Sworn to Be His ( The Archer Family 3)

She didn't bother to respond, and for the rest of the meeting he watched as her expression dipped in and out of dreaminess while she stared at Flynn. Or, more accurately, poorly concealed her efforts not to stare at Flynn. She was unusually, quiet, too. She didn't even mouth off when Fitzsimmons made a crack about female detectives.

He wanted to reach over and shake her, ask what was wrong with her. He'd never seen her this way before, and in the year they'd worked together that was really saying something.

When the meeting was over, the other detectives slowly filtered out of the room with the supervisor leading the charge, but Derrick hung back and grabbed a donut from the box on the counter, then poured himself a cup of coffee and stirred.

Eventually, there was nobody in the room but Flynn and Jade, the later of whom was scrawling absentmindedly on a notepad and trying her best to look important. She was failing.

Staying in the corner, he took a bite of his donut and pretended not to pay attention.

"Long time no see," Flynn said to her and she let out a little gasping sound.

"Oh my gosh, yeah, sorry, I was just—"

Derrick rolled his eyes. She couldn't do better than that?

"No, no problem. That was quite an entrance you made. I don't think Supervisor Sanders ever let you say what you came in here on fire about."

"Oh it was nothing. Just, you know, some...reforms. For a children's shelter. That...caught on fire."

Derrick nearly choked on his coffee.

"Wow, sounds important. I hope he lets you talk about it soon." Derrick chanced a glance behind him and caught Flynn beaming down on a clearly flustered Jade.

"Yeah, it's my passion. Helping the less fortunate." She bit her bottom lip.

"I remember," Flynn said.

"Oh, right, duh. You totally would."

An awkward silence fell between them, and then Flynn knocked his knuckles against the wooden conference table and said, "You know, I should probably start in on that case file. By the looks of it, this unit moves fast."

"Super fast. So fast you might not even notice how...fast it is." She finished lamely and Derrick closed his eyes, a coil of embarrassment slithering through his stomach on her behalf.

"Right, well, I hope we can catch up later." Flynn nodded, then headed out the beige office door.

Derrick waited until the other man as gone to turn and face his friend, but as soon as their eyes met she hissed the word, "Don't."

"Don't what?" Derrick had to restrain his laughter.

"Just don't."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean. Or maybe you're just talking so fast I didn't even notice how fast you were going." He grinned, and she shuddered.

"Okay, that was bad."

"Very. Very bad." Derrick nodded.

"It's not my fault!" Jade hid her face in her hands, then glanced up at him between her fingers. "Did he say what time the witnesses are supposed to come in? Do I have enough time to drown myself in my shame?"

"I don't think there's enough time in the world for that one."

She made a sound that was something like a cross between a gurgle and a cat dying.

"Look at it this way," Derrick offered, "At least you'll have a whole bunch of time to get used to him being around. There's so many more occasions when you'll talk to him and—"

"Ugh, you are so not making this better."

"Oh, that was never my intention." Derrick raised his hands in mock innocence.