He shrugged and took a bite of one. “Better than a cancer stick. I’m trying to quit.”
They caught their first new case together that afternoon. A man had shot and killed his girlfriend and barricaded himself inside an apartment with the couple’s newborn daughter. Eva soon learned Cam was the only certified negotiator in their squad, a former member of the Emergency Response Team. That was the first time she’d ever seen him turn his pockets inside out and walk into the lion’s den with his hands held up.
How could you not trust the guy?
“Eva?”
Yanked out of her reminiscence, she half-turned in her seat, expecting to see Cam and ready to congratulate him on a job well done. But then the voice registered like a sucker punch, and she whipped around. Not Cam. Definitely not Cam.
Oh, God, that voice. Like a sensual rasp of velvet over her nerve endings.
Please, no. It can’t be him. She was hundreds of miles from D.C. It just couldn’t be—
The familiar scent of Preston Linz surrounded her. His cologne hinted at coffee, wood, and citrus fruits, and she used to love the smell. Now it made her slightly nauseous. Was he still using the same bottle she’d bought him last year for Christmas?
“Holy cow,” he said, ever the politician, always so careful about not swearing in public. “It is you. I almost didn’t recognize you in that dress. Wow. You look gorgeous.”
She didn’t bother with a smile. “What the hell are you doing here?”
His eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. He used to have a slightly unruly mop of sandy blond hair, but now he wore it cut and styled in a gelled sweep away from his handsome, narrow face.
“C’mon, Eva. Is that any way to greet an old friend?”
“We’re not friends,” she said unequivocally. “We’re exes. Big difference.”
His polished smile dropped into a scowl. “I thought we agreed to be civil about everything.”
“Yeah, in D.C. We crossed state lines, so that verbal agreement is now void.” With that, she chose a TV at random and pretended to be interested in the scrolling football highlights as she sipped her beer. Hmm. The Patriots tromped the Bills. No surprise there. The Steelers won against the Titans in overtime. And, dammit, the Redskins got their asses handed to them by the Packers. Fucking Redskins.
“Eva…” Preston caught her wrist as she reached for her glass. He tugged until she faced him, and hurt shown in his dark eyes.
Okay, so she was being childish. They’d been splitsville for six months now. Time to move on, right? Besides, deep in her heart, she knew he’d made the right call by ending their two-year relationship. They’d met at the YMCA five years ago, where they both swam laps in the morning, and she’d originally spurned his advances. She hadn’t been looking for a relationship, didn’t want to tie her happiness and self-worth to a man like her mother had, but that didn’t deter him. He’d worked at her for years, winning her over little by little until a tiny, forbidden hope flared that maybe—just maybe—he’d be the one to give her the one thing she’d never had: a steady, stable family.
Things had started off great between them. They had a lot of the same interests. They both enjoyed the Nationals and had gone to as many ballgames as they were able to fit into their busy schedules. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t many. They enjoyed the same kinds of movies and music—blow ‘em up action flicks and country. They both loved to camp and hike—and, boy, had they gone on some crazy trips together to the backwoods of West Virginia, the memories of which still made her smile. She had liked spending time with Preston. He was good in bed and also easy to get along with outside the bedroom. He was a comfortable fit. Maybe too comfortable and too easy, because they had hardly ever fought. He never got angry and retreated from her when she did. Even their break-up had been half-hearted.
But despite how seemingly well-suited they were for each other, there were two big obstacles to them ever having a happily ever after. One: Preston was politically ambitious. The harder he worked to climb the unstable ladder of D.C. politics, the less she felt like she knew him. He stopped suggesting camping trips and started asking her to black tie social events. He started griping about her job, which had never bothered him before. As time went on, they’d spent less and less of it together.