Chief Wilkerson sighed. “I don’t like this.”
I shook my head as I headed for the door. “I don’t like this either.”
After saying goodbye to the chief, I headed for my house on autopilot.
Once home, I headed for the shower, and then for the notes that I’d taken on the last murder.
I spent an hour making more notes on the most current one—my ex-wife—before there was a knock at the door.
I frowned hard at the paper, wondering who it might be.
Getting up, I walked to the door and felt my breath hitch at the sight that greeted me behind the smoked glass.
Feeling a grin fill my face for the first time in hours, I opened the door to find Fran standing on my doorstep with a paper bag in her hand that smelled like it was filled with food.
Then I remembered that she’d invited me over, and I cursed.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized. “I completely forgot about you.”
She batted her eyes as she held the bag out to me. “I am a very understanding person, Taos.”
I grinned and took the bag from her, taking in her attire.
It being cold as fuck outside and alternating between rain and snow, she was much more appropriately dressed now in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
Both of which looked like they’d once again been doused on her mad dash toward the door.
“I just wanted to bring you something to eat.” She paused. “And make sure that you’re okay.”
I swung my door open and gestured for her to come inside, but she shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I think you need some time. I just really wanted to bring you dinner.”
She was the sweetest fuckin’ girl on the planet.
So different from my ex that it was unreal.
My ex would’ve thrown a walleyed fit at being forgotten.
As in, she would’ve called every single person in the town until she found me. Then made such a huge stink about everything that I would’ve been forced to go see her just so she could ‘make sure I wasn’t dead.’
Truthfully, when we’d finally called it quits, it’d felt like a large weight had been lifted straight off my chest.
Before she could think to leave, to go back to her car and drive away from me, I caught her by the wrist and pulled her inside. “Come inside. Warm my couch up and watch TV or something beside me while I read my notes.”
She tilted her head sideways slightly, and I wanted to press my lips against hers.
But she sadly shook her head. “I can’t. I’m all wet…”
“I have sweats that are probably just as baggy as those are that you can wear.” I pulled her closer until our lips were almost touching. “Please.”
She sighed. “My food is in the car.”
I let her go and said, “I’ll get it.”
She snorted and dashed back out into the freezing rain to retrieve her food. By the time she was back, she went from soaked just a bit to ‘you need to get out of those clothes before you catch the plague’ soaked.
“Strip,” I urged her as I took the bag from her hands and placed it on the nearest table—the coffee table that had my notes spread out on it.
I heard her wet shoes hit the tiled entryway and headed for the dryer where I’d just turned on, for a fourth time, the clothes that I’d been wearing all week.
Pulling out a t-shirt, sweats, and some socks, I caught up a towel from the folded pile and then headed back for her.
I found her shivering and slightly blue in the entryway.
Grinning, I dropped the clothes on the arm of the couch before I walked up to her and shook out the towel.
She came to me willingly, and I wrapped her up in the soft cloth before wrapping her up again in my arms.
She sighed and leaned in.
“I missed you,” she breathed.
Something inside of me that had been cold since about halfway through my marriage warmed.
“Let’s get you warmed up,” I breathed as I bent down and swooped her up into my arms.
She didn’t even let out a startled squeak.
Instead, she went willingly, laying her chest on my shoulder, and placed all of her trust in me.
It changed everything.
My day was instantly better.
CHAPTER 13
If squats were easy, they would be called your mom.
-Fran to Mavis
FRAN
“How do you think this competition is going to go for you?”
I gritted my teeth.
Maria’s friend that she always worked out with at the gym was there.
She was competing with someone that I hadn’t ever met before, one that wasn’t from our gym, and she was making it a point to make sure that I saw her.
As if she had to take up the mantle where Maria had left off.
Maria, the woman that was never too far from everyone’s thoughts nowadays.
Maria, the perfect.