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She gave me an appreciative look before saying, “Thank you. I’m just… urrrrghhh.”
She finished her sentence off with a small groaning scream, bemoaning her annoyance.
I pulled her into my arms and laughed into her hair as she cuddled herself into my embrace.
“I know. Go to work.” I paused. “Want to catch dinner?”
She looked over my shoulder. “You don’t have to put on a show for my brother and dad. Or Luke for that matter. They can’t hear what we’re saying. I know that you probably don’t really want to take me to dinner.”
I looked over my shoulder, only just now realizing that I had not only the people she listed off, but also my father’s, attention pinned on us.
“I didn’t even know that they were staring,” I admitted, turning back to her and catching the back of her elbow to help lead her to her car.
She gave me an incredulous look. “You’re always more than aware of your surroundings.”
I was.
Which made this even worse.
“I seriously didn’t know,” I promised as I narrowed my eyes. “So will we be getting dinner?”
She tilted her head slightly. “Sure.”
I opened her car door and helped her inside.
She gave me a thankful smile and fell into it with a tired sigh. “Thanks, Malachi. I really appreciate it. This morning was shitty.”
I winked at her and closed the door, not going inside until she drove all the way out of the parking lot.
Once she was gone, I ignored everyone and walked to the traffic division’s offices, smiling wide for the second time that day when I saw Luca.
“Luca,” I said, clapping him on the back.
Luca didn’t remember me.
At least, he hadn’t when I’d come back. But we were working on rebuilding our relationship.
Even though we grew up together, it worked out well, because the man that came home from that hell hole wasn’t the same that had gone into it.
The man that had loved Luca like a brother wasn’t the same fucking person, and never would be again.
“Malachi,” he said as he held out his hand for me to shake. “How’s it going?”
I gestured toward the officer she’d mentioned speaking with. “Captain Morgan busy?”
Luca looked toward the captain’s office.
“Doesn’t look like it, but I don’t make it a point to talk to him if I can help it,” Luca teased.
“I fucking heard that,” Captain Morgan called. “And no, I’m not fucking busy. What the fuck do you want?”
I clapped Luca on the shoulder and went into the captain’s office. He was always a pleasure to deal with. He’d become even worse when the new mayor took over, and the woman that he refused to admit that he loved left along with her mayor brother.
“My girl was just in here,” I said. “You got a few minutes to talk about what happened that day? I showed up on scene a bit after all the drama started, but I didn’t have much time to hear anything before I was told I wasn’t needed.”
An hour later I found myself at the DMV talking to a lovely woman named Juniper.
“Juniper,” I said honestly. “That’s an interesting name.”
Juniper sighed. “My parents are flower children. They love ‘interesting’ names. You should hear all my sisters’ names.” She groaned. “Mine is the most normal of the seven of us.” She tilted her head. “How can I help you, Officer?”
I explained about the kid who had his hardship but not a job, and the timing issue, following it up with a smile.
The woman leaned into the counter as she stared at me curiously.
“I’m not sure that I can see a time on when it happened. A date, sure. But not an exact time.” She pushed off the counter and started typing away on the computer—an ancient device that looked like it’d seen better days—in front of her.
I waited patiently as she squinted at the screen—whether it be because she needed glasses or because the screen was just a piece of shit—and bit her lip.
Normally, I would’ve found the move attractive.
Juniper was a short, petite brunette with curly hair that went all the way down to her ass.
But nothing about her did it for me anymore. Not when my mind was all bungled up with a cute brown-haired girl with her equally brown eyes.
I’d never been attracted to brunettes. It wasn’t because I didn’t like the color, but because the brown of their hair reminded me of my shitty, selfish mother. And I for sure didn’t want to date a woman that reminded me of my mother.
But Sierra was different.
We may not be dating for real, but as we spent more and more time together, I slowly began to realize that she was beginning to mean more to me than any real relationship I’d ever had.
“Oh, here’s the job.” She paused. “He has to update this every three months, by the way, per county regulations. It says here that he works at a ‘C4C Cattle Ranch?’”
