“There’s no need to thank me. I just did what needed doing.” I winced. “And I kind of ignored you to do it. I’m sorry for that.”
Astrid held up a finger. “First, I’ve known you for twenty years, and I know what you’re like when you get into a project. Head down, no distractions. No reason for a case to be different. Second, you did what no one else was willing to do. You and Rios both.” She stopped, closing her eyes for a moment. “I never thought it would go that far. I never thought you’d be in danger from poking around. Not really. When I heard about the fire yesterday, I?—”
I squeezed her hand back. “Don’t. I’m okay. Rios got me out. And it’s not like you actively asked me to help. I inserted myself. I saw that Carson wasn’t going to keep looking, and I made that call. I’m the one who brought Rios into the broader investigation. None of this is on you.”
But it hadn’t stopped me from dreaming of smoke and flames when I’d finally caught a few hours of sleep this morning. I’d probably be circling that for a while.
For a moment, Astrid looked like she was going to argue the point, but she only cleared her throat. “So, speaking of Rios.” Her eyes flicked to the bar, where he stood with Ford, posture coiled like he couldn’t help tracking the perimeter. Even as we looked, his gaze tracked to us—to me—and one corner of that sensual mouth lifted.
“I didn’t see that coming.”
I smiled back at the man who’d somehow become the anchor of my world. “Neither did I.”
“I mean, if you’d asked me, I’d have said you didn’t actually like him. But obviously you two had some serious, forced proximity chemistry going on with this case.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested.
Astrid arched a brow.
“We learned how to respect each other’s professional capabilities.”
Her grin turned wicked. “I can imagine that he has all kinds of professional capabilities with that mouth and those hands…”
Heat burned my cheeks as my brain and body reminded me of exactly how true that statement was. “I’m not at liberty to discuss the confidential details of the case.”
She hooted with laughter. “Good for you, girl! You deserve some good in your life. And from the looks of it, he’s very good for you.”
“I trust him. And I can’t say that about many people.”
“It’s good to have someone you know will catch you if you stumble.”
“I think, maybe, we caught each other.”
She didn’t say anything as the words hung between us, only blinked a little like she was watching her own personal Hallmark movie.
I watched him, absorbing the way he laughed—low and guarded—at something Ford said, the way he scanned the room every so often, always coming back to me. “He makes it easier to breathe.”
I didn’t realize I’d made the admission aloud until Astrid’s hand found mine again. “Hold on to that. The world’s not going to get simpler anytime soon.”
That was the God’s honest truth.
A comfortable hush slipped over us. I sipped my tea, feeling the cool spread through me, and with it the noise and texture of the rest of the Brewhouse. As if the volume on the world had been unmuted.
She let me sit in that silence. Perhaps she needed it too.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said quietly. “Still here. Not—” Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. “Not gone.”
I squeezed her hand. “Me too.”
“What’s the plan now?”
“I hardly know.” I hadn’t come home to find a missing girl or fall in love with a man who’d once hated me.
The entire texture of my life felt different now, and there hadn’t exactly been time to think about it. Plus, Rios and I hadn’t actually talked about what came next. If there was a next. He was every bit as much in transition as I was, and the subject of us beyond our attraction hadn’t made it on the docket of discussion.
But maybe, when all this was over…
Maybe.
