"Come with me," she commands, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the corridor toward the back office. The chief's office is empty, door open. She drags me inside and pushes it shut behind us with a decisive click.
I lean against the desk and cross my arms and wait, because whatever this is, it's clearly been building since before she walked through the door. She stands between me and the exit, sizing me up with an openness that should be illegal in a workplace.
"Stop that," I tell her.
"Stop what?"
"Looking at me like that."
"Like what?" She tilts her head, the picture of innocence. "Like you're standing there in that uniform looking absolutely sinful and I'm expected to just not drool?"
"This isn't a uniform. It's station wear. A t-shirt and pants."
"A t-shirt that is doing things, Callahan." She gestures at my chest with both hands, emphatic. "Bad, dirty things. To your chest and your arms and my ability to think clearly."
"Trouble…"
"I'm just observing. I have eyes. The eyes are working. The brain is short-circuiting, but the eyes are great."
I laugh before I can stop myself, the sound escaping despite my best efforts to maintain some semblance of authority. She grins at the sound, pleased with herself, same as every time she cracks me open, and takes a step closer. The look in her eyes tells me she is up to no good.
"Behave," I warn her. "We are not having sex at the station."
She shrugs, completely unbothered.
"Not today."
The casual tone, like she's penciling it in for a more convenient time, makes me grip the edge of the desk to keep my hands where they belong.
"So." She hops up onto the filing cabinet across from me, her legs swinging like a kid on a playground. "Why didn't you tell me your birthday is in ten days?"
"Who told you?"
"Your dad, obviously. The man cannot keep a secret from me." She looks enormously pleased with herself, and despite everything, I smile.
"I asked him when your birthday was because I realized I didn't know, and he was delighted to tell me. Like I had asked to see baby photos, which he also showed me, by the way, and we'll be discussing those later."
My smile dips at the edges. The thought of my dad being so carefree around my birthday makes no sense, but this isLily. He's a different man around her, especially now that he knows we are together. He loves us being together so much that he can't contain himself — even when we sit as far away from each other as possible. That’s how insufferable my father is about the whole thing.
"I'm going to have a conversation with my father about boundaries," I say.
"Good luck. I've broken all of them." She kicks her feet against the cabinet, grinning. "February fifteenth. The big three-oh. Callahan, that's huge."
"It's a number."
"It's a milestone. You're leaving your twenties. You're entering a new decade. You're becoming a man."
I give her a look that would make the rookies downstairs straighten up immediately.
"I've been a man for a while."
"Now you're a man man." There's a dangerous glint in her eye that I recognize too late. "I've always wondered what it's like being with an older daddy."
My whole body goes hot and cold at the same time.
"Lily," I grit out. "Rein it in or I will punish you later in ways that will make sitting uncomfortable for a week."
"Speaking of a good time…" She's not even listening, pivoting seamlessly like she didn't just short-circuit every rational thought in my head. "I would like to find a date to celebrate."
