“Gossip?” he grumbled. “I don’t gossip. I’m with the sheriff’s department, not Fire.”
Daisy laughed. “If we call it ‘important local news,’ instead, will you tell me the latest on the hermit guy’s new girlfriend?”
Although his affable smile stayed in place, a shadow darkened his expression for just a second before he reached for his coat. “Sorry, Dais. No time. Got to keep Field County safe from jaywalking tourists and vagrant bighorn sheep. I’ll stop by on one of my days off so we can train.”
“Sure? There are leftover crab cakes from last night. Not to toot my own crustacean-cooking horn, but they’re pretty tasty.”
His smile widened, but he didn’t pause as he pulled on his boots. “I’ll have to try them another time.”
“Okay.” Daisy watched as he unfastened the multiple locks. Although she wanted to push him again to stay, it would just make her seem lonely and desperate. “Thanks again for Max.”
“You’re welcome again.” With a final crooked smile, he was gone.
And she was alone once more.
*
Sweat ran into her eyes, making them sting. Her knee connected with Max’s outer thigh. If he’d been a real boy, the nerve strike would’ve rendered that leg useless for a while. Moving back, she practiced front and side kicks until her legs were like noodles, and then moved to punches and palm-heel strikes.
When her wrapped hands felt too heavy to lift, she leaned against Max and gasped for breath. He swung away from her weight, so she wrapped her arms around his middle to stabilize them both. When she realized how they must look, Daisy gave a breathless laugh and forced her body to straighten.
“You really are the perfect man, Max,” she said, patting his belly. “I wake you up at two in the morning, beat you to a pulp, and you’re still willing to cuddle. How many men would put up with that?” A certain deputy sheriff came to mind, but she pushed the thought away before she got mopey. Looking down, she made a face as she pulled her sweat-soaked tank away from her skin. “Now I’m disgusting and need a shower. Good night, Max. Thanks for letting me assault you.”
The stairs loomed in front of her, mocking her with their steepness. Daisy wished she’d left a little juice in her leg muscles for the climb. With a whimper that almost made her glad no one else was within earshot, she forced her wobbly quads to lift high enough for her feet to clear each step.
She stopped in her room to get clean pajamas. As she passed the front window, the one she referred to as her “TV screen,” she stopped and moved closer. There was a sheriff’s department SUV parked at the curb in front of the Storvicks’ house.
“Corbin, you budding little psycho,” she muttered. “What did you do this time?”
Forgetting her aching legs, she scurried over to turn off the overhead light and then returned to her window seat. The Storvicks’ place was dark, and Daisy frowned. Had the deputy not gone up to the house yet? She’d been expecting shouting parents and a crying Corbin, not the current sleepy silence.
No one was in the driver’s seat of the SUV, though, so the deputy had to be somewhere. Maybe Corbin hadn’t done anything to his ex-girlfriend after all. Daisy looked around the area. Despite her immediate assumption that Corbin was the reason for the deputy’s visit, the squad SUV was actually parked closer to the for-sale house than the Storvicks’. Daisy thought of the movement she’d seen the previous night, and she wondered if there was a homeless person living there. The deputy could be responding to a trespassing call.
Daisy drummed her fingertips on the wall next to the window, trying to remember when Chris’s days off started. If he was working, then his shift started at seven a.m., so she could call him in a few hours, and he wouldn’t threaten to kill her. If he wasn’t working, however, he tended to sleep late to start getting his body ready for the approaching night shift. She knew from experience that, when woken, Chris was as grumpy as a bear that had been punched in the face.