Page 73 of Kiss Me Now
I thought back to our last conversation. “I don’t think so. She’s pretty stubborn. I think she means as friends.”
“And this is a chick you want to be friends with and go hang out with in museums?”
I was quiet long enough that he stepped out of the strike zone to watch me more closely and let the next pitch pass.
“You like her,” he said.
“I did.”
“Go to the museum Saturday.”
But I was already shaking my head. “Bad idea. I need more distance before I can honestly say I’d be there as her friend.”
“You got moves. You could change her mind.”
I gave him my best big brother “knock it off” stare. “No, dummy. It’s not a game. I’m listening and respecting her because that’s what good guys do.”
He scoffed. “Sure. Good guys who don’t want to date their gran’s hot neighbors. But you do want to date her.”
“Maybe me from a few months ago would have agreed with you. But after looking into Ri—uh, Bad Guy, pushing the issue is what he would do. And I won’t be like that.”
“Fair enough.” He seemed to lose interest as he focused on the incoming pitches, hitting more than he missed.
I kept reading over Brooke’s message, trying hard to figure out how to respond. I knew what I wanted to say. But I finally texted back what I knew Ishouldsay.Wish I could but slammed with work. Have a good time.
Her reply came several minutes later.Will save it for another time with you. Think I’ll spend the morning with Willard instead.
Willard?Who?I texted back.
The mega-toothed shark exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I have a thing for him.
I snorted.Sounds dead sexy.
Well, dead anyway,she texted back, and that made me laugh out loud. I sent her a gif of Jaws chomping on the back of the boat.
Landon and I each went home for the night, but the next day, Friday, the closer it got to school letting out, the more my mind drifted to Brooke. Was she on the road out to her parents’ place yet? Or would she wait out traffic? Although...she’d be going against it, so maybe she was on her way now, leaving right after school to make it by dinner.
I could call her, take her up on her museum offer the next day. I’d love to spend time revisiting the good parts of DC with her, the parts I often forgot about with the frustrations of my job.
But no. I didn’t think I could hang out with her in the just friends capacity. I still needed time for my brain to switch gears.
Saturday morning, I went into the office to keep myself busy around the time I figured she’d be hitting the museum. It wasn’t that unusual to see people in the office on the weekend, but I was still surprised to find Sherrie at her desk outside my office.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Don’t you have kid soccer games to go harass the other parents at?”
“Not until this afternoon. Wanted to pull on a thread in the Rink case without my kids in my hair.”
My eyebrows went up. “Anything good?”
“Maybe. I’ll keep you posted.”
I settled into my office and spent some time trying to investigate financials to eliminate any possible witnesses who had received a settlement from the senator. They’d be bound by NDAs and less likely to come forward.
My attention kept wandering to my phone, wondering where Brooke was now. It hadn’t been too hard to talk myself into staying in town to keep my distance the last couple of weekends; I used all my usual workaholic excuses. But it was totally different knowing she wasright here, right in the capital, maybe even a few blocks away somewhere in the maze of the Smithsonian.
After an hour, I couldn’t resist anymore. I reached for my phone and checked her Instagram. She posted about once a day, usually tailoring her posts for her students as she documented interesting stuff in the garden or from exploring the countryside around Creekville.
Bingo. She’d posted ten minutes before but from the National Zoo, her face beaming in delight as she took a selfie with the panda exhibit in the background. The caption said, “Life under the microscope is cool, but studying biology is even better in person!”
