Thursday had come and gone with another hour of running with Luke. It hadn’t gone any better than the day before. So, with those two runs behind us, I only had eight hours left in my job-shadowing stint before Luke and I would have to part ways.
I dropped by the station at noon to invite Charlie to lunch, but I masked a hidden agenda. I’d hoped to catch Luke as he stopped in before lunch for no particular reason, but did I really need one? As far as I could tell, he was nowhere to be found. His patrol car was missing from the lot, and there was no sign of his eventual return.
“Hey there, Pumpkin,” Charlie watched me come in. He leaned against his office doorframe. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Hey,” I smiled at him, “you’ve just been working so much lately,” I threw a glance over my shoulder. “I thought maybe you’d like to take a break and have lunch?”
“No can do, sweet pea,” he said, seemingly disappointed. With as little time as we’d spent together lately, Charlie probably would’ve enjoyed some one-on-one time. “I had an early lunch. Today’s been a day from hell.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said, not really listening. I looked around the building once again, hoping to catch a glimpse of Luke. With no luck, I turned back to Charlie. “I guess I’ll see you at home later?”
“Absolutely.”
When Charlie disappeared back into his office and closed the door, I slumped my shoulders and headed for the door.
“He’s gone over to West Bridge for the afternoon,” Detective Bruno said.
I turned back to the fifty-something man as he leaned against his desk. “Huh?”
“You’re looking for Trigger,” he said, and there wasn’t a bit of question in his tone. He was a smart one, that Detective. But I couldn’t let on that I’d shown up for any other reason than to visit Charlie. “He said he had business in West Bridge today. He should be back around six for the poker game.”
“Oh,” I shrugged my shoulder, “I was just here to see Charlie.”
“Sure you were,” he said, a smile enveloping his face. “I can give Trigger a message. You want me to let him know you dropped by?”
“I was just visiting my uncle—”
“Okay,” he threw his hands up, “I guess you’re both in denial then.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed through the door of the station, only taking two steps outside before Detective Bruno’s last words finally registered.
I turned back and opened the door only to find Bruno standing right in front of me.
“I wondered how long it was gonna take you.”
“What did you mean—?”
“Mi querida,” he shook his head and patted me on the back, “it’s all in your eyes—and his too. I know it when I see it. I’ve spent my whole life reading people, interpreting the words they say and, better yet, the words they don’t say.”
I scrunched my brow and stared at him for a lingering moment. “What do you see?”
“The love,” he smiled, as though he knew something I didn’t. “The love.”
“Love,” I rested my chin in my hand. I sat on the barstool at the center island in the kitchen. “Do you think I love him?”
Matt looked up at me from a sheet of cookies, his eyes widening.
“Not possible, Julie,” he said. “You’ve known Luke for what, two and a half weeks?”
“Something like that.”
“Love takes time to mature,” he said with a definite sense of finality. Matt had never been one to believe in love at first sight. I thought that his recent circumstances with Hannah might’ve changed his mind, but it clearly hadn’t. “You’re not in love, Julie. It’s just an infatuation. It’ll wear off in time.”
“But Detective Bruno—”
“Is a nut,” he said, carefully decorating the cookies with a fiery red icing.
“I guess,” I wished somewhere deep inside that maybe Bruno had seen something I had failed to.
“Are you hanging out with Hannah tonight?” I expected his answer to be the same as it had been every night since Wednesday. The two of them were practically inseparable.
“Yeah,” he nodded at the baking sheet, “I promised to take her some of my famous cookies.”
“You’re going over there?” I asked, surprised that I would be getting an evening away from Hannah for a change. Her presence had been a bit overbearing because when that girl visited, she didn’t show up without a string of personal questions and a bad attitude. She had no sense of personal boundaries, and I had no idea what Matt saw in her.
“Yeah,” he said as though there were no other option, “I didn’t want to expose her to Dad’s poker night.”
“Poker night?” I asked. “Here?”
“He didn’t tell you?” Matt asked, almost regretful that he hadn’t mentioned it sooner. “Dad has one big poker night every year. Tonight’s the night. And between Dad, Bruno, and some of the other guys from the station, it gets pretty rowdy.”
“Other guys?” I wondered if Luke was included among the others. Bruno had mentioned that Luke would be back in time for a game. “What time is this thing supposed to start?”
“They’ll be showing up any minute,” he put the final touches on the last cookie. “And yes, since I know you’re dying to know, Trigger will be here.”
“Oh,” I nodded as if his information didn’t faze me. What he didn’t need to know was that I felt like a giddy schoolgirl; I could feel every one of nerves jumping up and down with excitement. I glanced at the clock and back to Matt. “Well, have fun with Hannah tonight. I’m going to run up and get a shower.”
“To impress Trigger?”
“So that I don’t look like a slob for Charlie’s guests.”
“You never look like a slob.”
“Bye, Matt,” I called over my shoulder as I ran up the back staircase taking two steps at a time.
After a quick shower, I spent a while styling my hair and perfecting my make-up, taking extra time to choose a very special outfit. If Luke was going to be in the house this evening, especially in a casual capacity, I wanted to make sure he couldn’t help but look my way.
I stood at the closet with the towel still wrapped around me, plucking through each shirt, skirt, and dress I owned. When I finally settled on an orange turtleneck dress, I took one last glance in the mirror and ruled myself perfectly acceptable.
A roar of laughter came from the kitchen five minutes later. Obviously the men had already arrived, and from the sound of things, had taken no time to break out the alcohol and get the party started. For a group of educated cops, they sounded like a room full of frat boys.
I walked downstairs to find Charlie, Bruno, and a few handfuls of other men sitting around three poker tables. They were all smoking cigars, all except Luke, who was at the farthest table, carefully dealing out a hand to his fellow players. He never once glanced up to notice me as I announced myself with a simple, “Hello.”
Most of the men turned to greet me, and a few even let their gaze linger a little longer than appropriate. I peeked at Luke once again, hoping to get some kind of acknowledgement, but I didn’t get so much as a glance.
“What can we do for you, Pumpkin?” Charlie took a long drag from his cigar.
“Just wanted to let you know I’m going out,” I said, with no intention of actually leaving. After all, I had no plans. Where would I possibly go? I’d only gotten ready for the sole purpose of making a grand entrance—one, as far as I could tell, that had gone completely to waste.
“Back by midnight,” he said with a smile. “Have fun.”
“That’s it?” I asked, frustrated that he didn’t care enough to ask where I was going, and even angrier that Luke hadn’t looked up once to indicate any kind of interest. “No string of questions? No rules? Just a back by midnight and have fun?”
“What do you want me to say?” Charlie asked, focusing all of his attention on the game. “You’re you. What kind of trouble could you possi
bly get in to?”
“Forget it,” I mumbled. “Have fun.”
I turned and walked out of the room, and my heart broke a little with each step I took. It seemed to me that Bruno had been way off. Luke didn’t have feelings for me; he wasn’t even the slightest bit interested. But—for reasons I couldn’t quite understand, my heart ached for him, and I didn’t know how much more of his cold shoulder I could take.
FOUR