I opened the door to the small coffee shop and stepped inside. Unfortunately, I’d drawn the short straw for our coffee and pastry run. Out of all the things I hated when doing my job, this was one of them. I never could get in and out without someone attempting to talk to me.
Laughter drew my attention to a table in the corner. A group of women stared at me. One of them waved and… and did shejust wink? Was she the same one who tried to give me her panties? I cringed at the memory.
A hand landed on my shoulder a second before Violet appeared next to me.
“Hey, babe.” She popped up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to my cheek.
Instinctively, I wound my arm around her back and pulled her closer into my side. “Hi.” My voice sounded husky to my own ears, and I cleared it before glancing over her shoulder at the table full of women. Thankfully, they were no longer staring.
I breathed deeply, inhaling Violet’s sweet scent, and stood frozen as she smiled up at me. Her dark purple lipstick held me captive.
“Are they still staring?” she whispered.
I blinked and loosened my hold on her waist. “No.”
With a step back, she ran her hand down my arm, entwining our fingers, and moved forward to the counter, pulling me with her.
She immediately launched into small talk with the barista behind the counter, and after a moment, she waved her hand in my direction. “Go ahead and take his order first. He needs to get back to the station.”
After I gave the girl my order, I looked over at Violet. “What did you want?”
She shook her head. “I’m doing a big order too.”
The barista continued chatting with Violet as I paid for my order. We moved away from the counter after Violet ordered and paid for hers.
“Guess we both got stuck doing this,” I voiced my thought out loud.
Her brow creased. “What do you mean?”
“The coffee run?”
“I volunteered.”
I stared at her, completely bewildered. Who on earth would volunteer to do this? “Why? It's torture.”
“You’re adorable.” She chuckled.
I rolled my eyes and folded my arms across my chest. We had very different definitions of fun if she was intentionally heading into this caffeinated chaos. Didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in finding out what else she considered worthy of her time.
As we waited for our names to be called, I tried not to let my gaze wander down to the cleavage of her top. And failed.Dammit. What was wrong with me? She would end this whole fake dating thing if she caught me checking her out.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” Maybe if I got her talking again I could focus on what she was saying and not anything else. Like how she smelled or her gorgeous round tits.Fuck. I shifted uncomfortably. “How’s work going?”
She tilted her head and assessed me for a second before lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug. “It’s fine. We have a meeting later with the lead arson investigator assigned to our case.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Just annoying. He’s not going to tell us anything we don’t already know. The state doesn’t have the manpower right now to dedicate someone to help us. And until we have something else to bring him here, there’s nothing any of us can do anyway. We need a solid piece of evidence to get them to commit their resources to our case.”
I thought about what she said and then shook my head. “I don’t get it. Logan finding the matchbook and the arsonist setting his garage on fire seems like more than a coincidence. Isn’t it still relevant evidence based on that?”
“Yes and no. I’m personally not ruling the Taylors out. We just can’t justify it as a piece of evidence because it wasn’tfound at one of the fires actually set by the arsonist. Suspicious coincidence? Yes. But even still, the matchbook wouldn’t be evidence we could use. We need something else. Or something pointing us to another suspect.”
I nodded. That made sense.
My name was called, and I moved to the counter to grab the order. I hung back next to Violet as she waited for her order, and once she had hers in hand, we headed out onto the sidewalk.
