Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Summer

One Week Later

I wake up from another nightmare and take in the emptiness surrounding me. No metal, no broken glass, no car wreck to try to get away from, just sunshine and white walls with weird art on them. It’s been like this for the last week… ever since the wreck. But it’s not all bad. Some of my dreams are… not scary. Some dreams are about the hot cop I pulled from his burning SUV.

He makes an appearance every now and then, brightening up my dreamscape and causing my body to react in ways it probably shouldn’t. The guy was injured when I met him after all. He shouldn’t be running through my mind quite like the way he is, especially since I will probably never see him again. And doesn’t that just bring my whole day way down.

I roll out of bed and pad through the empty apartment. I thought I would have Pearl here with me… but she’s been living with her almost-husband. I asked a bunch of times if it was still going to be alright that I stay here but she told me it would be perfect for me, I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone, I could come and go as I pleased, and I wouldn’t have to hear her and her fiancé make goo-goo noises at each other.

It should be perfect for me to while away a few weeks of summer but it’s kind of fucking lonely. It also, unfortunately, gives me a lot of time to think about shit I would rather not think about. One of those things is the reason I’m here. I don’t really want to dwell on it.

I pick my phone up and instantly wish I hadn’t. Twelve new messages and only one of them from Pearl. I call her back and clear the others.

“Hey sweetie, how are you doing today?”

“I’m alright. You know… taking things one day at a time and all.”

“You want to go do something with me, Bea, and Kat today?”

“Yes! Of course!” I could have asked what, but I really don’t care what it is.

“We’ll pick you up in thirty if that’s alright with you.”

“Yeah. That sounds great. Just call me when you're here, and I’ll meet you downstairs, so you guys don’t have to find a parking space and come up.”

I hop in the shower and dress in record time. By the time they pull up, I am already outside waiting for them. When I crawl in the back, it’s beside a small brunette with a book resting on her lap - Bea. She’s quite like me and is married to Kat’s brother, Bear, which I thought were the cutest names ever, Bear and Bea. It gets even better because he calls her his honeybee. It’s too cute. Kat is at the wheel, she’s engaged to Pearl’s man, Spade’s, best friend, Whit. Pearl turns in the front passenger seat and looks me up and down.

“You still not sleeping well, hon?”

Everyone in the car takes a second to look at me with sympathy in their eyes. It makes me really uncomfortable. “How do you know I’m not dreaming about my Hot Cop?”

“You’d be wearing a smile on your face and not carrying around all that luggage under your eyes.” Kat gives me a wiry smile and touches the place under her eyes where I am sure I have purple bags under mine.

“Thanks for pointing it out, Kat.”

Pearl is quick to take some of the sting out of the observation, “Oh honey, we don’t mean anything by it. We’re just worried about you.”

“Spade knows a lot of guys on the force, right P? Why don’t you try to track Hot Cop down for her?” Kat grins at me in the rearview mirror. .

“She’s right. There’s a cop on the team with the boys. Maybe he knows the guy or can track him down for you.”

“No! No, no, no! I don’t… I don’t think that would be a good thing. The last thing I want the man to think is that I’ve stalked him.” That is not a good feeling, believe me, I know.

“But don’t you want to find out how he’s doing?” Bea asks the question that’s been banging around my head for a whole week. Is he okay?

“I do, but I also don’t want him to think I’m bothering him or chasing him down or something like that. He might not want to see me after what happened.”

“If someone pulled my ass out of a burning car, I’d want to get to know them. And you better believe I wouldn’t be thinking they were bothering me.”

I look up in the mirror and find Kat’s laughing eyes again. I like how Kat says things. She speaks her mind. She seems brave and bold. Why can’t I be like Kat?

Maybe if I hang around her enough, I will pick up some of that moxie and be able to use it against my enemies.

Bea lays her soft, cool hand on mine. “I think you should find out. It might give you a sense of closure. And it might make him feel just as good.”

“I think we should try to do it for her. Maybe we can find out who he is and if he’s not a raging douchebag, talk to him and find out how he feels about everything.” Kat pulls in, parks, and turns to look at me. “That way if he’s all shitty about what happened you will never have to find out, but if he’s cool and wants to meet you…” She raises her eyebrows in a way I can’t help but laugh at. It’s over-exaggerated and mischievous and just what I need to pull me out of my own way.

“I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. I do want to find out how he is doing?”

“I’ll ask Spade to send Roan up before the game starts.”

We all pile out and walk together to the stadium where the ‘Husbands’, as I like to call them, are playing. I get involved in a conversation about books with Bea and don’t realize Kat and Pearl disappear for a few moments.

The next time I look up, it is right into the stunning blue-gray eyes of the man I’ve been dreaming about for the past week. I gasp before I can stop myself as I watch a smile form on his very handsome lips.

“Summer, this is Roan. Spade’s friend I was telling you about.”

“Summer.” The sound of my name coming from his lips has a chill working its way up my spine in the most delicious way.

“Oh my God.” I realize I should say something but for the first time in months, my mind goes completely blank.

“Oh shit! Roan is Hot Cop!”