Busted (Promise Harbor Wedding) - By Sydney Somers Page 0,11
know you two were on a first-name basis. Maybe you should ask him to be your date to the wedding.”
She was almost grateful for the change in subject, then remembered she had to dress up for the wedding. “I’m taking Gramps. He’s been looking forward to it for a while.”
“Too bad. Going with Knight would probably help your reputation after last night.”
“Dating him in high school would have been more damaging to my reputation than arresting him was.” And she’d led the pack when it came to bad reps in high school.
Her partner’s feet hit the floor. “You wanted to date Knight in high school?”
Reaching for the phone, she scowled at him. “That’s not what I said.”
“So you had a crush on him.” Phil whistled like she’d just fed him the harbor’s juiciest gossip in months.
She didn’t have a chance to deny it—and by “deny it” she meant throw her team’s hockey trophy at his head—before the nurse answered. Glaring at her partner became less of a priority as she listened to the nurse explain that her gramps had had a rough night and would likely sleep most of the day.
Apparently she was going to the wedding solo.
Phil overheard enough of the conversation to guess at the outcome. Unlike half the town, he spared her the sympathetic look. “Don’t tell me, he was awake all night because he heard his granddaughter arrested his star hockey player?”
“Ass.” She smiled anyway.
He stood up. “You only came in this morning to catch up on a couple things, and now you’re done. Get going before I change my mind about covering your shift today.”
“If you and your wife have plans…”
“You’re not trying to get out of going to the wedding because of last night, are you?”
Not exactly. “No. I just haven’t heard from Gavin.”
“So he still doesn’t know his girl is marrying someone else?”
“Allie hasn’t been his girl for a long time.” And Gavin hadn’t let Hayley forget that important detail for an equally long time.
Phil shrugged as though that fact didn’t mean a whole lot, then winced. “Today is not your best day, Hayls.” He stared at something behind her.
She turned around, immediately spotting Eric strolling toward them. She barely suppressed a groan.
“You want me to hang around and pretend like I give a fuck about organizing my desk or something?”
Hayley surveyed the mess on Phil’s desk that had Category Three Hurricane written all over it. “I think it’s probably a lost cause.” Especially since he had a habit of stacking his stuff on her desk the rare times he decided he liked a tidier work space.
Eric had just about reached them.
“You sure? Running down a perp and tackling him on the boardwalk isn’t the same as dealing with this jerkoff’s kind of bullshit.”
Spending as much time together as they did, she had confided in Phil on more than one occasion about her relationship with Eric and the problems they had. Phil probably knew more than even her brother and had been thrilled when they finally broke up, undoubtedly relieved he didn’t have to listen to her ramble about the whole situation any longer. If he’d had his way, he would have kicked Eric’s ass long ago.
“I’ll be fine.” She wasn’t exactly surprised to see Eric after last night, but she couldn’t imagine what was left to say. There hadn’t been anything to say since their breakup, and she didn’t see a reason for that to change.
Grabbing her keys, she stood just as her partner left and Eric reached her desk.
“Hi.”
She spared him no more than her polite, on-the-job half smile.
“We didn’t have much time to talk last night.”
“What was it you wanted to say?” With a wedding that could break her best friend’s heart, having to face Jackson after last night knowing he was undoubtedly pissed, and getting bad news about her gramps, she wasn’t exactly in the mood to indulge her ex the way she foolishly had for most of their relationship.
“Can we talk somewhere else? Maybe grab a coffee?”
“I have a lot to do today, Eric.”
“Oh yeah. The wedding. Maybe we could talk there. You don’t have a date, right?”
The sincere tone might have swayed her to extend their conversation for another minute or two—against her better judgment—until he got to the part where he assumed she was going alone.
Maybe he didn’t mean to imply she couldn’t possibly have someone to go with—as if that mattered—but she was operating on little sleep and didn’t feel like giving him the benefit