.”
Walker Ashley.
Detective Walker Ashley walked up like he owned the place and slid onto one of the bench seats at the picnic table.
The first thing he did was reach out and pick a fry right off of her plate.
Crois glared at the interloper.
“Hey, leave her food alone.”
Walker looked back at him with a good hard stare.
“She’s basically my sister. I have scrounging rights off of her plate.”
“Well,” Crois shot back, “I’m her partner, so I’ve got her back. Let her eat.”
Folding his arms on the surface of the table, Walker looked at Pilar. “Are you gonna let him talk to your soon to be brother like that?”
Pilar moved her plate closer to her side of the picnic table and rolled her eyes. “I figure the two of you are big boys and can handle yourselves. If you want to drag me into the middle of this ‘issue,’ you can both count me out.” She picked up a fry and took a big bite of it. “My fries.”
“Fine,” Walker groused, “starve me.”
“Oh brother…”
He looked at her. “How is my brother doing these last days before the wedding? Is he ready to gnaw off his ring finger and jet off to Aruba?”
Crois reached across the table for Walker’s arm, but Walker didn’t shy away from him.
The look he gave Crois said that he could take anything the stick could dish out.
Pilar dropped her arm down between them and glared at Walker making Crois smile. “We have twenty minutes left of our half an hour lunch, so if you’ve come here just to be a complete shit, don’t. If you have something to say, then go ahead.”
Walker sat up and gave Pilar a look that Crois didn’t quite understand.
“I know I give you shit about Roan and getting married, but we’re okay, right? You and me?”
Oh boy, Crois groaned aloud. “Merde.”
“Don’t call me shit, skinny boy.”
Crois narrowed his eyes at Walker. When did the obnoxious detective learn French? “Who said-”
Walker turned to smile at him, baring his teeth like a wolf. “I was the bad boy between me and Roan. I know how to say shit in a half dozen languages.”
Crois picked up one of his fries and then pushed the tray closer to Walker. “Just a half dozen?”
Walker picked up a fry from the tray and bit off half of it. “Don’t push it.”
Pilar waved a hand between them again, drawing attention back to her. “Yes. You asked a question and the answer is yes.”
“Okay.”
Walker picked up another fry, but he didn’t immediately bite into it. Crois had a feeling that the detective was hesitating about something other than eating fries he didn’t pay for.
Pilar must have thought the same thing. She gave the detective a measuring look and gave him a nudge. “That’s not all of it, Walker. Just ask me what you want to ask me.”
Crois was more curious than he’d like to admit. So, he didn’t say it. He just stared at the other man.
Walker avoided Crois’ curious gaze as he pulled another fry out of the tray. “I don’t have another question.”
Beside Crois, Pilar shook her head and tapped her finger on the top of her Coke can. “There’s something else that you’re worrying about, you might as well spit it out.”
Walker reached out and snagged the little cup of ketchup that Crois had been using.
“Hey.” Crois had half a mind to grab it back and make the man eat the fries dry. He didn’t like anyone messing with her partner, even a member of her ‘family,’ but Crois let him have it without a fight.
Dipping the fry into the cup, Walker looked Pilar straight in the eyes. “If you know so much, why don’t you explain.”
Pilar sat back on the bench and shook her head.
Crois smiled and decided to watch the show. The other man may be a detective, but he had something’s to learn about human nature. “Okay, Detective Ashley. Let me do your job for you.”
Yes. Crois gave him a big shit-eating grin. “This is going to be good.”
And it was.
“I think you’re struggling to figure out where you fit into everything now. At first it was you and Roan. Mutt and Jeff. Jekyll and Hyde.”
“Whatever.”
She shrugged. “Sherlock and Watson.”
Walker shrugged in return. Crois stole a fry off of his own plate and folded it into his mouth.
“And I think it’s not just you feeling like things are changing around you. I think that you’re changing, too. Either you’re worried that people won’t accept the change when you’ve always been a certain person, or you’re worried that you won’t accept the new you either.”
Crois watched Walker realize that he’d been sitting there, listening to her, his fry dangling from his fingertips, dripping ketchup on the picnic table.
When Walker spoke, his tone was flat. “I don’t think that’s what’s happening at all.”
Pilar shrugged and picked up a fry. “Believe it or don’t believe it. You’re the one with the giant question mark over your head, but your brother and Kate can’t see it.”
“Really, Sherlock Bravo? Why can’t they see it?” Walker’s tone was snarky, but his voice wavered just a little.
Pilar’s smile was soft. “Because they look at you and they see what you see?”
Crois chuckled, enjoying himself too much. “I can’t wait to hear this.” He bit into another fry that he’d stolen back.
Pilar turned to give Crois a pointed look as well. “Well, you should know this, since you’re in the same predicament.”
Crois felt a piece of a fry fall from his lips. It hit his plate and fell into the basket that Walker had taken.
The detective winced. “Now I can’t eat more of those.”
“Good.” Crois snatched the tray back and glared at Pilar. “Why are you bringing me into this?”
She took a sip of her soda and sighed. “You were the one who brought yourself into this,” she reminded him. “You want to act like you’re okay with what’s going on, but Harmony’s got you tied up in knots because she’s not acting like every other girl that you go out with.”
“What?” Crois dropped the fry he was holding between his fingers. “I never-”
“That’s the case,” Pilar was staring at him, and out of the corner of his eye, Crois could see that Walker was thrilled that he wasn’t the one in the hot seat for a hot minute.
“You’re used to having things easy with women.
You ask them out to dinner and by the end of the meal she’s on her knees on the tile floor of the bathroom or you have her bent over the sink. ”
“Or both,” Crois grumbled to himself.
Pilar nodded. “And now, when you spend time with Harmony, what do you two guys do?”
Crois met her eyes for a split second before he cast his gaze down on the aging picnic table. “First, she’s not a guy. Harmony is all woman.”
“And yet.”
“What? You want to hear that I haven’t slept with her yet?”
Pilar shook her head. “I don’t want to hear that, but I bet you’ve been wondering why you haven’t even gotten close.”
“Really?” Crois slid closer to Pilar so he could lift one of his long legs out from between the bench and the table. “What do you know that I don’t? I know that Harm would never talk about something like that.”
“Of course she wouldn’t, for the same reason why she’s not trying to climb you like a tree the way other women do.”
Walker scoffed at the idea. “Because she thinks he looks like Bullwinkle?”
Pilar turned to Walker and poked a finger into the air at him. “Shut it, Walker.”
Walker held up both hands in surrender, at least trying to look contrite. “Sorry.”
Crois watched Pilar turn back to focus on him. “Seriously, Crois. You know that Harmony is different than the other women you’ve been with, so you need to… you need to-”
“Shit or get off the pot?” Walker was enjoying his place in the cheap seats.
Pilar hit her open palm on the picnic table. “Damnit, Walker!”
Shit. Crois’ eyes widened.
“Sorry, sis.” Walker looked a little cowed even though Pilar was petite compared to either of them.
Her face softened with the hint of a smile. “None of my brothers have ever been this obnoxious.”
“That’s why you needed me in your life.” Walker reached his arm across the table and put his hand over hers. “And I know I’ve been a shit to Roan about the wedding, but I’m really glad he’s marrying you.”
Crois had to admit that Walker sounded almost human.
Then he spoke again. “Some of his exes were crazy as shit.”
Pilar turned her hand under his palm and a moment later Walker flinched back, shaking his hand.
Crois tried to see what she’d done to the detective.
Pilar was smiling when she pointed at her watch. “Now that I’ve gotten you back for all the stupid things you’ve said to your brother, when you’re ready to admit the truth to yourself, you’re going to be so much happier than you are at this moment.”
“Admit what?” Walker sounded more than a little grumpy.
Crois couldn’t be happier.
“My office hours are over. I need to finish my lunch or Crois’ going to end up running for the hills.”
Walker’s expression darkened, but Pilar didn’t even seem to care.
“No,” she shooed him away with her hand. “Go away so I can eat or I’m going to tell your brother that you’re standing up on my side of the church on the day of the wedding.”
“He’d never believe you.” He nodded, like too self-assured for the threat to make much of a difference. “Besides you already have a man on your side and Walker has a woman on his.”
Pilar beamed at him. “We’re a modern couple.”
Walker stood up from the picnic table and shook out his legs as if he’d gone numb.
“Is this the time that I warn you that if you break my brother’s heart, I’m going to kick you in the… well, umm-”
“You don’t have to worry about me hurting Roan, little bro.”
Walker cringed and once again, Crois was enjoying the other man’s take down.
“Hey, only family can joke about that.”
Pilar smiled at the detective. “I’m going to be your family, Walker. Remember that.”
He moved to her side and gave her a warm kiss on the cheek. “I’m counting on it.”
As the detective walked away, Crois was left watching him with a newfound interest.
He dug into the rest of his meal, his mind working over the words of his partner and pretty much the only female he knew who could see through all of his bluster and call him on it without a care in the world.
What she’d said had made a lot of sense.
Now, he just had to figure out what he was going to do about it.
By the time they’d finished their lunch, he knew one thing. He was going to have to ask Harmony to be his date at the wedding. Maybe then they’d get the chance to work out some of their issues.
Or he’d at least get a chance to show her that he wasn’t the guy that everyone thought they knew.