“Maybe going back to school is what I want to do.” It was way too early for this kind of conversation. “Since I don’t have any groceries yet, I’ll probably go to the diner for breakfast. Do you want to go?”
He looked at the clock on the stove and shook his head. “You know what? I still have to get home and shower and shave. And I hope to hell I don’t have to iron a uniform before I go in. I’ll just make something quick when I get home.”
“Oh.” She bet he wouldn’t be running off if she’d said she was going to toss the school brochures and start having babies. “Okay.”
He kissed her cheek and snagged his keys off the counter. “I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.”
He paused in the kitchen doorway, maybe given pause by her lackluster response. “I really do have to go, Liz. But I’ll call you later because I’ll spend the whole day missing you.”
That was what a girl liked to wake up to. “I’ll be thinking about you.”
He grinned and gave her a wink. “Good. That’s the idea.”
*
Drew felt as if he spent the entire morning playing catch-up. He’d been late to his first day back at work since he had to drive home first and empty his truck of camping debris, shower and put on his uniform.
When he’d arrived, the piles of paper awaiting his attention on his desk resembled a science fair mountain range project. He had dozens of calls to return and his email inbox had literally made him shudder. His paper inbox was spilling out of its plastic confines and he couldn’t find the stress ball Barbara had bought him as a joke one year under the piles.
Between work and Liz, he could knead the hell out of that ball.
Spending the night and waking up in her bed had messed with his head in a big way. He’d liked it a lot and he’d already been thinking about stashing a real coffeemaker at her place so he could do it a lot more often. Maybe one of the units that brewed one cup at a time like they had at the station to cut down on tossed stale coffee.
Then he’d seen the brochures for online courses and that had segued into a pretty blatant reminder she wasn’t tied to Whitford, or to him. If she got a better offer somewhere else, she’d be gone.
Now he didn’t know what the hell to do. Was there any sense in pursuing a relationship with Liz and parking a coffeemaker in her house if she was just going to cut and run if her life’s goal epiphany took her out of Whitford? When she’d implied she’d have no problem leaving town if a good job came along, she hadn’t even hesitated. All he could infer from that was the fact she wasn’t as invested in them as a couple as he was.
But if he put some distance between them now, what good would it do? He couldn’t imagine trying to meet other women. He didn’t want to date anybody but Liz, so any other relationship he tried would be doomed from the start.
Right now, he couldn’t imagine not having Liz. But he was afraid he’d end up in the same place—with a woman who didn’t want kids—only this time, it wouldn’t be an unpleasant surprise. He’d have walked into it with his eyes wide open.
“You busy?”
He looked up to see Butch Benoit in the doorway and welcomed the distraction. Since the service station had finally upgraded to a pump that took a credit card, he hadn’t seen Butch to talk to since the night he’d towed Liz’s car. “Not too busy for you. What’s up?”
“Wanted to follow up on an incident late last week, but Barbara said you might not have read the report yet.”
Drew sifted through the piles until he found the report. Bob Durgin had called Butch in to tow a vehicle that was illegally parked and the night after the owner coughed up the necessary fees to get his truck back, the service station had been broken into and some expensive tools taken.
“If you can give me a few hours, Butch, I’ll look into this and get back to you this afternoon to see if Officer Durgin’s made any progress. Barbara made sure you have what you need for your insurance, right?”
“Yeah. It’s more a matter of principle than the money.” Butch stood to go. “Oh, so you and Liz Kowalski, huh?”
Drew froze, then relaxed when he remembered he had nothing to hide anymore. At least it made sense now why a guy who knew that Drew would call him if he had any information on the case would show up at his office. “Facebook?”
“Yeah. Fran said it’s all anybody’s talking about at the market this morning. So how’s Mitch taking that? And, before you answer, you should know Fran told me not to come home without some good, on-the-record gossip.”
That was a warning that went without saying. “It was a surprise, but he’s coming around to the idea.”
“Huh. So you’re officially a couple, then?”
Drew wondered if Fran had written out the list of questions for her husband, or just drummed them into his head. “I guess we are.”