Page 75 of My Favorite Hero

I left, wondering if anyone else noticed a change. I didn’t think I was any different, although constant lovemaking with a sexy tenant certainly helped my mood.

That had to be it.

I had poured a cup of coffee and sat down before I realized I had called it lovemaking.

It was sex. Just sex.

Slip of the tongue.

That made me grin.

Alan—or the probie, as everyone called him—walked in, pouring a coffee. “Hey.”

I lifted my chin in acknowledgment.

He swung a leg over a chair, facing me. “I just want to say thanks for all the extra work you and Mark have been putting in with me.”

I nodded. “Someone did the same for us.”

“I appreciate it. We’re not on the next roster together.”

“No, Chief likes to mix it up. Make sure we can all work together.”

“You can bring Miller.”

“Maybe. He’s got a…sitter now he likes. I might leave it as is.” I knew Casey liked having him around. She had mentioned it in passing once that she felt safer with him there.

“The house seems so big when you’re gone,” she whispered in one of our late-night chats. “Miller makes me feel not so alone.”

I didn’t want to take that from her.

I stood, deciding to go and finish up some paperwork to end the shift. With any luck, there’d be no calls and I would be home in a few hours. I clapped Alan on the shoulder.

“See you around, probie.”

But as I crossed the station, I looked over at Martha, who was hanging up the phone. She gestured to me, waiting until I was at the desk to talk.

“Lila just called.”

“And?” I asked. Lila called a lot. Stray animals, a branch on a tree hanging too low, a stranger in the neighborhood. She was lonely and liked to talk, and she used every opportunity to call Martha.

“Um, she noticed something.”

“Aliens?”

She shook her head. “She says there’s a person stuck in a tree. She heard a call for help.”

I groaned. So much for no calls. “Where? On the street? In the woods? Bloody kids know they shouldn’t climb them.”

Martha was fighting a smile. “Not the street.”

“Where, then?”

“Your backyard.”

I gaped at her. “Someone is in my—” I stopped.

And right then, I knew who that person was.