Becoming Forever (Waking Forever Series) (12 page)

“Sorry. My
one year old niece, Chelsea is getting baptized and I am the godmother, which somehow means that besides spiritual guidance, I also bring the cake.” Matt came back with the drinks, and blushed when Emma smiled at him.

Emma chuckled. “
I think it’s great that you’re so close with your family.” Emma hesitated and reached for her drink. After a quick sip, she looked intently at Ash. “How has your family been since Elizabeth died?”

Ash took a deep breath. She had thought at some point this might come up, and she felt after three years she was able to talk about it. “It has been difficult. My dad - James - was
a wreck, and seeing him hurt while hurting myself was a lot to handle.” Ash felt tears forming, and bit the inside of her cheek.

Emma reached across the table, and placed her hand on Ash’s “The death of a parent, especially one that was so obviously beloved, is devastating.”

Emma squeezed Ash’s hand. “And then one morning you wake up, and realize you slept a good night's sleep. You don’t hear her voice in your head all the time, but only some of the time.” The tears that had been threatening brimmed over, and Ash intertwined her fingers with Emma’s. “It becomes a useful sadness.”

The two women sat in a comfortable silence, and Ash felt like she could
be still with Emma. For all of her awkwardness, and clear disdain for metaphor and euphemism, Emma always - in the end - said the right thing.

“Thank you.” Ash finally managed to lean back, but couldn’t bring herself to take her hand away; so she reached for a napkin with her free hand and wiped at her eyes and nose. “I seem prone to fits of crying with you.”

Emma released Ash’s hand, but instead of taking hers away, slid it up to Ash’s wrist and wrapped her cool hand around it, lightly stroking the pulse point in Ash’s wrist with her thumb. “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

Ash cocked her head to the side
, enjoying the sensation of Emma’s hand on her arm. “Buddha?”

Emma
smiled. “Dr. Seuss.”

A burst of laughter erupted from Ash. “Another brilliant doctor.”

Emma pulled her hand back and took a drink of her scotch. Turning her attention to the far corner of the bar where a three piece jazz ensemble had been setting up, she smiled. “The music is going to start soon.”

Ash looked at Emma’s profile. In the past ten minutes, this beautiful woman had become exponentially more appealing to Ash. She wanted to know her, and she hoped they could be friends. Beyond that, Ash didn’t know, but for now a friendship with Emma seemed very precious. “Can we have dinner sometime?”

Emma turned and looked at Ash. “I would like that.”

Ash nodded as the band started playing
Another Great Day
, a medium tempo piece that she thought altogether appropriate.

Chapter 6

“You liked her. You want to marry her
, don’t you?” Alan sat across from Ash on the Starbucks patio just after ten in the morning on a sunny Saturday. His aviator glasses were perched on top of his head as he drank his triple cappuccino.

“You’re such a child.” Ash took a bite of a blueberry muffin. She had like
d Lara, but since she wasn’t in the mood for intense ribbing from Alan, she wouldn’t tell him she had enjoyed the last few hours of the previous evening with Emma more.

She and the doctor had stayed at
Bar 1919 for the entire jazz set, and then stood in the parking lot afterwards talking for another half hour. Ash was amazed at how intelligent and informed her new friend was.

There wasn’t a topic of conversation the doctor wasn’t willing to broach. Even Emma’s tendency to get overly detailed hadn’t bothered Ash
, considering the details pertained to interesting subjects that ranged from travel in the Middle East, the near collapse of the U.S. economy, and the European football clubs. Ash was even willing to forgive Emma for supporting Manchester United.

Alan leaned forward. “Tell me everything.”

Shaking her head, Ash laughed. “What’s to tell? She’s beautiful, funny. She can hold her liquor and we -” Ash intentionally cut herself off.

“What?! You what?” Alan nearly choked on his coffee.

“Calm down. We didn’t do that. For god’s sake, it was our first date.” Ash took a drink of her latte.

“Hey, I wouldn’t judge - out loud - at all.” Alan winked.

Ash thought she had tortured her well intentioned friend enough. “We like each other and we’re having dinner next Thursday.”

Alan pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!”

Ash leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs. “Thank you, Alan, for forcing me to date.” Ash stuck her tongue out.

Alan’s expression grew dramatically somber
as he nodded. “You are welcome.” He stood, and put his cappuccino on the table. “Bio break. I’ll be right back.”

Ash’s phone vibrated on the table next to her. Picking it up, she smiled.

Is it too soon to text?
It was Lara.

Ash quickly shot a response back.
Who is this? j/k

Scary when all I can c is the question, not the j/k on my preview line.
Lara responded.

Sorr
y
Not too soon. Had a good time last night.
Ash grinned.

Alan walked up and sat back down across from Ash. “Who’s that?”

“No one.” Ash put the phone down.

“It’s Lara, isn’t it
?” Alan smiled.

“Maybe.” Ash smirked. “Yes.”

Alan leaned back and propped his legs up on the extra chair to his right. “I’m a match making god.”

Ash shook her head as her phone vibrated again.
See you Thursday, detective.

A
rush of heat shot through Ash. She wasn’t sure why Lara using her official title made her a little hot, but she wasn’t complaining.

***

Ash had finished coffee with Alan, and was walking into the San Antonio Police Department building in downtown San Antonio. The building always smelled of industrial strength disinfectant and its décor was outdated with green-speckled linoleum floors, and off-white painted walls. Ash was looking forward to moving over to the new complex that was under construction three blocks away next fall.

Ash rounded a corner and ran straight into Richard Dorsey.
It was like walking into a brick wall, as he was a brute of a man at nearly 6’5” whose dim expression was not a ruse. Richard had been on the force for nearly twenty years, was in his mid-forties, and had never been promoted above Corporal. He had numerous write-ups for unnecessary force, and always smelled like wet cardboard with a terrible case of halitosis.

“Hi Officer Dorsey.” Ash looked up at the man, trying to hold her breath.

A broad smile appeared on the man’s face, revealing a row of misaligned teeth. “Detective Haines, in a hurry today?”

Ash
stepped around the man and managed a smile. “Always. Take care, Dorsey.”

The man
leered, and Ash could practically feel his eyes moving over her body. “You too detective.”

Ash shrugged off the creepy feeling she always got around Dorsey
, and continued along the hallway until she came to the small office Cris and she shared.

“Yo, partner.” Cris looked up from a stack of
files.

Ash shut the door. “Just ran into Dorsey.”

Cris continued looking at the files. “So you’ve lost your appetite?” He held out container of Pringle chips.

Ash smirked. “It takes m
ore than a smelly baboon to ruin my appetite.” She grabbed the chips from Cris and sat down behind her desk.

Popping a
crisp in her mouth, she thought about her and Emma’s conversation last night before drinks. She didn’t want to bring the doctor into this. A defense attorney putting a deputy medical examiner on the stand to ask if she and a homicide detective had discussed the possibility of a vampire bat committing the Garrett murder would get her tires slashed by the D.A.. “Partner, I was doing some research on Google.”

Cris glanced up. “Christ.”

Ash laughed. “Seriously, you have to get over this aversion to technology.”

Cris leaned back in his chair. “It’s not that
. It’s an aversion to trends.”

Ash
shook her head, and popped another chip in her mouth. “Is that why you refer to
the
Facebook,
the
Twitter and
the
Google?”

Cris scoffed. “I’m on
the
Twitter.”

Ash shook her head. “Yea, after Diane set your profile up for you. I think at last count you had eleven followers, and were following three news networks
and the Dallas Cowboys.”

Cris sighed. “Give me my chips back.” Ash clutched the cylinder under her arm. Cris tisked. “
So what did the Google say?”

Ash smiled. “It said that
enzyme we don’t like to pronounce is very rare, and I bet if we trace distributors we may get a lead to our perp.”

Cris
nodded. “The Google is brilliant.” He grinned.

“
In spite of having an alibi, I still think Ela Jacobs, a.k.a. Michelle, knows something.” Ash closed the chip container.

“She sounded inappropriate and a little rude, but a brutal killer
?” Cris made a note in the margin of one of his files.

Ash frowned. “She bothered me, and beyond that
, didn’t seem too upset about Garrett’s death.”

Cris shook his head. “They had only been dating for a few weeks, and by her own admission hadn’t slept together - so how serious was it
?”

Ash
tied her dark hair back in a loose bun at the base of her neck. “Sleeping with someone isn’t necessarily an indication of how near-and-dear they are to you.” Ash had emoted more emotion than she had intended.

Cris looked out of the top of his eyes. “Speaking from experience?”

Ash shook her head. “Please, I sleep with all my dates.”

Cris laughed. “You’re such a liar
, Haines.”

Ash turned her iPad on. “I get around, so don’t you worry about me.” She didn’t get around though, and she rarely slept around. She had a second date with Lara Ramirez in a few days, and she felt fairly confident she wouldn’t be getting around with her.

When Ash was honest with herself, which wasn’t always easy for her on the topic of relationships, she knew deep down she was old fashioned. As cliché as it was, sleeping with someone should mean something. Just thinking it, though, caused Ash to roll her eyes.

***

Ash sat in the dining room of Feast in historic Southtown. The restaurant was elegant and contemporary at the same time, with an open bar and kitchen area that afforded patrons a clear view of the inner workings of the New American, Mediterranean fusion eatery.

Ash took her wardrobe c
ue from Lara’s attire on their last outing. The Mexico native clearly had a flair for fashion, and the last thing she needed was word of a wardrobe inadequacy getting back to Alan. Therefore, Ash wore a pair of slate gray boot cut Kenneth Cole slacks, with a short sleeve, cobalt blue fitted buttondown Banana Republic shirt. Her favorite part of the outfit were her Anne Klein Costaro riding boots.

“You haven’t been waiting too long?” Lara’s voice broke through the background chatter of the restaurant as she stood next to the table.

Ash looked up, and again her breath caught at how attractive the woman was. Her eyes seemed even clearer in the lights of the restaurant, and her hair, which she had pulled back in a loose knot, shimmered.

Ash stood. “Not at all.” She leaned in, and quickly kissed Lara on the cheek.

Lara sat across from Ash. She didn’t disappoint in her attire. Ash admired her dark, low rise Levi’s skinny jeans and white V-neck tee, which she had accented perfectly with a long braided silver necklace and hooped ear rings.

“Are those Tory Burch?” Ash asked as she looked down at her date’s beige leather wedges.

Lara smiled. “Good eye. Do you like them?”

Ash
nodded. “Like them? I covet them.”

Lara
glanced down at her shoes, and then back at Ash. “Just the shoes?”

Ash blushed at Lara’s flirting. “
A woman can’t live on shoes alone, even if they are Tory Burch.”

Lara winked and leaned back in her chair with the menu. “
How was your day?”

“Oh, I have a case that’s making me crazy, but nothing that’s appropriate dinner talk.” Ash said as she looked over her menu. “What did your day look like?”

Lara smiled. “Oh, fair to partly cloudy.”

Ash chuckled. “So we’ve resorted to talking about the weather?”

“And shoes, don’t forget the shoes.” Lara winked.

The two women ordered s
everal courses and Lara asked Ash about her childhood, and her family. Ash was always happy to talk about her brothers, niece and nephew. She had no interest in having children, but she knew she made a fantastic aunt.

“You spoil them then?” Lara asked as she took a drink of her after dinner coffee.

Ash scoffed. “Spoil has such a negative connotation.”

Lara smiled as she patted at her mouth with the cloth napkin she had folded in her lap. “Indulge?”

Ash nodded and took the last bite of her flourless chocolate cake. “Yes. I like indulge much better.”

“How
was the cake?” Lara nodded toward the confection.

“I offered you a bite.” Ash teased.

“I’m not partial to sweets.” Lara said casually.

“Then you haven’t tried the right des
serts, my friend.” Ash put her fork down. “My niece Chelsea is getting baptized this Sunday, and my brother Michael insists on Lucy’s cake.” Ash paused. “Do you know Lucy’s?”