Shielded In The Shadows

“Is that what this is?” she asked as she stabbed another bite.

“That would be up to both of us, wouldn’t it?” he asked. The chicken wasn’t bad. And when he loaded up the potato, it was pretty good, too.

“We’re both married to our work,” she pointed out.

“True,” he agreed, trying to focus on being busy with his. They’d come together that afternoon for work.

“We know the score.” She punctuated the sentence with stabs of her fork in midair. “Which means no one will get hurt.”

He had a mouthful and so he nodded.

“So, what do you say?” Her gaze seemed to grab his.

“What do you say?” He was playing with her now and enjoying himself more than he probably should.

But she seemed to need his attention as much as he wanted hers. He wasn’t going to snub her. It wasn’t his way.

And when it ended, he’d feel a pang. That would be worse than the guilt he felt at getting what he wanted.

“I’d say that by being who we are, and being here, we’ve both already said yes.”

She’d swallowed the food in her mouth, was watching him. He leaned over and kissed her. Right there in the restaurant. His ribs be damned.

Lips only. And only for a second.

But the deal was sealed.

* * *

Emma wanted to think that she wouldn’t have slept with Jayden that night even if she’d had the chance. She wanted to think that, no matter what they ultimately did with each other, she’d at least have had the wherewithal, the good sense, to see him a few more times before falling into bed with him. But she never got the chance to find out.

As it was, he’d gotten a call toward the end of dinner—a parolee of his had failed to come home from work and his wife was worried. After throwing money down on the table to pay for both of their dinners, he’d left his food unfinished and hight

ailed it out of there. She’d understood completely. Would have told him to hurry, if she’d been given the chance. And still felt...let down...as she sat there alone.

More relieved than disappointed, she told herself, she took the time to finish her dinner and then, pocketing his cash, put the meal on her credit card. She’d asked him to dinner. She’d pay. And hand his cash back to him at the next opportune moment.

Maybe they could have a casual fling. She knew she’d have one or two along the way. Was okay with that. Single parents weren’t all sexless. She’d just have to be circumspect.

And she had to make certain that any sex she had didn’t interfere with her family life, didn’t involve her child’s life at all or affect her work. And she was fairly confident that as long as neither she nor Jayden had any expectations of one another, any fling between them would not affect the jobs they were doing together.

On her way home from dinner, she called Sara Havens Edwin at The Lemonade Stand, to check on Suzie Heber. The woman was supposed to be attending daily counseling sessions but hadn’t shown Thursday afternoon. Sara told her that Chantel Harris Fairbanks, a detective on the High Risk team, had already done a wellness check and that Suzie was at home. She’d been alone and said she was fine. Emma did a drive-by, just in case. Like she’d know what to look for. Mostly just because she felt compelled to be close enough to the woman to somehow be able to save her life.

She was taking this one personally. She knew she was. To the point that for a minute or two after turning off Suzie’s street, she actually thought she was being followed. A truck of some kind had made a couple of the same turns she’d made.

And then it hadn’t. You’d think she was her little sister with the drama she was concocting.

At home. Emma wished she could call Suzie herself. To question her. She’d been able to get through to Suzie four years before, when most people had failed, but didn’t know that the woman would trust her again. Suspected Suzie wouldn’t and didn’t blame her, since Bill Heber had gone to jail for another unrelated incident, instead of for the murder of their child.

Hoping that Jayden would call yet that night with Bill Heber’s location statistics, she set to work on the Luke Lincoln case. The man’s arraignment was the next day and Emma had to make certain that he went straight back to prison for parole violation. Any other charges she might file, like illegal possession of a weapon, could come in the next few days.

By ten o’clock, there’d still been no call from Jayden. Her sister had called from Florida, worried that their father might be having heart problems, talking about the pressure it put on her, to carry the burden of their parents aging all alone. She called her mother, immediately, to find that her father had had heartburn after a Mexican dinner two nights before and was as healthy as could be.

She took a shower, standing there until the water ran cold, and then, in a short robe and bare feet, headed out to the small walled-in pool in her backyard. Not to swim. She just liked sitting out there at night, with the pool lights on, listening to the quiet. Her home was in a gated community. She felt safe. And yet...yearned for air.

She’d had a message from her doctor that afternoon, wanting to know if she was ready to schedule another insemination. She was physically ready. But hadn’t called back.

Probably a good thing, since she’d practically made an agreement to have sex with a hot probation officer. Her life plans, her baby plans, weren’t changing at all. But it might be best to get her little “thing” with Jayden out of her system before having a baby planted inside her.