“I remember it differently. Louder. More enthusiastic,” I whispered in her ear, relishing the shiver it produced.
“Well, they say that we often remember things better than they really were, so that makes sense.”
“I’m happy to preform the tasks again to make sure they’re up to your… standards.” Fire blazed in her brown eyes at my challenge, and Reese took a defiant step forward until we were toe to toe.
“No, thanks. I’ll be forced to come behind you and take care of it myself, anyway.” A smile almost broke, but Reese was a pro at this game, I realized.
A low rumble of laughter, followed by the sound of a camera and then a bright flash, brought us out of our flirtatious bantering and Reese groaned. “Seriously, Janey? You have a problem girl—you can’t possibly need more pictures!”
Janey lowered her camera to show off a wide, cheesy grin. “First of all, you can never, ever, have too many pictures. And that is doubly true when you have such compelling subjects. Stop lighting the gigabytes on fire if you don’t want me to capture it.”
“Right, because everyone wants to see me and Jackson bickering.”
“Bickering?” I frowned. “I thought we were bantering.”
“Discussing.” Reese shook her head and blew a stray strand of long blond hair out of her face. “Anyway, no one wants to see that.” When she turned back to Janey, Reese groaned at the sight of the photographer trying to lower her camera without being noticed. “See? A problem!”
Janey laughed again and shook her head. “Let me be the judge of what people want to see. Laters!” Then she was gone, her laugh fading on the wind.
Rafe stood with an amused smile aimed at us both. “As fun as that was, I need to go sample the other offerings before I can say yours is the best.” He leaned in and held up a hand to hide his mouth with a whisper, “It’s totally the best, kid. Good luck.” He winked, a platonic move coming from the town’s most infamous bachelor.
Reese smiled. “Thanks, Rafe. Don’t eat too much, that blonde doesn’t strike me as a lover of beer guts.”
“That’s why I gave her a peek of the six-pack earlier. Not false advertising that way,” he said, tapping his head with one finger. “See? Not just a pretty face.”
“Not just,” she agreed with a smile, “no.” She waved him off just as the three judges showed up, clipboards in hands and blank expressions on their faces.
The nerves that settled over her were palpable, visible in the tense square of her shoulders and the erect line of her spine, the way her jaw bunched and flexed as she nibbled her bottom lip to death.
“We’re fine, Reese. We got everything,” I told her as I added the final touch to the judge’s offering, a final bowl of barbecue sauce on its own beside the ribs and three side dishes required by the rules. “You’ve got this.”
She nodded absently, barely hearing the encouraging words because her nerves were so frazzled.
“Reese. Relax.” She nodded, but still, my words weren’t registering and I felt helpless, which wasn’t something I was used to feeling. I was a man who saw a problem and figured out a solution, but right now, nothing I said or did helped Reese.
I wanted to make her laugh or even to make her smile with some lighthearted joke, some playful words to make her forget her anxiety long enough to talk to the judges. Instead, I went with something else.
“Undercover!” The word came out of my mouth on a loud shout and as soon as it did, the memories flooded back.
My phone buzzing on the floor had woken me up, and I’d turned with one arm still wrapped around Reese as I reached blindly for the phone. “Slater. Yeah?” The call had been from the head of a joint task force with the FBI who needed my particular skill set and knowledge. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. And I hadn’t.
I remembered casting one final look in Reese’s direction at her sleeping form, wondering if I should have woken her with a light kiss on the shoulder to tell her goodbye. To explain why I had to leave.
Instead, I’d let her sleep.
In hindsight, a huge mistake. I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “That night. I got a call in the middle of the night about a task force for a group of spree killers in my old stomping grounds. One of the suspects was someone I’d dealt with a lot and they wanted my insight. I should have said something before I left. I’m sorry.” It had finally come to me. Finally!
Instead of the relieved, understanding smile I expected, Reese’s brown eyes glared up at me and I looked back in confusion. At least, until I caught the stunned expressions of the judges. And the customers in line for the people’s choice awards. And the surprised look on Janey’s face. Finally, the smirk on Rafe’s.