“What do you mean?”
“No one does something for nothing. You did me a favor. What do you want in return?”
He frowned slightly. “Nothing.”
“Ah, come on. You put red in my ledger. You’ve got to give me some way of clearing it out.”
“Been watching a few Avengers movies?”
She shrugged. “There was a marathon on the other day. The quote seemed appropriate. So…what’s it going to cost me?”
“How about you keep your promise and save your stalking hobby for when I’m with you, and we’ll call it good.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not stalking. But deal. Can I go now?”
“It is stalking. And yes. But keep your phone in your pocket and try not to break any more laws for at least one day, will you?”
“If you insist,” she said with a groan.
“I insist. I don’t feel like doing the paperwork that another run-in will cost me. And you aren’t free and clear, remember. I took care of most of your fines. You’ll still need to deal with the one from today.”
“Really? You didn’t throw out today’s?”
He shrugged. “I figured I’d keep that one in there, just for the principle of it all.”
“Richard Boyd, you are the perfect blend of sexy as hell and total pain-in-the-ass. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
“I could think of a few things,” he said, his mind full of tantalizing images.
“Oh, so could I. But there’s this anal cop that won’t leave me alone who’d probably arrest me before I could do half of them.”
He chuckled. “He might surprise you.”
She looked him up and down. “Stranger things have happened, I suppose.” She jumped down from the car. “I take it I can walk the streets without worrying about being arrested again?”
“I suppose.”
She turned and walked a few feet before looking back over her shoulder. “That’s too bad. I was kind of looking forward to getting frisked again.”
That startled a laugh out of Rick. He watched her walk away until he couldn’t see her anymore. He knew he’d be in a world of trouble if he kept messing with her. But part of him really hoped she’d commit another misdemeanor. He wouldn’t mind another round of frisking, either.
…
On Friday night, Rick showed up at ten minutes to nine. He didn’t want to give Gina any excuse to take off without him. And it was a good thing he did. She was already a hundred yards away and putting more distance between them by the second. He shook his head and sprinted after her. He’d been the county champ in high school track; he would have caught up, even if she’d had a greater head start.
Aside from a slight straightening of her spine and a quiet sigh he might not have really heard, she didn’t acknowledge his presence. Far cry from her spider monkey impression from before, but he hadn’t expected anything different. She looked on the tired side, with slight shadows under her eyes and pale cheeks. He’d slept like shit, too, but mostly because his body had been too restless remembering the feel of her to get any rest. He wondered if she’d had the same problem. And kind of hoped she had. Not that they could do anything about it. Their hooking up would be an epic mistake.
“Trying to head off without me?” he asked.
She gave him an exasperated sigh. “No, daddy dearest, I would never do such a thing.”
Hello, Miss Sarcasm. Nice to see you again.
“You sure about that? Because I wasn’t supposed to meet you for another ten minutes. And you’re headed in the opposite direction of the bakery and your truck.”
She shrugged. “We aren’t going to stalk the truck tonight. And I wanted some snacks.”
She darted into a store before he could say anything. He had a bad feeling about this.
He caught up with her in the snack aisle, where she was perusing a selection of jerky.
“What do you mean, we aren’t watching the truck tonight?”
“Not sure how I can say that any clearer than I did. Maybe if you tell me which part you didn’t understand, I can clarify for you.”
She smiled that deceptively sweet smile of hers and batted her eyes. Rick tried not to grin at her, and failed.
He rubbed a finger across his lips. “If we aren’t watching the truck, what are we watching?”
Gina grabbed a handful of Slim Jims and tucked all of them under her arm but one. “I want to watch Tony’s apartment.”
Rick folded his arms. “You know I can’t allow that.”
“Why not?” She grabbed a pack of Oreos and kept perusing.
“Because that crosses the line from watching your own property into crazy-stalker-chick territory.”