“I can do you one better. Got a satellite phone in the house.”
Of course he did. The man was prepared for anything. Then again, she would normally have a sat phone in the cruiser but they were down a unit since the rookie ran over one last week and the Chief hadn’t replaced it yet. And because she’d grown up in Winter Lake, and knew it and Broken Bay like the back of her hand, no one had thought she’d need one. Least of all, her.
More fool them. Or her.
She knew better than anyone how things could get fucked up in winter. The mountains and lake often ended up completely snowed in, power and phone lines out, people stranded. Too often for her to have stupidly handed over her sat phone to someone else.
Stupid motherfucker.
Next time the rookie busted something—because the kid seemed to break everything he touched—she wasn’t giving up hers.
Lesson learned.
“Thanks. Do you mind if I call my dad at the fire station as well? He’ll be worried if I don’t checkin. He knew I would be out this way today.”
“Sure. Call whoever you want.”
Goddammit. How was she supposed to keep her distance from Nash when he was always being helpful?
From the second she’d met him he’d rubbed her the wrong way. Made her anxious and jittery. It had taken a few months but she finally worked out why.
She was attracted to him. Something she hadn’t experienced in too long to remember.
Most guys didn’t give her the time of day. She was a cop and the least girly girl she knew and as Nash had pointed out, she had a dirty mouth that put off more than her mother.
Hell, she’d been mistaken for a guy a number of times over the years. And her chosen occupation hadn’t tamped down her tomboy ways.
Even when she was younger she’d never been the one to attract the hot guys, or guys in general, that was her softer more feminine twin sister.
And Nash Yates was hot.
Lord was he hot.
Just looking at him warmed a girl up a few degrees.
He was also at least a decade older than her.
Not that his age had stopped her attraction in its tracks. For some reason it made him more appealing. She appreciated his maturity and the confidence that oozed from him that she attributed to a lifetime of living. He had a confident swagger, but it was earned not put on.
She’d fought against her desire from the beginning but it would be a lie to say she hadn’t gotten herself off to fantasies of him since they’d first met. But that’s as far as she’d gone.
Fantasizing about a guy and making a move on him were two very different things.
And while Nash had made his interest to her know—hell, he’d been downright blunt about it at times—she couldn’t trust it was more than the need to scratch an itch and she wasn’t up for that.
Too much drama when the itch was dealt with and they carried on with their lives in a small town where everyone knew everyone and gossip was the favored pastime. Plus he worked for her cousin so their paths crossed more than most.
Yeah, she didn’t need that kind of drama.
Been there, done that, would not be doing it again.
Nope. She’d learned that lesson thank you very much.
Got a A+++ in that class and didn’t need to repeat it.
2
Laura Murdock had had Nash tied in knots from the second he’d set eyes on her.
