“I’m a cop,” he answered monotone with a shrug.
“Wow! Do you like it?”
“Do I like being a cop? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I can’t imagine doing anything else but some days just suck.”
“I can imagine.”
I wasn’t expecting that. Truthfully I didn’t know what I was expecting, but law enforcement wasn’t even on my radar.
“I doubt it,” he grumbled as he cut off a piece of pie. “What do you do?”
I bit my lip. I looked at the ceiling. I looked at the floor. Hell, I looked at everything except the man sitting opposite me, asking me the most basic getting-to-know-you questions.
Swallowing down my nerves, I answered him. “I’m a songwriter.” It may not have been the whole story, but it wasn’t a lie either.
“That’s different.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“So I take it you're not from Chicago, then?”
“Why would you say that?”
“Chicago’s not really known for its songwriting scene.”
That made me laugh. He certainly wasn’t wrong. And any music coming from Chicago certainly didn’t sound anything like I could ever, in my wildest dreams come up with.
“I grew up here but moved a couple of years ago.”
“So you’re just back for?”
I chose to believe there was interest in his question, or maybe I was reaching. “A couple more days before I head to Boston.”
“Wow!” Now it was Hayden’s turn to be silenced.
When he yawned, I checked the time and realized how late it was getting. While I might’ve been riding the high, it was clear Hayden was fading fast.
“Well, it’s getting late. I should probably be heading out. I need to get some beauty sleep.”
“You’re beautiful just the way you are,” Hayden murmured under his breath and I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear it.
He pulled some cash from his pocket, placed it down on the table and I bit my tongue. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had paid for me. If it wasn’t free, then I was expected to pick up the tab. It wasn’t that I couldn't afford it, it was more the expectation that frustrated me.
“Can I walk you back to your hotel?” he offered and I realized chivalry wasn’t dead.
“You don’t have to,” I confirmed, shoving my cap back on my head.
“I want to.”
I was starting to see that Hayden was a man of few words, but they were all the right ones. “Well, then, let’s go.”
Silently we left the diner and started walking towards my hotel. When the breeze kicked up, I shivered and rubbed my arms trying to warm up. Before I knew it, Hayden was shrugging off his own beat-up leather jacket and draping it around my shoulders. Trying to be stealthy, I lifted the collar to my nose and breathed in his scent.
A smart girl would be wary.
A girl who barely walked out her front door these days without a security contingent should’ve known better.
I was a girl who was raised better than to walk around the streets with a strange man in the middle of the night.
