Page 154 of Back in the Saddle

I saluted him with my fork. “Righty ho, big man.”

He pressed his lips to mine again, turned to his fettucine, downed a couple more bites, and I got another lip touch before he buttered another piece of bread and took off with bread in hand.

I took my time eating, and then I took my time cleaning up.

While I did the latter, I washed and polished my new bar set, stashed the old one I had, which wasn’t near as nice (or as expensive), and put the new one on my bar cart.

It looked amazing.

Staring at it, I didn’t want to be reassured that it was clear Jeff had cast his lot with a really good guy.

But Javi’s present, and his note, were so thoughtful, I couldn’t help but be reassured.

SEVENTEEN

AN ANGEL WILL DO PERFECTLY

My hip was moving.

When I opened my eyes, I saw weak light coming in from outside and a hot guy leaning over me in bed.

With a bleary gaze, I glanced at the clock and noted it was ten to eight.

I pushed up to rest on a hand in the mattress and looked back at Eric. “Are you just getting home?”

Eric was checking out my body, or more to the point, my nightie, but he raised his gaze to mine when he said, “No. I got home at around three. I didn’t expect it to go that long, but what went down required us to make a report to the police, which always drags shit out. When I got back, you were dead to the world, and I was wiped. So I grabbed a couple hours of sleep. Now I gotta hit the office.”

I turned my head and saw both pillows disturbed.

I went back to him, and with no small amount of shock, asked, “You got in bed beside me, and I didn’t wake up?”

He shook his head. “Nope. You were dead to the world.”

Argh!

I wasted my second-best nightie!

Okay, don’t panic.

Maybe I could salvage things.

“If you work late, don’t you get to go to work later in the morning?” I tried.

“I am going to work later in the morning,” he answered.

“By…an hour.”

He seemed to be struggling with a smile, when I didn’t think anything was funny, because,again, we hadn’t broken the seal.

“I have some more bad news,” he announced.

I’d barely been awake five minutes. I was already not thrilled with what I was processing. I wasn’t sure I could take more bad news.

“Fabulous,” I muttered.

“I gotta take a shift in the surveillance room tonight. I won’t be relieved until late. So I probably won’t see you until tomorrow.”

“Wait. I thought only the junior investigators did that.”

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