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A grin stretched her lips and she found herself relaxed enough to tease back. “And just how are you going to pay?”
“You got a point, but I at least made you smile. I call it a win.”
She felt a small catch in her chest. Sincerity bled through his every word. Even behind the snark and sarcasm, he wanted to make her smile. She melted a little inside.
Why did his genuine want for her to be happy send a warm spark through her entire body?
His eyes moved to a spot behind her, where her phone buzzed on the counter, “Phone.”
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and put the phone to her ear without even reading who the caller was. “Hello?”
“Good morning, dawlin’. How’d you sleep? Any third-degree burns?”
Her body froze in surprise and her eyes bugged a bit at the voice on the other end. “Knight! Hey, good morning.”
Mel leaned over the back of the couch, throwing her a smug smirk. She narrowed her eyes as she put the call on speaker to keep Mel in check.
“I was checking in on you before you left your place. I wanted you to take the day off.”
“Was it the gumbo?”
His laughter filtered through the phone. “You handled the gumbo just fine for a first-timer. No, it’s just that ballistics won’t be back for a while and I need to talk with Dominic about what happened. Thank him for the surveillance. We’ll start bright and early tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I get it. No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Can’t wait. Bye, dawlin’.”
“Bye.” Anastacia dumped her phone into her bag.
“Not wanting his new dinner companion in danger again?” Mel chuckled.
“Will you stop?”
“All right, all right. Now what?” Mel asked, still stretched out over the back of the futon.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready for a day off yet.” Anastacia thought to herself for a second, pulling her bag off the hook, glancing back at him. “I want to talk to your business partner.”
“Jay? I thought you already read through his interview.”
“I did and there wasn’t much there. I thought there would have been a follow-up since he has known you for a bit of time. He should have more background on you than what he gave.”
“If you need background, you can get it from the source right here.” He pointed to his face.
“And how do I tell Knight how I know those things just randomly? Stop protecting your friend. If he has nothing to hide, he’s got no problem. I just don’t think we’re done looking down that path and I want to pay him a visit. Just a short one to ease my suspicions.”
Mel frowned and looked at Anastacia closely.
“One visit and we can drop Jay’s involvement?”
“If there’s nothing fishy going on, I promise I’ll lay off.” Her hand went up in a faux scout salute.
“Okay, I’ll take you to him and show you how good of a guy he is. You can back off and we can have a full day out of this apartment. Deal?”
“What have I said about deals?”
“I’m not asking for your immortal soul here, Stacia. A day out for an interview with Jay off-record. Easy.”
“Okay, it’s an agreement.”
