“Sure.” Gard leaned against the counter Lia stood behind. “I’ve certainly been well-fed lately.”
Sammy walked out the door, nose to her phone, but Gard lingered. Not uncommon. If they needed to discuss something a little…touchy regarding Sammy, this was the time to do it.
So Lia jumped in, because even with a counter between them, with him leaning against it he felt…close. So Lia kept her gazeon Sammy outside the big storefront window, typing away on that phone. “So, um. This girl Sammy knew came by and invited Sammy to get help with some homework before school starts tomorrow. Sammy said she’d go, but I just wanted to… She should go. Make sure she goes. The girl seemed nice. Studious.”
“Two of my favorite words for people who want to be friends with Sammy. Yeah, I can get her to school early if she can drag herself out of bed.”
“Good.” Lia lifted her gaze from Sammy to Gard’s blue gaze.Damn.She had to focus. “She’s a good kid.” Which was an inane thing to say since she knew he agreed.
“Yeah, and she’s got you wrapped around her finger.”
Lia bristled. “Not any more than she has you.”
“Wanna bet?”
She served him a disapproving look. Hopefully. “And just how would either of us prove this bet?”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.” He studied her then, in that way that had her pulse jangling like she’d never talked to an attractive man before when she certainlyhad.
“So, when am I going to be making this up to you?”
Something complicated twisted in Lia’s chest. She didn’t like him treating it like a…transaction. Like she was doing anything to beowed. “I’m not helping her for you,” she said resolutely.
“I know. You’re doing it for her, but that in turn is doing something for me. So…”
“So…what?”
“How about—”
The bell jangled violently on the door. Sammy stuck her head in. “Are youcoming?”
Gard blew out a breath, something Lia couldn’t quite read flickering in those blue eyes. But he smiled at her, and he didn’t finish whatever he’d been about to say. “See you later, Lia.”
“Yeah.” She blew out a breath of her own, because she’d gotten the distinct feeling that maybe thatHow about…had been the start of some kind of invitation.
Andnotabout Sammy.
Which led her to have to admit to herself that if he’d asked her out in that moment, direct blue eyes and ridiculous intent expression, she would have said yes.
And then she would have regretted it and probably backed out.
But first, she would have said yes.
Chapter Six
The three-week mark of Sammy working for Lia at the bakery came and went. No one mentioned it, and Sammy kept going. Sometimes she met her new friends after school there, and Lia let them stay after hours. Gard would pick her up, and Sammy would be flushed with pleasure, homework done, talking a mile a minute about anything and everything.
He could almost set aside the gaping absence of Dani. Sammy was happy. That was what mattered.
But any free moment at work, Gard checked in on Beckett’s human trafficking case or poked at the old wounds he couldn’t seem to let heal.
But if he ever got it in his head todosomething, he thought of the way Sammy had cried all over him and been so upset he’d been looking for Dani. So he kept his investigation well under wraps, and nothing outside of work boundaries and hours.
This afternoon, Gard’s zone was in Fairmont, and he still hadn’t been assigned a new recruit yet, so he was on his own. He’d answered a few calls, but the radio was quiet now and he just…happened to pass the restaurant where Dani had been working the past two years.
They were a kind of diner, so he could certainly stop by and pick up a cup of coffee to go. Nothing wrong with that. And if hehappenedto ask anyone who’d worked with Dani if they’d heard from her, it wasn’t using company time for personal business, because it was just a quick coffee break. And it wasn’tlookingfor Dani, because he was just getting coffee.
You’re really splitting hairs.
