“I’m so sor— Come here, you stupid vermin!”
She lunged up, landing a knee dead center of his crotch and an elbow to the side of his temple.
He rolled to his side with a groan, clutching his dick, staring after a crazy woman chasing a raccoon.
* * *
She didn’t catchthe raccoon, but she did find where it had dropped her keys. Stupid trash panda. Mumbling to herself on the way back to the man she’d…unmanned…she couldn’t come up with a sufficient apology.
Thanks for getting me unstuck, sorry I kneed your junk.If the bookstore failed, she could always start a line of apology cards.
As she got closer, she realized he was in uniform. “Well, shit. I assaulted a cop. Could this day get any worse?” She looked up at the sky. “Don’t answer that.”
Squatting next to Tim, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yup,” he grunted.
“Sorry I abused your…you know.”
“’S okay. Pretty sure it’s karma.”
He sat up and she got a good look at him.E um gato sarado. Que lindo!Gabby had obviously never met Tim or she would have gushed about how good looking he was. A five-o’clock shadow with a hint of gray at the edge of his sculpted jaw showcased a full bottom lip. Speechlessness struck when he blinked watery, gray-green eyes at her.
She pulled her lips between her teeth to make sure she wasn’t gaping at him and tried to think of something intelligent to say.
“You punch a lot of guys in the family jewels?” Yup. Intelligent. She should send MENSA an application.
“No. Worse.” He pushed himself up and stood slowly. “Made fun of my brother when it happened to him.”
She stood as well. Whoa, he was tall. She barely reached his shoulders and had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“Oh.” She held out her hand. “Zoe.”
Remembering the keys she’d found and looped middle finger through, she pulled back her hand before he could shake it.
“I found my keys. A raccoon took them and ran off. I tried to find the hide-a-key, but it wasn’t there. Otherwise I would have just used that instead of trying to climb in the window.”
“I made your parents get rid of it,” he said.
Distracted by the movement of his lips, she lost track of what they were talking about. “Get rid of what?”
“The hide-a-key.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not safe and it invites people to break in.”
“Who would break into a house next door to a cop?”
His eyebrows rose and he looked at the window, then back at her.
She felt the flush rise up her neck. “Well, I forgot you were a cop.”
“Would remembering have stopped you from trying to crawl through the window?” he asked.
She cocked her head an considered his question. “No. And it wasn’t like I was actually breaking in. It’s my house. Well, my parents’ house, but I live here now. Besides, I’d just driven for ten hours. I wanted to get in and unpack.”
When would the word vomit stop?
