Page 83 of Warrant
“I’ve only known him for a short time,” I admitted.
“Oh, honey.”
Meeting her gaze, I shook my head. “Don’t say-”
“You love him,” she said, bulldozing through my denial like only a mother could.
“I don’t. I can’t,” I said, the words sounding weak even to me.
“Why can’t you?”
“I can’t do my job and be with him.” Swallowing hard, I tried not to cry. I wasn’t a crier. But saying it out loud to her only reaffirmed that it was the truth. I’d been trying to hide from it. I somehow had fallen in love with Warrant and I was going to have to choose. Him, or my career.
This wasn’t him putting that choice on me. It was my own moral code. I wished I could be like Denison and just look the other way, but I couldn’t do that and live with myself.
“It’s not possible to love someone that quickly… Is it?” I asked her.
She snorted and motioned to where my dad had flopped back in the grass and Cadet was climbing all over him. “He proposed to me on our second date.”
“You never told me that,” I said with a laugh.
“We didn’t want you getting any ideas,” she said with an arch of her brows. “Just because it worked for us, doesn’t mean that would be right for everyone. Besides, your father hated that last boyfriend of yours.”
“He’s hated all of my boyfriends, Mom. It’s like…a requirement for fathers.”
“Something tells me he won’t hate this one,” she murmured, hearts in her eyes. “If you love him, and he treats you well, we’ll love him.”
“I still don’t know…”
She waited patiently while my mind ran in circles, trying to come to some kind of decision. Now that I knew what it was going to take I could finally move forward. It’d taken nearly a week just to figure out what the problem was.
“We’d love to meet him.”
I laughed. “Maybe.” The thought of my parents meeting Warrant made a cold sweat break out over my skin. Though, I wasn’t sure why I was worried. The jerk was super charming. They’d probably end up loving him more than they loved me, their only child.
“When you’re ready,” Mom said, patient now that she knew she was going to get her way. It wouldn’t matter if I didn’t want to introduce them, they’d find a way.
“Maybe don’t tell Dad just yet,” I cautioned.
She laughed. “He was the one who bet me that we were going to get here and find out you were having guy troubles. A bet’s a bet and I owe him twenty bucks.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re betting on stuff happening in your kid’s life?”
“We’re retired empty nesters, of course we are,” she replied with a smug grin. “Maybe when you give us grandbabies we’ll be less likely to meddle.”
“Yeah right,” I shot back. “Besides, I just gave you a grandkid.” I pointed out at the dog.
“She’ll do for now,” Mom said.
She was kidding. Mostly. They didn’t actually interfere in my life much. I knew it terrified her when I’d followed through on my childhood dream of becoming law enforcement. But she’d always been supportive. She’d never dissuaded me. I knew they both wanted me to find someone to fall in love with, get married, and have kids, but they rarely ever pushed or even asked how that was going. They were pretty mellow as far as parents went, and I was incredibly grateful for that since I had no siblings to spread the crazy between.
Mom got up and went out into the yard to play with her husband and my dog. Watching them together made my heart ache. I’ve always loved watching them interact together. They’d shown me what true love looked like and exactly the kind of relationship I wanted.
Now that I’d found Warrant—or he’d found me—I wanted what they had even more. It still seemed insane to me that I was considering giving up everything I’d worked for, but the idea of losing him made me equally upset.
I kept dreaming of seeing Warrant standing there while some asshole pointed a gun at him. Only in my dreams I was too late and the bullet hit him in the heart. The first night I’d woken up with the image of his lifeless eyes staring up at me I’d sobbed uncontrollably. That was when I knew I loved him. I’d been sticking my head in the sand ever since.
As much as I wanted him, wanted a future with him, it terrified me. I knew exactly who I was in my career and when I was single. It’d been a long time since I’d been in a relationship. And that hadn’t ended very well. The asshole had cheated. Not that I held anyone else responsible for what Patrick had done. I hadn’t gone on from that relationship expecting that other menI dated would cheat. I’d just been so busy and hadn’t opened myself up to anyone new.
