Nodding, he stepped back and gathered up the bags with his empty dishes. “I can’t wait to take you to the wedding.”
“I can’t wait to go. I… I mean that.”
It sounded like she did.
And that, was everything he could hope for.
The next day when he showed up at work, he found someone waiting for him.
Someone he didn’t want to see.
The woman sitting at his desk stood up the moment she saw him and suddenly he felt a dark cloud settling over his head. “Valerie.”
Her bright smile fell into a frown. “It’s Veronica, silly.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He didn’t want to apologize even if he knew it was the right thing to do. He just wanted her gone.
“I made you something to apologize.”
She gestured at a box on the desk like she was onThe Price is RightorDeal or No Deal.
“Ta Da!!”
He blinked at her and looked at the box as if it had Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in it. “Whatever it is, you can take it with you. I’ve got to get to work.”
He looked up at the clock on the wall and inwardly groaned. He’d gotten to work with plenty of time before the roll call and that was going to be a problem.
If he had to walk away from his desk because the meeting was about to start that was one thing.
But he had time, more than fifteen minutes before the start of the shift meeting. He didn’t have that excuse.
And the woman staring at him likely knew it.
Her uncle, after all, was one of the big wigs at the Center City Police Department. He may have been the one to arrest her, but he still had to be civil.
Especially because someone up on high had managed to vacate the arrest.
The last thing he needed was to upset the Catalano family and that included the woman standing at his desk.
“Look, Cross, I’m trying to apologize for all the trouble I caused you. ‘Kay?”
He smiled at her but it was thin-lipped stretch. “It’s Crois.”
“Hmm? Sorry?” She blinked at him. “What?”
“My name,” he clarified, “is Crois. Not Cross.”
“Oh…” her laughter was thin and sounded like cheap wind chimes clashing against each other. “I thought it was Cross. Cross,” she reiterated, “is sexier. But… I don’t mind calling you Crois if it makes you happy.”
“You can call me Officer.” He didn’t want to leave her any room to argue. “Now, if you’ll-”
“It’s donuts!”
She actually stomped her foot, her dangling earrings catching on her hair.
“I brought you two dozen donuts!”
