“Well, nice to meet you, Hattie. I recommend everything Lila serves. Maybe we’ll see you around.”
“Never know. I’m going to be staying up at your brother’s cabins.” I gave him a wide smile as Sage clapped her hands together like I just gave her the best Christmas gift.
“Really?” Her eyes shifted between her brother and me. “That’s amazing. Then I’ll definitely see you again. Can’t wait. Toodles. My plants are calling. Bye, Fish.” She bent to pat the dog.
Without saying another word, she took off down the street. Turning to Kipp, I quirked an eyebrow at him. “She seems nice.”
“Sage is the best. To be fair, all my brothers and sisters are pretty great. We got lucky that way. All of us, except Chloe, are fost-adopted, and we clicked together like we were meant to be family from the start. Should we go in and pick a few things?” he asked.
He took my hand in his, fingers intertwining with mine as the tough callouses brushed against my softer skin. Iteased some of the sting I felt when he mentioned siblings, and he casually shared personal information about himself as if it was nothing, leaving me dizzy. I had so many questions, but now I understood why they didn’t look alike. Focusing on his hand, I let him pull me forward. “Fish, stay.”
The inside looked exactly like I expected from the window displays. On one side was an adorable bookshop with rows and rows of bookshelves with cutesy signs that made you want to dive in and explore, and on the other side was an inviting coffee shop. There was a chalkboard menu up on the wall with specials for the day, listing all sorts of coffees, teas, and pastries.
“Do you have any recommendations?” I asked as we wandered up to the counter.
“As Sage said, everything I’ve had here is amazing, but the owner is engaged to my brother, so I might be a little biased. One of my other sisters also works here, making some of the pastries, so I pretty much like everything. I don’t think you’ll find anything that doesn’t taste good.”
Predictably, Kipp also knew the person at the counter. “Mia, this is Hattie. She’s going to be around for a bit. I hope so anyway.”
Mia was almost fairy-like with pink-tipped hair and a shy smile as she greeted Kipp and me.
“Well, I think you’ll like it here. This is an awesome place. Welcome to town. What brings you our way? You doingsome vacationing?” she asked as she began to plate up our order.
She dished up a confetti sprinkle cupcake Kipp had ordered, which I found myself curiously interested in. I’d really thought he was more of a coffee and granola sort of guy, but the sprinkles were throwing me off. It was a perfectly innocent question, one I’d expected to come up, but the way Kipp raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for my answer, made it obvious he was more than intrigued by what my response would be.
This was typically where I lost people. Some were super interested, and some thought it was weird, but I’d learned a long time ago not to give two shits about the people who dismissed my work. The ones who weretoointerested … well, those I shucked off like shit on the bottom of my shoe.
“I’m a podcaster.” Mia’s eyes lit with interest, but it was Kipp, whose entire body had tilted towards me, those muscles flexing, who had my attention. Another customer came up behind us, and she gave us an apologetic smile. “Hi, Janice. I’ll be right with you. If you guys need something else, give me a wave from outside. I can come on out.”
“Thanks, Mia. Come on, Hattie. I want to hear all about your podcasting, and I’ll tell you what I do.” He looked a little mournfully at all the items on the counter before piling his cupcake next to my scone.
Fish was plopped sound asleep under one of the sidewalk tables, his face completely relaxed, only opening one eyeball to see who was scraping back the chairs before flopping his head back onto the pavement.
“A guard dog he is not,” Kipp answered ruefully. “So … podcasting. Tell me more. What brings you to our little town?”
Taking a sip of my iced coffee, I contemplated the fork in the road, but he was too genuine for me to lie. And I wasn’t joking when I said I was going to stay at his cabins. They were nice—more than nice. My life wasn’t typical when it came to meeting men, so relationships weren’t in the cards, but every once in a while, I’d indulge in a hookup here or there. A girl had needs, after all. Kipp Holt seemed like he might be willing to help me out with that.
“I’m a true crime podcaster.” There was the slightest widening of his eyes—that hint of surprise followed by the tightening around his mouth of displeasure and disapproval. Uh oh. Immediately, I knew he wasn’t on board. That probably blew any chance at finding out how he was in the sack. “That’s my full-time gig.” Bending into my scone to take a big bite, I couldn’t hold back the little moan. “Wow, these are …”
“Yeah, they’re something.” He leaned back a little, but he kept his eyes on me as I caught a crumb with my tongue, and I saw the flash of heat in his eyes. “That crunchy sugar on the top. My sister calls it pearl sugar. I love thatstuff.” He cleared his throat. “So, true crime. That’s interesting. You on a case here then?” There was some nonchalance in his tone, but I read him easily. He wasn’t impressed.
He swiped his finger through the frosting of his cupcake and licked it off in the most lascivious way possible, which made my core tighten. Something told me this man would rock a woman’s world in the sack. Too bad that possibility had sailed. I didn’t do regrets, and while he might be attracted to me physically, that wasn’t enough.
“Yep. There’s a case I’m thinking of investigating nearby. So, what do you do?”
It was time to change the subject so all the attention wasn’t just on me. Not that it wasn’t nice talking to a local, but I was more interested in learning about him than using him as a source. Still, I wasn’t sure that was going to happen anymore.
CHAPTER 4
Kipp
The moan that she gave after she bit into the scone shot straight to my balls, making everything in me tighten as I watched her tongue sweep the crumbs off her lip. This excursion had been impulsive. Hell, everything about approaching her was. Then she dropped that bomb about investigating a ‘case’ here and being into ‘true-crime’? What the fuck was that?
I wasn’t going to lie to her about my job, and even though part of me thought I should end this conversation early, I still found myself intrigued by her whole vibe. Civilians in general were a huge pain in the ass. Sure, she was gorgeous. More than that. But that didn’t mean I wanted her meddling in anything like some Scooby Doo wannabe detective.
“I’m a game warden for OSP.” Watching her face, I cataloged her reaction, waiting to see if there was any sign she recognized me earlier (which seemed unlikely). Afterall, when she pulled up she looked completely unaware of anything beyond what she was doing at that moment—stretching and getting out of the car after whatever drive she had taken, her tits pressing against the fabric as her back arched. But … Wade and I were both in law enforcement, and it wasn’t entirely impossible that whatever she was investigating (mental eye roll) was something we were familiar with. Maybe she was playing me.
“Huh. I mean …” she waved her hand at me. “That fits.”
