Page 60 of Falling For You

I turned over. He was still asleep, his face relaxed, his lips parted, his hair scruffed up from the pillow. I reached out and touched his cheek.

His hand came up and caught mine. Eyes still closed, still mostly asleep. His fingers closed around my hand and held it against his face, like even unconscious he knew it was me.

I leaned close. "Barb and Birdie might come looking for you."

He opened his eyes. It took him a second to land where he was, whose bed, whose hand he was holding. Then he smiled and kissed my palm.

"You look so pretty in the morning."

He tipped my chin up and kissed me. Then he got up and found his clothes on the floor. I watched him dress in the dark.

"See you tonight?" He zipped up his pants and straightened his shirt.

"Yeah."

He sat on the edge of the bed, leaned down and kissed me slow.

"I had a great time."

"Me too."

I listened to him move through my house. The floorboard creaked in the hall, then the front door clicked shut. I lay there staring at the ceiling of a room that still smelled like him.

After that, the shape of our routine changed. I still came over for dinner most nights of the week when I was off and not working late. But instead of going home alone after Birdie and Barb went to bed, Wyatt walked me across the street every time. I still braided Birdie's hair on the mornings I wasn't working, but instead of doing it on my porch, I did it at Wyatt's kitchen table while he made coffee. His hand found the small of my back when he passed behind my chair. He looked at me over Birdie's head while she was talking. When Birdie ran to the bathroom to check her braid, he kissed me in the three seconds we had before she came back.

We told Barb first. She didn't even take her reading glasses off.

"Well. That was about as predictable as one of my novels."

Gus was happy about it. The day we went to tell him over lunch, he set two coffees down at his counter, looked at us sitting there together, and winked at Wyatt.

The crew was the loudest. Wyatt told them at the firehouse, and the first night we walked into The Lantern together, Travis made a noise that got the entire bar to turn around. The teasing started before we reached the table and didn't stop for the rest of the night. Greene bought a round to celebrate. Knox raised his glass. "About time."

I sat at the booth with the crew that first Friday with Wyatt's arm around my waist, and realized the world had already made room for this. Before I was ready for it. Before I knew I wanted it. The block, the bar, the firehouse. They'd seen it coming and left the door open.

Doug made sergeant. Burns announced it in the bullpen and the room erupted in backslaps, handshakes, a few whistles from the far side of the room. Doug stood in the middle of it grinning like he couldn't believe it was happening to him.

When the room cleared out, I walked up to him.

"I'm proud of you, Doug. You deserve this."

"Don't make me cry, Walsh."

"Sergeant Price. It sounds ridiculous."

"It does, doesn't it?"

He was taking over a squad on the other day shift rotation, which meant he wasn't just moving up. He was moving out. No more cruiser rides. No more Doug switching lanes without checking while I grabbed the handle. No more tutu stories on the way to a bad call. Three years of partnership, and the best partner I could have asked for was moving on.

I was happy for him. I was also going to miss him more than I knew how to say.

"Diana's doing a dinner this weekend. She wants you there."

"Tell her I'll bring wine."

"She said to tell you not to bring anything. She also said you're going to bring wine anyway and she's fine with it."

He squeezed my shoulder. "Next time we're celebrating, it's going to be your detective shield. I'm putting money on it."