of magazines and across social media after he rescued that mother and baby.”
Toni shifted positions in bed, then continued. “That photo that was seen around the world—the one where he’s shirtless, displaying all those big, strong muscles and looking sexy as hell, while carrying the mother and baby like they’d weighed nothing. The headlines had dubbed him, The Hero.”
“Yes, and he’s my forever hero.”
Toni heard all the love in Joy’s voice, and Toni smiled. No one had been as happy as Toni when Joy had finally decided to kick her fiancé to the curb. “You deserve this happiness, Joy.”
“Thanks, but I didn’t call to talk about me and Stonewall. He’s not here, by the way. His grandmother baked us a cake and he went to pick it up. So how did your day go?”
Toni hesitated for a moment before admitting, “I can answer all of your questions with one response.”
“Which is?”
“I’m Drew’s partner.”
There was a long pause. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Umm...no.”
“What happened to his old partner?”
“Norm got married and moved to Wisconsin. Can you imagine my surprise when I walked into the chief’s office and saw Drew?”
Joy let out a deep sigh. “Well, you were trying to prepare yourself if your paths crossed, but being his partner is a game changer, Toni. How did you and Drew handle it?”
“As best we could. I think the chief suspects something, but he didn’t say anything. I believe he’s letting us work out whatever kinks there might be.”
“And can the two of you work out the kinks, Toni?”
“We’re going to try.”
“I hope so. Being his partner means the two of you will be spending a lot of time together. You’ll practically be in his pocket and he’ll be in yours.”
“I know, Joy. Still, there were a couple of hiccups today.”
“Oh, boy. What were they?”
She told Joy about her crazy bout of jealousy and what she’d said to Drew about an alibi, and how she questioned their ME procedure.
“You learn from your mistakes, Toni.”
“I apologized about the alibi, kind of. At least, I tried to explain myself.”
“Could you do that without admitting to jealousy?”
“No, and that’s something I need to deal with, Joy. Especially since I think he has a steady girl.”
“He does?”
“It looks like it. She’s a television reporter. She met him after work in the parking lot, and she was touching him in a way that made it seem as if they’d been intimate before. I watched them from the window behind my desk.”
“If he is dating someone else, he has that right, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Toni grudgingly agreed. “But…”
“But you love him.”
Her feelings for Drew were something she had not openly admitted to anyone but Joy. “Yes. I love him.”
Joy paused for a moment. “I think you need to tell Andrew everything, Toni. You broke things off with him because you were afraid of falling in love.”
“What good would admitting anything do now, Joy? That was almost five years ago. Besides, he didn’t love me back.”
“How do you know? You never told Drew how you felt, you just ended things. I believe you meant more to him than you thought, Toni. If he didn’t have any problem with the breakup, he would not have taken it personally.”
Toni heard what Joy was saying, but she didn’t agree. “It’s not the fact that I broke up with him that pissed him off, Joy. It’s the way I did it.”
“But you said the two of you had an agreement. The fact that he got upset about it tells me it meant something to him. Besides, in the past few months, you’ve gotten help in dealing with the issues you never shared with Drew.”
That much was true, Toni thought. After the failed hostage situation, she had to comply with the department’s requirement that she undergo counseling with the department’s psychologist. The woman, Dr. Barbara Tolbert, had been wonderful. Not only had she been able to help Toni deal with that hostage crisis, but Barbara had dug deeper and helped Toni through the issues she’d had regarding her mother’s suicide.
That had meant finding closure with her father. Toni had done that, also, by paying him a visit before moving from Miami. Taking the job in Alexandria was to be a fresh start for her. She certainly had not counted on becoming Drew’s partner.
“It doesn’t matter now. Like I told you, I think he’s involved with someone. A woman named Natalie.”
“May I ask you something, Toni?”
“Sure.”
“You and Drew will be spending a lot of time together during