She shoved her phone back in her pocket before smoothing her hands over her jeans. She rose, bumping the table, jostling her coffee and sloshing it over the rim. Automatically she snagged a couple of napkins from a dispenser and mopped up the wet mess as it dripped over the edge of the table. By the time she looked up, he was standing next to her, staring, studying the soggy mush of napkins in her hand like one of his crime scenes.
Shit. So much for smooth. She pushed aside the coffee-soaked napkins, now a crumpled wet ball, and straightened. Coffee had splashed her jeans and dampened her fingertips, which she quickly wiped against the denim. Should she extend her hand or hug him? He made no attempt to break the ice or make this moment easy. She’d called the meeting, and he was letting her run the show.
“Thanks for coming,” she said. “I know it was last-minute.”
“No problem, Tessa.”
“Can I get you a coffee?” she asked.
“No. Thank you.”
She muzzled the urge to prattle on and sat back down, fairly certain her legs might give way if she kept standing.
He pulled out a seat, moving it to the side so he had the front door in his peripheral vision.
“I can trade seats,” she said. “I know you like your back to the wall.”
“Not necessary.” Slowly he folded up his sunglasses and tucked them in his pocket.
“Right.”
When she didn’t expound, he raised a brow. “Why the meeting, Tessa?”
“I wanted to let you know I’m back in Richmond. I’ve applied for a yearlong fellowship at the medical examiner’s office. In fact, Dr. Kincaid just offered me the job. I start in the morning.”
That muscle twitched again in his jaw. “She’s smart. Manages a good shop. Why tell me?”
Ice coated each word. He wasn’t attempting cordial. But then it had never been easy with him. “We’re going to run into each other. In fact, the medical examiner’s office has one of your cases on the docket for tomorrow.”
“You could have told me all this in a text.”
“I know you don’t like texts.”
As he sat back, his jacket opened a fraction, offering a glimpse of his badge clipped to his belt, inches from the grip of his weapon. He waited.
She tucked another strand of hair behind her ear. “I understand this victim is young.”
He impatiently tugged at the edge of his jacket. “When you officially start, we’ll talk about it.”
Old frustrations stirred, and she remembered he could be abrupt, his tone blunt when he was upset. She knew he was angry with her. She’d blasted out of his life on a rush of emotion and little thought.
Now, when she wanted to say the right words to mend a once-strong connection shattered into so many pieces, words alone felt inadequate.
Dakota’s question was as piercing as a honed blade. “So that’s it? You wanted to give me a heads-up?”
“That was part of the reason.”
He didn’t speak. Barely seemed to breathe.
“I wanted to see you. To see for myself you’re doing okay.”
He shook his head, as if he were bracing for a second shoe to drop.
“I also wanted you to know I remembered today is Kara’s birthday. I haven’t forgotten.”
He didn’t blink. “Okay.”
“She was my friend, too. What happened to her changed my life as well.” Her thumb rubbed the underside of her ring finger as if expecting to feel her wedding band.
“Happened?”
“Yes.” She’d hoped mentioning Kara would chip away at the wall between them, but it only added more bricks. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to rub salt.”
A weary sigh leaked from his lips. “I assume you’re now making small talk and screwing up the courage to talk about a divorce.”
Their broken marriage dangled between them like glass shards. Hardly anyone would have noticed any hope glinting around the jagged edges. “No, I’m not.”
“No, you’re not what?”
This was the moment she’d rehearsed a hundred times on the long plane ride home. “I’m not filing the papers.”
His gray eyes narrowed. “You want me to?”
“No,” she blurted.
Wariness flashed as his eyes narrowed. “Why not? A clean break means you can get on with your life.”
If this had been a tug-of-war game, she’d have been digging in her heels. “Is that what you want?”
Staring. Silent. Still. He was giving her no glimpse of his thoughts. She’d have to work for every inch of progress.
“I’ve done everything I can think of to get free of you. I was sure ten thousand miles would do the trick. But no luck.” As the words rushed over her lips, she regretted them immediately.
Challenge sharpened already keen features.
A cold chill swept over her and threatened to scatter whatever hopes she’d painstakingly collected over the last weeks as she continued, “I thought eight months apart would mellow us both.”
“I haven’t changed and neither has my job, Tessa. It never will. I don’t know why you imagined I’d change.”
“I’ve changed.”
Shaking his head, he rose as if he could no longer stay still. “Do yourself a favor and move on with your life. File the fucking papers, and I’ll sign them.”
She stood quickly, again bumping the table, sloshing more coffee. As he turned away, she fired back, “I never figured you for a chickenshit, Sharp.”
He might recognize her outburst as one of the investigative techniques he used interviewing a hostile witness, but that didn’t mean he was immune when the tables were turned. “Provoking my temper won’t work, Tessa.”
“Figured you were more of a fighter,” she pressed. What the hell did she have to lose now? “Never pegged you for a quitter.”
Unruffled, he reached for his sunglasses. “I’m a realist. We are not suited for each other. I know. You know it.”
She moved a step closer to him, knowing the sunglasses were one of his tells. He put them on when he was rattled. She’d hit her target. “I’m not filing papers.”
“And then what? We remain in limbo?”
“No. We figure it out. We make our marriage work.”
“There’s nothing to figure, nothing to fix.”
She’d met him years ago through his sister, Kara, when Tessa was seventeen. More than a decade would pass before they reconnected and, after a quick, electric courtship, rushed into a marriage that had lasted eight months. It hadn’t taken long before the demands of his job bled into their marriage and she realized being married to a cop wasn’t easy. He worked long, hard hours and was dedicated to the work. The eleven-year age difference also began to widen the cracks forming between them. She wasn’t sure what she could have done, but darting halfway around the world hadn’t been the answer. Now she was back, determined to fight for a second chance.
She took his hand in hers, savoring the rough edges of his fingertips she’d once welcomed on her body. It had been so long since they’d touched. Kissed.
She expected him to pull away, but he didn’t. Her bravery growing, she moved closer to him, sensing his gray eyes studying her.
Bolder now, she slid her hand up his arm and behind his neck. He watched her closely as she pulled him toward her. She pressed her lips to his mouth. Instinctively, he kissed her back.
The kiss sent a ripple of desire through her body, making nerve endings fire and muscles grow weak. Anger and resistance hummed under his touch, even as his hand came reluctantly to her side. She leaned in a fraction, skimming her breasts against his chest. She relished his scent. His taste. As heat rose up in her, she made no move to douse it.
“I haven’t been able to forget you,” she whispered.
Dakota lingered a beat before the fingers on her hip curled into a fist and he broke the connection. “Sex was never an issue with us.”
“The bedroom wasn’t the only place we connected,” she said.
/> “You’re wrong. Out of the bedroom was our issue. Still is. Like I said, I’ve not changed, Tessa,” he said, his voice strained. “And I mean it when I say I’ll never change.”
“Maybe I’m kidding myself.”
“You are.”
She shook her head. “But I’m willing to risk that I’m not.”
“Like I said, I am a realist, Tessa. I know when to cut my losses.”
He wasn’t ready to talk. Fair enough. What had she expected? That he’d greet her with open arms? There was always a challenge with Dakota.
But Tessa would embrace this damned second chance no matter what he said. “I’ll see you in the autopsy suite tomorrow, Agent Sharp.”
With measured movements, he turned and left without another word.
She dragged a shaking hand through her hair, glancing around to see who had witnessed the kiss. This was a hangout for cops, and several people were staring. No one said a word, but news would spread. Fine. Let ’em talk. She wasn’t going anywhere.
Sharp had been braced for Tessa’s one-two punch of divorce, but reconciliation had been an unexpected left hook.