“It’s okay, Soph. Don’t worry.” He gave me a sweet little smile. “Now go, because Denny is looking for help setting up the serving table.”
We served meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes for a hundred and fifty people. At some point I brought a plate back to Jude, who leaned his hip against the counter and took a break to eat. His hair was tied into a short ponytail in back tonight, and the way his T-shirt stretched across his chest made me want to rip it off him.
In another hour or so I would get to do that. Jude and I had decided that until I was out of my father’s house, our Wednesday hookups were the only face-to-face time we’d take in Colebury. But we made good use of Jude’s new phone. Every night this week I’d lain whispering on my bed while we caught up at the end of the day.
It was nice to have my friend back, even if we had to limit our toe-curling sex to once a week for a while.
Cleanup seemed to take forever. Jude left before me, as was our plan. I was almost out the door when Mrs. Walters decided she wanted to ask my opinion of Fifty Shades of Grey.
“The, uh, book or movie?” I asked, wondering if I was being punked.
“There’s a movie?”
“Yeah.” But the man who’s waiting for me is hotter than Jamie Dornan. “What do you want to know?”
“Is it a good book-club book? Will we have lots to talk about?”
“Um…” That depended. “If you think bondage and a hot dude in a suit makes good conversation, then yeah.” I was the wrong person to ask. I thought Ana should have gone for Christian Grey’s construction-worker brother. I obviously had a thing for guys who worked with their hands.
“Interesting,” she said. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
And then I was free.
I skipped out the back door of the church and then high-tailed it to Jude’s place. He’d asked me to drive instead of walking alone in the dark, but it was only a couple of blocks and I kept my head up.
Good thing, too. Because as I came around the corner of the alleyway toward Jude’s room, I caught a flash of light at the top of the stairway.
“Can I come in?” a man asked Jude through the open door.
My heart leapt into my mouth as the man stepped over the threshold, and lamplight spilled on his face.
It was Officer Rob Nelligan.
I shrank back into the shadows, and Nelligan never turned his head in my direction. When the door shut behind him, I let out a gasp. Curious, I stepped out into the alley and scanned the area for his car. It was at the far end, parked at the curb, hazards flashing.
Maybe he didn’t plan to stay long.
Turning back the way I’d come, I took a slow, casual stroll around the block, wondering why Nelligan had gotten in the way of my booty call. By the time I’d made it all the way around, the cruiser’s taillights were on. I waited in the shadows until it pulled away from the curb and rolled down the street.
Then I ran the rest of the way to Jude’s staircase and sprinted up, two steps at a time.
He opened the door before I could even knock. “Holy shit,” he said, a freaked-out smile on his face. “Did you see…”
“I did! He didn’t see me, though.”
Jude clutched his bare chest as I passed him. He was wearing a towel, his hair damp from the shower. “I was positive you were going to end up knocking on the door when he was standing right here.”
“Wouldn’t that have been awkward?” I asked, grabbing his towel and giving it a tug. The knot undid itself in my hand, and then all of Jude’s golden skin was on display. He still had a tan line at his waist from picking apples in the sunshine. I skimmed my fingertips across it.
“I’m still not over the heart attack,” he said, stepping in to kiss my forehead. “I opened the door in my fucking towel. It’s a miracle I didn’t yell something lewd when he knocked.”
“What did he want, anyway?” My fingers wandered into the soft, curly hairs at his groin.
I cupped his balls, and he tipped his head back and groaned. “Tell you later?”
“Tell me now, and you’ll get a reward.”
Laughing, Jude grabbed the back of my head and kissed me once. Then twice more. “He wanted to show me a few mug shots. It took me five seconds to pick out the asshole who put me in the hospital.”
“Wow! Are they going to catch him?”
He kissed me again. “Hope so.” His fingers unzipped my jacket. “Apparently this guy was already on their radar. But enough about me. Let’s see some more of you.”
I let him strip off my shirt. At the sight of my slutty little bra, he made an approving nose in the back of his throat. “Someone missed me,” he said, dragging the tip of one finger across my breasts where they swelled above the edge of the bra.