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“I have friends and they don’t send me donuts. Or candy. Or my favorite burger. Hell, I’m not sure even my own mother knows how I like my burgers.”
“Maybe you need better friends.”
Mark laughed. “Maybe you ought to lock down that friend before someone else does.”
“Now you sound like my ma.” She was determined that Madison was exactly the kind of girl I needed, despite her connection to the Ashby family, and she refused to hear any talk of the platonic nature of our friendship.
“Then don’t tell her about all these friendly little care packages she’s been sending. Regularly.”
“I won’t and neither will you.”
Mark laughed. “I got more important things on my mind, like beating your two-mile run time.”
“Keep dreaming, Robbins. Now are you done gossiping so we can go?”
He glared at me and then flipped me the bird. “Dick.”
“Can’t compete there either, but no one needs to know that.” I gave him a shove and took off running. “Last one to formation buys dinner tonight.”
“Dick,” he grunted after me and that was the last thing I heard before I cranked up the speed and ran like hell.
Chapter Three
Madison – Present Day
I shouldn’t have been so nervous about dinner tonight with Jameson, but I was. I hadn’t laid eyes on the man in over six months, but without Molly around, he was my closest friend and confidante. We’d talked or texted almost every single day since his first week at the academy and told me all about his desires to be a good cop. A useful cop. It’d be a miracle if he could become that, then again, if anyone could, it was Jameson Ellison.
“You gonna stand on the doorstep all night or did you actually plan to ring the bell and come inside?” Jameson’s deep voice startled me, and I whirled around with fire in my eyes.
“You scared the shit out of me, man!” I pushed at his chest, and he grabbed my wrist as if I had the strength to move his massive form. “Don’t do that.”
“Sorry,” he said, not sounding even a little bit sorry. “I gave you a few minutes to gather your thoughts or whatever the hell you were doing out here, but Ma was starting to worry you might bolt.”
Bolt. Like I was a coward or something. I hiked my chin up high in the air and folded my arms. “I was just thinking how weird it would be to see you after all this time.”
“And is it weird?”
Yes. “No. You’re a lot less dressed up than the last time I saw you, but everything else is the same.” He was still big as an ox with wide shoulders and a broad chest, intimidating in height and muscle mass. Hell, he’d be an outright monster if he weren’t so damn good looking. “Except, did you gain a few pounds at police school?”
His lips twitched, and a moment later, a full bark of laughter escaped. It was loud and full-throated, and contagious as hell. “Yeah, more pounds of muscle.” He flexed his giant biceps and wiggled his brows. “Wanna feel?”
I knew he was teasing me, so I stepped in close and gave his bicep a squeeze. “Impressive. Did you lose any brain cells in return?”
“Ha! You wish. Second in my class, which you’d know if you’d have come to my graduation.”
I looked away, still feeling guilty I’d turned down his invitation. But I didn’t feel right with all his family there. I’d feel like a third wheel. “Graduation is for family, Jameson.”
“It’s for who I say it is, Madison.”
“Well, congrats anyway.”
Jamie put his big hands on my shoulders, warming me down to my toes, and turned me toward the door. “Ma’s not gonna let you out of dinner, so let’s go inside. She made all my favorites.”
“Brat,” I said laughing.
His mom, Jana, was so different than my own mother who would rather get drunk than sit down and have dinner. She went all out for family dinners and other occasions, making sure her boys knew they were loved and supported. Even his father, Max, was an ideal father, especially for a biker, unlike my own dad who could never hold down a job. Even on the rare occasions, when he managed to, he gambled away his paychecks before he even made it home on payday. And that was if he bothered to show up at all. “All right, let’s do this.”
“Come on. It won’t be that bad,” he whispered in my ear, and I pushed down the instinctive shiver with as much might as I could. We were friends. Just friends.
“I know.” At least that was what I told myself, following him into the house. After a warm and welcoming hug from Jana and a nod of recognition from Jameson’s father, I felt way more comfortable. From the kitchen, I heard the front door open and close, and not two seconds later, Charlie’s lean frame filled the doorway, half of it anyway. The other half was made up of Savannah-fucking-Rhymer.
