Butterface

“Up for another movie night?” he asked, jerking his chin toward the theater marquee.

“The shark movie?” She held out her hand palm-up in the universal sign for give me your keys. “I’ve never seen it.”

He shifted the box of supplies and pulled the keys out of his front pocket—a more difficult task than usual after watching her walk around in those jeans. “What do you watch at the movies?”

“Mostly comedies, some indie movies.” She took the keys and, as soon as they were in range, clicked the open-trunk button on the key fob.

“Let’s expand your repertoire.”

She gave him a teasing smile. “Big word for a detective.”

“I’m not always going to be a detective,” he said as he loaded the box in his car’s trunk. “I’m going to be the youngest police chief in Waterbury’s history.”

She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. “Yep. I can see it.”

So could he. He’d been planning his career path out since high school. So far everything had gone according to plan because he’d followed the rules—written and unwritten, like the one that said no fraternizing with anyone with ties to the Esposito crime family. That Gina’s tie was tenuous wouldn’t matter to the review board. It made him look like a guy who blew off the rules. But this didn’t count as fraternizing. He was on the job. It was totally different.

Keep telling yourself that, Hartigan.

Silencing that internal voice, Ford closed his trunk and turned to Gina. “Movie night, my treat?”

“I thought you were going to fix the wonky stair tonight.”

That stair was one of the few things still on his personal-handyman list. For some reason, he’d been dreading the arrival of the supplies Juan had ordered. “Maybe I’m putting that off because I don’t want your handyman list to be finished.”

Shut the fuck up, Hartigan, before you confess to all the dirty things you think when you hear her get into bed at night.

Gina’s cheeks flushed. “I don’t suppose you have any candy we can sneak in with us.”

“That’s against the rules,” he said, knowing she was just giving him shit and playing along. “I’ll get the popcorn, though, extra butter with M&Ms mixed in.”

“Not an offer I’m going to turn down. It’s a date.” Her cheeks turned pink the moment the words were out of her mouth.

He knew exactly where her mind was going, and he liked it. Not that he’d admit it out loud to anyone, but a date with Gina sounded pretty damn good. Since he couldn’t have that for real, he might as well let Hollywood help him pretend.

“That it is,” he said, sliding his palm across the small of her back and keeping it there as they walked across the parking lot and to the movie theater, as they stood in line for tickets, and while he carried the popcorn on their way to find their seats.

And when the lights went down, he moved the arm rest between them into the upright position. “To make it easier for you to reach the popcorn,” he said when she gave him a questioning look.

By the time the great white’s fin was spotted for the first time, his arm was resting on the back of the movie seat and they were sitting so close that if she dropped an M&M it wouldn’t be able to fall between them.

The fact that he’d already seen the giant shark menace the summer swimmers at least a million times wasn’t the reason why the action on the screen was just background noise. Instead, he was tuned in to the way her shoulders tensed whenever the music changed, how her eyes widened as the action picked up, and how she giggled and shrugged when she caught him watching her reactions. When the police chief declared they were going to need a bigger boat, Ford was curling a strand of her wavy hair around his fingers and feeling every bit like a horny high school kid with no clue what to do next. And when the credits started on the screen, neither of them moved. They just stayed pressed against each other in the darkness as everyone got up.

Maybe he turned to her first, maybe it was her tilting her face upward, but before the first gaffer’s name scrolled by, his mouth was only an inch from hers. Her full lips were parted, and her hand dropped from the popcorn bucket to his thigh.