Page 34 of Love is a Game

Sadie held out a hand for him to shake. “It was good to meet you. Tell Amy I said hi. Hopefully I can come by and see the baby while I’m in town.”

“Anytime! She would love that.”

“Great. I should probably follow you out,” Sadie said, checking the time on her phone.

“How are you getting home?” Julie asked.

Sadie shrugged. “I was just going to run.”

“What? It’s eleven o’clock!” Julie cried. “I’ll drive you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You hate driving in the dark. It’s only two miles,” Sadie insisted. “It’s not that far.”

“It is far, and it’s dark out.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine. I think if I can run in Seattle, I can handle running in Briar Cove.”

“I hope you’re not running in Seattle at night,” Julie said, her eyes widening at the idea. “Officers, help me out here.”

“She’s right,” Webb agreed. “It’s probably not a great idea. You never know.”

“See?” Julie said, vindicated. “I’ll drive you.”

“I can drive her,” Tyson offered. “We can take the squad car. We’ll get the lights going, maybe even the siren. What do you say?”

“Who’s going in the squad car?” Kimura asked, appearing in the doorway.

“Sadie needs a ride,” Tyson explained.

“I can drive you.” The words were out of Andrew’s mouth before he even realized he was going to say them. She didn’t answer, which wasn’t a no. He shoved his hands in his pockets and added, “It’s on my way.”

“That is a great idea,” Julie agreed, grinning.

Sadie stood with her mouth open, momentarily speechless. Her eyes flicked between Andrew and her sister. She did not, Andrew noticed, look at Kimura. Julie nodded encouragingly, and Andrew felt a sudden urge to hug her.

Sadie ran a hand down her ponytail and then nodded warily. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Andrew gave a curt nod as he felt his limbs begin to buzz. He followed Rivera to the front entrance and held the door open for Sadie. She gave her sister one last look before stepping outside. Andrew turned to go after her, and as the door closed behind him, he thought he saw Tyson and Julie high-five each other.

Chapter Twelve

If it had been strange to have Andrew in her house, it was a whole other level of unbelievable to be in his car. It was nice inside, she had to admit. The interior was impeccably clean and had a pleasant woody peppermint smell. She glanced around for an air freshener and then began to blush when she realized the smell was coming from him. She scooted closer to the door, hoping he wouldn’t notice her own post-run odor.

“This is quite a car for a small-town librarian,” she said, unnerved by the silence.

“I haven’t always been a librarian,” he reminded her. “Fancy LA law firm, remember?”

“Right.” She nodded.

“How did you hear about that anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m not sure. Someone must have told me, I guess,” she lied.

The truth was, she had looked him up. Only once, a couple of years earlier. It was the first time she’d been passed over for a promotion and she was feeling low. She didn’t remember a lot from that night, but before she’d fallen into a wine-induced sleep, she had thought to look up Andrew and see how he was doing. She couldn’t find him on social media, but a quick web search had brought up his name listed on the law firm’s website, alongside a very professional-looking headshot. It hadn’t made her feel any better, which was probably why she kept drinking that night.

“So,” she began again, “what are you going to spend your eight dollars on?”

“Oh, gosh. So many options. The smart thing would be to invest it.”