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“Just turned thirty.”
I blinked at him. “I’m older than she is. I wouldn’t have called that.”
“Me either,” Kaitlin said. “I thought you were my age.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five.”
I smiled and shook my head. “I’ve got you by seven years.”
“Wow, you’ve got to tell me your secret sometime. Please tell me it’s not an all-natural diet and virtuous living.”
I laughed. “Hardly. It’s part good genetics, part not smoking or drinking or partying. I burn in the sun and don’t tan worth a damn, so no tanning. And all my friends that are my age or older that hit the gym seriously are aging better than my friends that don’t exercise. I try to eat semihealthy, but I love fast-food burgers and French fries. I’m not giving them up until I have to.”
Kaitlin laughed. “Yay! I love fast food. How about junk food like chips and desserts?”
“I’m not big on snacks and sweets. Sorry.”
“I’ve seen your intended on TV, so I won’t ask about the virtuous living. If you’re abstaining from that gorgeous vampire, I don’t want to know, and if you’re having the wild and crazy sex that the Internet claims you are, then I don’t want to know that either. It’ll just make me jealous.” Kaitlin smiled when she said the last part, because she didn’t really mean it.
“This area is too rural and you’re too cute to have any problem getting dates.”
She grinned at me, tried to look modest, and failed. “I do all right on dating but finding someone to settle down with, that’s a different story. Like you said, the county is pretty rural, so a small dating pool means I can have my pick within reason, but finding ‘the one,’”—she made little air quotes around the phrase—“in the same small pool is harder.”
“I didn’t know you were looking for Mr. Right. I know a few fellows that are ready to settle down,” Livingston said. He smiled when he said it, like he didn’t think she’d take him up on it.
She laughed. “I’m not ready.”
“You were joking about being jealous of Anita and Jean-Claude,” Olaf said, and I couldn’t decide if he was stating a fact or admitting that he’d just figured out that she’d been teasing me.
“Yes. I’m happy if she’s ready to settle down, but I want to be able to date whoever I want, to be with whoever I want, to have fun with whoever I want.” Kaitlin took a sip of her coffee and gave him the full weight of her big gray-blue eyes over the rim of the mug.
If I hadn’t been sitting right beside Olaf, I might have missed the extent of the look, but I saw it and I knew he had to have seen it. I was happy all over again that Kaitlin wasn’t his type. I liked her, and it would suck to have to protect her from the big guy. I had enough trouble protecting my own boundaries from him. As if the thought had caused it to happen, I felt a hand on my knee. I looked down, and there his hand was, having to maneuver around my holster and gun, but still that big hand cupped my knee like he had a right to touch me there.
I looked him in the eyes and didn’t even try to look friendly. My voice was low and careful as I said, “Move.”
He stared down at me with his cave-dark eyes, and for the first time, I wasn’t afraid. Part of it was being in public, but the other part was simply that I had to draw the line now, because he was one of those men who would keep pushing until I did. Whispers, threats, but he’d never just touched me like that before. It was a small thing. He hadn’t grabbed my breast or something. But to some men, if you don’t say no at a knee, they’ll take a breast or more the next time.
“Now,” I whispered because I didn’t want to humiliate him in front of our fellow officers. That would have been dangerous.
He moved his hand, and he wasn’t angry. He studied my face as if searching for a clue.
“Everything all right over there?” Livingston asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“We need to talk,” Olaf said.
“Yeah, we do.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Livingston asked.
“Otto and I just need a minute,” I said. I gave a pushing motion, and Olaf slid out of the booth while I scooted out after him.
“The porch out front is good for privacy,” Newman said.
The porch was where a lot of the customers waiting for tables were sitting. We could find a private corner to talk, but we’d be surrounded by people. The fact that Newman had suggested it meant he knew something was up between Olaf and me. He gave me a very serious look, and his hea
