Page 16 of Wanted: Forever


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Cash grinned. “Just call me your handyman at the ready. I hear the storage closet needs some help as well.”

I fisted my fingers under my arm. Now I was going to have him underfoot all the time? “Don’t you have a job?”

“Lucky for you guys I don’t need much sleep.” He reached over his head and his T-shirt rode up to show a slice of skin. Golden hair trailed up from his belt following the line of his abs. Very well-toned abs with the vee that was my personal Kryptonite. He tucked the recessed light back into its casing and snapped it in.

The annoying flicker now gone.

He grinned down at me. “You want to make me a honey do list,” then he swiveled to look at my admin, “Leroy?”

I stalked over to my office, Cash’s laughter in my wake.

I did not need this in my life. I sat at my desk and tried to focus on the screen, but the large window in my office showed me the bull pen. Leroy had gone back to his own station and Cash was monkeying around fixing all the lights.

Every single time I looked up, he was diligently working. Distantly, I heard the two male voices and light laughter as they spoke of sports and the upcoming season of football.

It should have been an easy hum of background noise, but I kept getting distracted by his large, muscular body as he worked his way through the grid of lights toward me.

I unlocked my service pistol from my desk and tucked it into my holster. I needed to get out of there and do a patrol. When I opened my door, he was right above me, his strong thighs and that stupid slice of skin making my skin hot.

He looked down at me. “Hiya, Chief.”

“Cash.” I shimmied around him.

“I was thinking we could probably get rid of that drop ceiling in your office.”

I paused. God, I hated that thing. It made me feel like I was in a cave. “That’s not on the list.”

“It could be. I do have two thousand hours to put in.”

I spun around, my eyebrows raised.

He grinned. “The judge wasn’t nearly as amused as he was when I was twenty-one.”

“Good.”

His grin widened creating a dimple in his right cheek. “Thought you might agree.” He dropped off the ladder and his scent wrapped around me. The spice and the hint of something sweet made my mouth water. “I’ll start in on your office tomorrow.”

“Fine. You can’t be disruptive though.”

“Would I ever be disruptive?”

I rolled my eyes and stalked toward the front of the station.

“See you tomorrow, Chief.”

I ignored him and the punch of the heavy night air didn’t do anything to improve my mood. I hopped in my patrol car and just as I was pulling out Leroy cut in to inform me about a disturbance near the high school.

So much for my boring night.

I pulled out onto the empty stretch of Hope Street and past the dark buildings that made up my town. When I’d heard Chief Pope was ready to retire, I’d half-heartedly mentioned I might want to come home. After I broke up with Todd there had been very little holding me to Kansas City. I was one of dozens of mid-level cops in my department. I’d taken the detective’s test and passed with high marks, but I kept getting passed over.

No matter how much I wished it were different, there was still a high level of boy’s club bullshit in my old police department. I missed the community of Indigo Valley and my friends. Between my schedule on the force and my odd hours, it was hard to make friends I didn’t work with. And honestly, I’d never really clicked with anyone anyway.

I half expected to be starting over if I came home, but Pope said my record was exemplary and the job was mine.

It came with more politics than I was used to—namely Mayor Finley who lived to make my life difficult. All in all, it was a good life. I’d only been home for a few months, but I’d slipped neatly back into the rhythm of small-town life and reconnected with Nora and my family.

Watching Matty, my brother, get excited for impending fatherhood had filled in spaces I didn’t know were empty.