BEAUTY AND THE BADGE Page 8

  I get why he’s saying that; I do. But I feel like I need to make it clear to him—and to Rita—that I can take care of myself where she is concerned. And from here on out, I need to lockdown my desire for him. That Rita’s involved ought to make it a hell of a lot easier.

  I shrug like it’s no big thing. “Don’t worry about me. I haven’t taken anything she’s said seriously since I was a teenager. Her little verbal jabs are garbage in and garbage out. She is what she is.”

  Which, for the record, is a horrible human being.

  His brow furrows. “It was fucked up. She shouldn’t have talked to you like that. Nothing you can say will change the fact that yeah, I’m concerned about your feelings. I’d need my head examined if I wasn’t.”

  “Don’t be. This isn’t high school—I’m not about to start rocking in a corner because someone whose opinion I neither care about or want likes to get her kicks by leaving a trail of insults in her wake. That’s her problem. And, I guess, yours too. I want no part of it.”

  His head rears back as though I’ve shocked him.

  “No, you’re reading that—”

  “I’ve got to run to the bathroom,” I announce, cutting him off. “It’d be great if we could not talk about Rita anymore. I came to have fun, and talking about or thinking of her doesn’t qualify as a good time.”

  Turning on my heel, I walk away without waiting for him to respond. Before I’m out of earshot, I hear Jana say, “Well Ty, you done fucked that up.”

  My initial reaction is to agree with her, but I know I need to step back and see tonight through a different lens. It’s better I found out about Rita now than two weeks from now, when I might have liked him more.

  When I get back from the bathroom, things are different. For starters, I choose to sit on the other side of the table with Jana. Reese and Ben show up less than a minute later, which is good, because they keep conversation flowing. I ignore the way Tyler keeps looking across the table at me as I settle into a side conversation with Jana.

  “You see what I mean now about the hot guy ratio, right?”

  I shake my head. “Um, no.”

  “It’s like this. We started the night with four hot guys at this table. The odds were against us, because the ratio was off. It was inevitable that anyone who would come over to say hi would be a dud. That’s why Scooter showed up. It’s all about balance.”

  “You gotta stop that shit,” Reese calls from across the table. “When you go on and on about how hot I am, it makes me feel like a piece of meat.”

  “Not me,” Will says as he reappears at the table and pulls out a seat. “You can call me hot all day, every day and I’ll never complain.”

  Jana groans. “You’re so gross.”

  He cocks a brow. “Kinda hard to believe I’m gross after you just said how hot I am.”

  I laugh and take a sip of my beer. At least there have been a lot of good things tonight. I feel like I’m making friends and fitting in, and this group of people is funny as hell. Reese might treat me like one would a package from an unknown sender, but I think he’ll come around. He’s nice to Jana, and he was even nice to Meghan up at the bar. He probably just needs to warm up.

  As for Tyler, it’s probably a really good thing he’s now one hundred percent off-limits to me for all eternity. Everyone knows that crushing on your boss is a bad idea. I dodged a bullet.

  Maybe someday, I’ll believe that.

  _______________

  WE ALL CALL it a night three games of darts and two hours later. Crossing my arms over my chest, I rub my arms for warmth as Tyler and I walk from the bar to his truck.

  “You should’ve let me pull up for you,” he says gruffly.

  “It’s fine,” I assure him, “just a little brisk. I need to get my body used to the difference between Los Angeles and island weather. Every day, I get a little bit better.”

  “Don’t catch a chill just because you’re stubborn.”

  “I won’t.”

  When we get next to the truck, he pulls out his key fob and presses the button to unlock it. I swallow nervously and avoid making eye contact with him. I’ve been dreading this moment the entire walk from the bar. My gaze is on his hand when he hits another button on his key fob. There’s a very subtle sound coming from the truck. Looking down, I realize the sound is the whirring of a running board dropping down from where it’s tucked beneath the truck.

  What the hell? This isn’t something that was just installed. If Tyler had clicked that button back at my house or when we arrived here tonight, he wouldn’t have had to help me up and into the cab. I look up at him, eyes wide. “You didn’t do that earlier.”

  He shrugs and looks down at the ground. “No, I didn’t.”

  He turns and walks away without another word. When he gets into the truck, I don’t make conversation. The ride home is brief and blessedly silent. When we arrive, he parks and comes around to open the door. After the running board drops into place, I step out. I’ve been planning what I wanted to say the entire way here, so I feel confident I’ve got this.

  “Thanks for driving me,” I say, my voice cheerful. “I loved meeting everyone. It was fun.”

  “Any time,” he replies, his voice low.

  He looks frustrated and unhappy, but since it involves Rita, I won’t ask. The issues he has with and about her are none of my business. I need to get my big girl panties on and spend some time with the manifestation app so I can get myself back into a positive frame of mind.

  “See you Monday,” I say. I smile in what I hope comes off in a breezy, happy-as-a-clam way as I turn and begin the walk to my front door.

  “Yeah. See you then,” he murmurs.

  I nod but don’t look back.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ____________________________________

  TYLER

  ONE WRONG DECISION can fuck up your entire world. Things were good, and then bam, I made an off-the-cuff decision that fucked everything up. I’m paying for that choice now, with interest. Letting out a loud “Fuck,” I pull into my driveway and park my truck.

  I knew from minute one of meeting her that Ashley is special. That feeling’s only grown stronger as the days have passed. I looked forward to tonight for the entire week, and because of goddamn psycho Rita, I’m up shit’s creek without a paddle. The heat between Ashley and me went from a ten-plus down to a frigid one the second Rita opened her mouth and started spouting all that bullshit.

  The heat didn’t go down on my end, obviously. I still want Ashley. I’m not blind though. I saw the change as it took place, saw the way she shut down so fast I’m surprised there wasn’t smoke. She didn’t just pump the brakes; she slammed on them and did a one-eighty.

  The woman I picked up earlier was nervous about the attraction between us, but dammit, it was there, and she wasn’t fighting it all that hard. When I dropped her off just now, she had a wall up, and I felt like a goddamn douchebag after a shitty first date.

  Night and fucking day in a matter of hours, all because of one stupid fuck-up I made months ago.

  I slam the door to my truck and then make sure to click the key fob twice so it locks before I head toward the house. Most of my neighbors leave their shit unlocked, but in addition to being a cop, I lived in a city too long. I like things locked up tight, always. I smile a real smile for the first time in hours when I open the door and find Boo on the other side, jumping up and down like a goof. Gently moving her out of the way, I close and lock the door behind me before I bend down and scratch her behind the ears.

  “Hey, girl. Were you good while I was out?”

  Her tongue lolls out of her mouth as she stares up at me with the puppy version of a proud smile. Yeah, she was good while I was gone. She always is.

  Standing, I head toward the kitchen. Taking down a bag of treats from the cabinet, I pull out two little bones. Turning to look at Boo, I smile when I find her already sitting down. She’s a damn good dog. I dispense the treats and then wal
k through the house to the back slider. Once there, I open it and follow her out. I can tell how tired she is by the fact that she runs to pee and then quickly returns. That’s her way of saying it’s her bedtime.

  Following her back in, I close up after myself and then head into the living room. Boo’s already up on the loveseat, rolled over onto her back so I can scratch her furry belly. I lean down and do just that for about a minute, as is our routine. I bought this crazy dog two beds, but she turned up her nose at both. The amount of coin I’ve dropped on my pup is nuts. I paid a small fortune to have the glass in my slider cut for a dog door in the center, and she only uses it during the day when I’m at work. She uses it to get outside and do her business, but I think the bigger reason is that she loves to take herself down to the Andovers’s for treats, cuddles, and love. Aside from that, the door is of no use or interest to her. If I’m in the house, she absolutely won’t use the door, no matter what. One time, she took a spite shit right in front of the door just to make the point that I should’ve let her out. It wasn’t like I’d been neglecting her—I was in the shower.

  The dog has a personality. I just roll with it. When life gives me a swift kick in the ass, it’s good to come home to my dog. She reminds me to smile, no matter what. After dropping a kiss on her snout, I check that the small lamp on the table against the hall wall is on before I flip the switch to turn off the overhead lights. Boo isn’t a fan of the dark.

  After using the bathroom, I go into my bedroom. Boo can push the handle down with her paw if she wants in, so I shut the door behind me. After kicking off my shoes and stripping down to my boxers, I toss my wallet onto the dresser, turn out the light, and head to my bed. The room is small enough that I don’t need the benefit of sight to get into bed. Pulling the covers up to just above my waist, I cross my hands behind my head and stare up at the ceiling.

  Shit is fucking nuts. I felt confident about taking Ashley to Ted’s tonight, because I knew Rita got banned a few weeks ago for getting into a full-on fistfight with a girl she went to high school with. I should’ve known that nut would figure out a way to get the ban lifted.

  The way she went after Ashley was appalling. If I weren’t the chief of police, I’d have gone the fuck off, even though we were in a room full of people. That’s the kind of person Rita is though. She pushes you until you’re at your goddamn breaking point, because she’s a fucking nightmare. She gets a perverted kind of enjoyment from public altercations, similar to the way normal people get off on porn.

  She pushed hard tonight. This was, by far, the worst she’s been to date. When being rude to Ashley didn’t make me snap, she flat-out fuckin’ lied and said I had sex with her last week. Oh wait. I got that wrong, and detail is important. She said I made love to her.

  Fuck to the no. I haven’t made love to anyone in my life, and if I wanted to make love, I sure as hell wouldn’t do anything like that with Rita, who I barely fucking know. On top of that, what I do know isn’t complimentary.

  Contrary to the drama she threw down with tonight, she couldn’t give a shit about me. We never had a relationship. I met her at a bar on the tourist side of town a few months ago. At the time, I was surprised when Rita told me that she lived on the island, since I’d never seen her before. She explained that away by telling me that she’d recently moved to town and was renting an apartment in an area that bordered what locals call the Gateway to the Vacationlands. I found out later she was full of shit. Yeah, she’d recently arrived, but she’d lived on the island for most of her life.

  Anyway, not knowing she was a nut but absolutely knowing she wanted to have sex, at the end of the night, I went back to her apartment. I was bored and my dick thought some casual, no-strings-attached sex seemed like a great idea.

  My dick and my judgment were both wrong. Rita wasn’t no-strings-attached sex. She was a nutjob masquerading as normal, which is the worst kind of crazy. I started to figure that out when she strolled into the precinct that Monday. The moment I saw her, alarm bells started sounding. Other than the fact that we’d had sex, I knew nothing about her, so it was damn weird she showed up at my work. Especially considering I never mentioned what I did. I never told her much of anything, and it’s not like she was dropping knowledge on me either. We fucked. The end. Emotion wasn’t involved. Only that wasn’t the way she made it seem when she strolled into the station.

  I’d been standing at the front desk, talking to Felicity, when Rita showed up. When Felicity grimaced like a pile of dog shit had sprouted legs and was walking toward us, I knew something was up.

  When Rita saw me, she said my name all weird and breathless like she was on the set of a cheesy romance movie. She then half ran, half skipped over to me. I’d never seen a grown woman skip with glee before, and God willing, I hope I never will again. I’m pretty sure my balls crawled up and hid inside my body right about then.

  When she stopped, she beamed up at me like I was some kind of god. “Tyler,” she’d murmured, her voice low and husky. “I missed you this morning.”

  The siren going off in my head right then was so goddamn loud that I just stood and stared at her like a dumbass for a good five seconds as I processed her words. Since it was Monday and I hadn’t seen her since Friday, she couldn’t have missed me that morning.

  When Felicity cleared her throat, I snapped back to reality.

  “What’re you doing here?” I asked Rita.

  I should’ve asked how the fuck she knew where I worked, but at the time, I was busy assuring myself that someone had mentioned I was the chief. Charlotte’s Cove is small; it seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time.

  She’d smiled at me innocently as she stepped back. “I was across the street at the church, dropping off some donations, and I just had to drop in and say hello.”

  Felicity’s snicker was not subtle. Because of that, I witnessed Rita dropping her bullshit act for the first time.

  “Hi, Mrs. Falls,” she’d said, super, super loud, like Felicity was hard of hearing. Which she wasn’t. In fact, it was more likely that Felicity Falls could hear pencils hitting paper at the school down the street.

  “Rita,” Felicity responded, her tone stiff. “Are you here to pay a ticket or a fine? The Cove coffers missed all the money you paid into it in the past with your antics.”

  I’d never, ever seen or heard Felicity be snide or aggressive with anyone. That she was doing it to Rita said a lot.

  Well, fuck, I’d thought. So much for the new-to-the-island bullshit Rita had fed me.

  I learned a lot that day. I learned more in the days after—primarily that I fucked myself into this corner, literally, because I let my dick lead the way.

  I have a career and a reputation to uphold, and this island is too small for me to be making waves. When I found out the truth about Rita, I also found out she’s universally despised. And yet, somehow, people will try to pull strings for her. I know this, because both the mayor and the fire chief tried to talk me into hiring her on as Felicity’s replacement. It was a firm-as-hell no on that, but the strong-arming was ridiculous, especially considering that even a blind man could see Rita was in no way qualified.

  It got so tense that Felicity started talking about staying for a while just so I wouldn’t need to hire anyone. I knew she offered because she wanted to help me, but it made me feel like shit that my actions had put her into that position.

  The vast majority of this town might not like Rita, but they expect their chief of police to be a good guy, as they should. I wanted to live in a small town for a lot of reasons, one of them being that everyone knows their neighbors. A byproduct of people knowing each other is gossip.

  I’ve been staying away from Rita, because I don’t want the people I’m paid to protect to see me as a joke. Every time I’ve run into her, she’s taunted me, but I’ve kept my shit together, because I have no choice. I was frustrated with her and her bullshit, which mostly consisted of her constantly threatening to tell people we’re
together before Ashley showed up in my life, but it’s even worse now, because I feel trapped by my bad decisions.

  After I took Rita outside the bar and I was sure no one was around or listening, I told her to stay the fuck away from me. I know she won’t though. She hasn’t before, and the way she looked at and spoke to Ashley made it clear that whatever game she’s playing just became personal. I’ve stayed quiet and held back, because I’m responsible for my own shitty judgment, but if she goes after Ashley again, all bets are off.

  I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I’m also realistic. Manipulators thrive on conflict and drama, and they can’t be reasoned with.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ____________________________________

  ASHLEY

  “WOULD YOU LIKE me to take the deposit to the bank later today?”

  The town council approved a website update, so I’ve been working on refreshing the Charlotte’s Cove website for the last four days, so at the moment I’m trapped in design hell. Looking up from the computer and meeting Tyler’s eyes, I shake my head ruefully. “Thank you for offering, but no. I need to give my eyes and my brain a breather from web design, so I’m going to pick up some lunch. I’ll stop at the bank while I’m gone.”

  “I told the council it was too much work to put on you,” he gripes.

  “It’s not that. Any time I do computer work for too long, I need a break. I’m enjoying doing this though. I forget how much I love to design until I’ve got a project to dive into.”

  “For real?” he asks, a hint of disbelief in his tone.

  “I really am,” I answer, careful to keep my eyes trained to his shoulder.

  It’s been three weeks since our night out at the bar, and things between Tyler and me aren’t what one would call comfortable. Even though the words we say are bland and boring, the tension between us has gotten thicker. He seems on edge, and I’m busy doing everything I can to ignore the attraction I feel toward him.

  We see each other too much for me to have any success with that. I’d avoid him more if it were possible, but it isn’t. It’s easy to keep my distance from him at home, because whenever I see him out walking Boo, I go inside. At work, I have no choice but to interact with him daily.