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“Was there somethingyouwanted to do?” she asked.
“Not really.” Augie shook his head. “I’m going to experiment a little.” He slid off the table just as Tisha appeared in the doorway with his coffee. “Ah! Caffeine! You are a goddess, Tisha.”
“Sweet talker. Can I get you anything, Lauren?”
“I’m not really singing today, so another coffee would be great if you don’t mind. Extra—”
“—Extra light, extra sweet. I got you, girl.”
Lauren smiled. “And Tisha? I’m sorry I was such a bitch this morning.”
“Don’t you even think twice about it, hon. Everyone’s a bitch until the third cup.” Tisha winked and sauntered out of the room.
ChapterTwelve
Danny was still half-stunned by everything that unfolded at the Sandoval show, and Sunday passed in a blur. The whole family typically attended the mid-day Mass at St. Catherine’s, followed by the traditional late-afternoon family dinner after church. This meal was one step short of a brawl—with Danny’s mother vocally insisting the entire stunt must have been Lauren’s idea and Danny vehemently defending her.
After dessert, Danny and Heather packed the boys into the car and—by some miracle—managed to get most of the way home before they started to argue. It started with chores that hadn’t been done, then took a radical turn sideways into the month’s budget. After the boys went to bed, it escalated and was about everything except for the elephant in the room. Danny was relegated to sleeping on the sofa that night, and when the sun came up, he left the house as soon as he could after he saw the boys.
The moment he walked into the squad room, the comments started. He was bombarded from all sides, fellow detectives and cops calling him a TV star and lobbing questions about his famous ex-girlfriend. He walked the gauntlet with gritted teeth.
“Give it a rest already!” he said to the room in general. “Christ, don’t you guys have anything better to do? Like solving a crime or something?” He dropped into his chair, muttering an obscenity under his breath.
His longtime partner, Jason Matsui, leaned back in his own chair and put his hands behind his head. “Did you really think no one would bring it up?”
“How the hell doeseveryoneknow?” Danny’s voice was one step short of a snarl. His personal life was his business, not something he wanted on display for the world to see.
“You really don’t get it, do you? You do know the reaming Lauren gave that woman is all over social media? You can see you and Heather and Maggie in the background.”
“Friggin’ wonderful.”
“How’d Heather take it?”
Danny scowled. “How do you think? She’s pissed. She says she’s not, but she is. I spent the night on the sofa.” Even this morning Heather had been on a slow boil, but she’d insisted that nothing was wrong, even though they’d fought like cats and dogs the night before.
“You seem to be taking this whole stunt pretty well.” Jason pulled his chair closer to his desk and adjusted his computer screen to account for the morning sun glare.
“Lauren didn’t do this.” Danny heard the anger in his own voice. He knew Lauren and that wasn’t her style. He opened the top drawer of his desk and popped the top off a bottle of ibuprofen, then downed three of them.
Jason was about to ask another question when their captain came out of his office.
“Hey, rock-n-roll Romeo, get in here. You too, Matsui. Got a case for you.”
“I’m never going to hear the end of this,” Danny muttered under his breath.
ChapterThirteen
Lauren sat on her balcony nibbling at a bagel while she drifted in an ocean of memories. Danny factored into a lot of them. She couldn’t help thinking about him, but she also wandered through memories of growing up and things she’d promised herself over the years. She’d kept most of them, but it drew her thoughts to the end of the Sandoval show.
While she hadn’t used the word “promise” when she invited Cole to visit the studio, it felt like she’d made one. But she wasn’t sure if Cole thought the invitation was sincere, and that bothered her. She glanced over at the autographed CD case on the table. It would be easy enough to mail it, along with a note, to Cole, but it really wasn’t Cole she wanted to talk with.
She spent a little time strumming on her guitar, just listening for the notes. They had a day off from studio work today. An accident had taken out the power in the area around Velocity and, according to Tisha, it wouldn’t be restored until at least dinnertime.
Just before lunch, Lauren walked down the hallway in Bayard College’s admissions office. She was dressed in jeans and a NY Rangers t-shirt, sporting a ponytail pulled through the back of a tattered old baseball hat with a faded sunrise logo on the front. A small bag dangled from her fingers. She adjusted the hat, letting her finger run over the frayed edge. It was overdue to be thrown out, but Lauren loved it for some odd reason and refused to part with it. She kept the brim pulled down and her sunglasses on, and the few people she met in the hall didn’t pay her much attention.
Stopping outside Maggie’s office, Lauren paused. She scolded herself for her cold feet and rapped softly on the doorframe.
Maggie glanced up. “May I help you?”
