Page 75 of Under the Lights
She got out, not untethering her weapon even though it was protocol because, as tempting as it might be, she couldn’t shoot him. Especially since there were people out and about, and the sirens had attracted attention. Now they were watching, and she was over the Chase and Kelly show being their entertainment.
The truck door started opening and she kicked it closed. “Stay in the vehicle.”
“Kelly, I want to talk to you.”
“License and registration.”
“What?” She braced herself and looked directly into his face, seeing nothing but confusion.
“I asked for your license and registration.”
“You’re going to give me a ticket?”
“You ran the stop sign again. You were let off with a warning the first time. This time you’re getting a ticket, yes.”
“Oh.” He looked around and then nodded once, as if things made sense all of a sudden. “We don’t want Edna thinking you’re letting me off easy.”
“I’m giving you a ticket because you ran the stop sign and that’s the only reason. And now you’re walking a fine line toward failure to comply.”
He frowned. “I know you’re upset, but—”
“Give me an excuse,” she said in a low voice. “Give me a reason to drag you out of that truck here in front of God and everybody and put you on the ground and show you that handcuffs are, in fact, the unsexiest thing you’ll ever wear.”
“Okay, you’rereallyangry. And that’s actually a good thing because it must mean you care, right? So just let me explain.”
“Send me a text if you have something to say. All I want from you right now is your license and registration.”
She’d gotten out of the cruiser on a wave of hurt, anger and disbelief, but looking into his face was harder than she’d thought. It took everything she had to stand there with her cop face on and not let him see how utterly devastated she felt.
When he leaned over to get his paperwork out of the glove box, she realized something looked off and stretched up onto her toes. “You cleaned your truck out.”
“Yeah.” He handed her his papers. “I don’t know why. Show of faith, maybe? Some way to prove I’m capable of cleaning up my act.”
She clenched her jaw and walked back to the cruiser, where she wrote out the ticket. Recognizing it was a petty way of lashing out at him, she might have let him off with yet another warning, but word had gotten around, and there was now a substantial crowd trying to pretend they weren’t watching her and Chase. There wouldn’t be any special treatment this time.
When she walked back to his truck and handed his license, registration and the ticket through the window, he gave her a look that threatened to tear down the wall she was barely keeping in place.
“I just drove for hours, Kelly. Please. Give me ten minutes.”
He was a hard man to say no to. “No.”
“Five minutes. I came back to say something to you, Kelly McDonnell, and I intend to say it. If I have to stand in the middle of the street and yell it after you while you drive away, so be it.”
She’d managed to hold her head up while people gossiped about her and Chase. She’d survived Edna Beecher sticking her nose into it. But there was no way in hell she would take the chance of breaking down in tears while in her uniform, doing her job, in front of everybody.
“I’ll meet you in my dad’s driveway. Leave your truck running, because you won’t be staying long.”
She took a different route than Chase, mostly so people wouldn’t know they were going the same place. As ridiculous as it sounded, she wouldn’t put it past some of them to find a reason to walk down Eagles Lane, and she didn’t want an audience for this.
By the time she pulled into the driveway next to his truck, she felt as if she had her emotions mostly under control. Or the tears, at least. She didn’t think she’d cry. After killing the engine, she took her time getting out of the cruiser, making him wait.
He was leaning against the passenger side of his truck, where he knew she’d have to park, but he didn’t look relaxed. She walked to the front fender of the SUV and basically mirrored his posture. “Okay, five minutes. Go.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
He held up his hands. “I’m sorry about everything, but mostly that I left without saying good-bye. It was a chickenshit move.”
