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“Nope. It’s on the table, and it’s staying there until I’m finished. Now let’s say you happened to…I don’t know…change your attitude toward her? Something tells me she just might alter hers.” Cara raised her eyebrows over her blue eyes.
Despite not wanting to give Cara the green light to get into his head, Dare mulled over her words.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Sam asked Dare. “That our girl here makes sense?”
Cara glanced at Sam with a pout on her lips. “I’m not your anything,” she muttered. Cara being Cara hated any hint of condescension toward her as a woman. Touchy was her nickname.
“And I’m not thinking anything,” Dare said. Nor was he conceding his feelings out loud.
“Just remember, I have a feeling you can turn this around. If you want to, that is.” Cara shrugged.
“Is that feeling your female intuition?” Sam asked. “Because Cara’s is usually damn good,” he reminded Dare.
Cara grinned, nodding her head in agreement. “Thanks for the compliment, Sam. Maybe I’ll let that earlier rude comment slide. I might even let you buy me a drink at Joe’s on Wednesday night.” They usually hit Joe’s for Ladies’ Night since they were all off on Thursdays.
Dare laughed, but Sam was right. Cara’s gut instincts, on the job and off, were usually on target.
“Got a plan?” Sam asked Dare.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m going home, like I said.”
“But—” Cara shook her head and groaned. “Never mind, do what you want. Nobody ever listens to me even though I’m always right.”
Sam grinned.
“As long as you’re leaving, I’ll walk out with you,” Cara said to Dare. “I’m off duty too. You coming, Sam?”
He shook his head. “Not until McKnight’s been released on bail. Catch you guys tomorrow.”
Dare nodded Sam’s way. “Night.”
He headed out alongside Cara, who talked about the weekend Police and Firefighters’ Festival. They would man the policemen’s booth in order to raise money for the youth center where they all volunteered. Dare laughed at her jokes and admired her sense of humor, but being with Cara did nothing to make him forget about Liza, whom he just happened to pass as he left the precinct. She sat alone, waiting for her brother’s release, alternately looking pissed and vulnerable, bringing up protective instincts Dare had never felt toward any other woman.
***
Liza drummed herfingers against her purse as she waited for Brian to be brought up from the holding area. She wondered if the cell in the back of the police station had a plaque engraved with her brother’s name on it. Heaven knew he’d been hauled in often enough. Just the thought was enough to give her a stomachache.
She shook her head and stifled a groan. “At least be honest with yourself,” she muttered. It wasn’t her brother’s most recent arrest making her stomach churn.
It wasDare Barron. The cop who always seemed to be around when her brother was brought in. The sexy man who alternately looked at her like she was the hottest thing this side of a hot fudge sundae or the dumbest enabler on the planet.
Like she wasn’t aware of what she was doing? She was. She just had no choice. Brian was family. He was her brother. Besides, she owed him.
However, she didn’t have to explain herself to Dare, even if he did have “big bad cop” written all over him. His dark-brown hair with flecks of gold and those gorgeous brown eyes were enough to melt her on the spot. But that didn’t mean she had to answer to anyone but herself. That’s how it had been for longer than she cared to remember. But now, as an adult, she wouldn’t trade her independence for anyone ever again.
She rose to her feet, annoyed Brian hadn’t been brought up yet. She couldn’t imagine what the holdup was. The attorney she kept on retainer had shown up and done his job, and Brian’s arraignment had been blessedly brief. So where was he?
Finally, she heard a gruff male voice call her name. She turned, hoping to see her brother. Instead, she saw Dare on his way out the door with a pretty female police officer by his side. Liza knew the woman’s name was Cara Hartley. She was a year younger than Liza’s twenty-nine, while Dare was three years younger, making him twenty-six. From the way Cara and Dare were laughing together, they were close.
An unwanted ribbon of jealousy unwound in Liza’s stomach, and she ruthlessly forced it aside. Whether Cara and Dare were friends or something more, it didn’t matter. Liza had her hands full with her delinquent brother. The last thing she needed in her life was an attraction to one of Serendipity’s finest.
Her brother’s arrival reinforced that truth, and she rose to meet him. He must have sobered since she’d seen him in court because he appeared more withdrawn and down instead of chipper and happy to see her. Since she’d paid his bail and signed all the appropriate papers, they headed out the door together. Liza’s stomach growled, reminding her she’d been at the courthouse and the police station for the better part of the day.
She waited until they were settled in the car before turning to her brother. “Hungry?” she asked.
He nodded. “But I need a shower more. I can’t go anywhere looking like this.”
Now he was worried?
