Lane Lawless never did anything he didn’t want to do.
He wantedme. Full stop.
Still, he hadn’t pushed.
Maybe because, in those five days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we’d both been busy. There’d been anotherbreak-in on the twenty-seventh that had Lane working overtime, even bringing Trey in to try to catch the responsible party.
So far, the department hadn’t had any luck.
As usual, I didn’t have any big plans for New Year’s Eve beyond curling up on the couch with, surprise, my cat and my Kindle, and trying to stay awake long enough to watch the New York City ball drop on TV, even though we were two hours behind them.
Naturally, Aspen and Reagan had different ideas.
ASPEN
Get dressed. We’re going out.
I groaned. Going out was thelastthing I wanted to do.
REAGAN
Don’t have to tell me twice.
ASPEN
Sutton?
ME
Ugh. I have to work in the morning!
I didn’t, but they didn’t know that.
ASPEN
Liar. Crew is off, so I know you are too.
Damnit.
REAGAN
Oops, looks like your excuse just evaporated!
ME
I’m not a big drinker…
ASPEN
So don’t drink? You can still come out with us.
I swallowed hard, taking care to formulate my response. The truth was, while I would love to spend time with them, New Year’s Eve was a trigger for me. I purposely hadn’t gone out to celebrate the holiday—even though it was also my birthday—since that night.
But maybe this was a chance to replace that shitty night with a better one, to get out of the endless thought spiral and enjoy myself for once.
Besides, Aspen had a point. There was no law that I had to drink to enjoy myself.
As if sensing my indecision, another message came through.
