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Talia nodded. “Got it. And now, I hate to kick you out, but I’m on shift in…” she looked at her watch, “…thirty minutes.” She came to her feet and so did Doug. “Listen. I’ll need to givemychief a heads-up if that’s okay?”
“It’s fine.” Doug felt comfortable with that. Talia’s day job was with the Old Town Police Department.
“Great.” Talia nodded. “And feel free to use my SWAT emergency number when you get a call. It’ll be the quickest way to reach me.”
“I will,” Doug answered, then shuffled uncomfortably for his next words, since it was hard for him to voice emotions. “I, um, really appreciate this, LT. I’m sure your presence is going to make a big difference.”
She grinned this time. “See? That wasn’t so difficult to say, now was it.”
His expression must have soured, because she chuckled and held up a hand. “I know. I know. This partnership doesn’t mean we’re going to be shopping together, or getting our nails done, or anything. But Doug.” She skewered him with a look that screamed superior officer. “That chat we’ll be having about females?”
He gave a reluctant nod.
“Itwillinclude talking about my sister, Pixie.”
Doug wanted to groan. He’d known that was coming.
The previous fall, he’d met Pixie when he’d gone off SWAT team protocol by heading into an active shooter situation without permission. He’d subsequently secured Pixie—Talia’s sister—and her fourth-grade students before incapacitating the gunman. But those actions had reaped him several weeks of suspension for insubordination. Pixie, however, had subsequently looked at him as if he were a hero, and something deep in his icy heart had cracked.
He’d tried to ignore his attraction to the petite, platinum-haired fairy, and had succeeded until he’d been tasked with guarding Talia’s house while an injured Fleet was being targeted by a madman. Pixie had been visiting and playing nursemaid to Fleet, and somehow, over the course of a few guarded, therapeutic walks to get her soon-to-be brother-in-law up and running, Doug found himself asking Pixie out. They’d gone on two dates, but the continued thaw in his chest had made him feel damned uncomfortable. So…he’d backed away. Dropped her without so much as a “see you later”.
Pixie—he’d heard through Kyle—had been hurt and confused, reaching out for an explanation, but Doug had ignored her. Gone dark. It was for the best. She was a lovely woman, and didn’t deserve someone like him who was constantly and forever being haunted by demons, making him, in his estimation, less of a man.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he finally told Talia succinctly. Doug knew he was being gruff, and even an asshole, but he hoped his surly non-compliance would have Talia backing down without turning away from the job to which she’d just agreed.
“I beg to differ,” she responded with an astute glare sent directly into his eyes.
Right.As if she’d let go of that bone.
Goddammit.He didn’t want to have to explain himself. But he also needed Talia’s help with MECASA. He knew he had to give her something…
“Fine. After we’ve done our first few jobs together, if you think you can stomach it enough to continue, I’ll tell you my reasons for ghosting your sister. Deal?” he questioned with a raised brow.
“Deal,” she agreed.
Fuck.
What had he just gotten himself into?
CHAPTER TWO
“Alright everyone, put your books away and line up.” The buses would be arriving soon, and Pixie’s classroom would empty out. It had become her least favorite part of the day. The time when her kids were gone, and her brain had to reengage with just how solitary and messed up her life had become…had been for a very long time.
The bustle of grabbing backpacks and jackets lasted all of three minutes, then abruptly all the kids tumbled out the door and the joyous noise was gone. The only sounds that remained were in her head. The hollow, empty, echoing timbres of loneliness and melancholy. And that was her own fault. She’d chosen this isolation. But to her give credit, her strategy of public-avoidance had worked for her until recently. Not even an uncomfortable blip on her radar. Until Doug…
She stood up and began puttering. If she didn’t do something physical, she might start bawling again. This is what she got for trying to move on and date. Taking her first foray outside her comfort zone in sixteen years; making an uncharacteristically impetuous leap to become interested in a man, had certainly backfired. Look where her boldness had gotten her?
Lonely again.
Of course, she had her wonderful parents with whom she still lived…if that wasn’t a pretty pitiful reality at thirty-three. Pixie also had her loving sister, Talia—a whirlwind to be reckoned with at the best of times, but someone on whom she could always count. Tallie, however, was off and on agreeing to her marriage, which meant her tornado-like-tendencies needed to be focused elsewhere, not on Pixie’s pathetic life. Pixie wasn’t going to mess with her sister’s happiness, no matter how much she needed a shoulder.
Pixie’s only saving grace from her self-imposed seclusion was, and had been for six years, her neighbor, Julie McAlister, her one and only friend. Although Julie had a full life, she always managed to make room for Pixie.
Julie was an audiologist for kids at a nearby hospital, had a husband of nearly twenty years, and a loving son in high school. She enjoyed hiking, and had just run her first 5K, which made Pixie a little jealous…but not enough to join her.
The thing she and Julie had bonded over was, amazingly…coloring books. Julie collected them, and Pixie had quickly become enthralled. Not that Pix had much space in her little childhood bedroom for a hoard of her own, but she was always on the lookout for rare and exciting additions for Julie’s collection, albeit online where she didn’t have to go out and mingle at comic-cons to find scarce editions.
Julie was truly the only bright spot in her life. The person whose ear she could chew with the personal issues she wasn’t comfortable discussing with her parents or sister. Julie had been the one individual to whom she’d spilled all her hopes and fears regarding Doug…after that tiny bit of fireworks had unexpectedly burst into her life.Andto whom she’d cried when things had quickly fizzled into ashes.
