by Lisa Childs
“Because she’s the prettiest girl of all,” Jimmy dutifully proclaimed of his heavyset wife.
“Now whose eyesight’s failing?” she chuckled.
“Every time I look at her, my heart skips a beat,” Jimmy insisted as he pressed a meaty palm across his chest.
Bernie snorted. “We’re going to have to have the doctor adjust that pacemaker again.”
Tessa and Brigitte laughed.
“You’re one of a kind, Jimmy,” Brigitte said. “If they still made guys like you, I might actually dare to start dating again.”
“I would, too,” Tessa agreed. “If I had time…”
“Class!” Lieutenant Michalski said in a voice loud enough to echo in the parking garage. Then he focused on Tessa, as if she had been the one disrupting the group. “Who wants to volunteer for the first traffic stop? One citizen will ride in the car being pulled over.” He gestured toward the unmarked police car. “And the other will ride in the patrol car.”
Amy’s hand shot up. “I want to ride with you!”
“Who wants to be pulled over?” he asked, glancing again at Tessa. The rest of the class turned to her, expectantly, as well.
She shook her head. “I have quite enough experience being pulled over, so I’ll sit this one out and let someone else take a turn.”
“I’ll do it,” Brigitte offered. She winked at Tessa. “I’ve never gotten a ticket.”
If only Tessa could say the same. Yet the thought of not participating in the class, of not having met this group of fun, interesting people, had a sense of loss gripping her.
The siren rang out as it had when Chad had pulled her over last week, but it echoed off the cement partitions, and Tessa grimaced. A headache had been threatening all day with pressure behind her eyes and the back of her neck.
Since the cars only moved a few feet, with the simulated pullover, the demonstration ended quickly. Or maybe that was because Chad had had Amy in his vehicle. He stepped out of the police car, asking for the next volunteers.
“Us!” Bernie called out, pulling her much taller and heavier husband along behind her. “We want to go next.”
Jimmy turned back to Tessa. “You’re freezing out here. Why don’t you get in the backseat while Bernie’s operating the cruiser?”
“I’m fine,” Tessa insisted.
But Jimmy reached out and caught her hand to tug her along with them. “Tessa’s going to ride in the back to stay warm,” he told Chad.
“I used to be a speed demon like Tessa,” Bernie told the lieutenant, her eyes bright with pride and memories.
“She drag raced,” Jimmy said.
Tessa laughed, more at the horrified expression on Chad’s handsome face than at the image of the older woman behind the wheel of a dragster.
“No, I really did,” Bernie insisted. “I loved to take chances. Live for the thrill.”
“Still does,” Jimmy grumbled. “That’s how she talked me into this class.”
“Really?” Tessa prodded with genuine interest because she had never known anyone married so long who still seemed truly happy.
“We keep the thrills in our relationship,” Bernie said, with more pride. A successful marriage was a valid reason to be proud.
Chad shook his head. “Forget the thrills. I’d prefer safe and secure.”
So would Tessa, but she snorted with derision. “Sounds boring,” she said, because she figured it was the reaction he expected of her.
Chad held open the back door for her, putting his hand on the top of her head as she slid into the seat.
She turned toward him, her lips curving into a sassy smile. “You’ve been wanting to get me in the backseat of your car for a while,” she teased.
Images of the two of them crawling—naked—all over each other in a backseat flashed through Chad’s mind, and heat coursed through his body, chasing away the chill of the cold night.
“I haven’t wanted to arrest you, Ms. Howard,” he corrected her as he took the front seat with Mrs. Gillespie behind the wheel.
“You just want to ticket me?” she asked from behind the Plexiglas divider.
“I just want you to drive more carefully.” That was all he wanted. All he could want.
Mrs. Gillespie threw the car into Drive and lurched forward, striking the rear bumper of the unmarked car. “Oh, damn,” she said. “I forgot the siren.” She clicked the button on the controller between the seats.
Chad, with his knees wedged against the dash now, whirled toward Tessa. “Are you all right?”
She rubbed her cheek from where her face had struck the divider. “I’m fine.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, dear,” Mrs. Gillespie said. As she turned toward Tessa, her foot came off the brake and they lurched forward, striking the other car again.
Chad reached over, shifted the car into Park and shut off the wailing siren. He stepped from the passenger’s side and told the rest of the class, who were covering their ears with their hands, “That’s how we don’t pull someone over.”
Mr. Gillespie vaulted out of the unmarked car and ran back to check on his wife. “Darling, are you all right?”
Chad shook his head, amazed that the man wasn’t fuming mad, as he would have been. As he was…
He opened the back door and helped Tessa from the vehicle. He gently pulled away the hand she clutched to her cheek. Had she struck the metal frame as well as the Plexiglas? “It’s red.” The ridiculous urge to kiss it better prompted him to lean forward, but he caught himself. “You need some ice.”
“That’s why I had my hand against it,” she said, tugging her fingers free of his. Her skin was icy cold, goose bumps raised along her bare forearms.
“You’re both okay?” he asked the Gillespies.
“That was exciting!” Mrs. proclaimed. “Like bumper cars.”
Mr. chuckled, but he came over to Tessa, his eyes soft with concern. “You’re all right?”
She nodded. “Fine. I think the lieutenant worked this all out with your wife.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper that was still loud enough for most of the class to hear. “He’s been dying to knock some sense into me.”
“If only it were that easy…” Chad mused aloud, drawing chortles from the rest of the class. “Okay, no serious damage done, so let’s keep taking turns. Who wants to be in the unmarked car?”
Reverend Thomas, a youth minister, who didn’t look much older than the teens he worked with, raised his hand. “I’ll be the lawbreaker.”
“Ohh, the minister’s going to take a walk on the wild side,” Leonard Romanski, a kid who was in college because of Reverend Thomas, teased. Maybe Leonard hadn’t gone into criminal justice just for the groupies, although he seemed to have quite an interest in Amy.
Tessa started to walk away to join the rest of the class, but Chad caught her wrist. “You’re going to pull him over,” he said, walking her around the car to the driver’s door which he held open for her.
“I really don’t need to do this,” she protested.
“You should check out things from this side of the traffic stop,” he advised, shutting her inside the warm car. While she was probably too stubborn to learn much from the demonstration, at least he could keep her from freezing.
Once she was settled, he joined her inside the car. So little space separated the seats that his shoulder bumped against hers. He showed her the controls between the seats, pointing out the button for the siren and the one for the lights. The back of his hand brushed against her thigh, bare from her short skirt. She shivered.
His hand shaking slightly, he adjusted the heat. “You’re still cold? You really need to dress warmer. Paddy noted in the academy outline which classes you’d need to dress warmer.”
“I—I came straight from a sales call,” she explained, her voice wavering either with cold or nerves.
He reached across her, making sure the vents were open on the driver’s side. As he drew his hand away from the dash, he brushed h
er bare knee, and his face heated. Had to be because of the heat blowing full force on him.
“You could bring a change of clothes, you know,” he pointed out.
“Uh, yeah, I guess I could.”
“You haven’t even glanced at the CPA binder,” he realized. “You have no interest in this class at all.”
She flashed her sassy smile again even though it looked a bit strained. Then she winked at him. “I wouldn’t say that I have no interest in the class…”
Chad snorted. “You’re not interested in me. You’re trying to mess with my head.” It was damn well working, too. Remembering his role as class instructor, he directed her, “Turn on the siren.”
“I’d rather turn you on.”
Even as his body tensed in reaction to her flirting, he laughed. “You’re impossible.”
She sighed. “That’s what they all say.”
“They’re not wrong.” Any attraction to her was impossible. Whether going too fast or too slow, the woman was always reckless. Definitely too high a risk factor for pursuit.
“COFFEE, PLEASE,” Tessa requested, her teeth nearly clicking together as they chattered from the cold that had penetrated deep inside her body.
“Decaf?” Brigitte asked as she reached for a carafe.
“No, I need the real stuff,” Tessa insisted.
“You’ll be up all night.” Brigitte arched a brow. “Ohh…”
“Oh, what?”
“Maybe you’re planning on being up all night—with Lieutenant Michalski?”
Tessa choked on a laugh. “Not damn likely.” No matter how much she flirted, he remained his usual stoic self. Maybe the man was made of stone. Not that she really wanted him interested in her.
She had flirted with him in the car during their simulated traffic stop only because he’d rattled her with his concern over her being hurt and with his touch as he’d brushed her thigh and knee. The competitive part of her had wanted to rattle him back. More.
Her trick had backfired because she’d realized the outrageous comment she had spoken was true. She did want to turn him on. Her hands trembled as she accepted the mug of coffee her friend passed her.
“Careful so you don’t burn yourself,” Brigitte advised, perhaps referring to more than the hot beverage. She had the uncanny perception of a bartender, which she would probably also deny as being a myth if Tessa pointed it out.
Yet Tessa wasn’t about to admit her new friend was right and that she was in danger of getting burned. She carefully sipped from the mug.
Music emanated from the game area, and two voices in beautiful harmony rose above the conversations taking place in the Lighthouse.
“Karaoke?” Tessa asked.
Brigitte grimaced. “Yeah, it was my idea. Don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Cops doing karaoke?” Tessa laughed. “I think it’s a great idea.”
The bartender lifted her slender shoulders in a slight shrug. “I thought it might bring in more customers.”
Tessa glanced around the bar, which was pretty much standing room only. “You want more?”
Brigitte grinned. “I want to make sure Gramps can retire comfortably. He’s thinking about Key West.”
“If it stays this packed—” Tessa gestured at the crowd “—he can probably retire in Palm Springs.”
The beautiful bartender shook her head. “I think the machine has probably scared away more customers than it’s attracted.”
“Whoever’s singing now is actually pretty good.” Tessa smiled at the lyrics of the old Sonny and Cher tune. Swiveling the bar stool around to see who was singing, she laughed. “Bernie and Jimmy?”
Of course they would sing in perfect harmony. She had never met a more perfect couple; she hadn’t thought anyone could have as long and solid a marriage as they shared. Maybe there was hope.
Chad joined her at the bar, squeezing in between her and the next occupied stool. “You warm yet?”
She lifted the coffee mug. “I’m getting there.” Especially now, with him standing so close that his hard thigh rubbed against her hip.
“That’s good.”
“And those two help,” she said, pointing toward the karaoke couple. “What they have…it just kinda warms you up.”
He glanced toward the makeshift stage near the pool tables and dartboards, then back to Tessa. A muscle twitched in his cheek as if he clenched his jaw. “Yeah…”
After another sip of the hot brew, she asked, “You ever been married?”
He tensed. “A long time ago.”
“One of those high school sweetheart things that burned out?”
His green eyes darkened with pain. “College sweethearts.”
He still hurt over the broken relationship? “How long ago did you divorce?” she asked.
He shrugged without answering, then asked, “Did you have a college sweetheart?”
She sighed, unable to call any of the men she’d dated a sweetheart. “I didn’t go away to college. I took night classes in sales and marketing at the local community college.”
“Since you’re used to taking night classes, why do you have such a problem with this one?” he asked, his mouth lifting in a slight grin.
“I signed up for those classes voluntarily.”
“So you don’t like being told what to do,” he said with a nod of his dark head. “That’s why you didn’t wear the warm clothes that were recommended for tonight’s class?”
“No, I didn’t read the binder,” she confirmed his earlier suspicion. “But I came right from an appointment, so I didn’t have time to change or even grab a change of clothes anyway.”
“If you had time,” he asked, leaning in so that his face nearly touched hers, “would you change?”
Somehow she suspected they weren’t talking about just her clothes anymore. “The problem is,” she said, “that I never have time.”
Not for herself, and certainly not for a man, no matter how attractive she found him. Why the hell did she have to find Lieutenant Chad Michalski so attractive?
“Is that the reason you take late-night drives through the park?” he asked. “No time during the day?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what was going on with you that night?”
She shook her head. “No point. I have it all under control.” Too bad she was lying through her teeth. Kevin was still doing a great impersonation of an invisible man; he took off so much she hardly ever saw him.
“You’re independent,” he murmured.
“That’s probably the one thing you actually have right about me, Lieutenant,” she said.
“So what do I have wrong?” he asked.
The clamor of applause saved her from replying.
“Encore, encore!” the patrons shouted as the Gillespies finished their second duet.
“No, someone else has to take a turn,” Bernie insisted. “It’s quite a thrill. Lieutenant O’Donnell?”
The auburn-haired lawman, sitting with his CPA class at the long table, shook his head. “No. No, you don’t want to hear me sing.”
“I’ll sing,” Amy said as she nearly skipped to the karaoke machine.
Even with caffeine rushing through her veins, Tessa didn’t have a tenth of the college girl’s energy. She had never been that young and carefree. And she sure couldn’t sing like that. Amy’s voice was soft and pure as she sang of falling in love. The girl was actually very good.
Bernie stepped into Jimmy’s arms, and they began to dance. Other members of the CPA pushed the long table against the wall, giving the couple more space. Bernie lifted her hand from Jimmy’s shoulder, and motioned for others to join her.
“Do you sing?” Tessa asked Chad.
Chad shook his head. “Nope, I don’t sing. You?”
She shuddered. “No.”
“I dance. Do you dance?”
“Sure, I dance.” Although she couldn’t remember the last time.
/> “So?” He held out his hand.
What the hell was he thinking? Asking Tessa Howard to dance was a mistake, an impulse. He hadn’t acted on impulses since he’d been a reckless kid what seemed like a hundred years ago.
Tessa gazed up at him, her blue eyes wide with shock. Then, to his surprise, she placed her hand in his. “Sure, I’ll dance.”
Fingers entwined, they walked across the bar and joined the others on the makeshift dance floor. The pimply-faced kid, Leonard Ramanski danced with Marla Halliday, the vice cop’s mother, who had entered the academy to find out how safe her son was on the job. She probably wouldn’t like what she learned.
And Chad didn’t like what he learned as he opened his arms and Tessa Howard stepped into them, her body brushing against his as they moved to the music. He wanted her. Despite knowing that she would be no good for him, he wanted her.
“Are—are you warmer now?” he asked, as he slid his hand over her back.
“What?” She tipped up her chin and stared into his face.
“You were so cold in the parking garage. Are you warmer now?”
“Is that why you asked me to dance?” She stopped moving. “To warm me up?”
“I wish to hell I knew…why…” She was so damn beautiful, but it was more than her beauty that drew him. It was her spirit and humor—she was so alive that she made him feel alive. And he hadn’t been really alive since Luanne died.
“It worked,” she murmured. “I’m warmed up…”
In fact her face was flushed, her eyes bright. Then her lips parted.
And he leaned forward just far enough for his mouth to brush across hers.
Chapter Seven
Her lips tingling from the all-too-brief contact with his, Tessa opened her eyes—and found herself standing alone on the makeshift dance floor among the other couples. She was no longer a couple, but then she had never really been. Ever.
Face warm with embarrassment, she smiled as she moved off the floor and headed toward the bar. She glanced around but couldn’t see Chad anywhere. He must have left in a hurry.
“Who’s speeding now?” she murmured. The man hadn’t been able to move fast enough to get away from her. “I should’ve given him a ticket.”