“I’m on a stakeout,” I informed him and his eyes came to me so I finished, “I think it’s against the rules to have the car running during a stakeout. The noise will give you away.”
“Yeah, I guessed that you were on a stakeout. Newsflash, darlin’, since you don’t drive to work and your car is the only one in the lot, your sweet ass is in it and you aren’t hiding, I don’t think our street urchin is gonna miss you. This means he’s gonna get nowhere near this place so you might as well turn on the truck so you don’t freeze that sweet ass off.”
That was two “darlin’s”.
And when did my ass turn sweet?
“Chace –”
“Turn on the truck.”
God, he was bossy and annoying in the morning.
“Chace!”
He leaned into me and said quietly, “Baby, turn on the f**kin’ truck.”
Oh God.
Baby was nicer.
Like, by a lot.
I put my coffee between my knees and turned on the truck.
“What does it take? Around a year for this heap to warm up?” Chace asked before taking a sip from his coffee.
“It’s dependable,” I told him, taking my coffee from between my knees.
“Jeeps are. That being said, this should have been put out of its misery about ten years ago.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s a heap.”
“It’s fine, Chace,” I snapped then kept snapping. “What are you doing here? You’re blowing my cover.”
His eyes came to me and his lips were tipped up at the end.
Oh jeez.
His handsome lips on his handsome face tipped up looked nice.
“Blowing your cover?” he asked.
“I think you’re endowing our street urchin with bigger powers than he has. He’s just a kid.”
“He’s a kid living on the streets which means he’s in survival mode. Since no one, including teachers, knows who he f**kin’ is, that means he’s survived awhile.”
This was news.
“The teachers don’t know him?” I asked.
He shook his head and took another sip of his coffee which reminded me to take a sip of mine.
Hazelnut latte. My favorite.
“Nope,” he answered after he swallowed. “Asked the day after you reported seein’ him banged up, principal approached his staff. Went back with the sketch, no one recognizes him. Fingerprints were a bust too.”