I elbowed Ash in the ribs, despite the way my insides melted at the sight of my enormous man cuddling the tiny, tiny dog. “And I’m notfriendly.”
“You are sometimes.” His voice went husky-soft and I couldn’t help looking up at hisface.
His dark hair fell over his forehead, longer than it was when we’d first met, but his smile still made my stomach flip every single time. I was pretty sure the look I gave him was hot enough to charpaper.
Ethan made a choking noise and Julian sighed. “Give me back the dog and go make out over byyourtable, hmm?” He took Captain from Ash’sarms.
“What? No! We weren’tmaking out,” I scoffed. And we weren’t, mostly because I’d already done a quick tally of the number of people who’d see the two of us getting in the van and shutting the door, and decided the number was toohigh.
“Eye-fucking counts,” said a deep voice behindme.
I turned my head and narrowed my eyes when I saw Si Sloane approaching us. A few inches shorter than Ash but with the same dark hair, Silas Sloane was the second-in-command of O’Leary’s town police force — a force that included only three full-time members. Si was a few years older than me, and I’d had a massive crush on him when I was a kid, but these days we were goodfriends.
“Et tu, Sloane?” Idemanded.
Si gave Ash a friendly smack on the shoulder and smiled at the rest of us. “There’s a reason I don’t bring my dates around town, buddy. If you don’t want O’Leary watching, you keep your private shitprivate.”
Ash snorted. “Not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m kinda hard to hide,Si.”
Ethanlaughed.
“Besides,” Ash continued, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his side. “I don’t give a shit if O’Leary’s watching. I’m proud to be withCal.”
It was safe to say that, like the Grinch, my heart had grown ten sizes since I’d met Ashley Martin. I was surprised this deeply disturbing change hadn’t shown up on my annual physical. But somehow, the man just kept doing disgustingly sweet stuff and I lapped it up the way O’Leary devoured the cakes Ibaked.
“Don’t mind him, Ash,” Julian said, winking at Si. “Silas is justjealous.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said softly. “I want someone to look at me the way Cal looks atAsh.”
“Which is pretty similar to the way Amigo looks at Mort,” Jules joked. “When he’sravenous.”
I shot him a look, but once again I couldn’t protest too much because he wasn’t exactlywrong.
“Not me.” Si shook his head good-naturedly. “You guys can keep that. I think I was absent the day they handed out commitment genes. I am perfectly happy with my life the way itis.”
I laughed out loud. “Do you forget what I was like this time last year? Watch out, Sloane. Love comes up and whacks you in the ass when you least expectit.”
“If you say so. Right now, I’m just hoping Dragon Dorian doesn’t come up and whack me,” Si said, lowering his voice. “The woman spotted me earlier and she knows how to hold a grudge. For fuckingdecades.”
“Ms. Dorian? You mean the librarian? She’s so sweet!” Ashsaid.
I smirked. All the middle-aged ladies adored Ash - he was the perfect combination of young, hot, charming, and totally unachievable, so they could flirt with him guilt-free.
“Sweet? That woman…” Silasbegan.
“Is heading this way?” Julian finished, glancing behind Si and widening his eyesmeaningfully.
We all turned to see a heavyset woman with curly gray hair bearing down onus.
Silas blanched and grabbed Ethan by the shoulders. “You haven’t seen me, and you don’t knowanythingabout the book on Jackie Robinson I took out when I was in junior high, gotit?”
Ethan blinked. “But Idon’tknow anythingabout…”
“Perfect,” Si approved. “I’m going to go see if Henry Lattimer needs help. I think he’s got the only booth she won’t bevisiting.”
“Because he’s the only one in town cranky enough to scare her off,” I remindedhim.
“Even more perfect!” Si took off, leaving the rest of us chuckling afterhim.
