Sullivan managed not to choke as he swallowed his beer, but only barely. “No,” he said when he could speak. “I never thought that.”
“Then what did you think?”
“Guarded. Careful. Protective.”
“Oh. Good call.”
“That kiss at the range aside, you’ve built fences.”
“Yep. Electric.”
“I was thinking razor wire ribbon.”
“Another fine choice,” she said carelessly, forking more salad.
“It begs a particular question.”
“Don’t ask why. Taking a page from your book, I’m not prepared to go there.”
It was what Sullivan had expected. “All right. Then I won’t.”
Ramsey frowned slightly. “You gave up awfully easy.”
“Respecting your wishes.”
Suspicious, she said, “I pressed you harder. Are you trying to teach me a lesson?”
“Did you learn anything?”
“Yeah. I can’t spar with a reasonable, even-tempered, equanimous partner. I require a horse’s ass if there’s going to be a fair match.”
“Is that self-deprecating humor?”
“That’s honesty.”
“I can be a horse’s ass.”
“Probably, but you haven’t been. Not with me.”
He considered that. “Give me time. Sixth or seventh date ought to do it.”
“We haven’t agreed on a third.”
“I thought we kind of did. You know, the kiss and all.”
“There did seem to be an unspoken agreement,” she said, thoughtful. “All right. We can do a third. You know my record is two, so that’ll be a first for me.”
They finished their meal haggling over the next venue and possible dates to do it. They went through almost four weeks before they found something. The end of August suddenly seemed a long way off. With the help of a phone app, Ramsey scored tickets to a Bruno Mars concert at the PPG Paints Arena for a day Sullivan was not on duty. Without a schedule for herself yet, she would have to ask Paul for the time or—and she disliked doing it—call in sick if he refused. She didn’t mention this last part to Sullivan. It might bring unnecessary cognitive dissonance to his Dudley Do-Right frontal lobe, and she did not want to be responsible for that.
Ramsey pushed her mostly eaten salad aside, set her elbows on the table, and folded her hands in a single fist. She regarded him candidly. “I promised myself that I’d get around to asking you why you didn’t show for traffic court. Now that we’re on a second date and a third is settled, it seems like something I should know.”
“You’re asking now? I didn’t exactly hear a question.”
“I’m asking now.”
“It’s not complicated. My fellow officers advised against it.”
“Really? Why?”
