His smile was infectious and it transposed itself onto my face.
We just stood there for a moment, looking at each other, sharing that same idiotic smile.
Whoop-whoop!
We were so engaged with each other that neither of us noticed the police cruiser pull up alongside us.
My heart sank.
So much for having a nice day.
Here came Liam.
And he never failed to cast a dark cloud on my day.
Liam
I had a bad feeling ever since I laid eyes on the muscle-bound moron.
What sort of pilot crashes into a lake, anyway?
A very poor one.
I snickered at the thought of what would happen to him when he returned to whichever base he’d taken off from and the trouble he would get in.
But I knew it was just a smokescreen tossed up by my mind to protect me from flying off the handle.
Why did it have to be my girl that found him?
Of all the women in the world, why did it have to be her?
She was kind and good and rescued him from the lake—and what kind of man needed to be rescued by a woman?—and called the ambulance.
Things like this always ensnared a woman’s senses.
It was like fate was telling them they were meant to be with this mysterious stranger.
It overpowered a woman’s reason and logic.
They needed to be protected from themselves.
She needed to be protected from herself.
And I was the man to do it.
We’d been together a long time ago and I knew deep in my heart we were always meant to be a couple.
Silly things come up sometimes when you’re kids.
We were adults now and she had returned to me.
There was no reason for us to be apart any longer.
That was fate’s plan.
Not this asshole pilot falling from the sky.
I was her destiny.
Not him.
I wasn’t even convinced his amnesia act was genuine.
Doctors could be bamboozled the same way anyone else could be.
They liked to think they knew what they were doing with their fancy charts and graphs and tests but there was one thing none of their fancy degrees could tell them.
And that was what people were really like.
That came from cold, hard experience—experience I had in spades.
And I wasn’t about to let Isabella be the victim of whatever this guy had in store for her.
No sir.
No on my watch.
I had a fitful night of sleep knowing he was in the same house as her.
There was no telling what he might attempt in the middle of the night.
Unable to sleep, I put on a fresh uniform and drove down to her parents’ farmhouse and parked outside on the street.
I watched the building with a pair of binoculars and sharp ears.
I tried to warn her about the darkness in people, reminded her of the stranger that picked up her friend in the middle of a busy coffee shop and never saw again.
But Isabella wouldn’t listen.
She could be so bullheaded sometimes.
I sighed and shook my head.
The ones we loved were the ones we needed to protect more forcefully, even if that meant doing so secretly.
Come on, punk. Make my day.
I wanted him to make a pass at Isabella right here and now, so I could prevent her from coming to harm.
I would be her white knight, and I would send the asshole pilot away.
He would never see her again and I would get the girl of my dreams.
As the sun began to rise and the barnyard animals came awake, I realized it was morning.
I didn’t want to get seen parked where I was as someone might think me a stalker.
So, I headed back into town and grabbed some breakfast at a local diner.
I decided I would swing by the farm on my way to the station before I began my shift.
On the way, I stopped off at a stall selling locally-grown flowers.
There was a very nice bouquet of roses in the front that caught my eye.
The seller sauntered over and bent down to peer through my open window.
“Morning, officer. How can I help?”
“You have some very nice flowers here.”
“We do our best.”
He was a skinny guy with missing front teeth, a ne’erdowell that I didn’t recognize.
But that didn’t mean he always followed the rule of law.
“Those roses look mighty fine,” I said. “The red ones in the front.”
The seller picked them up and angled them toward me.
I sniffed them deeply.
“They sure do smell good too. You don’t add artificial scents to your flowers, do you? I saw something about it on the news the other day.”
“No, sir. The only artificial thing about these flowers is the wrapping paper. But even that is made with naturally-grown products.”
I fingered the price tag and whistled.
“Ten dollars? Is that the price of a small bunch of roses these days?”
“It is for the very best quality in town.”
I rubbed a petal between my fingers.
It was thick, solid, and healthy.
“You can feel the quality, can’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
He smiled at me with his toothless grin and I smiled right back.
Neither of us took our eyes off each other.
He began to perspire and wiped a hand over his top lip.
“A lot of people applied for a permit to sell flowers here,” I said. “They all failed. I’m surprised they gave it to you. Do you mind if I see it?”
The seller’s eyes darted from side to side furtively as if hoping for someone to rescue him from this situation.
“Well?” I said evenly. “Can I see it?”
The seller patted down his pockets halfheartedly and shook his head.
“Shoot. I, uh, must have left it at home.”
“Well, isn’t that a shame? And here’s me looking forward to seeing it. Oh well.”
I didn’t move.
“How about, uh, you keep those roses?” the seller said, wiping the sweat from his top lip.
“You want me to keep them? This isn’t a bribe, is it?”
“What? No, sir. They’re on the house. For all your good service.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
And still, I didn’t move.
The old man swallowed and reached into his wallet and extracted a five-dollar note.
“And a drink. On me. For all your hard work.”
I took the note.
“Five dollars won’t buy much of a drink.
