She coughed as she chewed.
“I hid out here after I lost my job, bought a bar in a small town I don’t technically live in yet, and am living out of my best friend’s basement while I still pay rent for my apartment in Brooklyn. What do you call that?”
“I call it brave.”
“Brave?” She leaned back and gaped at me. “How do you not think I’m a flake?” She heaved out a sigh and took a long pull from a bottle of iced tea. “Considering how you met me, and what I’ve shown you so far…” She propped her elbow onto the peeling wood of the table and rubbed at her temple. “You haven’t seen the best of me. Although I’m not sure what the best of me is anymore.”
I tapped her chin with my knuckle to get her to look up at me.
“I see a woman with guts and fire and so much beauty it hurts to look at her sometimes. You could have gone back home, taken another job, and settled for what you’ve always known, even if it made you miserable. You didn’t. I don’t think you’re a flake. I think you’re pretty fucking amazing.”
A shy smile ghosted her lips as she shook her head.
“You haven’t known me that long.”
“I know enough. And you haven’t known me for very long either, but so far, you know me better than most people. And you can call me Jude and not Sergeant when we’re out together. My first name isn’t a big secret, and I like that you’re the only one besides family who uses it.”
She sucked in her bottom lip and searched my gaze with glossy eyes.
“Okay.” Her voice cracked as the tension melted from her shoulders. “But if we get in the back seat of the cruiser one day, can I call you Sergeant then?” She popped her brows and crunched on another chip.
I slid my arm around her waist and yanked her closer.
“The only thing you’d be able to say if we ended up in my back seat would bepleaseandmore.” I nuzzled her cheek and smiled at her shocked gasp. “You wouldn’t know my nameoryours.”
“Jesus, who are you?”
I laughed, brushing her lips with a light kiss but lingering before I pulled away.
“Better when I’m with you.”
20
CLAUDIA
“So,how secluded is this part of the lake?”
“You’re not nervous, are you?” Jude teased as he turned into the large patch of gravel everyone used as a parking lot and then continued onto a tiny back road.
“No, not nervous. Just curious.”
I shrugged when Jude flicked his gaze to mine.
“It’s just you, me, and nature for the day.”
I laughed at his wink.
I’d been so excited for an entire day with Jude, I’d hardly slept and was almost up with the sun. Excited for nature? Not as much.
I enjoyed sinking my toes into the sand whenever I’d go to the beach, but I was more of a drinks-by-the-pool person—even better if there was a swim-up bar like at the resort Peyton and I had traveled to a few years back.
I wasn’t a big fan of walking along the grass and dirt to get to the small patch of sand near the lake, but this was what the locals did for fun around here, and I had to learn to like it—or at least get used to it until Jake folded and put up a pool in their yard.
“This is the part of the lake where you need a permit to fish. Otherwise, it’s closed off to the rest of the town. Most of the residents who have a permit are here before dawn in the summers since the swimmers are close enough to disturb the fish. How true that is science-wise, I don’t know.”
His relaxed smile was still rare enough to be a beautiful anomaly, but my gaze was hijacked by the flex in his bicep as he drove.
“The hard-core fishermen are older and cranky.”
