Page 50 of Twisted Hearts

I grinned, liking that she was smiling, teasing, even if she kept glancing at the gun on the table.

“The gun can’t go off by itself you know.”

She rolled up on her toes and pulled out one bottle of wine after another, enough to see the label before putting it back. Her long frame was stretched as she reached far above her head and finally decided on one.

“I know, and I get you’re a cop—”

“Used to be.”

She gave me a look that said the distinction didn’t matter. “And you still protect people for a living. It just startled me. I’ve never actually seen one in real life.”

I grew up where boys learned to shoot BB guns before they could tie their shoes. Hunting was a way of life. So was needing one to keep cattle and other farm animals safe from coyotes. Plus, they were simply hella fun to shoot sometimes.

“You can hold it. Or, if you want, we can go to a range sometime and I can teach you how to shoot it. But there’s nothing to be worried about, I give you my word.”

In my experience, once people who were scared of guns became more comfortable with them, they weren’t so terrified of them, just learned a healthy respect.

She glanced at me, wine bottle in one hand, opener in the other, glanced at the gun, and then looked at me. “I know. Like I said, it took me by surprise.”

She didn’t say if she’d want to get more used to it, so I let it go and slid the bottle and opener out of her hands.

“Go sit. I’ve got this.” She’d been on her feet all night serving people. She certainly didn’t need to do it for me here. “You look dead on your feet.”

When she didn’t move, I set the bottle on the counter and curled my hands around her hips. With a gentle shove, I pushed her around me and pressed against her lower back, guiding her in the direction of her living area until she grinned at me over her shoulder.

Addi’s smiles were a beautiful sight to behold. Her full lips stretched, and the glimmer in her eyes told she me was fighting back a sassy comment.

This woman was something else…something that made me interested at every turn.

“I get it, I get it.” She collapsed onto the couch with an exaggerated sigh, kicking her feet up on the coffee table and huffing as she threw her arms over the back.

I went back to the kitchen, opened the wine, and poured us both glasses I found in the cupboard. After the few minutes it took, I found Addi in the living room, head resting against the back of the couch, eyes closed.

“I can smell the wine,” she mumbled and lifted one hand.

“You sure you need it? Look pretty relaxed already.”

Later, I’d be sleeping on her furniture, spread out and probably enveloped in her sweet, perfumed scent.

I sipped my own glass and tried to erase the effect just looking at her like this caused, imagining what she’d feel like, wondering what would have happened had I not ended that kiss earlier.

“Come on.” I tapped her ankles and waited until she sat up and gave me space to move around to her other side. “We need to talk about Malcolm.”

“Right.” She sounded a bit disgruntled but did what I told her and sat up. I handed over her glass and took a seat at the other end of the couch.

“You’ll only be working days from now on.” I watched her brows arch on her forehead.

“What?” She was on alert and, if I wasn’t mistaken, mad.

Too bad. Working nights was less safe with the clientele, and the busier place would make it harder to keep an eye on her and everyone coming and going.

“It’s safer to have you working during the day. Easier to keep an eye on you at night. Malcolm agreed once I explained.”

She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and scrunched up her nose. “That makes sense, although I wish you would have talked to me first.” She gave me large eyes that appeared sad but determined, and the look in them made me wish I had done that. “I’ve spent a lot of time being told what to do and given expectations to specifically follow. I want to be on my own now, and I get it might not be safe, but decisions about my safety should still include me.”

Yeah. I should have talked to her. “I will in the future.”

“What’d you tell Malcolm?”

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