She gasped, obviously unaware he’d overheard them. But hey, he had good hearing.
He gave her a dirty, sexy smile and turned back and went to the bar.
The plan was to be there a
ll night. If she wanted to see what a Minnesota man could do in bed, she would find him at some point.
Except that she didn’t.
And he went to bed with blue balls and had dirty-ass dreams about the petite blond with the big green eyes and the perfect cupid’s bow of a mouth.
A mouth that slid deliciously over his cock while she stared up at him with lustful adoration.
He woke up thinking he had to see Leighton again.
Either that or Sullivan was right and he needed to date more often.
He was working a three to eleven shift, so he got up and went for a run along the lake. He’d purposely chosen his house based on its easy access to the water. It was a bungalow, tucked back in the trees. He would have liked a water view, but even in a small town, that cost a premium. He’d been very conservative with his spending over the years and he decided not to blow that standard by getting a house too rich for his blood. But the water was just down the hill and an easy five-minute jog.
Axl had been like a lot of kids growing up in a small town. He’d wanted to leave, see the world. He had. Then he’d come back. This was home. If he wanted company, he had it. If he didn’t, which was frequently, he could be alone. The best of both worlds.
The morning was already heating up. August was guaranteed to be the hottest month of the year and this summer had been particularly brutal. By the two-mile mark he had a sheen of sweat running down his chest and a burn in his calves. He loved it. There was nothing more satisfying than pushing his body. It had been why he’d loved hockey back in his childhood. He hadn’t been as fast as Sullivan and Jesse, but he’d had power. Strength.
He peeled his shirt off as he kept running. When he was moving past the picnic area by the beach he realized there was a huge crowd of people gathered around. There were cameras and mics set up. Curious, he turned in and paused at the periphery of the crowd, breathing hard. “What’s going on here?” he asked a woman standing there with her middle-school-aged daughters.
“They’re filming Wedding Crashers,” she responded, sounding excited. “Sadie isn’t here but they are doing a bunch of interviews and site prep for the wedding next weekend. Lakefront ceremony, I’m guessing.”
“Who is Sadie?” he asked, craning to see if he could catch a glimpse of Leighton.
She gasped and looked at him like he was an amoeba. “Sadie Spencer. The host. She’s famous. Though I did hear rumors they are looking to replace her with someone younger. Like maybe Sadie Robinson, the daughter from Duck Dynasty. Which honestly, she’d be adorable doing this, don’t you think?”
She’d lost him entirely. He didn’t even know who she was talking about. “Uh. Sure.”
“I mean, a Sadie after a Sadie. It’s perfect.”
Then he totally lost the thread of conversation because he’d spotted Leighton. She was wearing a pink sundress and giant sunglasses. She had her phone in her hand and she was moving around with authority, talking to the crew and Winnie. She looked confident, completely different from the night before. Being in charge seemed more her element than a bachelorette party.
“Hey, aren’t you the cop from Tap That last night?” the woman asked him. She covered her youngest daughter’s ears with her palms. “The stripper?” she whispered.
Her older daughter gave a crack of laughter. “I thought you went to book club, Mom.”
“I did! Then we went to a charity event.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It really is a charity event,” Axl told the daughter. “And ma’am, I’m not a stripper. I’m actually a police officer. We do the dance to honor Kendra O’Toole and raise money for breast cancer research. It’s meant to be fun and get some attention.”
“You got my attention all right.” She eyed him appreciatively.
“Ew,” her daughter said. “Mom, stop, seriously, before I need therapy.”
That made Axl laugh. “That’s a two-way street, kid.”
“Listen to the policeman,” the woman said, finally dropping her hands from her younger daughter’s ears.
“Have a nice day,” Axl said. He gave a wave, did a few stretches, and started running again. He went closer to the LA crew just to get a better look at Leighton.
His shirt was tucked in the waistband of his gym shorts. He realized a little too late running shirtless could be perceived as intentional. Showing off.