“Never,” Beau says. “She’s curious about you, but she’s loyal to me.”
“We’ll see,” I say. “Am I on call, then? Should I get a bulletproof vest for middle-of-the-night drug raids?”
“Couldn’t hurt,” he says. “I hear Les Erickson has been hoarding Prilosec, making it hard for everyone else to fill their prescriptions.”
I shake my head disapprovingly. “Pure evil.”
“Are you going to the farmer’s market tomorrow?”
“I don’t know,amI? Is it a hotbed of crime?”
“There’s a pet adoption fair going on. Xena and I will have a booth to educate people about pet registration, vaccination, local laws and ordinances—that sort of thing.”
“Saving the world one bordetella shot at a time.”
“Not all heroes wear capes.”
I can’t help smiling, something I’ve done a lot of while I’ve been with Beau today. “Okay. I’ll come grab some footage of you there. And then…” I prompt.
“I’ll be entirely at your disposal, Miss Sawyer,” he says with a bow as his phone pings. He pulls it out and looks at the screen. “I have just enough time to take you home and come back for a little chat with Tristan.”
We start walking around the building toward the front, but I’ve got a weird sensation in my stomach. It feels like I’m quickly losing sight of the proper Palmer/Sawyer dynamic. And I just agreed to spend a whole lot more time with Beau while I’m in Sunset Harbor.
It’s fine. It’s business. And I can handle business because I’m a businesswoman. A woman of business. A woman who means business.
When we come around the front, Beau heads straight for his cart and pulls the light from the top, turning it off.
“Gotta save those batteries, huh?” I tease.
“Sacred tax dollars, GG.”
“Excuse me?” I step right up to him and look him dead in the eye. “Did you justdareto call me Gigi?”
He doesn’t back down, and there’s a glint of excitement in his eyes that sends my heart fluttering and me wishing I would’ve kept a bit more distance. But now it’s too late. I’m in it to win it.
“No one calls me that,” I say.
He tips his head from side to side. “I mean…”
“Allow me to clarify. No one calls me that but Grams, and I only letthatslide because she can take me down if I make a stink about it.”
“And you think I couldn’t?” His eyes flit to my lips for a second so split I’d think I’d imagined it if my lungs weren’t suddenly devoid of air.
“Call me by Grams’s nickname for me, and you’ll see who gets taken down.”
“GG,” he says immediately, calling my bluff without taking his eyes from mine. “But you should know that assaulting an on-duty law enforcement officer is a serious crime…GG.”
This man has a death wish. “You better watch your off-duty back, then, Officer Palmer.”
His brows go up. “Threateningan on-duty law enforcement officer.”
“Thankfully,” I say, completely ignoring him, “seeing as you’re a part-time copandmy next-door neighbor, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to catch you off-duty.”
“Out of curiosity,” he says, clearly and utterly enjoying himself, “how does Grams spell her nickname for you?”
“First of all, don’t call herGrams. Second, why are you asking weird questions?”
“Is it G-I-G-I?”
