“More flowers!” she said, smiling at him.
“Just one.” He shrugged as if giving a girl flowers was uncomfortable for him, but she noticed he grinned at her as she brought the blush petals to her nose.
“I love pink! This is enough. Just this.”
“I did good then.”
She didn’t want to hurt his feelings about the lovely white rose bouquet, so she just nodded, and enjoyed the extra single pink flower in her hands.
She kept peeking over at him during the short car ride to the Mountain Lake Lodge, and although she got the feeling he’d be embarrassed for her to tell him how handsome he looked, she admitted to herself that he cleaned up pretty good. A crisp blue dress shirt under a suit jacket set off his blue eyes, unbuttoned to reveal a patch of tan skin under his neck. He was in good shape; in such good shape it made her wonder what he did to stay so fit.
He smiled mischievously, glancing at her with a twinkle in his eye when she asked. “I take a run every morning. And I work out a few times a week. There’s a gym where I work. I mean, there’s a whole training facility. You have to stay on top of it. A gut’s not going to help you in a foot chase.”
“How likely is a foot chase for you?”
“You never know. I mean, most of my job isn’t hands-on like that. But, from time to time, I’ll have to go to a scene or assist on a bust.”
“That sounds dangerous.” She hadn’t given a whole lot of thought to the perils of his job, but she turned her attention to it now. “I don’t like it.”
“I’m an officer, Kat. That’s what I do.”
“How often does an officer get hurt?”
“You mean shot?”
She nodded, staring at his profile, which looked so strong and so young.
“In Montana? There’ve been surprisingly few. Eight fatalities in forty-six years. And that’s troopers. For me? Even less.”
Those statistics were relieving, but she still didn’t like it. She didn’t like the thought of Erik in any danger at any time. “How much less?”
He glanced at her. “Hey. Are you worried about me?”
She breathed deeply and sighed, considering her response. The simple answer was Yes, of course I am. I care about you. You’re more and more important to me every day. But, Katrin knew how Erik felt about women fixing on him, so she shrugged lightly.
“I don’t want to see anyone hurt.”
“Well, don’t worry. I’m really in a low-risk division…not to mention, I’m careful and I’ve got good reflexes. Erik the Blond, the young Viking King of Law Enforcement.”
“Sounds like Ing and Kris could have used their own personal Viking King of Law Enforcement this week.”
“What do you mean?”
“You haven’t talked to them?” He shook his head no. “Oh, well, I guess Wade showed up there yelling and making a scene on Tuesday night. Kris called the police and had him arrested, and they decided to press charges and file for a restraining order.”
“Good! It’s about damn time!”
Katrin sighed. “Well, but then he came by to apologize, and I guess the long and short is that he’s headed to rehab. Ing and Kris agreed to drop the charges if he enrolled in a sixty-day program, so…”
“So that’s it?”
“Yep.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Why not? Don’t you think he deserves a chance to get clean and sober?”
“I don’t begrudge him that, really, but, some of those places are really lenient. What stops him from leaving?”
“Oh, well, it sounds like he’s taking it seriously. Ing felt okay about it.”
“You girls are too nice. What’d Kristian say?”
“Didn’t talk to him.”
“Hmm.”
She knitted her brows. First the roses, now this. She wished she hadn’t brought up Wade.
“Erik? Can we talk about something else? I feel like Wade Doyle’s gotten enough of me already. I’m sorry I brought him up. I don’t want him here tonight.”
Erik reached for her hand and she clasped his, bringing it to her lips, then using her finger to rub the lip goop into his skin, in a little, sparkly circle.
She looked out the window as they drove in comfortable silence for a little while. It was a beautiful evening for a drive and nothing obstructed Katrin’s view of glistening, sky-blue Flathead Lake except for a low guardrail outside her window. Dark green pine trees dotted the hills that flanked the lake so densely they almost looked like carpets of deep green rising up out of the blue water. She rolled down her window just enough to smell the crisp, fresh air off the lake, feeling content—more than content, excited, and—finally, after so long—happy.
“How about you? How’s work going?” Erik asked, putting his hand back on the wheel.
“It’s good. It’s been amazing to see this project from the beginning. I mean, we got there and the building was disgusting. Solid, but trashed. We cleaned it out, the workers came, and voila—two weeks later we’re just about ready to open. José has really perfected this process. And I guess he already has two more towns who are asking him to come and do clinic start-ups. He’s headed back to Texas in eight weeks for the next one.”
“Word of the good doctor’s skills are spreading all the way to Texas, huh?”
“Well, he’s from Texas so it makes sense he’d end up there. But, he’s good at this, Erik. Truly. He has it down to a science. He orders everything he needs far in advance. Keeps costs low by cleaning out the buildings himself and contracting local day workers for the labor. In the blink of an eye, you look around and there’s fresh paint, new carpet, shiny light
