Page 56 of Now to Forever

Wanda’snow to foreverflitters through me.

She waves at someone across the lot; my attention stays on her. “What if I don’t know how?”

She flicks her eyes to me for a split second. “You do.” A smile overtakes her face as she looks away from me and coos, “Officer Callahan.”Ford?The one and only takes his final steps to us across the nearly vacant parking lot wearing his uniform. He smiles at me—it makes my veins itch—but it’s Mel he hugs. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” she asks, patting his chest.

“Just thought I’d say hi. Check in.” He grins at her then faces me. “Scotty.”

“Officer.” I look at my hands, wishing I had a cigarette, cup of coffee, or yo-yo so I had somethingto do with them.

“Well, I’m just fine, Ford,” she says warmly. “You’ve done enough. You don’t have to babysit me. This one though.” She tilts her head my way. “Watch out.”

He chuckles, his hands resting on the belt of his uniform. “Believe it or not, I think she’s been avoiding me.”

She gives me a pointed look.

“Sounds like something she would do.”

“She thinks,” I snap, “you both should stop talking about her like she’s not standing right the hell here.”

Mel rolls her eyes, picking up the LL sign and waving a hand through the air as she walks toward the church. “Good luck with that one, Officer.”

He rakes his gaze over my fitted jeans and casual plum-colored V-neck shirt, big enough it drapes low on my chest and slightly off one shoulder. He doesn’t move or say anything, but the simple act of his eyeballs moving the way they are makes heat trickle up my neck. When our gazes collide, I look away first.

Damn him.

“So,” I say in the tense silence. “You got something to say, or you just here pretending to be sexy?”

He smirks, smug. “You think I’m sexy?”

“Pretendingto be sexy; I know better.”

“Noted. I’ll work on it.” His blue eyes smile bright, and a dimple carves into his cheek before his expression turns serious. “Something happen with Wren?”

“What?” My throat constricts with guilt. “No. Why?”

“Because you’ve been avoiding me for days.” I don’t bother arguing. “Figured it’s either her or because you’re nervous to ask me to ask you on a date.”

At this, I laugh, some of the tension dissolving. “Hardly.”

“I can see how that would be the case.” He steps toward me now, opening his mouth just enough I see his tongue work across his lips as he hooks two fingers in a belt loop of my jeans, tugging my compliant body toward him. “Me pretending to be sexy can be pretty intimidating.”

“Ah.” I shove my hands in the back pockets of my jeans to keep from climbing him like a sin-stepped ladder in the church parking lot. “You see right through me.”

“But I’m here now, Scotty, and I can assure you there’s nothing to be nervous about.” He’s smiling fully, and its impact on my insides is stupid. Tugging my belt loops again, my hips bump into his. “And I think you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment of you standing outside an LL meeting—which, I can’t wait to hear the story behind—to ask me.”

“Really?”Why am I playing along?“And what would you say, should you find me standing outside an LL meeting, and I said I wanted such a thing as a date with you?”

“I’d say—” He leans in close to me, his lips grazing my ear when he speaks, sending a shiver down my spine, “Let me pick you up Friday.”

Maybe it’s what Mel just said, but I don’t hesitate: “Okay.”

“See,” he says, grinning as he releases his hands from my jeans and takes a step backward, my body noticing the space the second he pulls away. “Wasn’t that easy?”

I pinch my lips tight to hide my amusement, saying nothing as I watch him walk away, knowing smirk angled across his face. A breeze whispers against my skin, and he waves across the parking lot before slipping into his car. Next to my Bronco, June’s minivan is parked. She’s leaning against the hood, raising two coffees in my direction, grinning.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as I step next to her, taking a coffee she offers.

“Whatever you are,” she says, eyebrows raised nearly to the messy red bun on the top of her head.

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