I pulled up to the curb and then because it was just fucking awkward, I turned to look at her. “Listen… about what just happened—”
“It was amazing,” she said as she stared at me with those clear, blue eyes.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” I told her as I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I crossed a line… couldn’t fucking help myself, and I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she demanded as her eyes narrowed, and I could tell by the tone of her voice she was pissed. “For giving me an orgasm? Well, gee, Wyatt… guess that makes us even now.”
She lunged for the door handle, but I grabbed her arm and turned her back toward me. “I didn’t do that to make us even,” I gritted out. “I did that because I wanted to… because I fucking needed it. But Christ, Andrea… you were injured, worn out… I took advantage of the situation. Didn’t give you a chance to say ‘no’—”
“I wouldn’t have said ‘no’,” she blurted out.
“Maybe you would have under different circumstances,” I said gently and then released her arm. “Look… go get checked in and get some sleep. We can talk about this more tomorrow, okay?”
She stared back at me and tentatively said, “Do you… um… want to come up with me?”
A sharp pain stabbed me in the center of my chest while my balls started tingling just thinking about going up to her room. But I shook my head and gently let her down. “Probably not a good idea. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Her smile was sad, but she nodded her head and opened the door. “Goodnight, Wyatt.”
She was out and closing the door on me before I could tell her goodnight in return.
The next day at the station, we never did talk about it. We were both busy being interviewed by Mike Gomez and then typing our statements. It was around 4 PM when Andrea glanced down at her watch, stood from the table we were working at, and said, “Damn… I didn’t realize it’s so late. I need to get to the airport.”
I looked up in surprise from the report I was reading over for the second time, completely taken aback that she was leaving. She hadn’t mentioned to me once throughout the day that she was flying back to Pittsburgh that night.
Andrea bent over and hastily scrawled her signature on her report. Throwing the pen down, she gave a quick glance at Mike, who had also stood from the table and was putting on his suit jacket. “I’m going to go get my suitcase. Meet you outside.”
Mike nodded and said, “I’ll go get the car and pull it up to the front door.”
Andrea never looked at me once… just turned and headed back to the female locker room as Mike walked out. I sat there dumbly for a minute, my mind trying to process that she was actually leaving and there were probably things that should have been said between us.
When she returned, pulling her rolling carry-on behind her, I stood up from the table and our eyes locked. She gave me the tiniest of smiles.
“I’ll walk you out,” I said, motioning with my hand for her to precede me down the hallway to the front lobby.
When we stepped outside into the hot, Carolina afternoon, I immediately reached into the breast pocket of my dress shirt and pulled my sunglasses out. Affixing them to my face, I turned toward her even as I saw Mike pulling up in the car.
“So, are you heading back to Nags Head this evening?” Andrea asked with a warm, interested smile on her face. Clearly, she had no hurt feelings over my refusal to come to her room last night.
A move which may go down as one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done in my life.
“Yeah… I guess so.”
She gave a warm chuckle. “Well, relax. Sit on that beach and drink a few cold beers. You deserve it.”
“I will,” I said lamely. “Nothing like the Outer Banks in the summertime.”
“It sounds lovely.”
“It’s a great place to visit,” I muttered… even more lamely.
“I’m sure it is,” she responded quietly… distantly. Then… because Mike was waiting, she said, “Well, good luck to you, Wyatt. It was an honor to work with you on this case.”
Her eyes were cool, and she fucking stuck her hand out for me to shake.
She couldn’t see the movement of my eyes behind my dark shades, but they glanced down and narrowed at her proffered hand. Fuck no, I wasn’t shaking her hand.
Couldn’t kiss her either… not the deep and personally invading way I wanted to.
Instead, I ignored her hand and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
“Take care of yourself,” I murmured.