Officer on Duty (Lock and Key Book 4) (11 page)

“I prefer the term fearless.”

Paige giggled, and Jeremy locked up the car. Scanning the beach, he quickly spotted the striped beach umbrella Alicia and Liam always brought. “I see the group over there.”

He led the way across the sand, Paige and Lucia teasing each other in his wake.

He couldn’t help but enjoy the sound of their laughter. How had he roped Lucia into this?

Alicia waved when they got close, and Henry’s fiancée Sasha called out, loud as always. Grey’s girlfriend, Kerry, looked up and smiled.

“Everyone, this is Lucia, my new neighbor,” he said when they got close.

He pretended not to notice Sasha’s raised eyebrow or little head bobble.

“Nice to meet you,” Alicia said, extending a hand. Her greeting caused a domino effect of politeness – exclamations of ‘hello’ and ‘nice to meet you’ went off around them like fireworks.

Lucia handled it all graciously, with smiles and handshakes. She looked at ease, unlike Jeremy, who experienced a sense of pride he had no right to.

He forgot all about feeling guilty over it when the greetings faded and Lucia stripped off her tank top and shorts.

She did it in the blink of an eye, hooking delicate fingers beneath the hem of her cotton top and whipping it over her head like it was nothing. Then the shorts went, dispatched by an easy shake of her hips. No one else seemed to be paying attention, but he was spellbound.

Her suit was a bikini, dark Lycra that hid most of her breasts and the triangle of tender skin between her rounded thighs. He remembered every inch and the way it had sizzled against his tongue. As for the rest of her…

He could easily imagine the weight of her breasts in his hands, and couldn’t believe he hadn’t held them yet. It hit him, then, how much they’d left undone several days before.

She’d given him a lot.

But he wanted so much more.

Just like that, he was hardening beneath his khaki shorts. Trying not to pay the throbbing below his belt any attention, he took the plate of cold fried chicken and pasta salad Sasha handed him and began stuffing his face.

He had to look away from Lucia. The food was good, but the flavor was nothing compared to the memory of her taste on his tongue. He’d never make it through the day without embarrassing himself if he let himself focus on everything her bikini revealed… and hid.

He ate slowly, losing track of the others’ conversation as he enjoyed the sound of the crashing waves. By the time he finished his chicken, Lucia was asking him if he wanted to go for a swim.

He was just about to reply when she shook her head. “Sorry – I forgot.”

She nodded at his leg, which he’d artlessly wrapped in fresh bandages that morning in order to conceal the ugly black thread knitting his healing skin together.

“Better not get in the water like this,” he said with a grin. “I’d be shark bait, and with my leg all jacked-up, I’d be the slowest swimmer, too.”

“Hmm, that’s true. I feel bad for abandoning you, though. Maybe afterward we can go for a walk on the beach? If you feel up to it.”

“Sure.” He could walk just fine, and he wasn’t about to spend the day sprawled out on a blanket like a beached starfish.

“All right.” She smiled, then gravitated to the water along with Paige and the rest of their little swimming group.

Grey and Kerry poked around for a few minutes, repackaging the fried chicken in a cooler, and then went too.

Which left Jeremy alone with Sasha and Henry.

Henry was a man of few words.

Sasha was proof that opposites attracted.

“So,” she said, her blonde ponytail snapping in the air as she directed her laser-gaze at Jeremy, “you finally found someone. It’s about time.”

“She’s my neighbor,” Jeremy said, pointedly gazing beyond Sasha, at the crashing surf. Lucia plunged straight into the water, and Paige followed, bolder than usual. He almost thought he could hear them laughing over the sound of breaking waves.

They both wore their hair loose, and their curls shone beneath the noon sunlight. For a second, they almost looked alike, from the shoulders up.

It struck him, then – not for the first time – that Paige should have had someone she looked like, someone’s footsteps to follow in. A mother.

Something stuck in his chest, between his heart and his windpipe, and he had to clear his throat.

“Right,” Sasha said. “I invited all my neighbors here today too. Because I’m sociable like that. Oh, wait…”

She lowered her sunglasses, peering over the lenses and whipping her head back and forth, scanning the beach. “No I didn’t. Because I don’t have the hots for any of them.”

She stared at Jeremy until he met her eyes.

He knew she knew he was annoyed. He also knew she was enjoying it.

“You don’t have to deny anything,” she said. “We’re happy for you. Seriously. Right, Henry?”

She nudged her fiancé.

Jeremy expected her to get a grunt, maybe a half-hearted ‘sure’ out of Henry, at most.

Henry surprised him. “Like she said, it’s about time, man.”

Traitorous bastard.

“Lucia’s great,” he admitted after a few silent seconds, and said nothing more.

They wouldn’t get anything else out of him.

It was bad enough that the entire group probably suspected he’d used his motherless daughter and gimp leg to guilt trip Lucia into spending the day at the beach with them. The last thing he wanted was to admit that they were physically involved, that he’d been given a free pass to her amazing body but would never have anything more.

And that that bothered him.

He should’ve been grateful, but the itch to call Lucia his own had struck, and it wouldn’t be easy to shake.

“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” Sasha said, looking smug, “but he doesn’t bring his gorgeous
neighbor
to the beach for no reason, either.”

Jeremy shot her a hard look, one he usually reserved for mouthy arrestees.

She kept on grinning like a Cheshire cat and wagged a finger. “Don’t get your panties up in a bunch; we only tease because we care. Seriously, Jeremy, you’ve been trudging through life alone long enough. Lucia seems great for you. Just look at her with Paige.”

He said nothing, but couldn’t resist looking.

Even from a distance, it was obvious that Lucia was an amazing swimmer – graceful even when waves swept through the group.

He watched her, Paige and the others for a long time. After a while, they retreated from the water. He had to devote every last bit of his energy and willpower to not staring at Lucia’s curves, which were glistening with little beads of seawater.

It wasn’t easy.

“Hey dad,” Paige said, snapping him out of it.

“Yeah, honey?”

“We raced. Guess who won?”

“You?”

“No, but I was a close second. Lucia won. Alicia was last.” Paige cast a pitying look at Alicia, who grinned.

“Guilty as charged, but in my defense, some seaweed got tangled around my ankle and I had to stop to free myself.”

“She freaked out a little,” Paige added.

Alicia didn’t deny it, even when Liam teased her.

“If you came in a close second,” Jeremy said to Paige, “you must’ve gotten faster since last time we raced.”

“Well, that was months ago. And I’ve gotten taller.” She shrugged, the picture of slightly smug modesty.

He didn’t need a reminder that his daughter was growing up. He was already at the point where he wanted to strangle any boy who glanced in her direction while they were at the beach.

She was still young, sweet and innocent, but teenage boys were the scourge of the earth and she was at that age where they were starting to notice her.

“Hey,” Lucia said, sinking down on the beach blanket and snapping open a can of Dr. Pepper, “still up for that walk?”

“Absolutely.” He met her eyes and was careful not to let his gaze dip lower, where her curves were plastered with wet Lycra.

“Great.” She took a deep drink of her soda, set it down and stood.

He did the same, refusing to favor his injured leg, even as it ached in protest beneath his weight. “Paige, you wanna come for a walk along the beach?”

“Uh-uh,” Sasha said, pointing at Jeremy with a half-eaten drumstick, “we were just about to get some ice cream, weren’t we, Paige?”

She looked up from her spot on the blanket beside Sasha. “Can I, dad?”

Sasha sat smirking like a spider that’d just snared a fly in its trap, and he knew he’d been played.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he pulled his wallet from his pocket and slipped out a ten. “Sure, but you go to the ice cream stand and come straight back. No detours.”

The stand was nearby, just beyond the edge of the beach, some forty yards away.

Paige nodded. “I’ll be fine – I’ll be with Sasha.”

Sasha’s company wasn’t exactly Jeremy’s idea of ‘fine’. If Paige ever learned to scheme like that woman, he’d be in serious trouble.

But he only nodded and told her to remember that whatever she chose would melt quickly in the heat.

No one else expressed any interest in joining Jeremy and Lucia for a walk, so they set off alone.

They’d reached the edge of the ebbing surf when he began to wonder whether Lucia was really enjoying herself, or only pretending for his and Paige’s sake.

The thought was like an anchor, dragging him down. He watched tiny clams burrow into the wet sand, then shifted his gaze to the water, where pelicans dove for fish.

“Paige really is a good swimmer,” Lucia said. “Has she had lessons?”

“A few years ago.”

“Where at?”

He wracked his mind, then shook his head. “Don’t remember, to tell the truth.”

His mom had taken Paige to her swim lessons while he’d worked. He hadn’t been there for any of them, and all of a sudden, that seemed wrong.

“Well, it shows.”

He nodded, and the surf filled the silence with the sounds of surging and receding water. A seagull hopped across their path, probably hoping for food.

They were almost to the fishing pier when he got tired of guessing at what she might be feeling.

“I apologize if I made you feel obligated to come out here,” he said.

She shifted her gaze from the water to him. “What do you mean?”

“When Liam asked you to come along, you were sort of put on the spot. And I didn’t make it easy for you to say no.”

“I didn’t feel that way at all.”

She sounded sincere. But then, she always did.

Maybe she was. Maybe he was just overly suspicious.

But he still felt like he’d been presumptuous in encouraging her to join them. The feeling had worsened when he’d gotten to the beach and listened to Sasha and Henry running their mouths. The way Sasha painted it, he and Lucia were halfway to the altar.

In reality, they barely knew each other. Asking Lucia to go on family outings with him and Paige was probably too much, too soon.

The worst part was the thought that Paige might make assumptions, much like Sasha. She’d taken such a shine to Lucia – would she also read too much into her presence at the beach?

God knew what kind of ideas Sasha was putting in her head right now.

He grimaced. The thought of confusing or disappointing his daughter was even worse than the thought of embarrassing or insulting Lucia.

She stopped in the wet sand, and he followed suit. Water splashed at their heels, the cool spray hitting his shins.

“You don’t seem convinced,” she said. “Or is something else the matter?”

“It’s nothing. I just feel a little guilty, asking you to do things with me and my daughter when we’re just getting to know each other.”

She frowned. “Did I say or do something to make you think I’m uncomfortable around Paige?”

“No, definitely not.” That was part of why he felt so guilty: she’d been so gracious about it. It made him feel like he was taking advantage.

“Then what are you talking about? I’m having a good time, and I thought you wanted me here. I didn’t realize you minded.”

His heart lurched. “I don’t. I’m just worried that I may’ve guilted you into coming along. I know I don’t have the right to expect you to do things with me and Paige just because we got close the other day.”

“I wouldn’t have come along if I hadn’t wanted to.”

He nodded slowly.

“I guess what this all boils down to is that I’m rusty when it comes to dating,” he admitted. It was an epic understatement. “I’m not always sure what’s expected, or what’s okay. I haven’t been with anyone seriously since Paige’s mother.”

Her eyes widened, and he saw a flash of pink between her cracked lips. “Really?”

“I mean, I’ve slept with a few women. But it was only physical. Paige was never involved and it was never meant to last.”

She nodded.

For a second he felt exposed, embarrassed – like he’d said too much. But he’d rather be honest with Lucia than hurt her feelings or insult her. The awkwardness he’d dragged along to the beach was his fault, not hers.

“Is that because you’re not interested in serious relationships, or because the right person never came along?” she asked after a while.

“I never thought about it much. I know I don’t have the time or the lifestyle that most women want. I have Paige and my job, and then there’s whatever’s left over. It’s not much.”

“I think you’re generalizing too much. How do you know what anyone else wants unless you ask?”

Paige’s mother sure as hell hadn’t wanted him, and she hadn’t had a fraction of Lucia’s kindness or maturity. Maybe he was being hard-headed, but it wasn’t easy to have faith in a woman like Lucia wanting him when someone so much less desirable had abandoned him. Not even their baby had been enough to keep her on their side of the country, let alone by his side.

That kind of thing had an impact – took its toll, no matter how you looked at it or how much time went by.

“I’ve never wanted to waste time trying to convince anyone that I’m enough,” he said. “So when I first met you, it never really crossed my mind that you might want something more than just a little fun. I felt lucky just to touch you.”

It wasn’t the whole truth. When it came to her, some part of him had ached for more than just a touch, a kiss or a fuck, from the very beginning. But he’d suppressed it.

She held his gaze, and he struggled to read the look in her eyes.

“I felt lucky too. You don’t have to prove anything to me; that’s not what any of it was about. I’m interested in you, Jeremy. And not just physically.”