He looked at his wife and gave her a look that I couldn’t quite decipher.
“Meet me in my office?” Luke asked his wife.
Reese nodded, looking at the two of us curiously.
“Sure,” she said. “It was nice talking to you, darling. Rock the calendar photoshoot.”
I snorted.
“Yes, ma’am.” I smiled—giving her the full tilt of both sides of my lips this time.
Reese grinned and walked away, leaving me standing there with her husband who looked pissed.
“Will you take Rowen home?” he asked.
I glowered.
“I would if I could,” I said. “But I have that calendar shoot right now.”
He frowned. “So does Derek.” He sighed. “I can’t leave her in my office. Reese is going to lose her shit when I tell her. Can you stash her in one of the SWAT offices in the gym with you while you go through the shoot? Take her home after?”
I was already nodding my head, even though I was confused.
“I can, yes. But Derek can also take her,” I suggested. “Not that I’m against it or anything, I just feel like she might be happier with someone she actually knows…”
Luke sighed.
“I think that Derek will do just about anything to get out of doing this shoot,” he explained. “This is for charity. He’s not getting out of it. So until he’s finished with it, he’s not going to know.”
“Okay,” I said. “But I’ve been told that the shoot is supposed to be a little risqué.”
Luke snorted.
“Rowen’s a baller, Dax.” Luke laughed. “She can handle it.”Chapter 2Don’t you wish your coffee was hot like me?
-Coffee Cup
Rowen
My dad had told me he was going to find me a ride.
I hadn’t expected that ride to be Dax.
When he’d come out of the door that led to the inner sanctum of the police department, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting.
He’d looked around as if he was looking for someone, and his eyes had landed on me.
I’d been leaning up against the side of the building, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for who I had assumed was my brother, only it definitely wasn’t my brother who came out.
It was him.
“You mind coming with me to my shoot first?” he asked, his voice all dark and rumbly.
Dax. Dax Tremaine.
At first, I’d looked around, surprised to find that he was talking to me. I mean, in the office, he’d not once looked at me. It was weird, getting attention from a man—especially a man of his caliber.
I opened my mouth and then closed it.
Like a tiny little bald fish.
God, had I really freakin’ left my job and my apartment? Had I just up and left without a single word to anybody?
Yes, yes I had.
I just hoped that they understood—my job, anyway. Not that it mattered since I’d gotten that email saying I’d broken client confidentiality when I hadn’t. Honestly, that likely had to do with Shondra, too. The damn woman was a conniving bitch and always found a way to make me look bad.
I just fucking hoped that karma was a bitch and came back to pound her twice as hard as it pounded me.
God, my hair.
My beautiful hair.
“Me?” I squeaked, looking at Dax as if him talking to me was some superhuman feat that he’d accomplished.
He grinned then, and I saw his row of straight white teeth.
I remembered when those teeth had been covered in braces.
He’d had them up until his senior year—like right before he’d graduated high school.
And, where with some people a mouth full of metal would’ve been a turnoff, for him it’d only added to his appeal.
I would’ve loved to even be the one to point out that he had food stuck between them.
And now he was talking to me?
Wow.
Just wow.
“Yeah, you.” He tapped me on the top of my baseball cap with one of his tattooed fingers. “Is it okay if we do my shoot first? I’m done for the day afterward, and I have a feeling if I stay, they’re going to find something for me to do with all the other SWAT officers having to shoot that calendar after me.”
My thoughts came to a screeching halt at that.
“Why do you get to go first?” I asked the man that was my babysitter and my ride home.
I remembered him. Vividly.
He’d also been a few years older than me, and when it’d come to our ages, back then it felt like a million years separated us instead of a few years.
It’s funny how three years now meant something completely different than it did in high school.
Now, three years was just three years. Then? It was three grades and an eternity worth of experience.
No way would a senior date a freshman.
No. Way.
Now, though?
Rarwr.
Dax Tremaine had grown up.
Not that he hadn’t been a big guy when I’d last seen him at his high school graduation.
But now? Wow.
He wasn’t only tall, but he was muscular.