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“Okay.” Suzette took a deep breath. “He just moved to Providence Falls, so he doesn’t have a full-time job yet. But he’s currently a one-man-band performer over in the town square.” She held her hand up because Cora was already rolling her eyes. “But he’s really talented and he has this amazing harmonica attached to a—”
“Save it,” Cora said, grateful for the fresh margarita the server set in front of her. “The last thing I need is a guy whose income relies heavily on the mercy of tourists.”
“Fine.” Suzette couldn’t suppress a giggle. “I’m just trying to help, and I’ve exhausted all my resources.”
“Hey, ladies,” a quiet, masculine voice said.
Cora turned to see the perfectly refined, perfectly polite defense attorney, Finley Walsh, standing beside her. He was a friend of her father’s, and Cora had met him a few years ago when he was working on a case she’d been following. Occasionally they ran into each other at the bar, and a couple of times her dad brought him to her house on their way to go golfing. Even though Finn was only a few years older than her, he always just seemed so reserved and, well...a little bit on the stuffy side. He was attractive enough—that wasn’t the problem. With his sandy-blond hair and broad shoulders, no one would argue that he wasn’t easy on the eyes, but he reminded Cora of one of those guys on the BBC channel. The kind who sat in leather armchairs drinking brandy and saying things like, Now, see here, my good man. Maybe it was the meticulous way he dressed, with the designer suits and ties. Or maybe it was his hair that was always so neatly arranged. It made Cora want to reach out with both hands and muss it up sometimes. Like now, after she’d had a few drinks.
“Hi, Finn,” Cora said, sitting up straighter. Why did she always do that in his presence? He made her feel like she needed to be on her best behavior. It was annoying. “You know my friend Suzette.”
Suzette gave a cheery wave. “Good to see you again, Finn. For some reason, Cora can’t remember that we’ve all had drinks together before, but don’t hold it against her. She’s tipsy right now. Had a tough day arresting bad guys.”
“I am not tipsy,” Cora said indignantly, even though she was feeling a little fuzzy around the edges. “And I only arrested one bad guy.”
“Did you?” Finn smiled down at Cora and she blinked, because the warmth in his eyes made him seem suddenly less stuffy and more...something else. Alluring, maybe?
She glanced away sharply and took another sip of her margarita. The drinks must be strong tonight.
Finn looked like he was about to say something, but her phone rang. It was her father again. He’d called twice in a half hour. “Excuse me. I need to take this outside.” She slid from her chair and made her way across the crowded pub, exiting the side door where it would be easier to hear over the muted street traffic. She pressed one finger to her ear and answered her phone. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
“Cora, there you are.” Her dad’s voice sounded stern and determined, the way he always did when he was on a mission. “I’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour.”
“Believe it or not, sometimes I do crazy things like go places with my friends on a Saturday night.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m down at the docks searching for my next drug hit. You know, the usual,” Cora teased, leaning against the wall. “There’s this guy here in a white unmarked van who says he has puppies and candy in the back. He seems really nice, so I’m going to go check it out.”
Her father didn’t take the bait. “Cora, I’ve found you a roommate.”
She straightened her spine and pushed off the wall. It wasn’t like her father not to joke with her, at least a little. Ever since she was a kid, he’d been overprotective of her, and now that she was a cop, she sometimes teased him about it. But tonight, he sounded carefully controlled. Serious. “What do you mean?”
A slight pause. “Are you aware that there’s a new transfer in your department?”
“I heard something about it.” There was talk all last week at the station, but she didn’t know much beyond that. “They’re pulling bets to see who gets stuck with the new guy. How’d you know about it?”
He made a huffing sound. “I’m retired, kiddo. Not dead.”
Cora smiled. Even though her father lived hours away and was no longer the police chief in Providence Falls, old habits died hard with him. He still had friends in town and kept his finger on the pulse. She shouldn’t have been surprised.
“He can be your new roommate,” her dad stated. “He’s moving there from Raleigh, and he needs a place to live.”
Cora raised her brows. There were several reasons why that wasn’t a good idea, but she decided to address the most surprising one. “Wow, Dad. A guy? I never would’ve thought you’d be on board with me having a male roommate, even if he is an officer of the law.”
“This is different,” he declared. “It’ll be a win-win situation for both of you.” She got the feeling he’d already made up his mind for her. Sometimes he still treated her like she was a little girl in pigtails who needed him to solve all her problems.
“Dad,” she warned. “I don’t need your help with this.”
There was a long pause. “Remember back when you were ten, and there was a shooting at that bank on Twenty-Fourth?”
An old feeling of unease tiptoed down Cora’s spine. “Of course, I remember. Your partner took a bullet in the chest and almost died.” She hadn’t slept well for weeks after she found out. They’d even visited his partner in the hospital afterward. Cora remembered how the man looked, lying there on the bed, skin as pale as the sheet covering him. He’d had dark circles under his eyes, and he was hooked up to an IV and machines that beeped. Even though the man rallied and forced a smile during their visit, Cora had hated being there because it reminded her of her mother dying from cancer when she was much younger. It reminded her how easily it could’ve been her father in that room. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I never told you this, but he saved my life. It would’ve been me in the line of fire, but he jumped in the way to block the bullet.”
“Oh, my God.” Shock rippled through her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were ten years old,” Hugh said, as if that were all the explanation he needed to give. “I wasn’t going to give you any more reasons to worry. Not after you’d already lost your mother.”
