Page 58 of Hearts of Fairlake

"You do realize the more you rile him up and stress him out, the more he annoys the living shit out of me, right?"

"You could always do the same thing. But you won't."

"No, I won't."

"Because tweaking the noses of people in power is your boyfriend's favorite thing, not yours. You are far too serious and duty-focused to have that kind of fun."

"I...sure."

Aaron frowned suddenly. "And you're in a position of authority."

"Yes," I said slowly, wondering where this was going. "What's your point?"

His nose wrinkled. “I suddenly wondered how that works for you two, and it occurred to me that it's probably foreplay. So now I'm thinking about all the times he's annoyed you and…yeah, I don't like where that thought process was going."

"Neither do I," I grunted at him, if only because I hated that he was right. I had long since made peace with the fact that Ethan's mischievous antagonism was something of a turn-on for me, but that didn't mean I was comfortable talking about it with Aaron...or anyone who wasn't Ethan, for that matter. "Can we move on?"

"Gladly," he said with a shake of his head. "Now, excluding Fred's constant freaking out, how are things on your end? Like, really."

"Like I said, they're more or less as handled as they can be. We can't account for every possibility, but that doesn't mean we're not on top of what we can. I trust my people, and they know I have their backs. At this point, we just have to see how things go, stick to the plan when we can, and make it up when we go off script."

"That's more or less where we're at too," Aaron said with a nod. "Which means there's only one thing left for us to do."

"I have this feeling your idea of what we should do is going to differ greatly from what I think we should do."

"Yeah, because you work yourself too hard. Go home, Trevor. Go home to your bed and your boyfriend. Get laid, try to relax, get some sleep. Nothing you do tonight will make anything any easier on you or your people over the weekend, especially if you're stressedandsleep-deprived," he said, standing up and patting me on the shoulder. "I mean it."

"It's not a bad idea," I admitted and sighed. "But I should probably knock out some of the paperwork that's been building up over the past week or two. I don't want that looming over me."

"Trevor, that's going to be there no matter what you do," Aaron said with a roll of his eyes. "The best thing you can do for yourself right now is go get some rest and brace for the next couple of days. But you're not going to."

We both knew I wasn't going to, but there was no point in repeating what he'd already said. We'd been friends for years, and on a professional and personal level, we knew each other very well. He knew I was going to retreat to the quiet of my office, closing the door behind me and possibly putting on some music. Aaron would go home, flip something on the TV, make a quick burger, and open a beer. I would sit down and sip on a whiskey, while he would eventually go to bed after a beer or two. He would be asleep by the time I considered going home or wonder if I should just give up and sleep in the office...again.

"Sometimes I wonder how you're going to manage retirement," he said with a chuckle. "But anyway, go be Mr. Workaholic. We'll see how well that works for you when Sunday night rolls around and your stressed out, old ass starts trying to take everyone's head off."

"Good night, Aaron," I said with a roll of my eyes and waved him off with a shake of my head. The sooner he and everyone else got out of my hair, the sooner I could try to make it through the slog that would be the paperwork. "As for everyone else, I'll be in my office. The only time I want someone bothering me is if we've got a shootout or officer down, understood?"

The couple of officers left murmured their assent, and feeling like I might finally have some peace, I walked back toward my office. I stopped when I saw a glow from the room and closed my eyes, forcing myself to take a deep breath. A man's office should be a sacred place, but some officers, Bennett in particular, had someinterestingdefinitions of personal boundaries, especially when it came to his little tricks or his ways of improving morale.

"Oh, I'm so not in the mood for this," I muttered in annoyance as I pushed open the door to see what 'surprise' awaited me. Only to stop when I found no booby trap or 'gift,' but...a couple of lanterns, a vase of flowers on the edge of my desk, and a certain someone sitting behind it.

"You," I began slowly, still holding the door, "are supposed to be at home and probably sleeping."

"So should you," Ethan said, cocking his head and letting some of his hair flop onto his forehead. He’d let it grow out longer than usual, and instead of the normal color, he had apparently been busy today dyeing it an unnatural silver. It made his eyes pop, and I looked him over as he sat at my desk like he belonged there. He knew damn well I didn't let anyone sit at my desk. "And yet here we both are."

"I’m supposed to be working," I said, closing the door behind me and, after a moment, locking it because whenever Ethan made a surprise visit, it was always good to make sure someone else didn't pop in at an inopportune moment.

"Actually, that's what you've been doing all week. And considering you have to get up even earlier than usual tomorrow, you should be at home, resting in bed with me," Ethan said, leaning back in his…myseat to watch me with a smirk. "Of course, I didn't expect you to do it, so I decided I wasn't going to either."

I shook my head, walked over to the sound system I kept tucked away in the corner, and began playing music. “You know, I was hoping to have some peace and quiet while I got some work done, not have you trying to distract me from it. You're not going to convince me that I shouldn't be here."

"Oh, perish the thought," he said lightly. "I have no intention of getting in your way. I'm going to sit quietly and do my own thing. There's a few offers to do some writing that I was considering."

That gave me pause. “Oh?"

He chuckled, picking up the tablet in front of himandflipping the cover around to reveal a keyboard plugged into a port. “Don't you worry, nothing that involvesme going anywhere. It's mostly about stuff I've already seen or done, things I made notes on but either barely mentioned or didn't mention at all. That stuff is mostly for little hit pieces and the like, you know what I mean."

I did and wasn't ashamed to feel relief as I headed for the liquor cabinet, only to find a half-full glass waiting for me just behind the flowers. Raising a brow, I walked over, smiling at the daisies that were my favorite, and grabbed the glass. “I see you came prepared. Why the lanterns and flowers?"

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