The Do-Over (The Rooftop Crew #5) - Piper Rayne Page 0,41
line. I have to remind myself I’d never do that to her because she’s staying with us.
A clap on my back interrupts my thoughts and I blink to find Cap and Kamea staring at me.
“Go out on the balcony,” Cap says. “They have heaters, and someone said the snow was floating down. I need to go find the wife before she ends up drunk on champagne. She loves the bubbly.” He shakes Kamea’s hand. “It was quite the pleasure.”
“You as well.”
“And I’ll definitely be in touch for the T-shirts for our district basketball team.” He twirls her card in his hand.
How long was I not paying attention?
“Sounds great. I’ll be at the first game to see you dunk.”
Captain laughs and points his finger as if Kamea is a comedian. He leaves us, giving me a thumbs-up behind Kamea’s back. Some of the tension leaves my body. I definitely made the right decision bringing her tonight.
“Want to go outside?” I ask.
She glances at the balcony where a few people are gathered. “Sure, although I wish I had your hot cider.” She hooks her arm through mine, and I lead her to the doors.
The cool rush of air when we get outside almost has me turning us around, but I shrug off my jacket and place it over her shoulders. “Better?”
She touches my jacket and looks at me with so much appreciation, my heart jerks. Sometimes Kamea is everything I want in a woman, but I have no idea how to approach the subject with her or if I even should.
“Thank you,” she says.
We stand by a heater on the balcony that looks over the riverfront of Cliffton Heights.
“I think I like Cliffton Heights more than Peekskil,” she says.
“How did you end up in Peekskil, by the way?”
She sighs and her eyes focus on the riverfront illuminated by lights along the sidewalk. During summer months, people hang out there, but not tonight. “Well, I came to New York after college graduation and had a few jobs in New York City, but then I yearned for something smaller. So I came out to the suburbs and got that job where we first met. Then a friend of a friend and I ended up in Peekskil somehow. Sometimes I feel like I’m barely hanging on in life, you know? Like, when is my time going to come?”
I move in closer to her and sip my beer. “Yeah, I feel the same when it comes to the cop thing. Because of where I came from, I surprised the shit out of my old friends that someone like me would be a cop. I’d be fine being a street cop for the rest of my life, but I want to be a detective. I think I could do a good job.”
“At least you have a career.”
“You have the T-shirt thing.”
She gives me a look and rolls her eyes. “Exactly. A T-shirt thing. Not a company.”
I knock my shoulder to her arm. “Don’t do that to yourself. You’re talented and you’re going to make something of it. One day I’ll be telling people, I knew her once. Saved her from sleeping under an overpass one night.”
She laughs It rings through the cold air and my heart warms at the sound.
“That’s why I did it,” she jokes. “So that one day when I’m famous, I can say I worked my way up, you know? I had no money and was sleeping on the streets. Keeping out the fact that it was only one night. Because a cop saved me and gave me a roof to sleep under. It’s a good backstory, no?”
I laugh. She’s talented, and I hate that she doesn’t believe in herself.
“Why did you?” she asks. “Take me in.”
“I told you, it’s not safe for you to be on the streets.”
She turns toward me, leaning her side against the metal railing. “Is it because I bailed Leilani out? Like you feel somehow responsible?”
I blink in surprise. I wish for one night we could keep Leilani out of our conversations. If only Kamea never knew her, we could pretend we were strangers with no common link.
“No.” I shake my head. “I just did it because you’re a young, beautiful woman.” I wink.
“So you would’ve saved anyone?”
“Yeah. For sure.” I shrug.
“But Dell is on the street…”
She brings up a woman who could probably take me down if she really wanted to. Dell scares me, but I’m not admitting that to anyone.