AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I couldn’t let it go. I had to say something.
Because for the first time in our long friendship, I was seriously considering punching my friend in the face.
“You shouldn’t have let her leave like that,” I said once we were back inside. Neither of us knew where she’d run off to, but it was obvious she’d just wanted to get away from us. “I think we should take the patrol car out and look for her.”
“First of all, you know damn good and well that I didn’t want her to leave like that. But what the fuck was I supposed to do? Cuff her? Arrest her? Put her in the holding cell and keep her here?” He shook his head. “She wouldn’t have left in the first place if you hadn’t started in with your bullshit.”
I opened my mouth to say something else, my fists clenched at my sides. But no. I would have to deal with him later. My main concern in that moment was making sure Daisy Lynn was okay.
I grabbed the keys from my desk and started toward the door, but Prescott stepped in my way. Jesus, why was he testing my patience like this? Did hewantto fight? He might have had a few pounds of muscle on me, but he was also almost ten years older. And as angry as he was making me, I figured it would have been a pretty even match.
“Don’t bother going to look for her,” he said. “Janessa just sent me a text. Daisy Lynn is with her, and they’re going home for the night.”
I’d kept walking until I was just a few inches—maybe a foot—away from Prescott. I had already decided that he was either going to step aside willingly or I’d make the decision for him. It took my brain a couple of seconds to process what he’d said, to realize that Daisy Lynn wasn’t in any danger and that I really didn’t need to body slam my boss.
“She’s…” I swallowed hard and unclenched my fists as I took a step back. “She’s okay? You’re sure?”
He nodded. “She’s okay. And now I think we need to talk. We can’t keep doing this.”
“The last thing I want to do is fight over a woman,” I said, exhaling slowly as my temper and blood pressure finally started to get back down to normal levels. “But I don’t want to stop seeing her, either.”
“And neither do I,” he said. He walked over to his desk and slumped down into the worn, squeaky chair. “So what are we going to do? There has to be some way around this. We can’t be at each other’s throats all the time—not with these random poisonings and now this thing with Derek Winslow. We have to be at the top of our game, and that means we need to come to some sort of agreement regarding Daisy Lynn.”
I smirked, wondering what he had in mind. Some kind of custody agreement? One of us could get her Monday through Friday while the other one took weekends and holidays?
That actually sounded like a plan that Prescott’s too-serious, too-practical brain might come up with.
Hell, I might go along with it myself if I could picture Daisy Lynn being okay with it. But no. She wasn’t our child. She was a grown woman, and she would ultimately have the final say in any plan Prescott and I might come up with.
“There might be a way,” I said, hesitating for a moment as he perked up in his chair. Did I really want to say it out loud? Would he go for it? Wouldshe? “But it would take some compromise. A lot of compromise, honestly. Between all three of us.”
His eyes narrowed a little. “Okay. I’m listening.”
“We’re both interested in Daisy Lynn, right?” I kept going before he could answer, since that was more of a rhetorical question at this point. “And neither of us is willing to give her up. So what if…” I cleared my throat. This was the moment. This would determine how the next few days—or however long Daisy Lynn would be in town—would go for Prescott and me. “What if we just… shared her?”
He blinked, then furrowed his brow. “Share her? What does that even mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” I said, trying to keep my tone even. Then I added, “Unless you’d rather have her choose between us.”
He grunted and mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out, but I knew that last line had done the trick. Neither of us was the type to shy away from a competition—or a confrontation, for that matter—but this time was different. The stakes were higher.
If given the choice, I had no doubt that we both would have preferred to get Daisy Lynn all to ourselves. But my solution was the only way we’d both win.
Prescott scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed. “I honestly don’t know how I feel about that. Do you think she would even go for it?”
“I do,” I said. “She clearly likes both of us. And she’s only going to be in town for a little while longer. This way she doesn’t have to make a choice, and neither of us has to deal with being disappointed or jealous. It’s a win all the way around.”
It didn’t take long for him to nod in agreement. “Okay. I’m in. But only if Daisy Lynn is completely on board. If she has any doubts, any reservations at all, we’re not going to push it. Deal?”
I walked over to shake his hand. “That sounds like a fair deal to me. We’ll talk to her tomorrow, and she can decide for herself if it’s something she’s interested in.”
Before either of us could say anything else, a call from dispatch blasted through the radio. We both jumped, my hand moving to my holster out of habit—a testament to a long night of bad news and frayed nerves.
“Easy there,” Prescott said with a smirk. “That radio might be on its last legs, but let’s maybe hold off on shooting it.”
I felt my face flush with embarrassment, but that feeling was quickly drowned out by another burst of adrenaline as the details of the call came through.
There was trouble at the Triple J Ranch.
