Page 119 of Sergeant O'
Chad nodded slowly, a small smile tugging at his mouth. “So, you’re finally here to fix it?”
“I want to…”
“Then let’s make sure you can.” He leaned forward, forearms on his desk. “What do you need from me?”
“I just want to be sure there’s nothing in the hospital’s policy that says she can’t see me. I don’t want her blindsided by some HR technicality.”
“There isn’t,” he said. “She’s not under your command, you don’t work for the hospital, and we don’t police who our staff date. You’re both adults.”
Relief eased the tightness in my shoulders. “That helps. I just needed to hear it.”
Chad’s grin returned. “Jade’s something special. About time you figured that out.”
“Yeah,” I said, standing and testing my leg. “Took me long enough.”
He nodded once. “Don’t screw it up.”
“I don’t plan to.”
Chad smirked. “Good. Because if you do, I’m taking her side.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Wouldn’t blame you.”
~~~~
My phone buzzed with a text alert as I stepped out of Chad’s office.
Lainey: Trying new recipes. Jade’s coming by to taste-test.
Figured you might want to know.
I stared at the screen, my pulse ticking faster with every second.
I’d spent the last week letting silence do the talking. It had already cost me her.
But maybe it didn’t have to end that way.
I slipped the phone into my pocket and headed for Beaumont Bakery.
Chapter Sixty
Jade
The bell over the bakery door jingled again during the midmorning rush, and then the place got weirdly quiet. I looked up from the plate in front of me—Lainey’s newest pastry experiment, something flaky with lemon glaze—and my breath caught when I realized why.
Brian stood in the doorway.
He looked good. Too good. Jeans, a grey-green waffle-knit polo that made his brown eyes pop, and a pair of navy-blue sneakers. The slight limp as he moved further inside the store somehow made him seem more human than the hero the media kept talking about.
His gaze found mine immediately, and the corner of his mouth turned up—like he’d found what he was looking for.
Every muscle in my body went still.
I felt paralyzed to move as he crossed the room—whispers following him as he went.
“Isn’t that the cop who got shot?”
“Wait, I thought he was dating the real estate chick.”
