I’d thought that would be me at one time. Maggie and I hadn’t discussed children in any serious sense, but I’d thought I’d have someone to come home to every night, someone who loved me enough to take their vows seriously even when they couldn’t be the center of attention.
My father wasn’t the reason—or only reason—I hadn’t given another woman a real chance in a long time. He was a good excuse to keep myself isolated, but he wasn’t going to let me get away with it for much longer.
“Hey, guys,” Claudia called out from the front door as she shuffled down the driveway. “Sorry to interrupt. Peyton and I decided the wine coolers aren’t cutting it, so I told her I’d drive into town for something I could mix into a cocktail.”
As she cinched her long black hair into a ponytail, I spotted the black strap of her bathing suit droop down her shoulder. I still couldn’t shake the image of her at the park in a tank top and shorts, and now I’d be tortured by the picture of her in a bathing suit, wet, along with the headache from holding my eyes back from tracking the drops running down every beautiful curve on her body.
She had been impossible to ignore from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, and it both thrilled and exhausted me.
“It’s so convenient that your one liquor store is next to your one supermarket.” She twirled her keys around her finger, a wry grin pulling at her lips. “I can get all I need for drinks and snacks in one trip. I only had one and a half wine coolers and promise to go the speed limit, in case that’s why you’re staring.”
I let my chin drop to my chest as I laughed to myself. I was too captivated by what was under her dress to wonder whether she was okay to drive, but I couldn’t admit that.
“I’ll wait for you to pull out since you’re blocking my car.” She motioned to the dark blue SUV I remembered from last week.
“I can give you a ride,” I said before I realized it.
Her smile faded as her brows pulled together.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m really fine to drive.”
“I have to stop there anyway.” I made my way over to the passenger side and opened the door. We only live two streets away from here, so taking you to the market and back isn’t out of my way.”
“Um, okay. Sure.” She shot Jake a look before she climbed into my truck. I shut the door and headed back to the driver’s side, rolling my eyes at Jake’s smirk before I climbed back in.
“Thanks again for your help, Davis. Enjoy the market.”
He gave me a mock salute and headed back to the house.
Maybe I still had heatstroke from the last time I saw her, all those hours working in the hot sun making it worse. Or maybe it was the woman I couldn’t tear my eyes away from—despite my best efforts—since the first moment I’d seen her.
“I appreciate the ride, Sergeant. I promise I won’t take too long.” She smiled at me as she clicked her seat belt, her grin not as wide as the one from the park but real enough to kick up my pulse.
I shouldn’t have had heart palpitations from a woman I hardly knew or have tracked her smiles enough in the short and few times I’d seen her to rate them. I was losing it. But for the next hour or so, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to forget to care.
“You don’t have to call me sergeant,” I told her as I started the engine.
“Sorry, Davis.” I caught the corner of her mouth twitch after I backed out of Jake’s driveway.
“I told you my name was Jude.”
“But no one calls you Jude.”
I turned to her pursed lips when I rolled up to the stop sign at the end of the street.
“Maybe I like it when you do.”
A smile broke out on my face when I noticed a bit of the bravado drain from her expression. She chuckled to herself as she fell back in the seat and gave me a slow nod in my periphery.
“Then, sure…Jude. And you should do that more often.”
“What?” I asked. “Let people call me Jude?”
“Well, that. But you should smile more. It lights up your face. I know you’re the broody arm of the law, but I bet if you let a smile slip out sometimes, it wouldn’t hurt.”
I shot her a glance as we turned down Main Street, a real laugh escaping my lips as I shook my head.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
