Chapter

Dove made a decision the next day that she knew most of her friends wouldn’t like. So she decided just not to tell any of them. She was ready to be home. It was not easy living out of bags, and it felt like losing. If she couldn’t go to her school, at least she should be able to go home. She packed up all her things and drove back to her house.

There was another reason that she went back to the house, of course. If the stalker didn’t come back, Nate couldn’t catch him, and if Nate didn’t catch him, they couldn’t date. Dove wouldn’t say she was exactly excited for her stalker, but she wanted him back. Whatever it took to have Nate catch him. Ever since he turned down Sarah, Dove had nothing holding her back from the relationship. Nothing but the stalker, that was.

She didn’t know Nate and Jessica’s round schedule, but she should’ve known they’d check the house. It wasn’t much later that they were knocking on the door. She looked through the peephole, and opened it up slowly.

“Hey. Before you say anything, I had to come home. If he didn’t notice you here, he might not notice me here. Isn’t kind of becoming anticlimactic with him, anyway? He keeps coming, but nothing is happening. I don’t think I need to worry.”

“Ms. Babcock—” Jessica started, but Nate put a hand up.

“Let me talk to her,” he said. He walked forward and grabbed both of Dove’s shoulders very gently. “Dove, I am saying this because I care about you. You need to be very cautious. I can’t imagine if anything were to happen to you.” He let go of one shoulder and pushed a stray piece of hair away from her face. “If anything happens, I want you to call 911, right away. Can you do that for me?”

Dove nodded. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had treated her with such care. She wasn’t sure Harold ever did. “I will.”

“I don’t think it’s worth telling you to leave the house, because I’m not sure you would, and in the end it is your choice. But I want you to be as careful as you can be. Just in case.”

“No frying pans,” Dove said.

“If he comes in, you use all the frying pans you can find. If he stays out, let the police do their work.”

“Understood,” Dove said.

“Jessica, go out to the car,” Nate said.

“Absolutely not. I won’t tell anyone what happens next, but I want to see what it is. Besides, you suck at play-by-plays.”

Nate sighed and rolled his eyes, but leaned down and kissed Dove anyway. “Since I hadn’t kissed you back,” he said, then turned and left the house.

* * *

“She kissed you and you didn’t tell me?!” Jessica said once they were securely in the car.

“I’m kind of trying to keep it from all police officers.” Nate knew that wasn’t a good enough answer, though. Jessica was more than just a police officer. She was his partner. You didn’t keep things from your partner.

“Come on, I’m not a narc. How was it? Was it amazing? That kiss looked amazing.”

Nate paused, struggling to find words. How was it? Was it amazing? Yes, it was. But amazing hardly began to describe anything like that. He needed a good metaphor. “You know when you’re a little kid, you’re really nervous about bringing home your report card? What if it’s not good enough and your parents are mad, but then they open it up and it’s all As?”

“I don’t think I ever got all As, but I can imagine the feeling.”

“Well, that’s what it felt like. I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype, or I wouldn’t be good enough at it for a previously married woman. But she kissed me twice, Jess. You don’t kiss someone a second time if the first time sucked. And it’s better than any A I ever got.”

“Even passing your entrance and exit exams for the academy?”

“Even better,” he answered. He knew he should’ve thought about it. That there should’ve been hesitation, and a realizing of what moments were truly important. But that moment was truly important. That’s what he knew most of all.

“Then you’d better not lose her.”

“I don’t even have her yet,” Nate said.

“You guys have kissed.”

“But she’s not really, totally mine until I can scream about it from the rooftops. I want to be able to tell everybody, not just you with both doors shut. I want to be able to show her around the police station and go visit her during lunch breaks and meet her at school. I don’t want to have to hide anything, and I don’t want there to be anything to hide.”

“We’ll get there soon,” she answered.

“We’ll?”

“By now I’m practically as involved as you are.”

“I really don’t think that’s true,” he said, but he laughed, knowing exactly what she meant.

“Tell you what: when I inevitably catch him first, I’ll let the arrest be yours.”

“Who says you’re going to catch him first?”

“I’m going to catch him first,” she answered. “And when I do, you can arrest him.”

“Is that a promise?” he asked.

“That’s a promise,” she answered.