Page 33 of Heart Me Up
“And after that, Foster can tell everyone about the phone call our Captain got from his blind date’s grandmother and how now the entire station thinks Foster’s some sort of badass Dom.”
Startled, I looked at Foster. He gave me a kind of grimace combined with anoh, welleyebrow lift and a shrug.
“Oh, Foster, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean….”Fuuuuuuck.
Amy laughed and poked me in the side. “Don’t worry about it. It’s funny as shit, and Foster was able to do some good with it today.”
Foster put his hand around my shoulders and kissed my temple. “She’s right. It’s all good. I got charges dropped in a case where the responding officers misunderstood what they were seeing. But now the captain’s decided I’m some sort of BDSM whisperer, so… that’s going to be interesting.
I blinked. “I have no idea what to say. I never expected…. I mean, I guess I should’ve thought through the consequences. You’re a police officer, after all.” Regret and guilt gathered in my gut. Shit.
“Craig, I’m telling you, it’s okay. I’m not upset, and it ended up helping me with a case.” Foster stared into my eyes as if he was trying to use the Force to make me accept his words.
I took a deep breath and nodded. Lisa would remind me not to manufacture guilt where it wasn’t warranted. I nodded again.
“Okay,” I told him.
“Also,” Foster said with a little smirk, “If you’re concerned about consequences of your dog collar prank, don’t forget one of them was us going out.”
Well, when you put it that way….
Chapter14
Foster
Craigand I didn’t see each other again until Sunday night. He’d been busy at work, and Amy and I had been alternating nights with Artie and Carlos to help them stake out likely next targets in a string of burglaries they were trying to solve.
But tonight, Craig and I had made plans.
I’d texted him Friday to ask him to dinner as soon as Amy and I had found out we’d have tonight off from stakeouts. I knew I’d be dragging, but I really wanted to see him again. I’d been thinking white tablecloths, candlelight, the works. Maybe one of those energy drinks too.
But Craig had a counteroffer, and I had had no trouble staying awake for it.
“Thanks so much for introducing me to Jonathan,” I told him as we exited the pet resort. A surprising number of cars were pulling into the parking lot. Craig had set up my meeting with his friend who ran the puppy play group so it would end just before everyone else arrived for their event.
Jonathan had been cautious at first, but he’d warmed up to me after I convinced him I sincerely wanted to know how I could help people in the BDSM community if they ended up involved in a case. He’d spent about fifteen minutes answering my questions, and I’d given him a bunch of my cards to pass out to the members of his group.
I also intended to work on educating BOPD patrol officers and detectives on recognizing and not reacting negatively to signs of BDSM lifestyles if they ran into them, but that was going to be a much longer-term program, and I’d need to get the captain involved.
Craig pulled out his phone and fired off a text. “I’m letting Greg know we’re leaving. He’ll stick around until Jonathan and his group are done.”
At some point I would have to get to know Greg, given his status as Craig’s best friend. But tonight I wanted to focus on Craig.
I reached for his hand and pulled him over to my car. “Where do you want to go to dinner?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
I’d considered cooking for him, but I wanted us to have a traditional-style dinner date. Well, as traditional as a dinner date could be if it started out with interviewing a guy about his kinky lifestyle.
Craig suggested Henry’s. “It was the scene of our first almost-date after all.”
I agreed. “Daren the bartender will be excited to see we’re together.”
Craig blinked at me. Uh oh, I might have assumed prematurely. “I mean, if that’s okay with you. Um, I know we’re nottogethertogether. We haven’t even discussed it. I’m okay either way, you know. It’s early to even think about it, since we’ve barely gone out, and oh, mygodplease make me stop talking!” I folded my arms on the steering wheel and leaned my head against them. At least it kept me from looking at Craig, who’d started laughing.
He reached over and patted me on the back. “It’s okay, Foster. I knew what you meant. And Daren never has to find out you monologued our relationship status, or lack thereof.”
I shot him a mock-glare, which made him laugh even harder.
