Page 2 of Tempting Fate

She studies me a moment, cocking her head to the side as she looks at me. “You’re the new detective with Rolling Hills Police Department, aren’t you?”

I nod. “I am. How did you know?”

“My uncle is Captain Reece, he was talking about you at dinner the other night.”

Well fuck me sideways, this just got a little more complicated. I probably shouldn’t ask out my captain’s niece, not that it’s going to stop me. “He forgot to mention that bit of information when he told me to come see you.”

She smiles, “Yeah, he’s not much of a talker. Rolling Hills PD gets a discount. A little perk to the job you could say.”

I get my debit card out and hand it to her, still stuck on what she said. Jealousy is never something I’ve experienced but knowing that the other guys in my department come see Charlotte has me pissed. They’ve probably been coming to see her for years, why haven't one of them made a move on her? What if they’ve dated her? I run through a dozen scenarios, none that I like, while she slips my card into the microchip reader. We wait silently until she turns the reader toward me to enter my pin and the other questions it has. When the receipt prints, she hands it to me. Once I’ve signed the receipt, leaving her a twenty-dollar tip, I hand it back to her. When she sees how much I left her, she bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Darlin’, I never do anything I don’t want to. You got me?”

She nods. “Have a good night Beau.”

“You too Charlotte.”

I want to find out everything there is to know about her, but this is enough for tonight. Now that I’ve found her, I can figure out how to make her mine. I stop at the door as I’m about to walk out when a thought occurs to me. “When do you close?”

“I’m closing now.” She tells me, giving me an odd look.

“But when are you leaving?”

Charlotte shrugs her bare shoulders. “Soon-ish. I have to clean up a little bit and run some reports, make sure everything is ready for tomorrow. Saturdays are one of our busiest days.”

I nod, not liking her answer. “Have a great night Charlotte, and thanks for the haircut. You did a great job.”

“You’re welcome, Beau. Come back when you need another trim.”

“I will,” I say then walk out to my truck. I’ll be coming back a lot sooner than that, I think to myself. Sitting in my truck, I watch her sweep up the hair from my hair cut. When she goes to the back, I tell myself I need to leave, but I can’t force myself to turn my truck on. I need to know she is safe. I’m sure closing by herself is normal, but I don’t like that she’s alone at night, in the dark, where anything could happen. Who would know if she got hurt, or if someone tried to take her? The parking lot has one light and it’s too far away to give enough light for her to see properly. Someone could come out of nowhere and she wouldn’t even see it coming. I guess that’s the cop in me, and all the years I spent in Nashville. Too many times I’ve been the one to show up after the fact when it was too late. For once I’d like to be the one that prevented someone from getting hurt in the first place. I’ve seen too many horrible things happen to good people, people I cared about. I can’t let anything happen to her.

A few minutes later she turns out the lights, and eventually, I see her walking along the side of the building and toward the parking lot. She stops when she notices my truck and stares for a minute then looks around. She looks freaked out, so I roll my window down to talk to her. “It’s just me Charlotte.”

She grasps her chest. “What the hell are you still doing here Beau? You just scared the crap out of me.”

I get out of my truck and go around to where she’s standing. “I didn’t like that it was so dark out and you were here all by yourself. Do you usually close by yourself?”

“No, but Hannah’s daughter has a fever, so she had to leave earlier than expected. Everything is fine, Rolling Hills is a safe place.”

The way she says it makes me believe that she’s trying to convince me, but she isn’t so sure of it herself.

“I had to be sure you got to your car safely.”

“Thank you, Beau, I really appreciate you looking out for me.”

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and hand it to her. “Call yourself with my phone, that way you have my number if you ever need me.”

She looks at it, then grabs it and dials her number. She lets it ring once before ending the call and handing me back my phone. “If you wanted my number, you could have just asked.” She tells me and winks, the fear from before gone as if it were never there.

I smirk. “I got your number, didn’t I?”

“Smooth move Detective Granger,” Charlotte says then gets into her Jeep. She rolls her window down when I turn to leave. “Have a good night Detective.”

“You too Charlotte. Drive safe.”

“You too.” She tells me before rolling all of her windows down and backing out of her space. A few seconds later, country music is blasting from her Jeep and she’s dancing in her seat. I watch as she makes a right and pulls out of the parking lot before I get back into my truck. I’m itching to follow her, but I know how crazy that would appear. There’s this need inside me to make sure she is safe. I’ve been a police officer for over eight years, but the way I feel about Charlotte, it isn’t out of duty, it’s something stronger, deeper, infinite.

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