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“Why?”
“To make sure she’s all right,” I say.
“How did you know we were here?”
“Well, you weren’t at home and I figured, single parent and all, that she probably spends a lot of time here with her uncle, so… I took a wild guess. It takes a village, you know?”
“Pretty solid detective work,” she quips.
“Thank you. Can I please see her?”
“Milo…” She closes her eyes. “What exactly do you want here? Visitation rights? Partial custody?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Because she’s not used to people coming in and out of her life like this. Thought I had a few more years before she had to learn about abandonment and disappointment.”
I frown. “You’re making a lot of assumptions about me, Detective.”
“I don’t want you forming a relationship with her that you can’t commit to,” she says. “You’re Milo Murray right now, but how long is it until you drop that identity, become someone else, and leave town? She already seems to like you, and I don’t want a heartbroken kid on my hands.”
I open my mouth to argue, but I really can’t. “That’s fair, I guess,” I say.
“Look, Milo, I’m trying to keep a level head about all of this. Honestly, just seeing you here complicates things, so I think you should leave and maybe, after the dust has settled, we can work something out. Okay?”
I dip my head, trying to make eye contact with her. “Complicates things how?”
She avoids me. “I’ll keep in touch,” she says, turning around and walking back into the alleyway.
“Hold on.” I follow a step behind her. “Complicates things how?”
“Haven’t we been over this already?” She pauses and points between us. “Cop. Bad guy. Incompatible.”
“Oh, come on.” I chuckle. “Just because I do bad things doesn’t mean I’m a bad guy and you’re not a good girl just because you’re a cop. You kissed me, remember?”
“No,” she says. “You kissed me.”
“Yeah. After you asked me to.”
“Yeah. After you kissed me the night before.”
“Yeah, well…” I stutter. “You masturbated to my sperm.”
She exhales hard, dropping her head. “Just go home, Milo.”
I stay close as she beelines for the bakery’s alley exit. “Wait, Anna—”
“Detective.”
I grab her wrist and spin her around to face me, pinning her back to the door. “Detective Anna.” She glares up at me. I feel her muscles flexing to slip free, but I hold her tighter against the door. “Now, hold on…”
I lock eyes with her, completely losing track of everything I was going to say. Her warm breath grazes my cheeks and I lick my lips as my mouth waters for another chance to taste her.
“What?” she asks.
Her voice is soft and shaky, though I can tell she doesn’t want it to be. She wants to scold me and yell at me and push me away, but she doesn’t.
I push in and caress her cheek with my lips. My nose brushes her hairline and I inhale a deep breath of her, smelling a bit of cherry-scented perfume behind her ear.
