He’d seen me at my most vulnerable the other night, and yet it appeared he still respected me.
We dropped my new friend off in booking and then headed back to the station, still not saying much. I had a lot of things on my mind, namely how I’d been wrong about Wyatt. I figured there would be no way to salvage our working relationship after the scene he’d stumbled on to at my house. Apparently, I’d underestimated my partner.
“You okay?” Wyatt asked quietly, the streetlights on the lonely highway marking time as I drove. “No injuries?”
“Nah. I’m good.”
I could feel Wyatt looking at the side of my face. “Still wish you didn’t have a partner?”
I huffed. “I never said that.”
He shrugged. “You didn’t have to.”
Meaning, I’d made it pretty damn obvious he wasn’t wanted. Something about that didn’t sit right with me any longer.
A long sigh drained the last of my resistance to having a partner. “Fine. I didn’t want a partner at first, you’re right. But I can admit it’s pretty nice to have backup.”
Wyatt smiled so big I couldn’t help but glance over just to bask in it. “Pretty nice is one way to describe my backup.” He winked suggestively, and I had to clench my hands on the steering wheel to stay focused on the road. “So is mind blowing. Epically unforgettable.”
I told my heartbeat to calm the fuck down. “Are you always so epically cheesy with your lines?”
He laughed, the sound a nice rumble for a rainy day and a blanket pulled over my lap, sitting in front of the fire. He settled down, and the miles ticked by in comfortable silence.
The moment the station pulled into view, he said, “I’m really glad we got partnered up. You can handle yourself, that’s for sure.”
I glanced over and our gazes connected. A moment of understanding passed between us. A fledgling truce. An unspoken agreement to be friends. Or at the very least, friendly. Needing to turn into the parking lot was the only thing to make me break away from his gaze.
I’d sent Wyatt home earlier than me, wanting to get the paperwork done before I called it a night. He’d offered to stay and help, but I didn’t want more time with just me and him in the dark and deserted station. Come morning, it would be filled with lights, people, noises, and the smell of coffee and donuts. Right now though, in the middle of the night, it was far too secluded for my comfort. By the time I got home, all the lights in his house were off next door and it took the buzzing of my phone to keep my brain off the question of what he slept in, if anything.
Amelia: Can you keep a secret?
Oakley: I swear to God, Amelia, if you tell me that baby isn’t Titus’s I might just kill you.
Amelia: Wow. That was really harsh, Oak, even for you. What if that’s really what I had to confess to my big sis? And secondly…if I’d cheated on Titus, you’d have to get in line to kill me.
Oakley: Sorry, just a long night. What’s up?
Amelia: We’re going in tomorrow for the sonogram, where they might be able to tell the sex of the baby. Can we put you down as the one to receive the information? We don’t want to know until the baby shower/gender reveal party.
I thought that whole gender reveal thing was a bunch of bullshit created for pretty social media pictures to show off to the world how wonderful your life was and how much everyone else’s sucked by comparison, but who was I to burst my sister’s bubble of baby craziness?
Oakley: Of course.
Amelia: Remember, no matter what I say, beg, or threaten…DO NOT TELL ME.
I snorted in the quiet still of my house. If I could get to sleep in the next hour, I could still get a decent night’s sleep before the sun came up.
Oakley: I’ll keep my service weapon ready.
Amelia: I knew I could count on you. xoxo
Now if I could just count on myself to keep the walls around my heart solid. Wyatt and I might be on good terms for the first time, but he was way too hot to get casual with. He could incinerate my heart with just one smoldering glance. My plan to be sheriff in ten years depended on me doing the right thing. Not doing my partner.
Of course, that one thought set my brain off in directions it shouldn’t. I was digging out Barney from my bedside drawer before I could get my brain to settle enough to sleep. Funny how even an orgasm couldn’t completely still all the thoughts and feelings about Wyatt invading my quiet life. He was my partner at work. Nothing more.
So, why did that little voice in the back of my head keep talking about him?
7
Wyatt
“Okay, let’s talk past relationships,” I announced to Oakley, knowing she would fucking hate the idea.
That’s what kept me going during those long stretches of patrol when nothing happened and the cruiser went silent. I wanted to get to know my partner. I could only stare out the window at the passing farmland for so long before I wanted to fling myself out of the moving vehicle just for some fun. The invasive questions were for work purposes. Better to fully understand your partner so you can count on them in times of stress on the job. I wasn’t asking these questions for personal information or because I couldn’t stop thinking of the tiny blonde officer on my time off. Nope, not at all.
She snorted. “No, thanks.”
“Great. I’ll start.” I clapped my hands together and got the ball rolling. “I’ve dated a lot of women, but no one has stuck around
