by Laura Drewry
“What was to tell?” Ellie pushed off the couch and headed to the kitchen for the teapot. “I’ve been nothing but a total bitch to him since the first time he pulled me over, and I wasn’t about to let something like a smile…even one like that…make me think he was any less of an asshole than those other cops.”
She paused, then offered a small shrug. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, Reggie, it sometimes takes me a while to admit I might be wrong about something.”
“No,” they all gasped.
“Funny. Anyway, after that he really started pissing me off with all those tickets he kept giving me.”
“All of which you deserved,” Jayne muttered with a “tell me I’m wrong” tone.
“Hang on.” Regan’s gaze narrowed. “He pissed you off by writing tickets, but he revokes your license and you jump into bed with him? That’s some screwed-up shit, my friend.”
“It wasn’t like that.” When everyone’s cups had been refilled, she switched places with Regan so she could pace. Normally it helped her think, but with three sets of eyes staring back at her, not so much this time.
“Then tell us how it was, ’cause none of this makes sense to me.”
“You think it makes sense to me?” Ellie laughed. “In the span of about eight hours we went from him taking my license and making me want to punch him—”
“I really thought she was going to,” Jayne said, nodding.
“—to him rescuing me and my stupid bike on the side of the road. My mom arrived in there somewhere, I was still trying to sort all that out, and then right there, with my ass in that puddle, I suddenly realized something about him.”
“Which was…”
“He’s funny. Like really funny.”
“Hello!” Jayne cried. “What have I been saying all this time? Jeez, Ellie, if you’d just listen once in a while.”
“And then he brought my bike back and…” Ellie turned, but Regan was too quick.
“Oh my God, she’s blushing,” she teased. “Spill it.”
It took Ellie a few seconds to start, not because she was trying to concoct a story but because she suddenly realized that what she was about to say was all true.
“Honestly, it wasn’t just one thing,” she said, dropping each word slowly. “You’re going to think this is stupid, but…Well, like, okay, when he brought my bike back, he’d covered it in reflective strips, and…and when we sat down to eat, he waited for me before he dished up his own meal, and…Never mind, just forget it.”
“Oh no,” Regan laughed. “You can’t stop now. What else? Did he pull your chair out? Tell your mom she looked young enough to be your sister?”
On a sigh, Ellie lifted her cup but didn’t drink. Instead she talked over it, like that would somehow hide her smile.
“He drank milk.”
All three of them froze for a second before slowly turning to each other in silent question.
“It was cute, okay?” Ellie laughed. “He’s sitting there at the table, all serious like he is, that giant tattoo covering half his bicep, Mom putting him through the third degree, and he asks for milk. Not wine, not pop, not even coffee. Milk. Oh, come on, you guys, that’s cute!”
They were all smiling now, not because they agreed with her but because they obviously thought she was crazy. It was Maya who finally brought Ellie back to reality with a swift jolt.
“But how can you two be together if he’s working on your case against Kurt?”
“Oh, you’re going to love this,” she snorted. “Tory Hudak’s the lead investigator on it.”
After letting them all have yet another good laugh at her expense, Ellie nodded. “Okay, all right, I deserve that, and a whole lot more, but can we please not make this into a thing? I didn’t even want to tell you guys yet because I know it’s a little out there—”
“A little?” Maya choked, dribbling tea down her chin.
“So try to imagine how weird it is for us right now. I mean, it’s him.”
Regan chuckled low in her throat. “Yeah, Ellie, sweetie, he’s not the only part of this that surprises any of us.”
Even Ellie had to laugh at that. “All I’m saying is, we don’t know what’s going to happen now, or if anything’s going to happen at all, so…”
“Oh oh oh!” Jayne sat straight up, her hand flapping like she was about to take flight. “You’re his reason!”
Ellie blinked back at her. “Sorry?”
“He tried to tell me there was nothing that would keep him here, but that was before you! You’re his reason for staying!”
“Okay, no, let’s not get crazy.” Ellie backed up a step and bumped into the TV stand. “He put in for that transfer before any of this happened, and there’s no reason to expect his plans will change just because of me.”
And that, right there, was the absolute terrible truth.
Chapter 10
“Sorry, Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy, where the scores can really change?”
—Detective John McClane, Die Hard
Brett wasn’t surprised by the ribbing he and Ellie took at the next practice; what did surprise him was the way she handled it. He expected her to be nervous and tense, to fumble her answers and be unable to look anyone in the eye, but she came through it like a champ, and it didn’t take him long to figure out why.
She didn’t lie outright. She never said she was dating Brett; she simply agreed that, yes, they were seeing a lot of each other, which was true. Yes, it was kind of sudden; no, neither of them had expected it; and yes, she was still pissed that he’d taken her license, but she smiled at him when she said it.
When practice ended and everyone was gathering their gear, she took him by the elbow and walked him over to the far dugout amid catcalls from her friends and a long whistle from Carter. She blushed, but she also turned around and flipped Carter the bird, which was exactly what he would’ve expected.
The second they were out of sight, she leaned back against the side of dugout and expelled the longest breath Brett had ever heard.
“How’m I doin’?” she asked. “Too much?”
“Are you kidding?” he choked. “They’re loving this.”
“I know, that’s what I hate.” Bent at the waist, she grabbed her knees and took a few deep breaths. “Just because I’m not saying it out loud doesn’t mean I’m not lying.”
“They’ll understand.”
“No, they won’t.” Still bent over, she had to tip her head way up to see past the brim of her cap. “Jayne thinks you’re going to give up your transfer for me, and I’d bet my left kidney Maya’s already planning my wedding bouquet.”
“Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad.”
Her eyes didn’t sparkle even a little bit when she looked at him like that. Guess it really was that bad.
“They’re my best friends, and when they find out I’ve been lying to them…” Shoving off the wall, she cursed under her breath. “God, I hate this.”
“I know, but we’re going to get him—I need you to trust me on that. And when it’s over, I’ll take the heat from everyone. It wasn’t your idea, and you were sort of pushed into it.”
“I don’t think they’re going to care whose idea it was.”
He gave her a couple of seconds, then thumbed over his shoulder. “You ready to go back?”
“I guess,” she sighed. “But before we go, you need a little…”
He had no idea what was going through her mind when she looked at him like that, with her head shaking, a tiny smile pulling up those lips, and a faint spark deep in her eyes. The next thing he knew, she’d tugged off his cap, slid both her hands through his hair, and ruffled it up. Or tried to.
“This’d be a hell of a lot easier if it wasn’t so short,” she said, rolling her eyes. At least she was smiling again. “Carry the cap. Hang on, I’m not done.”
With a quick jerk, she yanked one side of his shirt out of his baseball pants, then stepped back to
give him the once-over.
“There. Now you look like we were doing a little more than just talking.”
He might, but she looked just as unruffled as she had when they’d first walked over. Without missing a beat, she took him by the hand and they headed back toward the parking lot. Most of their teammates were on their way out, but Carter was just throwing the equipment bag into the back of Nick’s truck when Ellie led Brett across the diamond.
“That didn’t take long,” Carter called, then laughed when he got a good look at Brett. “Long enough, I guess.”
Ellie and Brett walked right past them, her smiling, him stumbling, until they got to the bleachers, where she’d left her bike. While she adjusted her backpack, Brett scanned the parking lot. After Jayne and Regan left in Regan’s car, the only vehicles left were Nick’s and Brett’s trucks. No sign of Kurt or the black Civic.
“You sure you don’t want to throw your bike in the back of the truck?” he asked.
“Positive. I ride to and from practice, remember? Always have.”
“But—”
“And don’t follow me home.” Her words were harsh, but her voice wasn’t. “You can’t spend every minute with me; that’s not how it would be if any of this was real.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’d kick your ass to the curb if you turned out to be a hoverer.” Her smile just about buckled his knees. “If anything happens, I’ll call, I promise.”
He wasn’t happy about letting her ride off by herself, but she’d ridden here alone without any trouble so he could only hope that she would actually call if something came up.
“Be careful.”
“Yes, Mother.” Her gaze flicked past him to where Nick and Carter were perched on the bumper of Nick’s truck. “They’re not going to leave before us, are they?”
“Doesn’t look like it, why?”
Okay, that look he knew. That look screamed “dumbass.”
“Come on, Ponch. I know it’s been a while since either of us did this sort of thing,” she said, opening her eyes wide and lowering her voice to little more than a whisper. “But I think it’s still common practice for couples to kiss each other goodbye, and if I just ride off…”
“Oh, right.” And just like that he was in a full-on sweat. The other night when she’d kissed him, he hadn’t had time to think about it because it had just happened, but now…shit. He’d told her he wouldn’t put her in that position again, and he’d meant it. “You don’t think that little show behind the dugout was enough? We don’t—”
“Oooh,” she laughed. “Look who’s doing the overthinking now. Just make it quick and get it over with. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.”
Wrapping her long, cool fingers around the neckline of his shirt, she pulled him in for what started out a quick kiss but then…his right arm instinctively wound around her, his gloved hand holding her lower back, while his left hand cupped her soft cheek and he managed to drag the one kiss into two.
Go big or go home, right?
“Enough!” Nick bellowed over a laugh. “You guys are as bad as Carter and Regan.”
Ellie pulled back, swallowed hard, and licked her lips, but all Brett could do was stand there staring after her as she hopped on her bike and rode away.
He shouldn’t have done that, but it sure made it a hell of a lot easier to act his way through the next few minutes.
“Damn, buddy,” Nick laughed. “I thought something was up last week at practice, when you looked all glazed over, but this? Shit. Not in a million years did I see this coming. What the hell happened?”
Brett sputtered over a breath, scrambling for an answer and coming up empty. Maybe he should follow Ellie’s lead and go with the truth whenever he could.
“I don’t even know. One second she’s standing there on the side of the road calling me Poncherello, and the next all I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss her.”
The parking lot echoed with Nick’s and Carter’s loud, deep laughs.
“Okay,” Carter snorted. “First off, has she ever even seen an episode of CHiPs? ’Cause you’re way more Baker than Ponch.”
“Right?”
“And second, you should’ve just kissed her right then and there.”
Nick choked. “Yeah, right—can you imagine what she would’ve done to him if he’d tried that? Like, ‘Hey, Ellie, I’m going to revoke your license, and since we’re here and all, I’m just going to go ahead and plant a big wet one on you.’ ”
The whole time Nick spoke, Carter stood there shaking his head.
“How are we even related?” he asked, grinning at Nick, then turning to Brett. “If it’s the right chick, you don’t have to ask if you can kiss her—you just do it. And if you do it right the first time, that’s all it takes, am I right?”
Still a little dazed, Brett slumped down on the bumper next to Nick, who handed him a bottle of water still dripping from the cooler.
“It was all her,” he said. “She kissed me first.”
“Even better! Takes all the pressure off, doesn’t it?”
Brett just nodded as he chugged down half the bottle while the other two stood there grinning and shaking their heads.
“Still don’t think I’d have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Carter said. “I mean, shit, man…Ellie?”
Brett pulled the bottle down and wiped his mouth, but before he could say anything, Nick piped up.
“What’s going on with her and that Kurt guy, anyway?”
“He hasn’t made contact with her since last week, but he’s still hanging around.”
“Have you seen him?”
“Not for a few days. You guys talked to him—what was he like?”
They both shrugged; then Carter sniffed in disgust.
“Punk-ass piece of shit. One of those slimeballs who thinks he’s got it going on because he’s got his toe right up on the line but he’s not crossing it.”
“Exactly,” Nick agreed. “You don’t even have to listen to him—just looking at him you know you’re going to hate him.”
“Doesn’t it drive you crazy?”
“What’s that?” Brett asked. There were a few things about all of this that were driving him crazy, so Carter was going to need to be a little more specific.
“Having Tory work this instead of you? I don’t know how you do it, man. I’d go hunt the little shit down and kick his ass.” His grin returned. “Course, I’d take you two with me, just in case.”
“I lay one hand on him and the whole case goes for shit.” He took another swig of water, then recapped the bottle. “Hudak’s got this. She might not be Ellie’s biggest fan, but she’ll get the job done.”
When Nick’s phone buzzed, he’d barely started reading the text before he nodded. “Jayne’s making dinner, if you guys want to come over.”
“Thanks,” Carter laughed, lifting his eyes up from his own phone. “But Red’s got nothin’ on, so don’t you guys even think about coming over. Damn, you’re my ride. Let’s go. Double-time it.”
“Brett?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll just run home and shower first.”
“Yeah, great, whatever,” Carter muttered, waving his hands like he could make Nick move faster. “Let’s go! Oh, forget it, gimme your keys.”
Nick barely had his keys out before Carter grabbed them and jumped behind the wheel.
“Watch out,” Brett warned. “They’ve got radar set up by the lights.”
A wave out the window and they were gone.
Brett did go home and shower, then drove around by the hotels again, down some of the side streets, and past a few of the restaurants. No sign of the Civic or Kurt.
He’d just turned off Graemsay when his phone rang and Ellie’s name popped up on his media display. Hitting the Answer button, and hoping to hell there weren’t any other cops around, he cranked a U-turn in the middle of the intersection and headed back the way he’d just come.
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“Is he there?”
“Hello to you, too,” she said, the smirk coming through the line. “And no.”
And just like that, his grip on the wheel loosened. “Good. What’s up?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Poncherello. That’s the second time you’ve driven by my house in the last half hour, and I can only deal with one stalker at a time if you don’t mind.”
Brett eased the truck to a stop on the side of the road, parallel to her house, and stared out the passenger window to where she stood in the doorway, freshly showered and looking entirely too good in that long blue skirt and faded denim jacket.
It took him a second to remember how to swallow.
“I was in the area,” he said, sounding pathetic even to himself.
She didn’t say anything for a while, just leaned against the door frame with her phone pressed up against her ear, watching him watch her.
“You going to Jayne’s for dinner?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
She pulled the phone away from her ear and shook it back and forth. “We’re a couple now, remember? We get invited to things together.”
“Need a ride?”
“That’d be nice, since some dipwad of a cop took my license.” She ended the call, pulled the door shut, and checked to make sure it was locked before climbing in on the passenger side.
“Dipwad?”
“Sorry,” she said, smirking as she tugged her hair out from where it was stuck in the seat belt. “But if I don’t throw one of those in there every once in a while, I might forget how much I can’t stand you, and then where will I be when this is all over?”
Did his heart just skip a beat? No. Shit like that only happened in those chick books Regan read. But there was something in Ellie’s teasing smile, something in the way her eyes softened to velvet when she looked at him, that sent a jolt right through him and forced him to swallow a couple of times before he could speak.
“Nice,” he finally said, nodding. “Good. Way to plan ahead.”
She tapped the side of her head and winked conspiratorially. “Always thinking, Ponch.”