Inn, but at least I can keep my distance if she doesn’t hint at wanting to hook up.
I walk into the building, eyes assessing, seeing who’s here, and although I’m nearly an hour early, I find Sophia in my office looking through the paperback version of this year’s traffic code.
“Interesting reading?” I ask, slipping around my desk and placing my coffee cup near my computer monitor.
“Not really.” She closes the book before looking up at me.
Her hair isn’t in a tight knot on the back of her head like it was yesterday. For all the sexy librarian vibes I got yesterday, make that tenfold for the head cheerleader thoughts the ponytail is giving me right now. I dated a head cheerleader once, and she managed to change my entire life trajectory.
Won’t be making that mistake again.
Not that Sophia was a cheerleader at any point in her life. Just after the ten-minute call with her dad, I can’t picture the man letting her put on a short skirt and bounce around for hundreds of men in the stands, but hell if I can’t get lost in the imagery.
“What is it?” Her grin is casual with no hints of the seduction the woman used yesterday morning.
“Were you a cheerleader in high school? College?”
Her head snaps back a little. “What? No.”
“Think cheerleading is dumb?” I break eye contact, wiggling my mouse to wake up my computer.
“Too much work. Do you know how much time cheerleaders spend training? Yeah, that’s not for me.”
I keep my eyes on my screen. I’m not disappointed so much as remembering what she said yesterday about falling behind in her classes. Despite her enthusiasm yesterday, I expect her to lose interest in this internship quickly. Maybe she’s good at putting on a front, but if there’s one thing I know, it’s that people who aren’t willing to accept any level of responsibility don’t stick around for long.
The grass is always greener after all.
“I’m going to go get a coffee refill.” Sophia places the traffic code on the corner of my desk before standing. “Can I get you anything?”
“Nope,” I say without looking in her direction.
“Be right back.”
But she doesn’t come right back. I sit in my office for twenty minutes before going to look for her. I don’t know what I was expecting to find, but her in the breakroom surrounded by smiling, horny cops isn’t too much of a surprise.
I stand off to the side for a few minutes watching the interactions, and it gives me the opportunity to get a good look at her. She isn’t in a sexy, little pencil skirt or athletic leggings. Today, she’s got on khaki utility pants, much like the guys in the criminal investigation division wear. Those aren’t the issue, nor is it really what’s causing all the dogs on the force to come sniffing around. I mean, it may contribute, but I haven’t seen her from the back yet.
What’s drawing all the attention—or at least mine anyway—is the tight, sweat-wicking fabric of her shirt. It may be department issued, with the Farmington PD logo just above her left breast, but there isn’t a soul I’ve met that could pull it off the way she is right now. Let me just say, if she had lace on her bra, the men standing close to her would be able to count the eyelets in the pattern.
“Yeah, I get off at seven this evening,” Dresden says as I walk closer. “But we could definitely see about a ride-along later in the week.”
Sophia catches sight of me over the man’s shoulder, and instantly I can tell her genuine smile—the one she’s giving me—versus the polite one she’s been giving Dresden.
“How’s Emily and the baby, Pete? Little Ava is what, two weeks old now?”
Dresden spins, giving me a lethal look. “Four weeks, tomorrow.”
Without another word, Dresden begins to walk away. Several of the other guys, many loitering but not brave enough to approach her, begin shouting comments about him being a dick and how his wife deserves better.
“Really?” Sophia asks as she begins to follow me back to my office. “He’s married with a newborn?”
“Men are dogs,” I respond automatically. “You’re twenty-two, you should know that by now.”
“In three months.”
“Hmm?” I plop back down in my office chair, already exhausted when the day is just getting started. Tossing and turning last night isn’t doing me any favors today.
“I’ll be twenty-two in three months. How many of those guys out there are married?” She takes the