Silence. Then an audible pillow-muffle groan.
“Oh my god,” Jamie muttered. “You’re impossible.”
Erin leaned back into the couch, stretching her legs out. “Maybe,” she allowed, “but you’re the one calling me at ten o’clock at night to reassure me you didn’t mean to imply I flirt too much.”
“That isnotwhat I said.”
“It’s what you spiraled about.”
“I didn’t spiral!”
“You sent me three messages in ninety seconds,” Erin said dryly. “If that’s not a spiral, I’m filing a missing-person report for your composure.”
Jamie made a strangled sound somewhere between outrage and embarrassment. “Why are you like this?”
Erin grinned. “Because it’s fun.”
Another muffled noise. Erin could practically see Jamie’s face buried in a pillow, legs kicking like she was fighting gravity itself.
A beat passed — softer this time — before Jamie’s voice came through, small at the edges. “I just didn’t want you to think I was being weird.”
“You are being weird,” Erin teased, gentler now. “But in a way I don’tmind.”
Jamie went quiet.
Erin sat up a little, the smile fading into something steadier. “If I’m making this harder for you, I can stop. The teasing. The… whatever you think it is.”
For a moment, nothing. Just breathing.
Then Jamie whispered, “…No. Don’t stop.”
Erin’s chest tightened. Her reply slipped out before she could think too hard.
“…Okay.”
Twelve
Jamie hadn’t meant to make a habit out of Erin Calhoun, but that was what it had become. In the three days since the fire, there had been late-night texts, rushed midday check-ins, even two full-on phone calls that had stretched past midnight. Nothing she would have called personal, not exactly. Erin stuck to safe ground, and Jamie told herself she was only teasing when she prodded her past it. Still, Erin’s name lit up her screen so often now that Jamie caught herself waiting for it.
Now Erin was in front of her, not tucked safely behind a phone line. She stood at the head of the precinct briefing room in full uniform, posture sharp, every word clipped and precise. PIO mode.
“The department is treating this as a voluntary runaway at this stage,” Erin said, her voice cutting clean through the low buzz of reporters. “The teen left a note indicating she was leaving home. There is no evidence of foul play. We are asking the public for any information regarding her whereabouts.”
Jamie jotted notes without looking down, eyes drawn to the way Erin’s jaw tightened for half a second before she moved on. It wasn’t anything most people would catch, just one of those small giveaways that slipped through when Erin was in full PIO mode. Jamie knew it wasn’t her business, but she still tucked it away, one more detail to add to the growing list of things she was starting to learn about Erin.
Beside her, Tilly adjusted the camera angle, their face as unreadable as always. Jamie forced her attention back to the statement instead of the flicker in Erin’s eyes when they passed briefly over hers. Sharp, professional, and then gone.
She exhaled, pen hovering over her notebook. This was supposed to be about a missing teen. But all she could think about was how easily Erin slipped into a version of herself that felt miles away from the one who had stayed on the phone with her half the night.
When the cluster of reporters broke apart, Jamie lingered near the edge of the crowd, pretending to double-check her notes. Erin stepped down from the podium, answering a quick question from another journalist before scanning the room. Her gaze landed on Jamie, steady and deliberate in a way that made Jamie’s stomach flip.
“Garrison,” Erin said when she reached her. Professional, but softer at the edges.
Jamie clicked her pen closed and shoved it into her pocket. “That sounded like you’ve done this speech a hundred times.”
“Probably have,” Erin admitted. “Different names, same story.” Her eyes flicked briefly toward the doors, where the girl’s parents had been ushered out. “Still matters, though.”
Jamie hesitated, then nodded. “I know.” She adjusted her bag on her shoulder, pulse kicking up for no good reason. “Hey, um… are you free tonight? I was thinking maybe we could grab a drink. Off the clock.”
