“Apparently,” he said wryly, “since I was the only one who liked those damn things.”
“Well, don’t take it personally. Your business cards may need improvement, but we like
you
just the way you are.” She held out a hand to him and wiggled her fingers, signaling for him to take it, which he readily did.
“Come on, Mr. Handyman,” she said, still chuckling. “I’ll buy you a drink at the event to cheer you up.”
“You’re on.” He squeezed her hand and reveled for just a second in how well they fit together—not just their hands on a physical level, but how he and Kendall fit together emotionally and mentally too. He couldn’t imagine himself with any other woman. She was the real deal for him and he wasn’t going to let her go. Now that he’d moved past his reservations over Jake, he could admit to himself that he was—and probably would always be—head over heels in love with her.
He was in love, but he couldn’t tell her that. Soon though, when he was surer of her feelings. At least she admitted she
liked
him. He’d take that. It wasn’t great—in fact, it was pretty freaking awful the more he thought about it.
But it was a start.
Chapter Eight
Maritime City was more of a family shore town, so maybe only three or four good local restaurants were of a decent enough size to hold a fund-raiser as large as the Policemen’s Benevolent Association. The Blue Oyster Restaurant was Kendall’s favorite, mainly because it was known for fresh seafood and the best crab cakes in town. Judging from the number of vehicles lined up like perfect soldiers in the parking lot, she suspected this would be one of its biggest pre-summer-season nights.
She and Brad barely made it three steps into the restaurant before some man was calling out Brad’s name and slapping him on the back.
“Yo, chief, about time your ugly mug showed up,” said the man with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. Brad laughed, and when the man stuck out his hand good-naturedly, Brad readily shook it.
“Hey, Freddy,” Brad said, still smiling. “And who you calling ugly? This place is looking better already since I showed up.”
Freddy glanced at Kendall with a smile of unabashed appreciation and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll say this place is looking up.” He elbowed Brad and added, “You going to introduce us?”
Brad kept his expression neutral, but he turned to Kendall and threw an arm around her shoulders in a move she would not describe as light and friendly, but unquestionably territorial.
“Kendall Grisbaum, meet Lieutenant Freddy Peterson. This guy is actually crazy enough to go to Quantico with me this fall.”
Freddy was a muscular guy with a shaved head and mustache, which would be intimidating if his mouth wasn’t curled as if always on the edge of a good joke. He took her hand with a firm shake and a pleasant smile. “Good to meet ya.” Then he paused and his smile dimmed. “Grisbaum? There was a Grisbaum a few years ago on the fire department but—”
“Yes, that was my husband,” she interrupted before he finished the story she knew by heart. She fought to keep her face from showing her emotions, even though a little cloud of sadness settled over her head at the sudden reminder of Jake.
Freddy’s face paled. “Oh, man. I didn’t know. I’m really sorry for your loss.”
“That’s okay, thank you,” she murmured.
Brad’s mouth looked grim, and his fingers tightened protectively on her shoulder. “Yeah, it was tough on a lot of us. Look, we’re going to get a drink,” he said, changing the subject. “We’ll see you around later, Freddy.”
Brad didn’t hesitate, steering her in the direction of the bar. Once there, he pulled out a barstool and slid it behind her. “Here, drink this,” he said after a moment, handing her a filled glass.
She looked at the brown-colored liquid in her hand and her brows drew together. “Whiskey?” she asked, making a face.
He sent her a sheepish grin. “Amaretto sour.”
She had to smile too, from relief and from gratitude. She wasn’t a hard alcohol type of woman. She preferred her drinks on the sweeter side—and Brad had remembered that.
“Thanks,” she said, taking a small sip. She closed her eyes and let the liquid sit on her tongue a few seconds longer than usual before swallowing, enjoying the feel of its traveling heat. Her shoulders immediately loosened and relaxed.
She’d handled that pretty well, she thought. No crying. No lingering depression. The sadness of losing Jake didn’t feel quite as acute as it once had. She still missed him, but she took comfort in the fact that she was getting better at dealing with the loss. Maybe she really was moving on with her life. Or maybe it was because of Brad and how he’d been occupying a majority of her thoughts lately. Feeling more in control, she opened her eyes and found him watching her with a concerned gaze.
“I’m sorry about that, Kendall.” His tone was soothing and soft. She always found his deep, husky voice comforting, and in that moment she wanted more than ever to close her eyes again and just listen to him speak.
“I wanted to take you out so you could forget and have a good time,” he told her.
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I can’t hide from those comments or how any mention of Jake will make me feel. I’m fine.
Really
,” she added when deep lines of worry appeared between his eyes.
“Are you sure? Because we can leave right now—”
“No, I want to stay.” She patted his forearm and had to smile that she was now the one who was consoling Brad instead of the other way around. “Besides, I promised I’d buy you a drink,” she added.
He smoothed her hair and gently kissed her forehead, as if she were a fragile treasured item. Her heart squeezed with something much stronger than mere gratefulness. “Okay,” he said, “but you only have to say the word and we’re out of here. Got it?”
She nodded and crossed her heart. “Got it, boss.”
“I’m serious, Kendall.”
She gazed at Brad and her heart felt so full she thought it would burst. Brad was her best friend—the very best of men she had ever known. He could be so sweet. But when he kissed her like he had in her kitchen, he hadn’t been gentle at all. He’d kissed her as if determined to pull from the sensation and make it last forever. He’d kissed her like a man who wanted a woman.
Brad looked so handsome in his blue button-down shirt; it made his concerned eyes even bluer. She wanted more than ever to reach up and stroke his face—just touch him—and was more than a little disconcerted by the way that overwhelming feeling grew with each passing second.
Brad took her hand in his and his thumb began to rub an easy circle over the back of it as he spoke. “I don’t ever want to put you in a position where you feel bad.”
“What kind of position do you want to put me in, then?”
Brad stilled, keeping her hand in his.
If she could have, she would have reached into the air and snatched those words back into her mouth. Was she actually
flirting
with Brad?
He seemed just as shocked as she was. Her body suddenly felt heavy and warm. She wished she could blame the amaretto, but as her gaze flew to her barely touched drink on the bar, she realized it had nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with the way Brad was making her feel.
Brad gathered himself together more quickly than she could and allowed his gaze to slowly travel over her body. “I could think of a few positions,” he said with a crooked grin.
She lightly punched him in the arm. “I had no idea you were such a flirt.”
“You started it.”
“I did not.”
“You did.”
“I did…too.”
He smiled. “Now that we’re finally agreed, let’s get back to talking about those positions I’d like to put you in.” He placed his hands on the bar on either side of her and slowly leaned in, his face close to hers. “Starting with this one right here,” he added in a throaty voice.
Her gaze fell on his lips and her heart fluttered wildly. “Brad—”
“Hey, Kendall, is that you?” came a female voice next to them.
Kendall’s breath caught. She averted her gaze and saw Melanie Cade, one of her old co-workers she’d befriended when she had been waitressing, beaming at her and Brad.
Oh, thank goodness for the interruption
. That was close. Brad was close. Too close.
In fact, he was
still
too close.
She gave him a slightly embarrassed shove, but he took his time backing away from her.
“Hi, Melanie,” she said, taking in a deep breath that did absolutely nothing to slow her racing pulse. “I’m here for the police department fund-raiser. Have you met my, uh, friend Brad?”
Melanie held out her hand and gave Brad a hearty handshake. Her friend may have been blond and petite, but she had worked up a lot of strength carrying heavy tray orders over the years.
“Nice to meet you,” Melanie told him. She dropped her hand and immediately turned anxious eyes back to Kendall. “Girl, I haven’t seen you since the restaurant let you go. Let’s grab a table and catch up for a few minutes. I want to hear all about the bakery you’re opening. You have to come over and meet some of the other girls I’m with, too.”
She bit her lip. “That sounds great.” Maybe a little separation from Brad was a good thing. She could think more clearly. She wasn’t completely sure, but given another second Brad had looked as if he’d had every intention of kissing her right there in the bar.
And worse, she would have kissed him back.
Then where would that leave them? She couldn’t do that to him. With any luck, by the time she was done talking to Melanie and her friends, Brad would have forgotten all about her slip of the tongue and maybe even laughed off what they almost had done.
Brad smiled politely at Melanie, then sent Kendall a look that clearly told her,
I’m not going to be laughing later and you can bet your grandmother’s new Coach bag that we’ll be picking this discussion up right where we left off.
She swallowed hard. “Um, I’ll see you later, Brad.”
“Yes, later,” she heard him say behind her. His voice was quiet yet firm. He seemed to be giving her a warning that they were well past the point of mere friendship and that they would need to deal with it, which under normal circumstances she would appreciate. But right now, it only made her wish she could drink some whiskey after all.
Kendall handed out the last of her business cards to Melanie’s friends in complete amazement. Her bakery wasn’t even open yet and she already had three birthday cake requests and an order of cupcakes for an upcoming baptism. She’d thought Brad was kidding, but now she was glad she had taken his suggestion and brought her business cards along with her. It certainly did pay to come prepared.
Melanie turned around and handed her another amaretto sour—extra cherries—with a grin. “Here’s to your new bakery,” she added, clinking her glass with Kendall’s. “I really hope you do well with it. We need a good bakery in town.”
Kendall smiled. “Thanks. Now I just need to hire some part-time cashier help and I should be good to go soon.”
“Hey, my daughter Lindsey will be home this week from college,” Melanie said. “I know she’d be thrilled to make some extra money this summer.”
“Really? Okay, she’s hired,” Kendall said with a laugh. “Seriously, that’s great. It would be such a relief to hire someone I already know and could trust. Tell her to stop by the store whenever she can to fill out the application and I’ll go through it and train her. It won’t take long. ”
“I will,” Melanie said, raising her glass again. “Maybe she’ll bring me home some of those doughnut muffins I keep hearing about as a reward for getting her this job.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she does.”
“I don’t know how you keep your figure having all those baked goodies around you,” Melanie said, planting a fist on her hip with a scowl. “You must have some hidden incentive for keeping so trim.”
“Oh, nothing outside of the usual vanity I possess,” she quipped.
“Really? No incentive at all? You mean there’s nothing up with you and old blue eyes?” Melanie commented, nonchalantly stirring around the ice cubes with her pinkie.
Kendall blinked. “Old blue eyes?”
“Yes.”
Melanie’s eyes glinted with amusement. “I mean Brad Mayer. Please don’t tell me you haven’t noticed his eyes. They’re blue and they’re deep and if you don’t know all that, you need to have your own eyes examined.”
Kendall tensed a little. Of course she would have to be blind not to notice Brad’s eyes. In fact, she had allowed herself to drown in those same blue eyes just a few minutes ago before Melanie had interrupted them. “Well, yeah, Brad does have nice eyes. But we’re…uh, just friends.”
“Uh-huh,” Melanie murmured, sending her a skeptical look.
“No, it’s true!” she insisted. “Brad is great and kind and—”
“
Yummy
.”
Kendall’s lips twitched. “Okay, and yummy,” she relented.
Totally yummy
she’d have to say if she were forced to swear on a stack of Bibles. “But you know me, I don’t want to get involved with anyone from the police or fire department again. Besides, I’m not ready for a serious relationship.”
One of Melanie’s brows lifted. “Who said anything about being ready for a serious relationship? I asked if anything was going on between you two. There’s a big difference. And honey, there’s no reason to feel guilty about that. No one would fault you for having a little male company for a bit. After all, it’s been more than two years. Who says you can’t date casually?”
“Date casually?” Kendall repeated, a little bemused.
That was one solution to get Brad out her system and for her to get out of his. They could take it slow. She could still keep her distance. By the time Brad went off to Quantico for training, things would be cooling and they could calmly end things between them. And if she were honest about it from the beginning, no one would get hurt.
“Men pull the no-strings-attached kind of dating all the time,” Melanie added sourly. “So we women should take advantage when the situation comes around. There won’t be any heavy expectations weighing the relationship down, ya know?”
That could be true. She wondered if something like that would be as simple as it all sounded. “Yeah, I guess. I’ll have to think about it.”
“Well,” Melanie said, nudging her chin in Brad’s direction, “I’d think about it sooner rather than later if I were you.”
Kendall followed her gaze and saw an exotic-looking brunette conversing with Brad by the snack table. Jealousy stirred in her, and she realized that Melanie had just made a very good point.
That settled it. She was going to think about it right now.
…
He couldn’t think.
Hell, he could barely breathe. He had come so close to kissing Kendall by the bar, so close to admitting afterward to anyone watching that something serious was going on between them. He didn’t know how long he could go on like this. Her tiptoeing around their attraction to each other wasn’t working.
At least not for him.
Wearily, he rubbed his face with both hands. Sharon Silvers, one of only two women cops on the police force, wasn’t working for him either. But she wasn’t getting the hint that he wasn’t interested and continued to ramble on and on to him about her recent breakup.
“So that’s why I showed up single tonight,” she finished.