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“You know, you two are obvious, right?” Penny teases me later.
Jameson and the other deputies are throwing a football. I was content holding my sleeping goddaughter. But that just made my happy stomach sour.
“What are you talking about?”
“You and Jameson.” Penny pops a frozen grape in her mouth. “Y’all are obvious as hell. Watch, you’ll fuck right here on the sand within the hour.”
“Oh, shit. That ruins it then.”
“Why? He’s not coming back. And even if he does, I’ll fucking strangle you if you give Redix Dean another chance. Give Jameson a chance.”
“Not if the whole office knows. I’ll never live it down.”
“What if y’all work out? What if office romance turns into something serious that no one can give you shit for?”
I switch shoulders, resting Nina on my left one while I watch Jameson laughing in the waves.
“Cops fucking can happen. Cops living happily ever after together—that doesn’t.” I glance at Penny. “Just ask my parents.”
The fact that my parents are opposites was a major factor in their divorce. The other two reasons bother me.
How Dad retired early because he snapped one night. He got too rough with a man caught abusing his own daughter, and Dad almost went to jail for what he did to him.
And then there was all the hell Dad caught from other cops because his wife became the Sheriff… and his boss.
When will all men be fucking adult enough to handle women in charge too? Not soon enough for my parents’ marriage. It ended when I was twelve.
“I just wanna see you happy. You’ve been miserable for weeks.” Penny points to the dozen men feet away. “Any one of those guys would give their left nut to be with you. I think Jameson is worth a first try. He’s hot as hell.”
“Nope.” That’s all I need to know. I’ve been so blinded by heartbreak that I almost fucked up… and fucked Jameson. “I’m going back to my M.O. No sense in breaking my one-night streak now.”
“Well, we did have some fun, didn’t we?”
“Yep.”
I pat Nina’s tiny back. I’m not ready for this yet though holding a sleeping bundle in my arms soothes all my broken edges.
“I met a hot guy on Daufuskie,” I tell her. “He wants a date. And every year, thousands of Marines train minutes away. When I wanna get laid, I go into any bar in Beaufort, and it’s like shooting sexy fish in a fucking barrel. Easy peasy, do me pleasy.”
Penny howls back. “Do you remember that one Marine? The one before I met Hank?”
“The one who was hung to his kneecap and showed everyone at the bar?”
“I won more than a big bet that night. My God, I couldn’t walk for days.”
“I thought Redix was hung, but I swear, you fucked a horse that night.”
Penny sounds back with a believable neighhhh that has me rolling back in the beach chair. I have to set Nina down in her carrier.
“What’s so funny?” Jameson approaches, curious about our loud giggles.
“Penny’s gonna buy a horse.”
“You like to ride?” His innocent ask only adds to the joke.
“Oh, I love to ride”—Penny’s shameless—“Yippy-ki-yay, motherfucker.”
That does it.
