Page 98 of Date With Danger
This stakeout was unnecessary. I just wanted to be with Amelia. I wanted to watch her get excited as she discovered something new. I wanted to let her live out her detective dreams for a minute. But all I did was ruin stakeouts for the rest of my life. They’ll never be the same without Amelia tapping her fingers on the middle console and twitching like she’s about to explode because I lied and said we couldn’t talk. They’ll never be the same without her.
Tomorrow I’ll go back with Cruz to question him.
“I still can’t believe you didn’t get me a chalupa,” Amelia says for the third time. “I know I'm small, but I can eat, and you didn’t even ask me if I wanted anything. You just drove on past.” She’s been grumpy ever since Taco Bell.
“Didn’t you eat half a dozen donuts in your hotel room?” I ask, shifting to get comfortable in my seat.
“That was five hours ago!” she yells. “Five. I can’t go that long without food. My blood sugar will drop and then bam! Out like Paul Blart on the way to save the day.”
I look over at her. “I didn’t know you were hypoglycemic?” My words falter when I register the goose egg on the corner of her forehead.
“I’m not…but what if I was?” She folds her arms in an adorable pout.
“I’m sorry,” I say, mostly for the goose egg. She’s going to have a good story there.
Not like she didn't have one already with the dead body in her bathtub and being questioned for murder.
“Thank you. Now please find me sustenance before I start shaking.”
“I’ll do you one better.” I reach into the glove box and pull out a granola bar. “Here.”
She turns to stare at me straight on and I’m assaulted by my mistake. Why did I pull away so fast? She could have gotten a concussion.
She thinks she does stupid things? I’m sitting on the throne of the stupid kingdom. Kissing a woman I know I can’t be with, even though I want to. Taking a civilian on a pointless stakeout and risking her safety with my reckless driving? King of Stupidity.
“A granola bar.” She stares at me, deadpan. “I’ve never been so insulted in my life.”
“Why? What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s bird food.” She snatches it out of my hand and looks at the label. “There’s only eight grams of sugar in this thing.”
There’s that much? I thought I grabbed the healthy kind. “I’m sure it will work.”
She tosses the granola bar back at me. “No. Take me for real food now. I quit your stupid stakeout.”
That’s probably for the best. This guy isn't going to lead us to Liam.
“What do you want?” I start up the car and pull onto the road at a much slower pace than last time.
“A cheese pizza and a hamburger, please. And a shake.”
I look over at her. “For real?”
Her eyes widen like she can’t believe I asked that. “Yes, for real. And step on it. I’m getting jittery.”
“Okay.”
I’ve discovered the cutest thing in the world. And no, it’s not babies or tiny puppies.
It’s Amelia.
I was hoping after the hamburger she’d forget about wanting pizza. She did not. She’d already placed an order for a little place downtown I’d never heard of. She bounced in the passenger seat the whole way there, and when I got the pizza she dove right in. Each bite she took was accompanied by a little movement of her body, and after she finished one whole piece I realized she was dancing. Moving her body to a sound that only lived in her head and smiling with each pleasurable bite.
She was, as I said, adorable.
Now she’s asleep in the passenger side of my vehicle and I’ve been sitting in the parking garage for the last ten minutes watching her like a creep. Her knees are pulled into her chest, her arms and head resting on top. Her blonde hair falls over her face, hiding everything but her lips, which are pink and soft. There’s even a drop of drool on the sleeve of my hoodie.
She’s perfect.