“When you talked so highly about Pensacola. It was like you were dissing us in Cashmere Cove. I thought you were arrogant and conceited. But then today, I realized you probably had this great comradery with your team down here. I shouldn’t have judged you and assumed you were holding yourself above us. You probably missed your old team, huh?”
“I—wow.” Once again, Collin’s apology and self-awareness catches me off guard. I press my lips together and nod. “Yeah, I guess I did. Thanks for saying that.”
He dips his chin in acknowledgement, and we’re quiet for a minute before Collin cuts me with a glance. “You seemed happy around him—Officer Prowler, I mean.”
I tip my head. “Sure. I guess so. But what does that matter?”
Collin looks away. “I feel stupid even saying this.”
“All the more reason to say it, obviously.”
He sniffs out a laugh. “Fine. I was jealous. I think I’d like for you to be that happy around me.”
I lean back in my chair and tent my hand over my eyes, partially to block the sun and partially to mask my renewed expression of shock.
I don’t know what to say, and I feel like a jerk. I’m hard on Collin. I should throw him a bone every now and again. “I—”
“Forget I even mentioned it,” he talks over top of me. “Like I said, it’s stupid.” He squirts a large blob of sunscreen onto his hand and tries to apply it to his shoulders.
I watch him for several moments. His muscles are straining as he’s contorting his upper body to try to reach his whole back. He’s fighting a losing battle.
“Here.” I scoot forward and take the sunscreen from him. I squirt a dollop into my palm and take over for him.
Not a big deal, right? I’m doing my due diligence for his health and well-being. Anyone would. I am not focusing on the heat radiating from his taut, tan skin. I am not noticing how his hair is shaved to a perfect crop along his neckline. I am certainly not suddenly mouth-dry with a desire to trail my fingers through it and feel the coarse texture against my fingertips. I am definitely not wondering how he got the scar on the right side of his back, where his trapezoid nears his spine. I am obviously not enjoying the feel of my hand running over the gentle slopes of his muscles.
Wait a minute.
“Did you just flex your back muscles?” I pop my head around so I can see his face when he answers.
“Maybe,” he says with a grin.
I snort. “Why?”
“Trying to impress you.”
“Don’t bother.”
“Why?”
“You can’t possibly impress me.”
“Ouch,” Collin chuckles.
I shake my head, even though I’m behind him and he can’t see me. “Don’t take it personally. Prowler was right about one thing. In real life, I don’t date my officers. It’s one of the rules I set for myself when I first started as a dispatcher.”
“So I can’t impress you because you’re committed to being unimpressed?”
“Pretty much.”
“I can respect that.”
I don’t know why Collin saying he respects me causes my stomach to dip and soar, but it does. “Good. You should.”
“Doesn’t mean I won’t try, though.”
I pinch him in the side, and he yelps.
“Hey. Unfair. I’m in a vulnerable position here. Watch it, or I’m going to start calling you crabs, with those pinchers.”
