Page 23 of Sizzle
They made it all the way to the spot where Lucy had parked in front of Sam’s building before the silence made her say, “That surprises you.”
“A little,” he admitted, stopping on the sidewalk to look at her. “I guess I just assumed that since he’s the one passing on the legacy, he’d want you to do everything his way.”
“The same way I assumed a single guy with a very healthy social life would live in a trendy place downtown?”
He laughed, the tension that had flashed over his face gone as if it had never existed. “Guess we’ve both been making assumptions we shouldn’t. Call it even?”
Lucy took the hand he’d extended and shook, his fingers warm on hers. “Even. You want me to drive?”
“Sure.” Sam waggled his brows at her, climbing into the passenger seat as soon as she popped the locks on her SUV. “It’ll give me plenty of time to practice my charming smile.”
Snorting, Lucy slid behind the wheel and clicked her seatbelt into place. “Is there anything you don’t try to sweet talk your way out of or into?”
“Nope. I don’t knock what works.”
She put the address for the arson investigation office into her GPS, following the directions out of Sam’s neighborhood for a minute before reminding him, “You promised we’d ask permission, not schmooze our way onto a scene where we don’t belong.”
“You have a very big affinity for the rules,” Sam said, and oh, no.
Her gut dropped. “You promised,” she reminded him.
Both hands lifted,mea culpastyle. “I know, and I’m not trying to backpedal. I said we’d ask, and we will. You’ve just got me curious, is all. Do you evernotgo by the book?”
“No.”
Damn it, the response came too quickly, and Lucy shrugged in an effort to cover. So she stuck to the rules more closely than most people. She didn’t have to tell him exactlywhy. “If we don’t follow the rules on the job, people could get hurt. Including us. It just seems like a no-brainer to stick to protocol with that in mind, don’t you think?”
“Most of the time,” Sam said, although she noticed it wasn’t a straight-up yes. “But you’re particularly all-in when it comes to the straight and narrow.”
“I don’t follow every rule, all the time.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Lucy realized he’d take them as a dare.
“When was the last time you drove more than five miles over the speed limit?” Sam asked, his brown-gold stare flashing over the speedometer for a split second, then returning to her face.
“With all the traffic fatalities we see every year, why would youevergo more than five miles over the speed limit?” she countered, happily tucking a win for Round One in her pocket.
Not that Sam was giving up.Shit. “I bet you actually RSVP for things other than weddings.”
“Okay, that’s just polite, though.”
“And you file your taxes no later than April first.”
“Technically, my accountant does that.” At her request, but still…you never knew when there might be a problem with the electronic submission, and a deadline was a deadline.
“And you wait the full half hour after eating before you jump into a pool, don’t you?”
Lucy shook her head, her curls bouncing over her shoulders. “The Red Cross totally debunked that one.”
“Yet, you still think twice every time.”
Annnnd busted. Not wanting to lose the argument, she said, “I don’t followeveryrule. I followed you into a burning warehouse against our captain’s orders, didn’t I?”
Sam’s eyes went wide as he stared at her from the passenger seat, and Lucy had never wanted to eat her words more. The last thing she needed was for him to realize that having his back at that fire had been pretty much the only time she’d broken the rules in…well, they both needed to forget it.
Time to change the subject, fast. “Do you have some sort of plan for when we get to the arson investigation office? One that involves more than your charming smile?”
Thankfully, he was either easily distracted or exceptional at taking hints. They discussed a few strategies—whom to talk to, what exactly to say or not say as they asked to visit the scene of the warehouse fire, whether or not to bring up anything odd about the fire. In the end, Sam begrudgingly agreed that the need for transparency was a necessity, and by the time Lucy had parked and they’d made their way through the front door of the building, she’d convinced him that honesty would be the best policy.