“Yes, I am saying that, Nancy. I’d better not hear you say any more bad things about Jasmine,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Your loss, deputy. I have plenty of better men who want me.” She flipped her blond hair over her shoulder and walked off.
Helen shook her head sadly. “You boys need better taste in women, Drake. I was about to loan her my sweater to cover up. Her boobs were about to fall out of that too-tight shirt. This is a family event, not a strip club.”
Matt and Noah snorted with laughter but agreed with Helen. Drake covered his face with his hands and shook his head. This day was going downhill.
“Damn it. Jasmine will never talk to me again.” Why had he been so nice to Nancy? He knew how stuck up she was but he had not wanted to be rude and tell her to eat alone.
“Go talk to her,” Matt suggested. “She looked so sad. I hate seeing her like that. She has become like a little sister to Tony and me. Her ex was a playboy and it’s hard for her to trust another man. I gave her my word you had honor. Don’t make me a liar, Lopez.”
Drake took his break to go and see Jasmine.
Drake practiced several speeches in his head as he walked to the store. It was all for nothing. When he got there the store was closed and Jasmine and Kate were both gone. He leaned his head against the door and wondered how he would get Jasmine to talk to him again. How was he going to prove that Nancy was a past mistake he now regretted?
Chapter 10
Drake stomped into the station with an angry look on his face. He didn’t stop to greet anyone. He marched straight to the locker room where he kept his extra uniforms. He just never thought he’d need one because of a bad-tempered, black-haired witch who didn’t know the meaning of forgiveness.
Matt and another deputy, Sam, were talking about the fair. Sam wanted to take his kids that night. They stopped in mid-sentence and sniffed the air loudly.
“What the hell, Lopez?” Sam waved his hand in the air. He made a distasteful face and scrunched up his nose.
“Onions?” Matt looked at the big wet stain on his shirt. He sniffed again and shook his head. “Salsa.”
Drake opened his locker and threw his stained shirt in there with a curse. He glared at Matt and Sam, who were trying hard to stifle their laughter. “If you two have nothing better to do, why don’t you go to the Hacienda and arrest a certain witch for assaulting an officer?”
“She threw an onion at you?” Sam guessed, his eyes filled with amusement. His blond hair was slicked back out of his face. His blue eyes were filled with laughter.
Drake sprayed some cologne on himself and grabbed a clean shirt. He put it on and started buttoning it up in an agitated manner.
“Jasmine and I were getting along just fine. Jasmine had forgiven me when Nancy and Lora walked in. Nancy blew a kiss at me and said, ‘Hello, lover, thanks for last night.’ Jasmine threw a bowl of salsa on me and called me a few insulting names while Alicia laughed her head off. That is assault on an officer.”
“You’re right, Lopez.” Matt let a small laugh slip out but quickly contained it and tried to look serious. “We should probably have a talk with her. Right, Sam? We can’t have the women in this town running amok and throwing food at officers.”
Sam nodded but couldn’t speak.
They left the locker room and Drake heard them burst out with loud, booming laughter. Drake slammed the locker door so hard it rattled. He walked out and his two so-called co-workers were bent over with laughter. Matt was wiping tears from his eyes.
Helen rolled her eyes but kept on typing. “I don’t want to know what you boys are up to. Take it outside.”
Greg, another deputy, was just walking for his afternoon shift. He looked at Matt and Sam with interest. “What’s going on?”
They burst into laughter all over again.
“Some help you guys are,” Drake muttered and gave them a disgusted look. He walked out and thought he smelled onions. Maybe some had fallen in his hair. Well, damn. Relationships sucked. He had been right all along. It was better to be free than having to explain his movements.
* * * *
Jasmine let the loud rock music soothe her battered emotions. Alicia, Alana’s younger sister, had invited her to see the current band playing. Alicia had laughed so hard when Jasmine threw salsa all over Drake. Alicia had dubbed him Deputy Don Juan when Jasmine told her the whole story. After inviting Jasmine to go out with her, she went to tell her sister what Jasmine had done.
“My friend Holly and I are going to see Cage the Rage, that rock band playing tonight. You should come with us and forget about men. We are.”
Now the three girls were in the front row watching the rock band play under a huge tent set up in a field on the edge of town. It was loud and crowded but it was just what Jasmine needed. A night out with girls and no Drake. She had told Holly what had happened and Alicia admitted she knew Drake well. He was like another brother. “He is a Don Juan, just like my brother Ray. All they really are is fools.”
“I don’t know him that well,” Holly spoke up. She was a nurse and was working at t
he hospital. She was young and very pretty. “I work so many hours. My last boyfriend broke up with me because I cancelled too many dates.”