Page 39 of Rogue Wave

If he wanted to confront Nigel, I’d let him. And I’d enjoy every second of this.

“Follow me,” I said, waving my arm as I turned to head back to where I’d come from. “I’m sorry you had to come all the way out here.”

“Sometimes these kinds of messages are stronger coming from law enforcement,” he explained.

It was kind of cute that he came here because he was worried after my call dropped. Sweet, even. Especially for a guy who was broody all the time and seemed to take pleasure in writing me tickets.

I noticed Vivi and our security guard were following. The former because she knew this would be hilarious. The latter because he was likely very concerned about why the sheriff was here and so upset.

Once we arrived at the tank, I lifted the safety hatch and waved Hank over to get close.

“Hank, I’d like you to meet Nigel.” I pointed my finger down at the red blob that was slowly floating in my direction.

I wasn’t sure what Hank expected to see. Perhaps an employee in scuba gear to pop up, or maybe someone swimming, but the look on his face told me he was absolutely not expecting it to be an octopus.

“Nigel is our giant Pacific octopus,” I said, stifling a laugh, and then I watched as Nigel squirted water in both our faces.

“See! He’s an asshole!” I exclaimed, wiping my face.

Hank cracked a smile. It was the first time I’d seen him smile that big—ever—and I noticed that it made him look even sexier than he already was.

“You should do that more often,” I said softly.

“Do what?” he asked.

“Smile. It looks good on you. Makes you look human. Maybe even a little sexy.”

I winked at him and lowered the hatch door so Nigel didn’t get any ideas.

“Nigel slapped me while I was prepping his food because he was greedy and impatient and then snatched my phone out of my hand—which was my fault since I’m not supposed to have it this close.”

He nodded as if all the pieces were coming together. “You screamed, and then the phone disconnected. I tried calling you back, but it went straight to voicemail. Given what you had said about Nigel in the moments before the call dropped, I was worried he’d attacked you.”

“Well, he did, but she’s used to it,” Vivi chimed in.

“Everything okay here?” our security guard asked, clearly still trying to figure out whether he was needed or not.

“Everything’s great, thank you,” I told him, and he left to go back to his post.

“I’m going back to the eels,” Vivi said. “If you need me, just use your walkie.”

I nodded and thanked her.

I grabbed a small towel and gave it to Hank to wipe his face. “Sorry. I feel bad that you came all the way out here for nothing.”

His face was so overwhelming right now. There were so many emotions swirling in his eyes that it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Sometimes he looked like he wanted to run his hand over his face in exasperation, and other times—like right this second—he looked like he wanted to scoop me up and kiss the living daylights out of me.

I was hoping for option two.

“It’s not nothing, Hazel, and I would do it again if I thought you were in trouble.” He was looking down at his shirt when he said that, wiping the water off himself. I desperately wished he had been looking at me, though, because Hank was a hard nut to crack. I needed to see his face to know what kind of meaning was behind those words.

Was it more of an “I’m the sheriff, and it’s my duty to do that for everyone” look, or more like an “I would do anything to protect you because I’m secretly in love with you and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell you how I feel” kind of look?

Okay, so that last one was definitely just wishful thinking on my part, but a woman could dream.

When he finished wiping himself down, he handed me the towel but just stood there for a moment and stared at me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, sensing he was troubled by something.