“That must have been hard,” Ty said softly.
Misty sighed. “I’ve always wished I could have known her. But my dad and I were a team. I know he tried twice as hard to be as much of a parent as he could, with a tough job like this one.”
“Seems like he did a great job to me,” Ty offered.
A quick, surprised smile spread over her face. “Thank you.”
“Nothing but the truth.” Ty finally took a bite of his steak, and his eyes closed involuntarily. “Wow. That is good.”
“We’re neglecting our food,” Misty said. “And after all your big talk about pouncing.”
“Forgive me. I’ll be over here inhaling this, excuse me.”
She laughed again. Ty felt like every one of his senses was in pleasurable overdrive—the close, warm atmosphere of the restaurant, the smell and taste of one of the best steaks he’d ever had, and the sight and sound of Misty, laughing.
He was starting to wonder if he ever wanted to leave.
***
Misty
It seemed like everything Ty did was—Misty didn’t know what the best word was. Expansive. Big. With gusto.
The way he laughed. The way he ate. The way he’d plunged right into the fight today.
The way he looked at her.
Misty tried to tell herself that he probably looked at every woman—at everyone like that
. It probably didn’t even have anything to do with her being a woman. He was just the sort of man who made everyone feel like they were the only person in the room.
So she applied herself to her steak, which was insanely delicious, and resolved to have a nice evening with an interesting, fun person, and not take anything else away from it.
After all, how often did she just go out to dinner with a friend? Never. She didn’t have many friends, and most of the ones she did have were also colleagues.
Not that she and Ty were friends.
Stop it. She wasn’t like this. She didn’t second-guess what people thought of her. She was Sheriff Dale, after the Sheriff Dale who’d come before her, and that was all that was important.
And if it was a little lonely sometimes, that was fine. Keeping people safe was much, much more important than having a personal life.
So it was fine. Everything was fine.
The steak, at least, was much better than fine. Conversation stalled as they both ate like starving animals, which Misty supposed they kind of were, and made various pleased noises.
Misty determinedly didn’t pay attention to the deep rumble in Ty’s chest that seemed to indicate immense satisfaction. There was no reason for it to send a thrill through her.
When they’d both polished off their steaks and were idly toying with the very last of the sides, Ty took a long drink of his beer and sighed. “Good job, both of us,” he said with a grin. “Those steaks didn’t stand a chance.”
Misty stabbed the very last of her sautéed mushrooms and demolished them. “Should’ve known better than to mess with us.”
“Little did they know that we’re a crack team of steak-assassins. Search and destroy, no target left behind.”
Misty giggled. “Everyone’s always telling me I should be a vegetarian, because deer are. I like steak. Though I don’t eat venison.”
Ty blinked. “I never thought about that. I haven’t spent time with a lot of shifters other than my family, not since I was in the Marines, and then we were mostly predators.”
“You don’t have shifter friends or a—or coworkers, down in Los Angeles?” Misty was proud of herself for biting back the word girlfriend. It wasn’t any of her business.