CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Nacole

I wake up slowly, the sun streaming in through my open window. I shove the blanket off me and sit up, yawning loudly. Climbing from the bed, I make a quick stop in my bathroom to brush my teeth, then pull my long hair up in a knot on top of my head and go in search of Garret.

Stepping into my kitchen, I find the towels cleaned up and my dishwasher humming lightly. The smell of coffee brings me over to my full coffeepot, a small piece of paper sitting next to it.

Nacole,

Ran home to shower and a grab a couple things.

Be back in a bit.

- G

Smiling, I set the paper back down and reach for a coffee cup, quickly filling it with the fresh brew. Taking a sip, I carry it with me to the bathroom and set it on the vanity while I grab some towels. Taking the fastest shower possible, I emerge from the steam-filled room with my coffee in hand and my long hair up in a fluffy towel, another wrapped around my body. Stepping into my bedroom, I dress in comfortable clothing and pull the towel off my head. Tossing it into the laundry basket, I grab my wide-toothed comb and get rid of the tangles in my hair. Tossing it over one shoulder, I pick up my coffee cup once more and head back to my kitchen.

I’m placing the now-empty cup in the sink when I hear an engine roaring up my driveway. I swear I must be a teenager when the butterflies start up in my stomach, and I can’t get rid of the goofy grin on my face. A minute later, a loud knocking comes at my front door.

“Come in!” I yell, rinsing the coffee cup out before turning around to see him enter the kitchen. His dark hair is curling out from below the baseball hat he has on, and his black T-shirt hugs his arms and chest in all the right ways. And don’t even get me started on those damn Wranglers. Worn and tight.

When I look up, his blue eyes are filled with laughter, and I know I’ve been caught.

“Morning,” he greets, and I can’t help myself. Laughing, I rush over and give him a hug, burying my face in his chest, the smell of his cologne heaven.

“Where’d you go?” I ask, pulling away from him.

He brushes my wet hair off my face, his fingers playing with the strands.

“Went home to shower. Wasn’t sure how you’d feel about me using yours, and I didn’t want to wake you up to ask.”

My eyebrows rise in surprise. “Are you even real?”

Garret starts cracking up, then kisses the top of my head before stepping past me to toss a bag on the counter. “Of course I’m real.”

“I don’t think you are. You’re, like, a book boyfriend come to life.”

“A what?” He laughs even harder.

“A book boyfriend. You know, the hero in romance novels who's all swoony, and alpha, and kind? He always gets the girl because he’s this perfect person who knows all the right things to say and do. He’s… I don’t know, just the definition of perfect.”

Garret crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the kitchen counter. “So, what you’re telling me is I’m perfect?”

“Only if you take me out for breakfast,” I chide, resting my hands on my hips.

“Now that I can definitely do.”

“Good, 'cause I really want waffles. And I want to spend the day with you before your surprise. Do you have anything going on today?”

I almost startle myself with my forwardness, but Dr. Klein said that’s important. I need to learn to stand up for myself and tell people what I want; I can’t hide behind my insecurities and fears anymore.

“I plan on spending the day with this beautiful girl I like a hell of a lot. Sound okay to you?” Garret strides forward and loops his arms around my waist, fingers playing with the hem of my shirt.

“Yeah. Let me go get changed, okay?”

“Not going anywhere, Nacole.”

Leaving him in the kitchen, I go back into my bathroom to blow-dry my hair. The whole time, I keep replaying his words over and over again. "Not going anywhere, Nacole."

Yeah, I’m starting to grasp that concept, Walker. And if it’s okay with you, I don’t want you to go anywhere. I like you right next to me.

Shit. I’m starting to fall for Garret Walker.

Well that’s a wrench in my “go slowly” plans.

Shutting off my hair dryer, I fluff my hair up a little and change into a pair of jeans and a light sweater. It’s late summer, but the weather is cooler today, which I kind of enjoy.

Stepping out of my bedroom, I find Garret waiting for me in the living room, kicked back on my sofa.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

Grabbing my purse off the couch, I swing it over my shoulder and walk to the front door, pulling it open. Garret holds it for me and I step out, the morning crisp and sunny.

“Do you want me to drive?” he asks, stepping down from the porch behind me.

“No, I want to. Do you mind?”

Garret shakes his head and follows me over to my car. Unlocking the doors, I toss my purse onto the back seat and find him standing next to me, holding my door open. Shaking my head, I climb in and watch him go around the hood, dropping into the passenger side a second later.

“I’m telling you. Book boyfriend material right there.”

“Whatever you say, babe. So tell me something. I’m dying to know. What else does a book boyfriend have?”

Biting down on my bottom lip, I grin at how serious he’s taking this.

“Well, they’re usually really tall. Muscles galore. A master in the bedroom….” I avoid eye contact when he turns to face me with a huge grin on his face.

“Bedroom master, huh? I could get behind that.”

“Oh my God, Garret.”

“Shall I throw you down on the bed and then invade your personal space with my—"

“Garret!”

Roaring with laughter, he slaps his knee at his own joke, and I shake my head at this lunatic in the seat next to me. “You are insane,” I tell him.

“Hey, you’re the one who reads that shit.”

“For the record, what I read is romance. And it’s beautiful. Corny at times, yes, but nothing is more beautiful than the idea that someone would do anything to protect the woman he loved. Making her feel as if she’s the most beautiful person in the world—hell, as if she’s the only person in his world.”

His eyes are trained on me and I force myself to stop, knowing I’m no longer talking about books. I’m talking about how I wish I could feel. That everything I went through over the last seven years could just be erased, that none of it happened.

It can’t, of course. But sitting here in my car, watching Garret laugh over things that Graham never would have, I realize maybe my own world is sitting in the passenger seat of my vehicle, ready to run to the ends of the world for me.

Just maybe.

§

“Are you gonna tell me what we’re doing tonight?” Garret winks at me while we stroll hand in hand through downtown. We just left this small mom-and-pop joint to grab a late lunch, then got ice cream after.

“Nope. Not yet.”

“Okay, wise guy,” Garret jokes, taking a lick of his ice cream cone.

“Tell me about yourself,” I say, gripping his hand tight.

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything.” And I mean it. I could listen to him talk for hours about nothing and I would still fall under his spell. One he seems to have no idea he has.

“Well let’s see. I’m taking the detective’s exam in a month,” he tells me, and I stop dead in my tracks, looking up at him. “What?” he questions.

“You didn’t tell me that!” I exclaim, a huge grin breaking out on my face.

“It’s no big deal,” Garret says with a shrug.

“Are you serious right now? That is a huge deal.”

“Just the next step in my career. I’ve been thinking about it an awful lot lately, and when the offer presented itself, I jumped. I love my job, and having Jace as a partner is awesome, but I’m ready for more, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” I tell him, my eyes trailing him up and down. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“Being a beat cop is tough shit, and I’ve seen a lot of things I wish I could erase from my memory. It’s hard, and I won’t lie to you, Nacole, being with me isn’t going to be easy. Especially if I make detective. Long, crazy shifts, no downtime. So I want you to know that now. I think it’s the main reason I’ve never settled down or had a real, honest-to-God, more-than-sex relationship.”

Garret steers us toward a small park area with benches all around us. He brings us to the closest one and we sit down, his arm slung over the back of it.

“People think I’m this tough-as-nails badass, and I guess maybe I am, but only when I’m at work. Being a cop has just hardened me to the sadness of the world.”

“I’m sorry you go through that.” I squeeze his hand and lean my head on his shoulder. “But I’m proud of you, Garret. You’ve only been in my life a couple of months, but they’ve been some of the best months of my life, especially since losing Mom. I can never thank you enough for getting me through this week.”

“No thanks necessary. Like I said, I’m always here for you.”

“I know.” Finishing my ice cream, I settle myself more comfortably next to him, and his rough hand moves to rest on my thigh, his thumb rubbing gently. It causes me to shiver, and assuming I’m cold, he pulls me closer.

“Like, take this case we had the other day. Got a call to some run-down apartment building. Domestic disturbance. We figured it would be a typical college student fight, and we’d show up and tell them to knock it off. No, what we found was a man strangling his girlfriend after he’d beaten the holy hell out of her. I wanted to kick his fucking teeth in.”

My body stiffens with each word he speaks, but he doesn’t seem to notice and continues.

“So I sit her down on the couch to get her statement, and all she could say was that she didn’t know why she made him so angry. And all I could think was she had no reason to be asking why. She should've been telling him to fuck off. No excuse for putting your hands on a woman. No matter what.”

I nod and force the tears back. This genuinely sweet man is talking about a case at work, but I can’t help wondering if he would've been that way with me if I’d called the cops on Graham. If a man like Garret had come rushing in, would I have let him help me?

“But nothing is worse than my first month on the job. Almost beat me. You think you watch shows like Law and Order or Criminal Minds and be prepared. You’re a young twenty-one-year-old, fresh out of the academy, and you can take on this world. Then you answer a 911 call where a three-year-old child has been killed, and at the hands of his own father no less, and your perspective on the world changes.”

“Oh my God,” I breathe. A few tears break free, and I do nothing to hide them.

Garret wipes them away with his thumb, a look of sadness crossing his face.

“Yeah. Twenty-one and I went home to my mom that night and cried. Like a fucking baby. But then I got up the next day and did my job, and I found that it got better. I got over it. But to this day, I still have a picture in my mind of that little boy, and it’ll never go away. That’s the reason I want to make detective, because I want to do more than answer 911 calls. I want to be the one who helps put the bastards of the world away. Make it safer so one day when I have children, they’ll be safe to live in this world.”

We sit in silence for several minutes, my hair blowing around in the breeze. I haven’t lifted my head from his shoulder this whole time, and he turns to kiss my forehead.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to unload a ton of shit on you.”

“It’s okay. I like listening to you.”

“Tell Jace that, would you?”

I laugh and he stands from the bench, holding his hand out to me.

“Garret?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you like Luke Bryan?” I ask, unzipping my purse.

“Love his music.”

“Good. 'Cause I got us tickets to his show in a few hours.”

Garret hooks his thumbs into his belt loops and shakes his head at me, a wry grin on his face. “Woman, what the hell am I gonna do with you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I tease, hopping off the bench. He swoops me into his arms and I laugh, cupping his stubbled cheek.

“I would, actually. We’ve been dancing around each other for two months, spending every waking moment talking. And the second we’re together, the spark ignites. So yes, the second I get to drag you into a bed with me, I don’t plan on us leaving unless it’s in a wheelchair.”

My stomach clenches at his words, and he must know he got me when he winks.

“Trust me, Garret, it’s starting to sound better every day. You have no idea.”

“Oh, I have an idea, sweetheart. My dick has seen more of my hand in the last couple months than when I was fifteen. He’s bored with the one-man show.”

“So sorry to hear that,” I reply, sticking my tongue out at him.

“You won’t be sorry when he’s making you arch off the bed and yell my name.”

“Holy—"

Garret cuts me off with a fierce kiss, his lips turning me into a panting, crazy mess. Gentling the kiss, he pulls away and cups my cheeks, his harsh breathing fanning my face.

“You’re making me crazy. You said you weren’t ready to be with me, and I respect that. But fuck, do I want you.”

“What do you want?” I whisper, biting my bottom lip.

His thumb pulls it free from my teeth and rubs back and forth over it.

“I want everything.”

And for a minute, it’s like we’re in our own little bubble. Nobody around us. We’re the only two people in the world.

I’ve felt the connection since I saw him in the bar. I've fought it every day, but I don’t want to anymore. I deserve more than my past, and I’m moving forward. And I’m doing it with Garret by my side.

Now I just have to tell him about it and hope he’s still next to me at the end.