“So, how’s your neighbor?” Carter asked, shooting me a smirk.
“Ross’s a great guy. Quiet and almost anal about how his yard looks, but he’s one of those neighbors who takes in your deliveries when you’re not there, brings the trash can in for you if you’re away, and turns his lights on if he thinks someone’s prowling around the neighborhood.”
He was the principal at the school in Piersville, and I hardly heard a peep out of the guy unless he wanted me to.
“I wasn’t talking about him.”
Oh, and I’d also been deliberately obtuse, knowing the nosy bastard was talking about her.
That reminded me…
“Shit, I need to make a quick stop at the hair salon.”
“Oo, why we doing that, boss?”
“What are we five?” I clipped as I pulled into a space in front of Delicious Divas. “I need to drop back her keys.”
When I’d left the other day, I’d seen a set of keys hanging on a hook in the kitchen with a tag with ‘spare house keys’ written on it. Not wanting to leave her vulnerable with an unlocked door, I’d taken them and intended to return them later on that day.
Unfortunately, DB had needed me to watch Sheena while he went to the store, and after that, I’d gone to help Raoul put together something for his twins. I’d been carrying them around with me since.
“I see how it is.” He gave me an exaggerated wink before he got out of the cruiser.
As I was locking the door, I returned the favor. “So, how are things going with Naomi?”
He’d been about to say something else, but his mouth shut audibly at the question. Karma!
Just as I pushed open the door to the salon, I heard Sayla say, “So, I saw Alex coming out of the police station.”
Evie kept her face down, but I could see how red her cheeks were. “Can we not talk about him?”
“Evie, it’s been six days. Don’t you think you should just go over, knock on his door, and apologize to his face? If he doesn’t accept it, fuck him. If he does, problem solved. Just jump on his dick and enjoy the shit out of it.”
Carter made a choking noise behind me, just as Ebru said, “Oh, shit! Hey, Detective Bell. What brings you here?”
Painfully slowly, Evie raised her head and looked in Ebru’s direction, then followed where she and everyone else was now staring. At me.
If I’d thought she looked red before, she looked almost like a tomato now.
A sharp poke to the kidney from Carter snapped me out of my imitation of a statue. In all fairness, coming across a conversation like that about yourself would likely do that to anyone unless you had an ego the size of Kilimanjaro.
“I doubt she’ll hop on your dick in her place of business,” Carter whispered. “Man up and go and give her the damn keys.”
Trying to act as smoothly as I could, I greeted, “Ladies,” to them all, and then walked across the room to where the reception desk was that Evie was sitting behind.
I felt their eyes on me, taking in each step and each blink, and I swear I’d never felt more self-conscious in my life.
Licking her lips, Evie whispered, “Hey, Alex.” Then her eyes dropped to my vest and the name patch on it, followed by the badge I had attached to my belt.
“Or am I meant to call you Detective Bell, seeing as how you’re on duty? I saw Dave the other day and said hi, but then I felt disrespectful because I didn’t call him sheriff like his little shiny button thing had on it.”
The little shiny button thing she was referencing was our official police badge, by the way. There was nothing little about it, but I’d agree it was shiny.
She was also rambling and getting redder. How that was possible, I didn’t know. It looked like she’d be able to cook eggs on her cheeks.
And I found that adorable.
Pulling the keys out of my pocket, I lowered them onto the desk in front of her.
“I took these the other day, so you weren’t out cold with your front door unlocked. I meant to return them, but I had to babysit unexpectedly, and then I had to help Raoul out with some furniture construction he couldn’t do—”
“Because he’s a moron who doesn’t follow the instructions those things come with,” a voice snapped, and I turned to see his wife sitting with what looked like a roll of aluminum foil on her head. “You won’t have seen me when you came in. I was in the little nuns room.”
I didn’t know what that was, but I smiled at my friend and co-workers wife.
“Thank you for doing that and making sure I was safe,” Evie whispered, pulling the keys toward her and then twisting to drop them in her purse.