“Except out of different holes,” I pointed out around the wedge of bagel in my mouth. As a rule, I never spoke with my mouth full, but I’d shoved it into my cheek so I didn’t say it and spray it, so that counted right? Plus, they were talking about the Satan’s rectum of vegetables.
“Savage!” Ellis snorted, picking his bagel up with solid peanut butter and solid banana rings on it.
I tried to eat another mouthful, but I couldn’t do it. First off, it needed something on it. It was fresh and light, but it at least needed butter. Second, I knew there was kale in the fridge beside me, and seeing as how she hadn’t used it in a while, I had good reason to get rid of it. So I did.
As I was walking back in from my trip to the garbage can outside, I heard Jose muse, “Guess she doesn’t like kale either. Might wanna change the flavor of your shakes there, Sheriff.”
I expected some form of denial or loyalty to his gross vegetable shake tendencies, but instead he just said one word. “Done.”Chapter Seven“DB”It had been twenty-four hours since I’d had breakfast at Jose’s house, and I hadn’t seen Tabby since. We’d just finished up eating when I’d gotten called back out to the retirement home for another altercation between residents. Apparently being old made you ornery as fuck because this time it was two gentlemen swinging walking sticks at each other over pudding. After that call, it had been one after the other, and it appeared my quiet town was being hit by break-ins with five being reported so far. During it, Dad’s irritating wife had called my phone repeatedly, not taking the hint when I didn’t answer. I ended up blocking her number, but it would only be a day until she tried calling me on a new one. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows.
Today had been the day of discussing the break-ins, getting feedback from the evidence collected by the crime scene inspectors at the break-ins, reading the reports from the rest of the department, and trying not to think of the pink haired fireball that had crashed into my life.
I’d asked myself repeatedly what it was about her that got my attention to her the way it was, and so far the list was huge. I loved the fact she owned her pink hair. A lot of people might do it for effect and attention, but with Tabby it was just because it was who she was. She’d been through a lot by the sounds of it, but she was unapologetically her. Her hair, her tattoos, her personality, her way of living – she did it because it was how she expressed herself. She didn’t seem to be jaded by anything she’d gone through and I liked that. I liked that she was certain enough to have the tattoos she’d had done so visibly and that they all meant something to her rather than being just because she’d seen them and liked them. It seemed like she was making life what she wanted it to be – and wasn’t that how people should live? I was restricted with my ink because of my job, the same went for how I acted in public, but she’d made me test boundaries I’d never tested before when I’d put her in the cell until she’d agreed to go out with me. Even Rita’s bullshit that night hadn’t put me in the foul mood it normally would have.
Which brought me to now, pulling up in front of her house to see her. I’d driven by Jose’s making sure she was ok, and when I’d seen that Tab’s car wasn’t there, I’d come here. Both women had new security installed, there was a panic alarm, sensors everywhere, and I suspected that Ellis wasn’t too far away from Jose, so the worry over her and Olivia’s safety wasn’t as suffocating for all of us as it had been. This must have been why Tabby was now at home.
Shutting the engine off and getting out, I checked the time on my watch, surprised that no lights were on inside the house at eight thirty at night. Just as I raised my hand to knock on her door, there was a splash from around the back of the property, and walked in its direction. I rounded the corner just in time to see a perfectly round ass covered in small pink bottoms disappear under the water.
Taking off my utility belt and carefully removing my gun and placing it under the cushion of the seats she’d set up beside the pool, I bent down to unlace my boots before toeing them off. I did a mental run through of what I had on me that couldn’t go into the water and decided that I was just going to remove my uniform altogether. I wasn’t sure what the chlorine would do to it, and they were expensive as hell to replace.