I rest my hand on my belly. I’m not some silly girl with nothing at stake. I have someone else to think about now. Being friends with Anton is way more important than anything else my body tells me it wants right now.
But maybe I should start getting up earlier.
Just to avoid those sweatpants.
Less than thirty minutes later,I’m sitting behind a desk at the Echo Valley precinct, a stack of files waiting to be processed.
Desk duty. It’s not where I thought I’d be after getting my badge, but I have good insurance, decent pay, and despite how lackluster it all sounds, I’m okay to slow down for a moment. The past four months have been mayhem, and my body is getting heavier, even though on one social channel I follow a woman who has hardly gained weight at this stage, that woman is not me.
The water retention is a killer.
I’m okay sitting.
My new desk is basic, but my keyboard is newer than the ones at LAPD, and someone left a mug with a cartoon chicken on it that sayscluck off. It’s dust free, smelling faintlyof lemon polish, and feels like it was prepared for me, unlike the coffee-ring-stained one in LA with a full trash can underneath it I found on my first day there.
It’s that small-town way.
Callum comes over to my desk when I’m settled and hands me a small stack of manila folders. “You’re coming in for an easy landing here, Johnson.” The corner of his mouth quirks, and I know calling me by my last name all of a sudden must be as funny to him as calling him Chief will be for me.
“I just need you to process these files and take incoming calls. It’s not like LA, though. If you have more than one call, it’s likely multiple complaints by Mrs. Gleeson. She and the farmer next door are having a boundary-line war of sorts, and his goats keep eating her petunias.”
I laugh. “For real?”
He scratches his eyebrow and flashes that kind smile of his. “For real. I’m actually heading out there with Santi this afternoon to see if we can reinforce the fencing. He has lots of extra materials at Monarch Hills he said he’d be willing to donate toward keeping the peace.”
That sounds like more fun than sitting here. “Need some help?” I offer instinctively but know that as the lowest ranking officer here, I won’t be getting the fun jobs.
Not only that but within minutes, I’d regret the size of my ankles with all the standing.
“Thanks for offering,” he says brightly and without pointing out that I should focus on my grunt work. “I think Santi and I can handle it.” He crosses his arms and darts his gaze to the manila folders. “I used to work in Boston, so I know this isn’t what you had in mind after you got your badge.”
I don’t want to confirm what he says and sound ungrateful, so I offer a tight-lipped smile.
He cocks a grin. “After the baby comes, if you stick around Echo Valley, I promise to get you out there with the goats.”
I laugh lightly. “Thanks.”
Somehow, Callum acknowledging I’m capable helps me feel more like one of them.
He salutes me goodbye then heads out, a gust of cool fall air wafting in behind him.
It’s just me and Officer Ingram now, who’s making coffee in the break room.
I pull the small stack toward me. Traffic citations, a parking violation, and a noise complaint that makes me laugh because it’s a call on the bookstore and it was on the night of Luis’s last spicy book club.
But apart from that, everything is routine. Basic documentation, logging work. Mostly data entry if you can call it that. Nothing here requires my entire brain, which is good, because my entire brain is very busy suddenly thinking about gray sweatpants again.
Yup. Every bulge and line of his abs is still etched inside my skull like a movie.
I shove that thought away and sit up straighter. Maybe it’s a good thing it’s not a heavy load just yet.
The folders take no time to process; there’s plenty of time to stretch out my lower back, pee, and eat more chips than I should. Enough time for Ingram to tell me some cop jokes over a tea.
But after lunch, I get to the last folder in the pile, and it’s a thick one.
Zoe Marshall – Vehicle Off-Road Fatality
Is this the case that Gabriel mentioned the night of my celebration party? The girl found in her car at the quarry?
