Breathe (35 page)

Still.

This was
much better.

I pried my eyes from the muscles outlined rather spectacularly by his shirt and blinked at his face.

When he had my eyes, he spoke softly, “Goin’ for a run. When I get back, I’ll take a quick shower. We’ll hit the store, pick up some shit for Malachi and grab a coffee before we go to the library.”

I wasn’t keeping up. I was in a haze from sleep, doing that sleeping next to him (which was yummy) and him looking super, double-dose hot in the morning. I couldn’t process the English language.

Therefore, I murmured, “What?”

He grinned and that didn’t make things better.

Then he leaned deeper into me so his grinning, handsome face was close. And, incidentally, so was the skintight shirt and the muscles it covered.

Therefore there was no way I would process his, “I’m goin’ for a run. We got shit to do when I get back and not much time to do it in so get your shower, I’ll grab a quick one when I get home and some food and we’ll move. Yeah?”

As he spoke, my eyes drifted down his chest and when he stopped speaking, some part of my brain registered it was my turn so I asked, “How do you get a shirt that tight on?”

“Faye,” he called and my eyes floated back up to him. When they hit his, his eyes moved over my face and he muttered, “Fuck, you this cute and sleepy when I talked to you all those times on the phone?”

“Probably,” I answered since it was a question but it also likely wasn’t the truth. He wasn’t looking hot sitting on the bed with me when I was talking to him on the phone. He was somewhere else just sounding hot. Now I had both.

“Fuck it,” he muttered like he wasn’t talking to me then carried on, “I’ll run after work.”

That was when I found my sleep warm body plucked out of bed and dragged across his lap. He twisted, rolled and then I was back in bed but not under the covers, under Chace.

I blinked up at him again.

“You wanna know how I get this shirt on?” he asked.

“Yes,” I breathed.

His mouth came to mine, his eyes looking into mine and he whispered against my lips, “Then take it off.”

I was sleepy, this was true. I was hazy, this was true too.

But even so, I was up for that particular challenge.

Definitely.

* * * * *

Eight fourteen that morning

I wandered dreamily into La-La Land Coffee hand in hand with Chace Keaton.

I was dreamy because he gave me an orgasm with his mouth but this time he also used his fingers
at the same time
. It was
awesome.

I was also dreamy because after that, I started to give him an orgasm with my mouth but ended up giving him one with my hand
all by myself.
I kissed him while I did it.
I
kissed
him.
And it sounded and felt
nice.

I was further dreamy because after that we had a shower and I talked Chace into grabbing breakfast at La-La Land.

This wasn’t hard to do.

I just said, “Let’s save time, skip breakfast at home and get something from Shambles and Sunny.”

Since his soapy hands were on my naked wet skin and his eyes were watching his hands move, he answered on a distracted mutter, “Works for me.”

Watching him watching his hands, I figured I could ask him to build me a model of the Sistine Chapel with miniature true to life detailing then a shed we could display it in, advertise it and sell tickets and he would have said, “Works for me.”

I liked this. It made being naked and wet with Chace in the shower not weird or embarrassing.

It made it a lot of other things. Like beautiful. And it made me feel a lot of other things. Like desired. Cherished.

And
powerful.

I made a mental note of this for future reference.

Last, I was dreamy because Chace and I went to the grocery store before La-La Land. I didn’t know why this made me feel dreamy. It was an everyday thing, going to the grocery store. But somehow doing an everyday thing, just like the day before, lazing around and watching TV, seemed magical when I did it with Chace.

This didn’t mean it wasn’t relaxing the day before. Sometimes fun, sometimes sweet like when he chuckled at the antics of Shawn, Gus, Lassie, Juliet and the crew from
Psych.
I loved it that he liked that show and I loved hearing his comfortable, laidback laughter. I didn’t suspect he was comfortable and laidback a lot. I didn’t suspect he laughed a lot. I didn’t like either. It might be characters on a TV show giving it to him, still, I liked that he had it.

So even though we just picked up bits and pieces for Malachi and we weren’t there long, for some reason I knew I’d remember that first trip to the grocery store with Chace for the rest of my life. Like a fantastic vacation. A special birthday party.

A wedding.

This dreamy feeling stuck with me as I entered La-La Land for maybe the thousandth time, but this time the first time with Chace (which was also special) and it stuck with me in a big way.

I saw Shambles immediately. He was wearing a pair of those round, John Lennon glasses with bright green shades in them. He had a rainbow colored tie-dyed bandana tied around his forehead, the top of his shaggy blond hair bunched weirdly at the top and hanging low to his shoulders out the bottom.

He took one look at us, his arm shot straight in front of him, his finger pointing back and forth between Chace and me and his mouth started moving to say loud words.

“You!
With
you!
Together!
Groovintude!
” Then he dropped his arm and shouted, “Sunny! Baby! All those coffees to go separate and now they’re here together! Proof! Our sweet Faye landed the hot police guy!”

This was the exact time my dreamy feeling ended and heat hit my face.

Sunny ran in from a room at the back as Chace, reading me again, dropped my hand and slid an arm around my shoulders, pulling me protectively close to his side. With no other choice and because it felt good, I slid my arm around his narrow waist.

Neither of us was able to say a word.

This was because Sunny clapped while jumping up and down and shouting, “
I like!
”

We made it to the counter (unfortunately) and Shambles looked at Chace, “No offense to your brethren, dude. There are other hot local federales but none as hot as you.”

“Shambles is a guy,” Sunny leaned in to inform me of a fact I knew, “but he’s comfortable in his manhood so he’s capable of spotting hotness and has no problem sharing his opinion. He’s not my style,” she jerked her head at Chace, “but I think every member of the sisterhood would agree on some level your guy is a hot guy.”

This was not in doubt.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“I appreciate the compliment but I think you both get Faye’s a little quiet so I’d also appreciate it if for her sake you’d be a little more cool,” Chace said in a quiet voice that nevertheless held authority at the same time it was weirdly gentle.

I tipped my head back to stare at his profile, amazed he could pull this off at the same time not surprised at all.

“Right,” Shambles whispered like he’d been shushed in a library and not gently told off by a hot guy cop. Then he looked at me and he said, “Sorry Crimson Stargazer.”

By the way, if you were a regular, and Sunny and Shambles liked you, they gave you a hippie name. I knew this because, while getting to know Lauren and Lexie, I learned that they called Lauren “Flower Petal” and they called Lexie “Midnight Sunshine”. Usually, they just called me “Star” for short like they called Laurie “Petal” and Lexie “Midnight”.

They were weird. They were hippies. They were the only hippies I knew so I didn’t know if they were weird hippies. What I did know was that they were sweet.

“It’s okay, Shambles,” I said, smiling at him.

“It’s cool you read ‘cause reading is cool,” he went on softly. “It’s cooler you’re not reading and, instead, standing close to a hot guy.”

No truer words were ever spoken.

My smile got bigger.

Shambles smiled back.

Then he jumped as he whirled, moving to his espresso machine and crying out, “Hazelnut latte and triple shot latte, coming up.”

“We need breakfast, Sunny,” Chace said and she jumped to the case filled with Shambles’s homemade baked goods.

“I see you’re having a good effect on the hot guy already, Star,” Shambles said to me while fiddling with that coffee grinder thingie. “He never gets anything out of the case. The only alternate he orders is one of my smoothies with a scoop of protein powder. The only reason I
have
protein powder is because he and Midnight’s hubster ask for it in their smoothies.”

“The hot guy has a name, Shambles,” I said quietly, smiling through it and hoping I didn’t sound like I was being mean. “His name is Chace.”

Shambles, showing he took no offense, threw a goofy grin over his shoulder at me and replied, “We know his name but I’m the kinda guy who calls ‘em as he sees ‘em.”

Well, there you go.

“Lapis Bravery,” Sunny, at this point, murmured under her breath.

“Perfect,” Shambles murmured back.

“What?” I asked and Sunny’s eyes tipped to me.

“Lapis,” she said softly, “his eyes. Bravery,” she hesitated and I felt my throat get thick before she finished, “
him.
”

That
was
perfect. If there ever was a hippie name for Chace, that was it.

Chace didn’t think so and I knew this when I felt his body get tight and he asked, “What the fuck?”

I looked up at him. “Your hippie name. I’m Crimson Stargazer. Lexie is Midnight Sunshine. Sunny is Sunray Goddess. And you’re Lapis Bravery.”

“I don’t –” he started but I gave his waist a squeeze and shook my head once.

His jaw got hard and he shut up.

I looked into the display and ordered a blueberry muffin with brown sugar crumbles on top. Chace took the fun out of it by ordering a carrot muffin made of whole wheat flour which was the healthiest thing in the display.

Chace paid and I didn’t even go for my purse. This was because Chace
paid.
I learned that lesson already. In fact, I learned it the third time I tried to text him saying coffees were my treat at stakeouts and he’d texted back:

Baby, I pay. The end.

There you go.

The end.

We gave our farewells and were walking back to his truck (we’d dropped mine at my place before shopping) when Chace started, “Faye, I’m not big on –”

I stopped walking abruptly and stopped him with me on a tug at his waist (we still had our arms around each other).

Chace looked down at me and I whispered, “Don’t.”

“Baby –”

I shook my head and turned into him, getting up on my toes. “Baby works for you, honey, but this time, please, don’t use it. You’re that to people in this town. You’re bravery. I don’t know why you don’t like it, why you get that weird look on your face and tone in your voice when it comes up. I want to know and hope I will, when you’re ready to tell me. But let them have that. In this town, after what went down, people need to believe that. And Sunny especially.”

Sunny, too, had been kidnapped and stabbed by the serial killer Dalton McIntyre. Arnie Fuller had not instigated a search for her even after Tonia Payne had already been killed. It was Tate and Wood who went looking for her and called in the police to assist with the search. She had been quiet for a while after that. Now she was back to her normal self.

So everyone needed to believe there was bravery behind the badges that protected that town.

But Sunny needed to be a true believer.

Chace stared down at me and a muscle ticked in his square jaw. But he didn’t say anything and this I correctly took as him giving in.

I pulled in a breath and hoped I was doing the right thing when I tipped further up on my toes and kissed that jaw.

I did it right.

I knew this when he sighed, his arm got tight around my shoulders giving me a mini-hug then it loosened telling me to step back and get a move on.

I stepped back, adjusted to his side and got a move on.

But this didn’t mean I didn’t worry about what just happened. I wasn’t wrong. Chace didn’t like being a local hero.

Any man should be humble. I knew this because my Dad said so.

But that wasn’t it.

It was deeper, darker.

And I hoped he’d one day share it with me so I could throw some light on it.

* * * * *