Rinsing his mug out, Alex pointed at the door. “Let’s go and have a look at what’s on our desks.”
We were still going through some cold cases for the town, but because we were an officer down, I went out on patrol for a couple of hours. It wasn’t until I’d turned onto her street as my break time hit that I decided to go and check in on Naomi.
I’d expected her to be relaxed after a cocktail, maybe watching something cliché with Jacinda like Magic Mike.
I was wrong. Oh, so wrong.
THREE
Naomi
I’ll admit, having Jacinda and Canon here had been a great distraction. It also didn’t hurt that watching the two of them together had me laughing so hard I cried happy tears on one of the hardest days.
“No, I don’t want to,” Jacinda snapped, pushing his hand away. “Get that ugly thing out of my face.”
I’d sobered up in the last hour to the point of being pleasantly intoxicated instead of hammered, but I had to literally bite my tongue, so I didn’t say, “That’s what she said.”
“Hey, now don’t call it ugly. You’re hurting its feelings.”
“I give not one iota of a shit, Klein. Get it away from me.”
“You don’t have to put the whole thing in. Just nibble the tip.”
God, this was becoming unbearable now.
Shocking me, Jacinda giggled instead of giving him a nippy answer as I’d expected. “I’m not nibbling the tip.”
“But you promised,” he whined dramatically, wiggling it in front of her face.
“I had my fingers crossed.”
“Would it really kill you just to try the tip of it?”
I choked on the mouthful of water I’d just taken, spraying it all over the table and my lap.
“Damn it, now I’m all wet,” I huffed. “There’s y’all talking about taking the tip—”
“What the fuck’s going on in here?” Carter asked from the doorway, making me and Jacinda jump. Being a man and all, Canon barely even blinked at his appearance.
Standing up from the couch, he held the grotesquely sized pickle he’d brought out to show Carter. “She promised to try one of these spicy pickles I picked up, but she lied. Is that an arrestable offense?”
“Will you just drop it, Klein,” Jacinda hissed, throwing her arms up in the air. She’d obviously intended on saying more, but as the words left her mouth, he threw the pickle at her, hitting her on the chest with it.
I watched that big old vegetable fly through the air, heard the thud as it hit its target, and watched it drop onto her crotch…tip down, butt up.
Shrugging, he licked the juice from the thing off his fingers slowly. “Well, you said to drop it.”
I kind of wish I’d made more popcorn once she came unstuck. Like she was possessed by the devil, Jacinda growled and flung the pickle back at Canon as hard as she could. He’d known it’d be a possible reaction from her, so he was prepared and ducked before it could hit him.
Unfortunately, Carter wasn’t so prepared, but fortunately, he still had his Kevlar vest on.
As it dropped to his feet, he drawled, “Now that’s an arrestable offense.”
“Put it in the trash, or I’ll shove it up your a—”
“Is this what it’s like having kids?” Carter asked, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye as we sat on the couch listening to Jacinda and Canon arguing in the kitchen.
“Beats me. I’ve only got one of them.”
One side of his mouth tipped up in a smile, just as Canon shouted, “Fine, you big baby. It’s in the trash. Happy?”
“Happy? No, I’m not happy. You almost got me arrested, you big shit.”
“Just Febreze the damn vest and give it back to him.”
Sitting up straight, Carter yelled over his shoulder, “Don’t you dare Febreze it. That’ll just make it smell like pickle juice and whatever scent the spray is. I told you to get a rag and a little bit of dish soap and rub it over the area until I can get it cleaned properly.”
“See the damage you did with the damn pickle? This is on you.”
With the heat-seeking pickle missile in the garbage, you’d think they’d run out of things to argue about, but nope. It was amusing, though, because they both wanted each other badly, but only one of them was willing to act on it.
Smiling at Carter, I murmured, “Those two are going to end up together.”
“I pity their neighbors. Can you imagine if they have kids?” he winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m gonna end up constantly getting called out to wherever they are to act as a mediator or to shut them the hell up.”
There was a loud gasp from the kitchen. “We heard that! Take it back.”
Rolling his eyes at Jacinda’s denial, he called back, “I wasn’t whispering it, and no.”