We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Sure, I’d brought her to Crew’s wedding as my date, but we hadn’t progressed to anything more than amaybe.
And after the coma dream, where the life I’d always wanted had been dangled in front of me, I knew now that we’d never beanything.
Then I remembered she’d been there when I got shot and realized she must’ve wanted to check up on me.
“I’m okay,” I said, surprised to find I meant it. The searing pain in my chest had now lessened to a dull ache thanks to those pain meds.
“Your voice sounds horrible.” Turning this way and that, she searched the room, finding a pitcher of water and a cup on a small side table. She filled the cup, complete with a lid and straw, and brought it to me.
I chugged it down quickly, reveling in the way it soothed my throat.
“Better?” she asked when I handed the cup back and sighed.
“Much,” I replied, pleased to find my voice seemed stronger.
“Good,” she grinned, a little dreamily, and I barely held back a wince. “So what’s next? When are they letting you out? I figured I could move in with you while you’re recuperating and?—”
“Wait, what?”
“You don’t think I’m going to leave you alone in this, do you?” Her tone suggested I was silly for even thinking it. She reached for my hand and took it in both of hers, clasping me with surprising strength. “We’re a team now, Lane.”
Oh.
Oh no.
This wasnotgood.
“Addie,” I started, taking my hand back. Hers dropped to her sides, expression morphing to stunned confusion. “This is not…that.”
“But I thought—you invited me to your brother’s wedding, Lane. I thought you’d finally manned up and were ready to give this thing a shot.”
I couldn’t admit the real reason I’d asked her to Crew’s wedding was because I’d been too much of a coward to ask who I really wanted, which made me an asshole for leading her on.
“That’s not…” I started, then trailed off, attempting to marshal my thoughts into an explanation that would let her down easy. “We’re colleagues, Addie. Friends. And I appreciate all your help on cases over the years, but I can’t give you anything more than that.”
“I can give you time,” she said quickly. “Let you get healed up, then we can revisit this conversation. Whenever you’re ready.”
I started shaking my head before she even finished speaking.
I’d never be ready.
At least not for her.
I watched, admittedly fascinated, as her expression changed once again. How she made such a good cop eluded me at the moment, because right now, everything she was thinking was clear as day on her face.
It wasn’t only her face that changed, though. Addie’s entire demeanor shifted, her confusion ebbing to something more…sinister. That was the only way to describe it. Malice radiated from her eyes, and anger lined every dip and curve of her body.
“There’s someone else, isn’t there?”
“Not exactly.”
Not an outright lie, but not the full truth either.
“It’s Sutton.”
While I absolutely didnotwant to get into it with her, had been trying to spare her feelings as best as I could, I wasn’t going to lie directly to her face.
“Yes.”
