Her arms wrap around me, squeezing briefly. “You two make it easy to smile, even with all the crazy in my life right now.”
“Vi, we better go and meet Aunt Claire. C’mon kiddo.” With one last heated glance in Serena’s direction, I head off toward the police station with Violet skipping along beside me. “That made Serena happy, didn’t it?”
“Yup. Daddy, I love Rena.”
My feet stumble at those words. All this time I’ve been rediscovering my love for Serena, and somehow it never crossed my mind that my daughter could be falling for her as well. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m both happy and scared about that thought.
Happy because, obviously, the more people my daughter has around her that love her, care for her, and she cares for in return, the better. Having a female role model as strong and confident as Serena is nothing short of amazing.
But. And it’s a pretty bigbut.
Violet’s heart being involved means if thingsdon’twork out for any reason, I’m not the only one who will be devastated.
That’s a risk I have to consider carefully.
“I’m telling you, man, the Monte Cristo sandwich is the bomb.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Hunter Callaghan is like a golden retriever puppy. Nothing but youthful energy and overly friendly excitement. But he’s also a damn good cop and a decent guy from what I know so far. He's new to Dogwood Cove, just like me, but fits in well at the station.
When he mentioned earlier that he was going to grab lunch at Camille’s café, I decided to come along to grab a sandwich.
I had originally planned to take lunch back to my desk and keep reviewing procedural files, but that was before we walked in the door of the café.
“Hey cuz, what can I… Oh.” Kat’s mouth opens and closes. “H-hi Hunter.”
“Hey, Kitty Kat. Got a table for two? I’m tryin’ to convince Leo to join me for lunch. He doesn’t believe the Monte Cristo is the best damn sandwich out there.”
Kitty Kat?Jesus Christ, that’s corny as fuck. Do her brothers know about this? I arch my brow at my cousin as we walk past, and she blushes furiously. Hunter might appear oblivious to her reaction to him, but I’m not blind.
Kat’s got a crush.
“Look, man, I said I’d stay and eat here, but you’re not getting me to eat a sandwich that has egg on it.”
“Dude, it’s like French toast and a grilled cheese sandwich had a baby. It’s delicious.”
Kat giggles —giggles— at that insane description.
“Sounds gross. Sorry. Kat, can I just get a chicken ranch wrap please?”
“Sure.” She smiles at me before turning to Hunter and tucking her hair behind her ear. “And a Monte Cristo?”
“You know it.” Hunter winks at her, then refocuses his attention on me. “So. How ya liking Dogwood Cove? I only moved here a few months before you, but I gotta say I like it so far. It's quiet, not a lot of action on the job, but it's cool. Is it boring for you though? Coming from Vancouver? This is my first job, as a cop I mean. It's a good place to start I think. But I guess I'll move to a bigger city someday. Maybe.”
I sit there, sipping my water, smiling and nodding as Hunter rambles on. But my mind is down the street with a certain blonde dance teacher.
Not with the fucking golden retriever I’m having lunch with.
“Oh, did you hear about what’s going on over in Westport?” Hunter asks, taking a drink from his water.
I shake my head, still distracted by thoughts of Serena.
“It’s crazy. They’re a bigger city than us, but still, never expected something like this. Last week, someone went around at nighttime throwing bricks through the windows of random businesses. The weird part is they aren’t taking anything or doing anything else.”
That gets my attention. “Seriously? Any leads on who or why?”
“Nope. It seems completely random so far. I have a buddy on the force over there and he said they’re totally confused. Something like seven businesses were hit in two nights, and then nothing since. They’re starting to wonder if it was just some local kids causing trouble or a prank gone overboard.”