“God, why?” She pouted, and those lips grabbed my attention just like they had on Friday. It was the way she pursed them together when she frowned. It was such a sexy expression, except she wasn’t trying to be sexy.
“You’re welcome,” I stated, smirking.
“Thanksfor saving me from falling.” She lifted her shoulder into a slight shrug. “I just have to wonder what sort of joke the universe is playing on me this month.” She tucked a strand of her golden hair behind her ear and leaned down to pick up her bag.
I grabbed the pineapple. “The universe plays different jokes on you each month?”
“No, just several this month. Why else would I run into you twice within a few days?” She stood up and placed the bag over her shoulder.
“We’re neighbors, so I think we’re bound to see each other at some point.” I nodded slowly for effect.
“No, not like this. Also, where I come from,neighborhas a different meaning. The new ones aren’t made to feel like lepers on their first day in the neighborhood.”
Lepers?I was certain I hadn’t beenthatbad…or maybe I had. This whole tension with Aria was throwing me off my game and making me do things I wouldn’t normally do. Since that tension had been around for a while, my misadventures were probably habitual now.
“I was just doing my job.” Perhaps I should have taken the opportunity to apologize.
She looked me up and down, and her pretty face contorted into another grimace, this time drawing my attention to the sharp bone structure of her face. With her hair pulled back into a ponytail, the focus was all on her high cheekbones, exotic and sharp, like a runway model, and those glossy pink lips sparkling the way they were just lured me to stare. The baby pink sheen on them matched her silky top, which slid a little off her elegant shoulders.
“Suspecting I was high on drugs was doing your job?” She gave me a piercing look and stared at me with those large blue eyes.
“I, um, never said you were high on drugs.”
“You didn’t have to—your accusations were pretty clear.”
Again, she was right. I actually felt nervous and a little uneasy.
I didn’t usually get like that around women. Just once…one time that I could remember, one woman:Olivia, who I was suddenly thinking about again. Perhaps it was because when we’d first met, I hadn’t been able to figure her out either.
Like Brooke. She had this dainty appearance, but there was nothing dainty about her. The confidence in her was very evident. She was the kind of no-nonsense woman that attracted me.
“So, did my story all pan out?” She shifted her weight from one leg to the other. “I never heard back.”
“Yup, all clear. That boyfriend of yours worked everything out, even paid for the railing to be fixed.” That’s what Captain Hawkins had said that morning.
She looked amused and something sparkled in her eyes. “Boyfriend? How cute. You assumed Noah was my boyfriend?”
“Isn’t he?”
“Noah’s my best friend, if you must know.”
“Your best friend’s a guy? Isn’t that a little awkward?”
“Questions, questions. I think you already know enough about me, detective. Knowing too much is never a good thing.”
Classy and sassy, and…interesting, enough to make me want to know more about her.
“So is not knowing enough.” Our conversation felt like a game.
“You know enough, but if there’s more to know you have eight months to find out.”
“Eight months—you’re only here for eight months? Is it for work?”
She smiled, revealing a little dimple in her left cheek. “Detective, I think that’s enough Brooke 101 for today. Can I have my pineapple back please?”
I handed it to her. When she took it, she gave me a playful one-shoulder shrug and sauntered away.
Yup. Classy and sassy, and interesting.
But also trouble—definitely trouble.
My eyes went straight to her ass in that little skirt she wore and stayed there until she turned the corner at the end of the aisle.
