“We don’t use the cells much during off-season, so those desks aren’t assigned to any one officer,” Tyler explains. “When summer rolls around, that’ll change, but if last summer was any indicator, the number should still be low. I think we averaged about sixty to seventy arrests per month last year, and most of those were either public intoxication or drunk driving. I know you spent almost every summer here, so you have a frame of reference for what to expect. That’ll help you get used to the more laid-back lifestyle. From personal experience, I can tell you the change from the constant go-go-go is worth it.”
“Where were you before this?” I ask.
“Seattle PD. It’s a great department, but city life never felt like a good fit for me. I like law and order, and in Charlotte’s Cove, those two things are the norm instead of the exception. Some might say it’s boring, but it isn’t to me, at all. I like having roots and knowing the people I’m protecting.”
“I get that. Looking back, I realize I stayed in Los Angeles for as long as I did because I was born and raised there, and it was what I knew. Moving out here always seemed like a pipe dream. Turns out having a gun to your head gives you clarity and makes things a lot clearer.”
His expression clouds and he winces. “Fuck. I forgot Felicity mentioned you were in a store holdup. Were you hurt?”
The way he looks me over makes me a little weak in the knees. “Not physically,” I answer. “I lived over the convenience store that was robbed, so the feeling of safety I normally felt inside my home was gone. LA is too big and too chaotic for me. Charlotte’s Cove has always been my happy place, and I own a home here, so it made sense to at least consider it. After Felicity interviewed me for the position and you gave the okay to offer me the job, I felt like it was a clear sign that moving here was the way to go.”
“Did anyone come with you?” he asks, his voice gruff. “Boyfriend? Friend? Friend with benefits?”
I know there’s a faint blush on my cheeks as I shake my head. “No, none of the above.”
The grin that spreads across his face sends a blast of heat through my body.
“I’m glad.”
The way he’s watching me is making my pulse race. We stare at each other in silence for a few seconds before I realize I need to pull myself together and act like an office manager as opposed to a groupie at a Backstreet Boys concert. “Um, glad?” I ask.
He grins like I’ve amused him in some way. “Glad you decided to move here,” he says. “It was the right decision.”
“I, um…” I blink a few times as I try to form a coherent string of words. His attention is making it hard to think. “I think it was the right decision too,” I finally manage.
Internally, my brain is shouting that I’m in danger of coming off like a tongue-tied weirdo. Sucking in a breath, I straighten my shoulders and give myself a firm mental slap. Tyler needs to see I can follow the bouncing ball and take this job on, so that’s what I need to focus on.
I’ll save thinking about how hot he is for later.
CHAPTER FOUR
____________________________________
ASHLEY
ONCE WE GET back upstairs, it doesn’t take long to comprehend why Tyler was so happy about my computer skills. Six months after he took over as chief, he got the town council to agree to upgrade the systems in the department. There are new computers for all the staff, and there’s also a system up at the counter that streamlines the paying of tickets and fines. Unfortunately, Felicity wasn’t good with computers and didn’t have a desire to be, so Tyler wound up entering a lot of the information himself after hours. I can’t hold back a laugh when he admits she’d tear off a piece of paper from her yellow legal-size notepad at the end of each day and leave it for him so he’d know who paid what.
“That was the system all these years?” I ask. “A slip of paper?”
His husky chuckle makes my nipples pucker. “Actually, it was done in notebook logs. When I got here, there were thirty-two years of notebooks in the basement, and it didn’t look like too much more would fit. With this system, it’s easier to track and send out warnings to anyone who didn’t pay. You just click a button on Mondays and it will collate a list of what’s late.”
To people who understand how to use programs like this, it’s a time-saving cakewalk. To someone like Felicity, it must’ve seemed like gibberish.
With the computer program explained, he turns to the phone system. That doesn’t take long at all for two reasons. First, I was using something similar at my old job, and second, Felicity left me a handwritten, color-coded list of the extensions.