I stayed for about another hour at my mom’s house, grabbing a few things from the kitchen before I left. I had big plans for Della and me tomorrow night. I would finally ask her to stay over at my house, and after that, I wasn’t sure if I would ever want her to leave again. I know we did things kinda ass backward, but I wanted to make things right with her, give her what she deserved.
I think she knew I wasn’t just in it for the physical side of things, that having her meant more to me than anything else. I had been trying pretty hard to make that clear these past few weeks. And if things went further tomorrow night, then I was completely fine with that, more than fine.
“BIG PLANS TONIGHT, Parker?”
I eyed Ty, wondering if this was a trick question or something. Things had been a little tense between us since the whole Blaire thing went down, but he seemed to be getting over it. I’m sure having his wife at home bitching at him didn’t help my case much.
“Yup,” I answered simply, not bothering to go into any details.
“With that girl?”
“Her name’s Della,” I replied tightly, and continued finishing up the paperwork from our shift. It was harder than hell to concentrate, but the sooner I got it done, the quicker I was out of here.
“Right, sorry.” He held his hands up defensively. “I’m not trying to be a dick. You seem happy with her. Things are going good?”
“Yeah.” I set my pen down and stood up. “Really good. I think we’ve both grown up a lot, so it’s even better this time. None of the bullshit drama.” At least so far. Della called late last night after I had passed out. Her call woke me up, but I couldn’t be pissed, it was good to hear her voice. Then she dropped the bombshell on me about Nash. Apparently, he wasn’t that baby’s father, and Della went out and found him, needing to console him. Whatever. I was wide-awake after that. I got that they were friends, but that didn’t mean I had to like her being around him. I was trying like hell to trust her when she said that she just needed to be there for him, and I guess since she came right out and told me about it, that was saying a lot. There weren’t any secrets or lies between us.
“Well, I guess I’m happy for you then, buddy.” He slapped me on the back. “But I don’t see any double dates in our near future. I think my wife still sort of hates you.”
I made a few stops on my way over to Della’s, but I pretty much had everything set up for our date tonight. I was worn out, but there was no way in hell I was cancelling. At least what I had planned would be extremely relaxing.
“Hey.” Zoey opened the door, giving me a wide grin before letting me pass by. “Apparently you just came from work, right? You’re not here to arrest anyone?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to waste any time changing.”
She rolled her eyes, heading toward the kitchen. “You two are so cute, it’s sickening. I think she’ll be down in a minute. She was on the phone with Nash when I came down.”
My jaw ticked at the mention of his name, and Zoey’s eyes widened. “Sorry, I’m not sure if I should’ve told you that.”
“I’m not hiding anything.” Della came up from behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “Nash is having a really hard time. I’m just trying to help.”
I groaned, turning around to wrap my arms around her. “Yeah, is that how he sees it, though? Or does he think it’s something more?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks. I just need to make sure he’s okay. I know how it is to have your world completely turned upside down.” I squeezed her tightly, wanting to take away any pain that still haunted her. She pushed a smile onto her face. “Enough of that depressing shit. Where are we going tonight?” She squirmed in place. Della hated surprises and I loved them—well, I loved surprising her. It made quite the funny combination.
“You’ll see.” I kissed her forehead, and Zoey made a gagging noise behind us.
“Shut up,” Della scolded before grabbing her purse off the counter. “You up for a late-night study session after I get back?”
“Right,” Zoey dragged out. “I have a feeling you won’t be coming home. You’ll be too busy getting frisked.”
Exactly what I was thinking.
I LOOKED OVER at Justin, sitting there in his tight-fitting police uniform as he navigated his car out of my parking lot, and felt like jumping on top of him right that very second. He was mine. I really could do it. He normally changed before I saw him but I was perfectly fine that he hadn’t. If he never wanted to change again, I was okay with that, too.
Justin smirked at me before changing the station, and I smiled weakly at him. He knew exactly what was running through my head, I could tell. I was worried that there would be some tension between us from the whole Nash thing.