“Anytime,” the man on the other end of the line practically cooed. “Talking to you was definitely no hardship.”
I grimaced and hung up, tucking my phone into my back pocket.
I looked at the man at my door and waited.
“I never meant to spring tonight on you,” he said the moment I opened the door. “It was never supposed to be that. Honestly, I was given no choice in coming. He said to do it and seeing as I’m already on probation and he holds the fate of my job in his massive hand, I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I had to go. I’m sorry.”
I blew out a frustrated breath, feeling the strands of hair lift off my forehead slightly with the expelled air.
“Don’t worry about it,” I finally said. “I know how my dad can be. Trust me when I say, he’s a force to be reckoned with. And now that he’s the chief of police, he really does hold the fate of your job in the palm of his hands.”
He snorted. “You have no idea.”
My brows rose.
“What?” I asked. “Does he bully you or something?”
He shook his head. “No. Honestly, I’m lucky to have the job at all, which shows just how hard he’s willing to fight for his officers. It was just unfortunate that I ended up being involved in a string of fuck-ups that day. He did what he had to do, and I’m still working. Still getting a paycheck. So, there’s that. It could be a lot worse.”
I eyed the uniform that he’d yet to take off, even after being off of work for going on a couple of hours now.
“Why must you stare?” he asked, knowing the line of thought that was taking place in my brain.
I felt my lips twitch. “You should do a calendar or something. Swear to God, this is the sexiest outfit that I’ve ever seen anyone wear.”
He shook his head. “The SWAT team is doing a calendar this year.” He leaned his muscled shoulder against the door. “I wonder what they’d think if I crashed their party.”
I stepped back and opened the door wide, then paused before saying the actual words.
“I was going to ask you to come inside, but I need to take Lou out,” I told him. “Do you want to go get your dog and we take them for a walk?”
His lips formed into a smile.
“Yeah,” he said, then he was gone.
Five minutes on the dot later, he walked out of his apartment taking the stairs two steps at a time.
His dog trailed behind him, looking happy to be out of the apartment.
“If you want me to, I can let your dog out every once in a while,” I offered. “I come by on my lunch breaks. I don’t feel like it’s fair that I leave Lou so long sometimes.”
I eyed his sweatpants and hoodie that he’d changed into, momentarily saddened that I wouldn’t get to see his powerful legs stride in those tight pants.
Though, the sweatpants definitely had their own benefits.
They were low slung, and they were tight in all the right places.
Mainly his crotch.
I was fairly sure I could make out certain attributes, but without full-out staring, I wasn’t going to know for sure.
But wooo, boy. My imagination was definitely running wild.
“Is your dog fixed?” I asked, clearing my throat.
“Nope,” he said. “Why?”
I gestured to Lou. “Mine’s not either. We should probably keep them away from each other.”
Logan looked at the dogs, one all black long-haired German Shepherd and one all white long-haired German Shepherd.
“Probably would be wise,” he admitted. “Who were you talking to when I got there?”
I shook my head. “The UPS facility. I’ve had a package that needed to be picked up, and they keep forgetting to do that. This is the fourth time I’ve called. I don’t have time to drop it off during the week because their stupid office is closed during my lunch break. And they’re not open on Saturdays. Meaning I literally have no choice but to have them pick it up…which they won’t freakin’ do.”
Logan looked down at me. “That was the UPS guy? It sounded like you knew him well.”
I shrugged. “I do, I guess. I’ve talked to him four times this week alone. He’s nice…and I kind of accidentally unloaded all of my problems on him yesterday after learning about Jakobe.”
“How do you accidentally unload all of your problems?” he asked curiously.
I thought about that for a second, then shrugged, deciding to hell with it. I’d tell him everything.
It wasn’t odd…at least I didn’t think it was.
“His name is Bruno,” I said. “And I graduated with him. He was one of those really quiet kids, you know the kind?”
Logan nodded. “The emo kid that never talked to anybody?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah! Anyway, I graduated with him. Since I was three years ahead in school, I didn’t ever really have anyone to talk to. Everyone stayed away from me because I was so young. Everyone stayed away from Bruno because he was so different. That, and he put off this ‘don’t come close to me’ vibe that everyone usually respected. I didn’t, however. I sat at his table at lunch, and eventually we both ended up talking. I wouldn’t say we were friends, but we were more like close strangers. It was weird.”