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“That’s not what this is,” I insisted, even if I knew better. I swear Gawen could tell if you got laid by the way you walked, or if you and your family got into a spat by what you ordered for lunch. The man was practically psychic.
“I’m not judging you, Wells,” he said, shaking his head.
That was fair. He never did. Even with all his insight into the human psyche, I never heard him trash-talking someone for making an objectively stupid decision.
“She’s a valuable witness,” I insisted.
“Sure, sure. That’s all it is,” he agreed with a knowing smirk just as my phone started to ring on my desk.
The screen showed me Mari’s name.
“Are you alright?” I asked the second my finger swiped across the screen.
“Oh, ah, yeah, yes, I’m okay,” she rushed to say, likely put off by the urgency in my voice. And from the smile tugging at the corners of Gawen’s lips, he hadn’t missed it either. Damnit. “Sorry. I probably should have just texted you.”
“No, it’s fine. What’s going on?” I asked.
“I, ah, I managed to swing a last-minute cancellation appointment with the security company,” she said. Last I heard, she was five days out from having someone come to install the system. She’d lucked out.
“That’s great. Today?” I asked.
“Yes. At noon. I know we had an arrangement, but I can’t expect for you to—“
“I’ll be there,” I cut her off, ignoring Gawen’s growing smirk. “Do you want me to pick you up first?”
“You don’t have—“
“I’ll be there at eleven-forty-five,” I cut her off.
“Thank you… Wells,” she said, fumbling over my name, but, God, it sounded good coming from her.
“No problem,” I said, hanging up, then checking the time.
It wasn’t ideal to take time away from my workday to be there for her. But, luckily, with being a detective, my time wasn’t quite so closely monitored as it had been when I was a regular cop. I could be gone for an extra hour or so, and no one was likely to notice or miss me.
“Don’t,” I said, feeling Gawen’s gaze on me.
“Hey, we’ve worked together for, what, a decade? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you interested in a woman in more than a casual way. I think it’s good for you,” he said, getting up and walking away before I could remind him that in all the years we’d known each other, I’d never seenhiminterested in a woman in a serious kind of way either.
I spent the next few hours halfway concentrating on the never-ending paperwork that was always piling up. But my mind was on my lunch break and the woman I would be seeing during it.
When I pulled up to her hotel a minute shy of when I said I would, I could already see her waiting in the lobby, shifting her feet, clearly uncomfortable at being out in the open, even if the clerk was a few feet away.
As soon as she spotted my car, a small smile toyed at her lips, chasing away the tension as she moved out of the doors and toward my car.
“I’m so sorry if this is an incon—“
“It’s not,” I cut her off, watching her as she buckled in. “How have you been?” I asked as I turned the car in the direction of her house that had been abandoned, save for the occasional news van, since the incident.
I couldn’t help but wonder how she was going to react to being back there, if she was going to freeze up or freak out. I should have thought ahead and offered to go and clean up—at the very least—the blood that had been left on her bedroom floor.
“Getting sick of the hotel, to be honest,” she said, giving me a head shake. “And my drugstore clothes,” she added, waving at another t-shirt and leggings outfit.
“You look fine,” I told her, just barely managing to hold myself from saying what I wanted to say. Beautiful. Gorgeous. A sight for sore eyes. “But you can grab some clothes while we’re here,” I reminded her. “Unless you’re planning on moving back in today,” I said.
“No. No. I want this done,” she said. “And then I really do want to get a dog. I know it is probably just an emotional support thing at this point, but I will feel better not being all alone.”
“The shelter is open until ten tomorrow. I can swing by and bring you after work,” I said.
