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Chapter One
____________
Waylen
It’s been a hell of a day and it’s not even noon yet. In fact, this isn’t even the oddest thing I’ve seen this week. Being a detective in a small town is…interesting. Lines blur so you basically wear every hat you can fit into - some days you’re a fire expert, some days you’re the EMT, some days you’re the traffic cop. And some days you’re hunting down murderers who came to kill one of our prominent citizens - our former mayor, Bob ‘Doc’ Baker.
Right now, I’m worried about my partner and his girl, who have been sucked into this whole assassination plot. We think it was definitely someone close to the mayor that hired the men who killed him but until we find them we don’t have a great lead on who they are. And the one person who can identify the two shooters happens to be my partner’s girl.
I look around at the rubble I’m stepping over to go talk to him and feel like shit that I have no new information to give him. Gareth has been my partner for a long time. Hell, it feels like I’ve always known the guy. And love him. He’s a good guy. Yeah, his house might be ground zero for chaos and someone started the day by trying to shoot him and his Birdie…but he’s got a girl to hold on to during all this at least.
I have no doubt that he’ll keep Birdie safe. I just have to make sure I keep him safe while he does it because let’s face it - the guy only has eyes for Birdie. That’s kind of become evident with what they were doing when someone came through and shot his house up. I walk over to him just in time to catch the end of the conversation he’s having with one of our patrolmen, Jacob.
He’s too damned young and too new to the force to understand gossip shared in the station stays in the station…for the most part. Gareth looks past Jacob at me and narrows his eyes in a hidden threat. Yeah, I’m going to be hearing about it for days even though technically it wasn’t me who blabbed.
“Birdie will be just fine, Jacob. She’s not pregnant…yet. We’re just trying right now. I wanted to make sure everything was still a go with the doc before we started trying again.”
My eyebrows raise at the information. I said I wasn’t the one who told Jacob…I didn’t say I didn’t participate in the rumor mill at the station.
“Trying?” I walk over to him when Jacob leaves and slap him on the back, “So, no wrapping it up anymore? You want her to be the mother of your children?”
“Yep. I sure do.”
“You going to marry her too?”
“Hell yes!” I hide my rise of jealousy with a big authentic grin.
I am very happy for my friend and the jealousy I feel has nothing to do with his lady. I’m not jealous of Birdie at all. I’m jealous of the thought of what Birdie is to my partner. The woman you come home to, the one who holds you after a bad day at work just punched you in the face and backed over you. No, I don’t want Birdie. I want my own woman.
“Better you than me,” I say the words, but he can tell I don’t mean them. Hell, Gareth understands better than anyone that I’ve been looking for the right Mrs. Daniels for a while now. I even bought a house for the lucky…what am I looking at? “Who’s that?”
I nod my head to the woman standing beside Birdie with a furry bundle in her arms. I take in every aspect before I take so much as another breath.
“Who?”
Who? Is he blind? “Who’s that talking to your girl, Gar?”
Before he can answer I am walking over to be closer to the little redhead who’s come to dance through my dreams. She’s taller than Birdie but she’s also in kill-me heels - a woman could put an eye out with one of those things…especially if they are thrown over my shoulder the way I want them to be. Maybe we’ll do it without the shoes on.
“Hey, how you doing?”
My future wife looks over at me with surprise as her eyes travel over my face and down my body. “Um, alright I guess.” She turns her attention back to Birdie and I need to bring those bright hazel-green eyes back on me. No matter what it costs. “Um…,”
And her eyes drift back to me. Our eyes meet finally as she glances up at me and we share a lifetime in the blink of an eye. I can totally see how this woman is going to play the leading role in my life. Can she see it too? Our life together.
“Um,” her eyes leave mine with a kind of reluctance that gives me hope that she does, “I’m sorry, Birdie. Mom won’t let him stay another night.”
“He can stay with me.” Both women look over at me now and I can feel Gareth’s gaze boring into me as he comes up close to Birdie. I can tell by the look on Gareth’s face I might have spoken too soon, damn it. “I mean, I won’t be there, so you and the puppy can come stay at my house.”
“Excuse me.” Those hazel eyes narrow on me as she takes another look. I see the look Birdie gives Gareth as she looks back and forth from me to her friend. I really should learn the name of my future wife first but fuck it…when you know, you know.
“I mean, if you need somewhere you can babysit the little one, you can do it with me…I mean, at my house. Because I definitely won’t be there.”
I’m totally going to be there. I might wrap this fucking case up tonight just so I can come back to my place if she’s going to be there. I just have to get her there.
“Could you do that for me, Brook?” Brook. A musical name if ever I heard one. Beautiful just like the magical creature who carries it. “Could you watch him for me if you had a place to do it?”
Birdie must have taken pity on me. Or maybe she just knows how fucking great I’m going to treat the mother of my children once I get her to agree to actually be in the same room with me.
