Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
I shrugged. “I guess I could always go full-time for the fire department…you know the job I really want to do.”
Big Papa sighed. “Fuck you. Get out of my office.”
With a smile on my face, Tank and I made our way out of his office.
After securing Mei’s permission, I stopped by her house on the way home.
The minute she opened the door, Tank was curling around Mei’s feet like a cat.
“I think he missed you,” I drawled, knowing for a fact that he did.
Tank loved Mei, and Mei loved Tank.
However, they were each a painful reminder of what was no longer there and they knew it.
Though they did see each other, I was sure it wasn’t anywhere near as much as they could have.
“He’s getting fat,” Mei’s sweet voice filled the cool night around us. “I’m going to have to see what I can do about that this next week.”
I snorted a laugh. “If anything, you’ll make him fatter. You spoil the boy.”
Mei’s face lit.
“How are you doing, honey?” I whispered.
Her face softened. “I’m doing okay.”
“Promise?” I asked.
She moved forward and reached for my face, which I lowered to her so she could place her palm on my now less blemished skin.
“I’m doing okay,” she promised. “Really.”
I placed my hand on top of hers.
“You know that you can call me—or Imogen—if you ever need anything, right?” I asked.
Her eyes lit.
“Yes, honey, I do,” she promised. “Now get out of here. Take that girl of yours on a vacation.”
With a small hug, I left her there, smiling down at Tank, and went home to collect Mrs. Aaron Sims.
***
Imogen
“When my husband goes outside to investigate a strange noise, how long do you think I have to wait before going to check on him?” I asked another cop wife, Collette, who was married to an officer that Aaron worked with.
“Uhhh,” Collette laughed. “Tough would kill me if I came outside while he was investigating a strange noise. In fact, I would even go as far as to say he’d paddle my ass…but you know how I like that.”
Aaron had done the investigating last night and had stayed outside for nearly fifteen minutes.
I’d contemplated following him out there over five times throughout those long fifteen minutes, but I’d stopped myself each time.
As it turned out, it’d only been Tommy Tom, and the two of them had had a quick chat before Aaron had returned.
After telling him he wasn’t to make me worry like that next time he was investigating something scary, I forced him to tell me what Tommy Tom’s problem was—which to my surprise had been a woman.
“I’ll remember that,” I told her. “I made him make it up to me, though.”
“Ohh,” Collette cooed. “Did he break out the cuffs?”
I snorted and leaned back into my chair, looking up at the window when I heard the familiar Harley pipes signaling my man’s return.
“I gotta go,” I said, smiling when I stood. “Aaron’s home.”
“Righty-O,” she called. “Let me know if you need anything.”
My amusement died when I walked to the door and saw Aaron without Tank.
Normally the two of them hurried up the walk as a race, but today, Aaron was taking the walk like he was tired. Defeated.
And there was no Tank.
I threw the door open and was nearly in tears before I even made it to him.
“What happened?” I gasped, throwing myself at him.
The impact was jarring due to the fact that he was still wearing not only his Kevlar vest, but his utility belt, but I didn’t care.
He caught me easily, and dropped a kiss on my head.
“Nothing,” he answered automatically.
He didn’t tell me about his day when they were bad.
That was something he always shielded me from. Not because I asked him to, but because he felt that I didn’t need to know that part of the world.
“Did you go to work today?” he asked almost absently.
I shook my head. “No. Pops was there and he delegated. Though, he did happen to mention that a school teacher ‘hottie’ named Tawny stopped by to get her car worked on. She had a man pick her up.”
Aaron’s mouth tipped up into a semblance of a grin.
“Your Pops is something else,” he muttered, ignoring the Tawny part as he always did every time her name came up. Tawny had burned her bridges with Aaron after going through his drawers when she was cleaning for him all those years ago. And I guessed she finally realized that what she was pursuing with Aaron just wasn't going to work out. Thank God.
“Your Pops is taking his job back, and you’re making all the money.”
I grinned.
That was true.
I went in when I wanted to. Paid payroll, and basically lived the life I felt like living.
Though, that was all because, in the last two years, Aaron and I had built my business from a small shop into a freakin’ huge—multimillion dollar empire—all with fixing up the Nova, a 1969 Baldwin Motion Nova to be specific. Turns out there were less than one hundred ever produced and we had one of them.