Heated

“You’re right,” he said. “I do see you. I see everything about you. The good, the bad, the courageous, the bold. I see a woman who fights for what’s right. And, sweetheart you don’t need a badge to do that.”


He lifted my hand and pressed a gentle kiss to my palm. “This may be goodbye,” he said. “But it isn’t the end.”





Chapter Twenty-Eight


“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing ever?” Candy said, cuddling her new baby daughter close. “My sweet little Brianna.”

“She’s amazing,” I said sincerely, and beside me Amy nodded agreement, still a bit shaky, but doing well after more than a week of recovery.

“I didn’t think I’d get to meet you,” Amy said, bending over to stroke the infant’s head. She turned to look at me, and I saw the gratitude in her eyes, now brimming with tears.

“Do you want to hold her?” Candy asked Amy.

“Oh, yes.”

“I’ll get a chair,” I said, then scooted one of the uncomfortable blue guest chairs closer to the bed.

Amy took the baby, holding her as if she were glass, then started to softly sing. I watched them, then turned to smile at Candy. She gestured me over, and I moved to sit carefully on the side of her bed.

“And how are you feeling, Mommy?”

“Good. Tired. Although this one gave me less trouble than Sam.”

“Is he excited about having a little sister?”

“Over the moon. Jim took him out to the store,” she added, referring to the bartender she’d married, who was the love of her life. “Gonna buy little sis a stuffed rabbit. And maybe something for himself, too,” she added with a wink.

“I’m glad,” I said, feeling foolishly sentimental. And trying very hard not to think of Tyler. Considering he seemed to be in my mind constantly, that wasn’t an easy task.

“So here I am, in this comfy bed with a television and my new baby and friends and people to wait on me. I’m doing fine,” Candy said. “How are you doing?”

“Great,” I said, then conjured a perky smile.

“She misses Tyler,” Amy said, and I shot her a withering look. She just smiled. “Well, you do. When we drove back here after they let me out of the hospital, he saw us off. It was sappily romantic.”

Not romantic, I thought. Torture.

I’d walked away. I’d left him behind. And though I’d been absolutely certain that was the right thing to do, now I was haunted by regret and memory, loneliness and loss.

I moved to Candy and gave her and the baby quick kisses. “I’ll come back tomorrow, okay? I have to run. I’m still on duty.”

That was a lie—I actually had the rest of the day off—but I wanted to get out of there. I loved Candy, but I needed to be alone.

I’d been spending a lot of time alone. Alone and quiet, moving like a ghost through my own life. A life I used to love, but now it just seemed empty.

My apartment seemed empty, too, I thought a half hour later as I approached my familiar blue door. I sighed, then slid the key into the lock. Maybe I should get a hamster. Just so there was some life to come home to.

I started to push the door open—and heard the sharp snap of a drawer being shut.

Shit.

Immediately, I was on alert. I’d come off duty before I went to see Candy, and I was still wearing my weapon harness under my light linen jacket. I reached for my Glock, immediately more at ease with its weight in my hand.

I checked my perimeter, then went in low—and found myself facing Tyler.

A thousand emotions battered me—joy, confusion, even anger because I was trying so hard to get past him, and here he was making me stumble.

Most of all, I felt love.

I wanted to run to him and toss my arms around him. I wanted to cover him with kisses. I wanted to run my hands over every inch of him simply to prove to myself that he was real.

I did none of that. Instead, I calmly put my gun on the entryway table, then looked at him. “Dammit, Tyler, I could have shot you. You can’t just break into people’s apartments.”

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