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It took a couple minutes for Maddie to respond with a thumbs-up and a smiling emoji.
Madison: You’re always feeding me.
Jameson: 8 pm my place.
Her response was an eyeroll emoji, and my shoulders relaxed because when we went to Ashby Manor, she’d be at my place. Safe and sound.
“What do you think, Ellison? Eight-fifteen we swoop in and get some answers.” Beck was positively giddy about getting inside the Ashby family home, and Savannah’s words replayed in my head.
Mueller wasn’t the only one who had secrets.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Madison
I knocked on Jameson’s door and waited. No answer. I rang the bell and still there was no answer. I shot off a quick text.
Madison: WYA?
His answer came a few minutes later.
Jameson: Running late. Spare key behind left shutter.
Madison: I was promised dinner.
I responded quickly, wondering what in the hell he was up to. It wasn’t like Jamie to be late, but I knew the job and the double murder had changed things.
Jameson: I’ll pick it up on my way home. Promise.
I rolled my eyes at the phone, found the key and went inside, ignoring the warning bells clanging in my head that this was a bad idea.
I had no problem visiting when Jamie was home but using a key to get inside and having free reign of the place felt intimate. Too intimate for friends. Then again, I didn’t make a lot of time for friends, so maybe this was perfectly normal in male-female friendships.
It was that damn kiss. That was why I felt strange being here without him. That was why it felt too intimate. Friends didn’t kiss like that. That definitely wasn’t a normal part of friendship, kissing like hormonal teenagers in the back seat of a car and then replaying it repeatedly in my head.
No, that wasn’t normal—no matter how hot it was—to relive that kiss so often that I could still feel his lips on mine. Those thoughts definitely strayed far outside the line of friendship.
In fact, Jameson found me sometime later, dinner as promised in his hand, me staring off into space, body stretched out on his sofa, my mind replaying the kiss for at least the thousandth time, imagining what would have come next if I was brave enough to let it go there.
“Honey, I’m home!”
His loud, deep voice startled a gasp out of me, and I sat up with a glare for him. “You scared me. Dick.”
Jamie flashed a satisfied grin without a hint of apology. “What were you thinking about, I wonder? And why are you always so jumpy?”
Nope. No way. Not going there. I jumped over it to my own question. “Busy day policing the city’s bad guys?”
He set the paper bag with the red logo on the coffee table and laughed. “Something like that.”
“You’re not as slick as you think, Jameson Ellison.” My words caught him off guard, and for a short moment, guilt flashed in his eyes, but he covered it quickly.
He straightened up and headed toward the kitchen. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Is that how you wanna play this?”
I pushed off the sofa and followed him. “The Ashbys own a few cops in the tri-city area and someone gave them the heads up that the Feds were coming to question Sadie. Do with that info what you will.”
It was kind of sweet and a little insulting that he wanted to protect me from the chaos.
Jamie handed me a beer, his expression unreadable. “Then why did you come?”
“Because I’m fucking hungry. What did you bring? I’m famished.” I grabbed the bag and plopped on the couch, removing sandwiches and fries from the bag.
I spread our mini feast on the coffee table and popped a fry into my mouth. “You bring ranch dressing with these?”
“I did.” Jamie handed me a little plastic container and I dipped a fry into it.
“You know, Madds, if you aren’t comfortable over there anymore, you can always stay here. I have two bedrooms and we can split the bills.”
It was a generous offer and not all that surprising, but a terrible idea.
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
His brows dipped in confusion. “Why? We’re friends, and this could help us both.”
“Because,” I sighed heavily. “That kiss the other day proves we can’t be the kind of friends who live on top of each other, or we’ll be naked all the time.”
A thought that appealed to me more than it should. Bumping into Jameson fresh from the shower? Yes, please. Early in the morning with messy hair and pajamas? Hell, yes, please.
He blinked twice and grinned. “Again, I don’t see a problem with that.” He bit into his sandwich on a chuckle.
“I value your friendship too much to risk you’ll get bored and run away rather than tell me you want to start banging someone else.”
He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I would never do that to you, Madds. Besides, maybe that kiss was a fluke of nature and if we tried it again, it would be awful. Like siblings kissing.”
