Tripp chuckled and went about making his own coffee and some breakfast. They had work today. Luckily, now that they were living together, they could ride in together in their work truck. Not only was he saving in bills for the house, but also on gas too.
Just as he was sitting down to eat, Jayme was getting up to wash his dish. Jayme continued to avoid eye contact, which made him snicker. “You can’t avoid me. I’ll be sitting next to you all day.”
“Don’t fucking remind me,” Jayme grumbled teasingly. “I’m going to take a shower and get ready. Don’t make me late, Rookie.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Jayme sent him a glare as he walked out of the kitchen. He smiled to himself. Jayme was fun to tease.
They walked into the station an hour later and into the conference room where their shift meeting is always held. Jayme seemed anxious next to him as they sat down at the table behind Jayme’s former partner, Brendan, and his rookie partner, Will. He wondered if Brendan knew about Jayme’s nightmares. They had been partnered for four years so he had to assume that the man knew. However, it was sort of a personal thing and Jayme might have kept it to himself. Jayme probably never would have told him about it if last night didn’t happen.
They all bullshitted for a few minutes until Sgt. Bernard walked in and gave them the low down on what was going on for the day. After the meeting was over, they all filed out of the room and to their vehicles.
Jayme sat there unmoving for a moment before turning and looking at him questioningly. “You didn’t say anything about last night.”
He smiled softly and shook his head. “It would have given too much away. I didn’t think you wanted people questioning why you were having a nightmare.”
Jayme blinked at him for a second then nodded sharply. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“It can be our little inside joke.”
One side of Jayme’s mouth kicked up. “Okay.”
“Is that why you were so anxious before?” he asked. “You thought I was going to tell everyone about last night?”
“Well...yeah.”
He shook his head slightly. “Maybe once you get to know me better, you’ll realize I’m not a heartless bastard.” He chuckled.
“I don’t think you’re a heartless bastard. I just figured it was good ribbing material.”
“It is. But with the sensitive material attached to it, I didn’t think it was appropriate.” He shrugged.
“Like I said, I do appreciate you keeping it between us,” Jayme said sincerely.
“You’re welcome.”
“Shall we go get some coffee?” Jayme asked.
“Yes, we shall,” he replied with an easy smile.
CHAPTER THREE
Jayme
A WEEK later, Jayme and Tripp were tasked to work Lake Travis for Memorial Day weekend to make sure everyone was being safe. People were spread out over the lake in boats, jet skis, inner tubes, and anything else that would float.
Jayme was driving their boat slowly around the throngs of people, stopping every now and then to do random water safety checks. They stopped next to a particularly rowdy group, and he knew it was going to be trouble. Everyone on board seemed to be drunk except for the driver, which was a plus for them.
“Hey there, fella’s,” Tripp said as he sidled the boat up next to theirs. “We’re doing random water safety checks today. Making sure everyone is being safe.”
There were six guys on the boat. A couple even looked underage. One overly boisterous guy yelled. “Fuck off, we ain’t doin' nothin' wrong!”
“Rob, chill out,” the driver bit out.
He glanced at Tripp to see his normally jovial partner looking hard and unyielding. Uh oh, this was the street cop coming out in him. He found out a several days ago that Tripp used to work for the Austin PD. They had pulled someone over for speeding and Tripp went into street cop mode, and it threw him for a loop. He didn’t think the guy had a mean bone in his body, but shit, he certainly did. The guy in the car had given them a hard time and he thought he was going to have to handle it, but Tripp took control and handed the man his ass on a platter. Wrote him up for multiple violations just to be a dick.
“I need everyone to hold up a life jacket. Everyone on board should have one,” Tripp said.
The men rummaged around until all of them held up a life jacket just like Tripp had asked.
“Happy now, Officer,” the man the driver called Rob said mockingly.
“I need to see everyone’s ID,” Tripp said, ignoring Rob.
Everyone on the boat grumbled, a couple even blaming Rob for opening his fat mouth, as they pulled out their ID’s. Tripp collected all of them and checked them over one by one, making sure no one was underage. Tripp handed one back to Jayme.