AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alone with her flowers, Beth read over Drew’s card again. It wasn’t anything fancy—very direct and to the point. But if she was honest, she liked that he wasn’t all about the frills. If Beth did this again, she wanted real. She wanted honest.
Placing her flowers on the table beside where she was working, Beth went back to preparing the mixes they’d need for the next day. As she worked, her eyes kept going back to the flowers. Could she take a chance on Drew? Could she trust him not to break her heart?
The problem was she didn’t know the answer. There were too many what-ifs—too many unknowns.
By the time she and Tommy closed everything down for the day, Beth was finally coming to a decision. Although she’d told Drew they could be friends, she’d kept him—and their friendship—at arm’s length to protect herself. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea.
She and Ben hadn’t been friends first. They’d jumped into a relationship right from the start. She’d trusted everything he’d told her on blind faith. That obviously hadn’t worked well, so maybe it was time to change things up.
As she drove the short distance to her house, Beth knew she and Drew would need to sit down and talk, really talk, if he was truly interested in her. She would offer friendship. A real friendship. They could see where things went from there.
Pulling into her garage, Beth turned off the engine, and retrieved her flowers from the passenger seat. She hoped Tommy was right—that Drew was different. Only time would tell.
***
Drew had arranged for the bouquet of flowers to be delivered to Beth around noon on Wednesday. He’d watched the clock all morning. Then he spent the entire afternoon wondering what she’d thought of them.
When he’d asked her the day before if it was him or guys in general, her answer gave him hope. She’d been burned, and he understood her caution. That didn’t mean he was willing to give up. There was something about her that sucked him in. He couldn’t explain it. Yes, she was gorgeous, but it was more than that. The way she gave him that look—the one that made him excited and edgy all at the same time. It was damn close to how he felt when they were responding to a fire. He could only imagine what it would be like to play with her.
He’d watched a few scenes with Dommes and their male submissives. One he witnessed stood out above the others. It wasn’t so much what was being done, but more the connection between the players. He’d later found out that the two had been together for almost twenty years. Drew wanted that.
Shawn found him on Thursday morning as Drew was filling up his coffee mug. “Saw your girl yesterday.”
“What?” Drew wasn’t sure he’d heard Shawn correctly.
Shawn took a mug out of the cabinet above the sink and reached for the coffee pot. “You heard me. I stopped in at that café you had lunch at last week. The one on Crawford Street.”
As curious as Drew was, he tried to play it cool.
When he didn’t respond, Shawn continued. “Yeah. And your girl was there. Looks like you may have yourself some competition.”
“Really? How’s that?” Drew said, leaning back against the counter.
Shawn raised his eyebrows up and down several times. “Someone sent her flowers.”
“And?”
“And? Come on, man. Don’t try to tell me you’re not interested. If half of what Romeo and Baily are saying is true, you were practically drooling over her. Heed my advice, if you want in on that, you’re going to have to make your move, but quick.” Shawn had ten years on Drew, but the two had developed a friendship over the last few years. It was Shawn who’d encouraged Drew to apply for the captain’s position when it opened up.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Drew tried not to let it show how pleased he was that not only had Beth received his flowers, but that it was done in such a way that her customers had noticed. He needed to change the subject, though, or he was going to give himself away. “So what brings you in early? Didn’t you want that extra hour’s sleep?”
His buddy smiled. “Chief called. You and me have a meeting in his office first thing. Hope you didn’t have any plans this morning.”
“Just a date with my bed,” Drew said as he pushed himself away from the counter and headed toward the chief’s office.
“Be better if you had someone there to keep it warm for ya.”
Drew gave Shawn a playful shove. “Sure. Keep rubbing it in that you have a woman at home.”
Shawn laughed. “Could be you, too, buddy. Just saying.”
“Yeah, yeah. Come on. Let’s see what the chief wants.”
Turns out, the chief wasn’t the only one waiting for them. Nicole was also in Chief Franks’ office along with the other captains assigned to the station, and another man Drew didn’t recognize.
The meeting was brief. The man he didn’t know was from bomb and arson. It had been confirmed that both the fire from two weeks ago and the one over the weekend had been arson, and they looked to have been set by the same person. The mayor was all over this. So far, they’d been lucky—the arsonist seemed to be targeting abandoned buildings. Sooner or later, someone was going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The mayor wanted the guy caught before that happened.
By eight thirty, Drew was headed out to his car with his duffel bag. He tossed it in the backseat and was about to get behind the wheel when someone called his name.
