she broke the connection.
If she’d been moderately worried before, she was really worried now.
Chapter 2
“Hot date tonight?”
Detective Michael DiPalma closed his locker door only to find his partner, Louis Rawlings, filling the space where, minutes ago, no one had stood. Considering the man’s portly build, he moved with the speed and quiet of a stealth bomber.
At the moment, Louis was grinning wistfully, waiting for an answer to his question.
“No,” Mike finally answered.
Mike gave his locker a quick tug to make sure that the lock had taken. The PDA where he kept all his important phone numbers had gone missing for several days before it had been mysteriously returned. He was taking no chances this time.
Like a puppy denied a favorite toy, Louis’s jovial expression sagged around the edges until it was almost hangdog in appearance. “But, Mike, it’s Friday.”
Mike placed his motorcycle helmet beside him on the bench to fix the cuff of his jeans. “I’m aware of what day of the week it is, Louis.”
“You always have a hot date on Fridays.”
Mike straightened and got up. “Now you’re exaggerating.”
Louis shook his head. Fringes of carefully preserved hair moved from side to side. “No, that’s for you to do. But you do it so well that it seems real.” Brown eyes looked at him eagerly. “C’mon, Mike, you’re the only fantasy life I have.”
Lips that were just as quick to frown as they were to smile curved tolerantly as he looked at the shorter man. “You’re married, Lou.”
“My point exactly.” The sentence was accompanied by a large, pronounced sigh.
With a laugh, Mike zipped up his leather jacket. His motorcycle was waiting for him and all he wanted to do tonight was get on it and head for his one-bedroom apartment. “Jackie is supposed to fulfill all your fantasies.”
Louis stared at him in wonder as they began to walk out of the locker room together. “Have you seen Jackie lately?” He stopped a moment, holding his hand up approximately five feet from the floor. “Small woman, surrounded by yelling kids?” He dropped his hand and sighed again. “I can’t even get near her.”
“What you need is a night out with your wife, Rawlings,” Mike advised. He firmly believed that every woman needed a little romance in her life. Especially a wife. To allay the skeptical expression on Louis’s face, Mike offered his partner the services of his youngest sister. “Claudia would be happy to babysit for you some time.”
Though he’d never been married, he knew what it was like to be in the center of a large family. His own had six, not counting his mother and father, or his grandmother when she’d lived with them. There were four boys in his family and two girls. And throughout all the ups and downs, good times and bad, his parents had managed to maintain a loving relationship.
Which was why they had so many kids, he mused.
His family was the reason behind his easygoing manner, as they had shown him by example that there was nothing that couldn’t be handled given time and the right approach. They were also responsible for his wanting to enjoy himself as much as possible before he finally settled down and committed to one woman.
If he ever settled down and committed to one woman, he qualified silently. So far, none of the women he’d gone out with remotely filled the requirements he had for a life partner.
Josephine and Salvatore DiPalma had married straight out of high school and become parents nine months to the day of their anniversary. Though both said they wouldn’t change a thing and regretted nothing, Mike doubted if that was a hundred percent true. They’d gone from being children to having children, never taking time to be carefree, to be young.
That wasn’t going to be the way he intended to play it. There were a whole lot of things in life he wanted to do and see before settling down and facing things like mortgages and pediatrician bills.
Holding open the door that led to the stairwell, Mike glanced at his partner. Louis was obviously chewing on what he’d just said.
“A night out, huh?” Louis echoed.
Mike shrugged carelessly. “Night out, night in. You could check into a hotel with Jackie and pretend you’re not married.”
“That would take a lot of pretending.” But it was obvious by the look in his eyes that Louis was warming to the idea.
Mike laughed and clapped him on the back. “My money’s on you.”
But Louis clearly didn’t want to dwell