“Shut up.” She closes her eyes. A punishment, I suppose, since I won’t allow her to move away. “I’m gonna accept the stupid cat.”
“But you wanna bitch about it for a while first?”
“Yes.” With her hands on my chest, she attempts to push away, but when I hold her tight and refuse her space, her eyes flicker open. Curious. Loving. “We’re really gonna do this?”
“What?” I look around the cab of the truck. “I thought we already did?”
“Ha-har.” She brings her hand up to finger the stubble on my jaw. “We’re gonna commit to a relationship? And love. And maybe, somewhere far, far in the future, we might move in together?”
“If by ‘in the future,’you mean this coming weekend, then yeah. I have to buy a cat carrier for Chloe first, and you have to talk to Steve about having a pet in the apartment.” Leaning in, I kiss her firm lips and hope to break the seriousness she’s trying to bring back. “Are you hungry for dinner yet?”
“Do we have reservations?”
“We have actual food.” Releasing her face, I fix my shirt and re-clasp the button on my jeans, then I push my truck door open and move into the cold outside.
The snow hardly sticks anymore, which keeps the sidewalks clear, but the breeze is chilly, and I haven’t forgotten that Minka’s legs are bare.
Standing in place and blocking the wind, I hold out my hand and wait for her to look my way. Her hair is sex-messed and her dress still sits askew, but she places her hand in mine anyway. Gently at first. Then she wraps her fingers around and slides my way. “We’re going outside?”
“Yeah, but it’ll be worth it.”
Helping her out of the truck, then standing guard while she fixes her dress and straightens her coat, I sling my arm over her shoulders and pull her in till she’s tucked securely to my side. Closing the door and pocketing my keys, I lead her to the bed of the truck and open it up to reveal an insulated bag.
“I brought food with us, since I didn’t wanna share you with a restaurant. I figured a stroll around the park could be fun, in a really boring, G-rated kinda way.”
Snorting, she peeks over the side of the truck to look into the food bag.
“Burritos.” I take one foil-wrapped delicacy and place the hot parcel in her waiting hand, then I take a second one for myself and close the bag. “A walk. The snow isn’t falling anymore, and it’s a full moon tonight.”
Minka looks up at the sky and smiles as I continue, “The stars are out, and we won’t happen across many other people, since it’s still cold.”
“So what you’re trying to say…” without waiting, she peels the foil back on her burrito and takes a long sniff, “is you act crude and nasty and mean, but just below the surface, you’re a closet romantic who wants to stroll in the moonlight?”
“Yeah. So what?” Turning away from the truck with a huff, I keep one arm over Minka’s shoulders and steer us to the sidewalk. “Fucking sue me for loving love. Jesus, you act like it’s a crime.”
She only giggles. “You’re a big fat romanticandyou’re insecure about it.”
“I’m not insecure about shit.” I tear the foil back with my teeth and expose a corner of steaming burrito. “I’m a man. I’m a cop. I don’t have insecurities.”
“Except that you’d like roses for every occasion,” she teases. “You want couple’s massages and fluffy robes and slippers. Oh god, that means you’ll want a ridiculous show for a wedding, and some kind of extravagant honeymoon.” She stops and looks up with something akin to horror in her expression. “I don’t want a big wedding, Archer.”
Pleased, I drop a kiss to her cheekbone and pull back to keep us walking. “But youareopen to a wedding? A small one? I already offered to swing by the courthouse. That would be private. No one even has to know.”
“When it’s time,” she takes a bite of burrito and hums her pleasure, “that’s how we’re gonna do it. Just the two of us. A little paperwork, I become beneficiary to everything you own, then we’re done.”
I snort. “Fletch will be pissy if he’s not invited.”
“Well…” She wrestles with that for a moment. But she knows him well enough now to know he won’t be excluded. “Fine, we’ll need a witness anyway. And Aubree, too, I suppose.”
“Exactly.” A long, lazy smile creeps across my lips. “If we invite Fletch, we have to invite Aubree too, or we start a war.”
“But that’s all.”
“And Tim,” I cut in quickly. “He’s my brother, so…”
“Oh.” And just like that, Minka’s body tenses beneath mine.
Somehow, without knowing the reason, my body reacts, and adrenaline rushes my blood.