“That’s not the issue. The issue is that I, um, knew her.”
“Meaning, you knew her biblically.”
“Correct.”
“So this is where it spirals? Was she a lover spurned? Someone who didn’t appreciate being humped and dumped?”
He frowns. “I made it clear from the outset that it was a temporary thing. Purely physical. She agreed that’s all she was looking for, herself. We were agreed, and the activities commenced. We met a few more times after that, and I guess she started to get the wrong idea. I went about trying to set the record straight as clearly but kindly as I could. Because contrary to what you may think, I’m not the type to kick a girl out as soon as I get what I want. I’m really, really not, I promise. I just wasn’t looking for anything serious, and I made that clear. But apparently, to Officer Lucas, I didn’t actually mean what I said, and clearly secretly wanted her to make me fall in love with her.”
I wince. “Oh dear. That never goes well.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He sighs. “She got upset. Her feelings were hurt, I got ticked off, and words were exchanged.” A shake of his head. “Not twenty-four hours later, she gets a call during an unscheduled midnight shift to answer a nuisance complaint.”
“And there you are.”
“There I am. A moment of shock, and then she starts arresting me for drunk and disorderly and some other trumped-up shit. The moment the doorbell rang, the troublemakers had run off out the back door, leaving me to deal with the consequences of their behavior. And my own, I suppose. I tried to talk her out of the arrest, but…she was pissed off.”
“Did it stick?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. By the time I got to fingerprinting, she’d cooled off and let me go. It was just the shock of seeing me, I guess.” He eyes me. “What about you? Ever been arrested?”
I hold my nose up in the air. “I have not.”
“Nothing, not ever?”
I feel my cheeks redden. “Well, I got a warning, once.”
He smirks—we’re pulling into the airfield where the helicopter is kept. “I sense a good one.”
“Not a good one.”
“Hey, I shared mine.”
I sigh. “There’s nothing to tell. I got caught in the back of the car with Andrew Easton, senior year, at that little spot north of here you were talking about having taken Leslie Donovan.”
“You and Andy Easton?” He blinks. “Wow. Not who I would have pictured you with.”
I bite my lip. “It was a short-lived attempt at rebellion I guess. Andy was the bad boy and I wanted to feel like the girl who goes for the bad boys. Not just the…the goody-goody.”
He cackles. “Iwas the bad boy…he was just fuckin’ trouble.”
“No kidding,” I say, sighing. “He’s doing ten years in a penitentiary for armed robbery and attempted murder.”
“Yeah, I heard that.” He laughs, shakes his head. “You got caught with Andy Easton. Like, how caught?”
I blush harder than ever. Shrug uncomfortably. “I mean…”
He laughs harder. “No! The cops rolled up onyou, naked in the back of Andrew Easton’s fuckin’ Monte Carlo?”
“Actually it wasn’t his Monte Carlo. Apparently that was in the shop.” I bite my lip. “It was his mother’s minivan.”
His laughter is uncontrolled now, like this is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “In the back of a minivan with Andy Easton. No fucking way.” He wipes a tear away. “Did he at least cover for you?”
“Cover for me? I was buck-ass naked and on top—and all of our clothes were in the front and we were on the back bench.Hehid behindme. Letmetalk us out of it.”
“What a dick.” He eyes me and then looks away, and I can’t make out his expression. “Did you? Talk yourself out of it?”
“Of course I did. The cop was a client of Daddy’s—we were building him a house, so I told him I’d upgrade his counters to quartz if he let me go and didn’t tell Dad.”
