Nothing he’d really meant to say out loud. Or maybe he had meant to. It was the truth. “If you lived in my house, we could have stayed in bed another hour, at least.”
He pulled on the spare pair of sleep pants he’d started leaving there so he’d have an excuse not to turn and see her face. Whatever came out of her mouth next would tell him everything. He knew her well enough to know she’d either agree it was a good plan, or she’d pretend she thought he was joking around.
She gave a small laugh, but it didn’t sound very genuine. “Pretty sure you have to buy a woman dinner before you ask her to move in so you can sleep an extra hour.”
He had his answer. “I paid when we were driving home from the campground.”
“Because it was a drive-through and you were in the driver’s seat.”
Forcing himself to swallow his disappointment—which was dumb to feel anyway because it was too soon for that kind of move—he kept his tone light. “What time do you have to be in?”
“Ten. With the parade and all the events going on, Paige says breakfast is always light, but there’s an extended lunch rush, plus a lot of people wanting ice cream in the air-conditioning instead of from vendors. So Paige is opening and Tori and I will go in at ten and I’ll probably work with Ava until closing unless it really drops off for dinner.”
Drew rushed through his first cup of coffee, trying not to look at the clock a million times while Liz made small talk about the day. Finally, when he didn’t have another minute to spare, he kissed her goodbye and did his best not to go too much over the speed limit on his way home.
By the time ten o’clock rolled around, he felt like his head was ready to explode. Whitford had been throwing Old Home Day parades since 1823. It didn’t seem too much to ask that somebody in all those years write down the order the floats went in. And, in a first for the parade, they had almost forty four-wheelers show up in support of the ATV club, which was good. Many of the businesses in Whitford, but especially the Northern Star Lodge, the Trailside Diner and the Whitford General Store & Service Station, were seeing increased profits since they’d connected the trails to the town, so it was important to Drew there be a show of goodwill. It was even more important, however, he correct the dumbass who’d put the forty machines behind the 4-H kids and their calves.
Finally it was time to hit the sirens and mark the start of the parade. Moving at a crawl so slow it barely moved the speedometer, he pulled out onto the main street. His gaze was constantly bouncing from the road to the crowd to his mirrors and back to the road. People cheered and whistled while he smiled and waved. These were the moments, staging-area headaches aside, when he was damn proud to be their police chief.
When he got to the Trailside Diner, he couldn’t help but look over. Liz and Tori were outside, along with the cook and a couple of what were probably customers, waving. He hit his horn and waved, waiting for her to blow him a kiss before turning his attention back to the road. If you were first in line for the town’s big parade, with flashing lights and a siren, and you drove into something because you were checking out a woman, people noticed.
He spotted his dad, Rose and the Kowalskis, all sitting together on the hill by the library’s monument. Hailey was with them, too, and they all waved and cheered when he rolled by.
It took nearly an hour to get everybody from one end of the town to the other and then, finally, it was time for the parade to disperse and for everybody to enjoy the festivities.
The first thing Drew enjoyed was a sausage from the first vendor he came to. He was starving because, just as he’d feared, he hadn’t had time for breakfast. It wasn’t exactly the breakfast of champions, but it filled the hole. Then he made his way through the town, talking to almost everybody and soaking in the good mood that everybody seemed to share.
When he figured any lunch rush Liz might have had was over, he found a vendor and bought two fried doughs. He sprinkled powdered sugar over both, then walked to the diner. There were still quite a few people inside, but most of them seemed to be having cold drinks and ice cream, just as Paige had predicted.
Liz’s face lit up when she saw him and he held up the fried dough. “I didn’t want you sneaking out and getting in trouble.”
“You’re the best boyfriend ever.” She gave him a big kiss before taking the fried dough and biting into it.
Her facial expression seemed to imply she was enjoying the fried dough almost as much as she enjoyed sex with him, which made him shake his head. He wasn’t a huge fan of fried dough himself, so he gestured at Tori, the other waitress.
“I was hoping that was for me,” she told him, taking it and then making almost the same face as Liz after the first bite. “Thanks, Chief.”
“No problem. I hope your customers don’t mind you guys taking a few minutes to eat them.”