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“But not when I am awake?” She couldn’t suppress her grin at her teasing.
“You weren’t awake when I was looking then. Now that you are, I can say that you’re more beautiful when you are awake.” He kissed her cheek, then placed more kisses across her jaw.
She laughed and pushed at him again. “I have to get up. Mama gets moody when I do not call.”
Sitting up, she tossed the blankets away from her, and he was rewarded by getting to see her entire body less than an arm’s length away from him. Reaching out, he ran his hand down her back, then around her waist, and pulled her back into his body. “You can’t leave.”
“Mathias, stop. If you are interested, I have to take a shower. I believe there is enough room for two in there.” Instantly, he let her go and rolled out of bed. “But you have to promise I will be ready for work at 7:00 am.”
Walking around the bed to the side she was on, he held out his hand and said, “I promise.” Then he pulled her to her feet. Then he quickly wrapped his arms around her and all but ran her to the bathroom. From the sound she made as they went, he couldn’t tell if she was mad or happy. When she raked her hands down his back, he knew she was as excited as he was about a hot shower. Averyhot shower.
* * *
Some promises were meantto be broken, but she was ready and showing him out the door at 7:05 am, so he felt it was a success. Neither talked about seeing the other again, but there was no way he would not see her again. By the way she kissed him at the door, she wanted to see him again as well. He was starting to realize that neither one of them was very good at dating.
On his drive home, he wondered if she was telling her mom about him. Maybe she already had; she talked to the woman every morning. She lived nine hours from her family, but she talked to them more often than he did his, and they were just down the road.
Flashing blue lights in his mirror had him cursing as he pulled over. Forgetting about the woman who was consuming his thoughts, he looked at the dash of his truck. Had he been speeding? Have a taillight out? What had he done wrong? Sure, he was not paying a lot of attention to driving this morning, but he had been driving on this road his entire life.
Rolling his window down, he looked in the mirror to see which cop had pulled him over. There was only a handful of police in town, and he knew them all. But the one walking toward him was his favorite. Hue Strong had been his best friend since they started kindergarten together.
“Mr. Nordskov, do you know why I am pulling you over this fine morning?” Hue asked, tapping the notepad he carried. Hue hadn’t been back in Landstad for long, close to a year, but he had been raised here and knew everyone and everything.
“I don’t. I wasn’t speeding.”
“You’re right; this is not a speed issue. I stopped you this morning to issue you a parking ticket,” Hue said, opening his notepad before pushing up his hat to reveal more of his short red hair.
“What are you talking about? I was driving,” Math argued. “You can’t get a parking ticket for driving.”
“But your pickup spent the entire night on Main Street. The entire night, Mr. Nordskov. What were you doing on Main Street?” Hue leaned against Math’s pickup.
“None of your business,” Math replied to his friend, who happened to live across from Tess. This Main Street crew was an odd group.
“I think it has to do with a certain bank president, one who a certain Mr. Nordskov was just—not a few months ago—wanting to run out of this town on rails.” Hue had gotten an earful since January about his anger about Tess.
“I might have changed my mind about that,” Math said sheepishly.
“Oh, I can see that. Or I did when I was patrolling last night.” Hue laughed as he opened his pad and started to write.
“There are no laws against parking on Main Street all night,” Math answered as he watched his friend writing on his pad.
“I am not writing you a ticket. I’m making you a list of people who get to tell you ‘Told you so.’ Because we all told you how nice she was, and you were being an idiot.” Hue laughed and handed him the paper.
With that, he went back to his patrol car and left. Math looked at the list Hue had written. Hue, Amanda, Mia. Just three surprised him. Looking at the list, he wondered why his friend had written his sister’s name as Amanda, not Mandy like everyone called her. Hue called her that. But suddenly it was Amanda.
Smiling, he crumpled the paper and threw it in the passenger seat. He would have to keep an eye on Hue and Mandy. Not that he would be able to see much since they lived across the hall from each other, and he was miles away from them.
But first, he had to get home and get into the field. Maybe he would find time to call Tess this afternoon. Or at least text.
CHAPTER19
The morning sunwas warm against her skin, even if the air held a bit of April morning chill in it. Tess was leaning against the back wall of the bank next to the rear exit. Again, she needed fresh air on her lunch break, but today she had called her sister instead of going to the café.
This morning’s half an hour phone call with her mama had left her on edge. The older woman hadn’t spoken once about her papa. Not one word. Their talks were usually peppered with mentions of the man who dominated her mama’s life. Today nothing.
Tess chickened out on asking Ilya about their Dad and what might be going on. Instead, Tess had finally told her the news. To her surprise, the woman hadn’t even said, “Oh, Terezilya,” in her disappointed voice—she was too excited to be disappointed.
Instead, she had said, “See, Terezilya? You are too young for menopause. And we do not get cancer.” As if her family was so special.
