Page 31 of Shield
I missed my sister. And my nephew. I wished we lived closer to each other, but that wasn’t going to happen. Maybe if Court were living in LA still, I’d be more… I don’t know. Social? Pleasant? Less prone to being sullen and sad all the fucking time. It struck me, then, standing on Oliver’s stoop, that one of the things I liked about him, and his house, was that when I was here I wasn’t alone. I had no one, really. Mack and I were close, but I didn’t go to his place even though I was invited every week. He and Elena were newlyweds. They didn’t really want some half-drunk asshole sitting around making their lives sour and stale.
Someone peeked out of the window beside the door, yanking the sheer curtain to the side, her tiny face pressed to the glass. I snickered at the little girl, doing her best impression of a pug dog. Then, without warning, the door opened. There stood two girls with long hair, bright eyes, and glittery wings.
“Hello, sir,” the oldest of the two, Scarlett, said. She of the clever blue eyes and long dark hair like Oliver. Daisy, the younger, stood at her sister’s side, both winded and sweaty.
“Hello, is your father home?” I asked in my nicest cop voice just as Oliver dashed into view, his eyes widening as he spied me in the doorway. He was wearing a dragon headpiece and a lumpy tail someone had tied to his belt.
“Ah, I see that a fearsome dragon has eaten your dad. I’m the Sheriff! How can I save you?”
Oliver rolled his eyes as he struggled to free himself from the felt dragon head sitting on his skull, but he was smiling. The girls giggled in delight.
“Help us, Sheriff! We have to get the dragon!” Scarlett shouted, turned, and ran at her father. Daisy did the same.
Oliver gathered them both up, growling and snarling most fearsomely. His dark eyes moved to me. “Take another step, Sheriff, and I will eat the princesses,” he snarled in very good dragon speak.
I leaped into the foyer. The girls squealed in glee. Oliver flashed me a smile that made my knees turn into jelly, and the chase was on. This one was much more enjoyable than the last chase I’d been involved in. This one ended when we all collapsed onto a massive sofa in the living room, out of breath, but laughing madly.
“Okay, the sheriff… needs to buy a horse,” I huffed as the girls jumped up, giddy with energy, and ran off to find me a horse. Oliver glanced at me, a quick peek that could have been purposely seductive, and my whole body rang like a tuning fork.
“Thank you for playing along,” he said, his breathing calming much faster than mine. Damn athletes who never smoked.
I waved his thanks off. It had been incredibly fun for me to take part in some playtime. Leo and I never got enough time together, it seemed, what with his father wanting him all to himself, which I got, but still…
“The law does what the law needs to do,” I replied, noting with interest that his gaze was moving over me as I lay sprawled on his couch.
Knowing he was checking me out, I did the opposite of what I should have done. I should have sat up, told him why I was here, and left, pronto. Instead, I flexed my hips just a bit to show off the growing bulge in my slacks. Oliver’s gaze grew hot.
The girls came thundering in then, both with stick horses in hand. I shoved a throw pillow in front of my groin, then begged off a gallop, citing my old age. The girls moaned but moved on to their own games.
“Is there something new about the case?” Oliver asked.
“No, sadly, nothing really, but we’re not giving up,” I assured him. He seemed placated with my reply. Now was the time to lay my upstanding cop dictate on him, only there was someone missing. “Where’s your friend, the nanny?”
“Jamie?”
Of course, I knew his name, but my inner child poked at me. “Yeah, Jamie.”
“At a research conference, he’s away for the night.”
Well, that was interesting news. Not that there weren’t the girls to think of, but we might be able to get in a peck or two when the girls weren’t watching. I’d take that.
I was starved for a taste of Oliver.
I came here to stop everything, not start something.
“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes, if you’d like to stay?” Oliver enquired as he peeled off his dragon tail and placed it on the coffee table next to a coloring book and box of crayons.
Nope, negatory. Tell him what you came here for and leave.
“What are you having?” I asked as Inner Jackson gave me a hearty Moe Howard slap to the head.
“Spaghetti and meatballs. Nothing fancy. Oh, and a salad that only I will eat.”
God, that sounded amazing. “I’d like that.”
“Good. Want to help set the table?”
I stuffed lonely old Jackson into the trunk of a mental Ford Pinto. Who needed his negativity? I’d tell Oliver why I was here after we ate. Might as well get a meal in me before I went back to talking to a dead orchid while sipping whiskey and wishing I had someone to hold on to when shit went south.
