“What good is it to have a cop for a son if I can’t break the rules sometimes? These carts are probably the same ones from when you were small. You can fit furniture and a whole bunch of other shit into the truck when you work with Jake. What’s the difference?”
“If the wheels are locked, it will be of no use anyway, and no one here ever knows how to unlock them. Even if I use my police training to fix them, a big shopping cart isn’t conducive for walking around the house,” I said, picking up the box of fried rice he’d managed to sneak in to get a look at the label.
“Jesus,” he growled, grabbing the box out of my hand and throwing it back into the cart. “Nothing in the cart breaks this goddamn diabetic and renal diet. My therapist said that brand is low sodium if I want rice that tastes like it almost has flavor to it.”
He shook his head and heaved out an audible sigh.
“This is why my biggest thrill is walking with a shopping cart. My life is boring as hell, and my son watching me like I’m one of his perps as I shop only makes it worse.”
I clenched my eyes shut and followed. He did have a point about the cart. He was moving around much easier since I’d folded up his walker and let him drive the cart through the market. Shopping with my father was aggravating for both of us, but it got him out of the house and off the block. He never seemed to appreciate it much and I always ended up wondering why I’d made the effort, but we still made the trip once per week.
If I didn’t get him out, that made him a recluse. And as much as he fought me on it, neither of us was ready to think of him in those terms. His therapy was progressing well but slower than either of us liked, and I longed for the days of dropping him off at someone’s house without obsessing over what they could have that could make him fall and sustain another injury he’d have to fight back from.
Today, my bad mood wasn’t only from our usual struggle. Every time my mind drifted to Claudia, huddled in some secret conversation with Larry, my insides twisted tight enough for me to growl at anyone trying to speak to me, just as they had when Claudia had finally come back to the table without a single mention of what she’d been talking to Larry about.
It was none of my damn business, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of the irritation all week. While she had no problem hanging on me to ward off anyone who wanted to date me or set me up with someone, we weren’t anything real. We weren’t even friends since I barely knew her, yet the thought of her as one of Larry’s conquests made me see red and ball my hands into fists on instinct.
Larry had divorced his wife so long ago I barely remembered her, and he dated women of all ages who stepped into Halman’s. But again, why did I care? Claudia could more than handle Larry or anyone else in town. I smiled despite myself, thinking of how she’d put Artie in his place in front of everyone and strutted away with a sexy-as-fuck confidence that went straight to my dick every time I thought about it. Her lips on my skin had sent tingles down my neck that I hadn’t been able to shake off for the rest of the night.
Then, without thinking, I’d brought her into my arms as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and I hated it when she backed away. Our fake display sparked real fantasies that wouldn’t stop. Whenever my mind drifted to that night, thoughts of turning my head a few inches and capturing that gorgeous smart mouth with mine as she pressed her beautiful body against me plagued the shit out of me.
Then she’d walked away from me and strutted right up to Larry, huddled up close enough to him to ruin the rest of my night.
I pinched my neck and exhaled a slow breath. If she wanted to have a fling with Larry, she was free to do that and whatever else she wanted until she went back to Brooklyn.
And unless I found the balls to do something about it, I had to let it go.
I wasn’t having much luck so far.
“Are you all right?” Dad stilled, leaning on the handle of the cart as he studied me.
“Fine, why?”
The corner of his mouth curved up. “I can almost hear your teeth grinding, and your whole body is stiff as a board. Either something is bothering you, or food shopping is getting to you even more than it’s annoying me. Which it shouldn’t since it’s not like you have to eat the same crap as me.” He motioned to the cart and trudged ahead. I kept two steps behind him as we continued.
I laughed to myself as I scrubbed a hand down my face. I didn’t know Claudia—not really—but she’d captured my attention from the moment we met. And although it didn’t make a lick of fucking sense, it pissed me off knowing that someone else may have held her attention instead.
“George? I thought that was you,” a familiar voice chirped in front of us.
As if I’d conjured her up, I caught sight of Claudia over my father’s shoulder. She was in a white tank and cutoff denim shorts that showcased her tanned and toned legs. I stayed behind my father, my gaze too tempted to venture both higher and lower, from the way her full breasts pressed against the neckline of her top or to how her perfect ass filled the back of her shorts.
Eye level should have been safer, but those dark eyes that seemed to see right through me were even worse. There wasn’t an inch of Claudia that didn’t draw me in, and I should have been staying away from her rather than going along with this stupid game of pretend I’d suggested.
The truth of it all—a truth that I’d loathed to admit—was that Claudia had distracted me from the moment we met. The fight to stay away when I’d wanted to get as close as possible to her exhausted the fuck out of me. That frustrating struggle was probably why I’d suggested that we pretend to be into each other in the first place—even thoughIwas never pretending. I’d asked the woman I wanted to fake being with me because the old hurts and resentments were too raw to make anything real.
“Hello, Claudia. Nice to see you.” Dad snuck a glance at me over his shoulder. “You remember my grouchy sergeant son.”
“I do,” Claudia said, her smile so breathtaking and beautiful, I could only manage an inaudiblehilike I was fourteen not forty-three.
“The Russos left me alone in their big house while they visit Jake’s mother for the weekend. It’s been a long week, so I decided to make myself some comfort food from back home.”
“What are you making?” Dad asked, trying to peek into her cart. “Whatever it is, it has to be better than the boring shit we have to buy.”
Her shoulders shook with a chuckle, my gaze once again drifting to the deepening slope of her cleavage. Being overly observant was an occupational hazard as a cop, but I tracked everything about Claudia every time I saw her. No matter how hard I tried not to look, I couldn’t help myself because she was all I could see.
“I’m making my father’s chicken lo mein. Or trying to with whatever I can find here. He owns a restaurant in Brooklyn, but I helped him make it at home growing up. I’m just not smart enough to know how to cut the recipe to just two servings.” She laughed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“I haven’t had good lo mein in years. Sounds better than the low-sodium rice cardboard in our cart.”
