“No problem. I’ll make sure she’s safe and sound in the house before I go.”
“Thanks.”
JJ nodded, looked back at Brantley. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“I know.”
When he reached for her, she gave in to the hug but stepped back before he could pull another stunt like throwing her over his shoulder and going all caveman.
“Now go. Get. Y’all need to go out, get your drunk on. Have fun. And be sure to kiss at midnight. It’s good luck, you know.”
Brantley frowned, clearly not believing her. Not that she believed it either, but the goal was to send him on his way before he could sweet-talk her into joining him. If he tried hard enough, they both knew she would eventually give in.
“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said cryptically as he turned and headed for the stairs.
“What does that mean?” she asked, watching as they both headed down. “Brantley! What does that mean?”
“Happy New Year, JJ,” Brantley called out, not looking back as they walked out the door.
She stood there, staring down for the longest time, trying to process what he’d said. What was he warning her about?
Exhaling heavily, JJ turned back to her desk. She had things to do. Important things.
She took a deep breath, pushed her chair back to her desk, and eased into it. After flexing and wiggling her fingers, she settled them on the keyboard, eager to get back to it. One of these days, she was going to find Juliet Prince. Itwouldhappen, but only if she was diligent. Meaning she didn’t have time to go out anyway.
“Even if I wanted to,” she muttered.
Not that she did.
Nope.
As long as she kept telling herself that, it would be true.
A few minutes later, her phone dinged. She didn’t bother pulling up the camera. JJ knew it was a notification that Brantley and Reese had triggered the motion detector as they were leaving.
“Just you and me, girl,” JJ said to Tesha, who was curled up on the dog bed in the corner. “Exactly as it should be.”
*
Sebastian Buchanan knew what he was aboutto do could quite possibly be the worst idea in the history of all ideas.
Worse than the Snuggie for dogs or Smell-o-Vision, or—for God’s sake, why change a good thing?—New Coke.
Unfortunately, Baz didn’t know another way.
For the past month, he’d waited patiently for JJ to talk to him, to explain why she’d stood him up rather than go to his father’s house for Thanksgiving dinner as she’d agreed to do. It was the least he deserved, although he already knew why. He merely wanted to hear it from her.
Baz remembered that day clearly. He’d been waiting for her that morning, expecting her to arrive at his apartment, only to get a text from Brantley to let him know she had cold feet, and rather than letting her spend the day working, Brantley was talking her into going to his parents with him and Reese.
What was Baz supposed to say to that?No, sorry, she already promised me?
It didn’t work that way, so he’d conceded after attempting to contact JJ only for his texts to go unanswered. Knowing he would drive her further away if he pushed too hard, Baz had gone to his father’s without her. And despite the fact he would’ve preferred she be there, he’d had a good time with his family.
However, leaving it to JJ to explain why she’d ghosted him or maybe just apologize was like waiting for hell to ice over. In other words, it wasn’t going to happen. Hell, the woman had a way of avoiding him even when they were in the same room. She was good at it, too.
And yes, he’d considered making the same offer at Christmas but feared it would be a repeat of their previous ordeal, so he’d resisted the urge only to see on social media how she’d enjoyed her time with Brantley’s and Reese’s families. It was then he decided it was time they addressed this issue once and for all, only that was thwarted when Trey had uncovered a hot lead on a very cold case. The task force had spent the past three days and nights vigorously searching for the needle in the haystack, only they’d come up empty.
In an effort to reset, they were taking a break for one night. One single night.
