She gripped the piece of paper in her small fist. The sound of it crinkling in her hand echoing across the otherwise deserted Main Street. It wasn’t his goal to overly upset her. And it wasn’t some vendetta because she didn’t remember him. Hell, she had many guys fawning over her, it honestly wasn’t a surprise. It was a simple matter of the law. She broke it. He didn’t dish out favors. End of story.
She clearly didn’t seem to be happy with this so he tried a different approach. At the very least to defuse her anger and attempt to part ways amicably.
“You sure you didn’t injure yourself?” he asked, definitely not squinting to get a better view of her, flashes of blue and red illuminating her face every couple seconds.
She looked down the front of herself. “I’m fine. Other than this ticket. You wouldn’t have even been here to give me this if—”
“If you hadn’t locked yourself out of your car and then got stuck?” Tate shook his head. “Still can’t park in a red zone.”
“What about a warning? Like I said, I was running late this morning and it was so dark I didn’t even notice it was a red zone.”
She looked like she was telling the truth but, “Rules are rules.”
“This one time you can’t just give a girl a break?” She rubbed her lower back again. Was this her go to move? Stick her chest out and demand special treatment?
Something dark heated Tate’s blood. “If I cut every pretty face a break, it’d never stop.”
She scoffed, then looked at the sky, then something like a half growl, half sob came from her.
“Of course not. Why cut anyone a break in this backwoods, hick town where all you care about is barging in and fucking with my life.”
Tate frowned because one, she insulted his town, not that he was surprised since she was never the kind that seemed to like Sweet Hill, but it was his town and he liked it. And two, she was standing there, wanting a “break.” He’d give her credit, Mia had a lot of nerve.
“If you have such a problem being here, why don’t you leave?”
She shook her head, “You know what, I would if I could…” she trailed off and whatever she was about to say she let go.
He examined her face and had never seen a woman look more stressed and exasperated at the same time. A flicker of light caught his eye. She wore a small silver locket around her neck that picked up the light and—
She scoffed. “Hey, my eyes are up here.”
Tate’s gaze snapped up to hers. Ah shit. She thought he was staring her down. He opened his mouth to defend himself but before he could, the fire was back.
“You give me a ticket and then eye-fuck me?” she said with the lowest, meanest voice he ever heard. She stepped closer to him and kept his stare.
“That wasn’t what I was doing,” he said. “Your necklace caught my eye.”
“Oh, it did huh? My necklace?”
Shit, that sounded stupid even to Tate, but it was the truth.
“Well, I still think you’re an asshole,” she said.
He could understand her ire but he wasn’t that guy. And the fact of the matter was, she was treading in shallow water. “You realize you’re insulting a Deputy of the law right now.”
“So what? You going to arrest me?”
“I could haul you in, but I’d rather we just—”
“Don’t bother, I’m done with you,” she snapped.
Tate scoffed. She was done with him? Yeah, some things never changed. And Miss Mia with her superior attitude was one of those things.
She got back in her car and slammed her door shut.
At that point, Tate didn’t have anything else to say. With her wide eyes and lush lips, she was the kind that blew a kiss in any direction and had men lining up. Use to getting her way. Else she wouldn’t have asked him for special treatment and wouldn’t be this pissed that she didn’t get the upper hand.
She shot one more look in his direction and all he saw were those enchanting eyes go a little puppy dog-ish.